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Smart meter

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British Gas have told ( note not asked) they are going to fit a smart meter.
I have been resisting for a long while due to the reports about reliability.
Can they force this on us?
Am I worrying needlessly?
 
Our 'leccy is with Octopus, who informed us a while ago that we needed a new meter, which they duly installed; it also contains a SM but at the same time, the gas meter was also replaced with a smart one, so as I understand it the actual important bit is inside the meter wot talks via t'interweb to BG and Octopus but they also left us with a nice little visual display, so we can see what's being used - Rob

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Lurker said:
British Gas have told ( note not asked) they are going to fit a smart meter.
I have been resisting for a long while due to the reports about reliability.
Can they force this on us?
Am I worrying needlessly?
Click to expand...
Have they said why? Is your current meter outside its lifespan? Even if it is and they don’t have any traditional meters left (more than likely) you can still insist that they supply the smart meter to you in Dumb mode
 
Woodbloke said:
Our 'leccy is with Octopus, who informed us a while ago that we needed a new meter, which they duly installed; it also contains a SM but at the same time, the gas meter was also replaced with a smart one, so as I understand it the actual important bit is inside the meter wot talks via t'interweb to BG and Octopus but they also left us with a nice little visual display, so we can see what's being used - Rob

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I have always been against Smart meters because of their remote switchoff capability. But as I was contemplating a homebrew battery storage system to charge up overnight when prices were peanuts and then to use that power during the day, a smart meter was needed. But probably won’t get round to the battery setup so stuck with it. Even if I asked to go Dumb it leaves it still vulnerable to bad actors.

The one advantage is that I remotely switch on the fan heater in my remote gym half hour or so before I go in. I can look at the display (like yours) and at the next sampling time (30 secs IIRC) I can see it increase which means the WiFi power switch is working
 
I really don't understand the reticence to have a smart meter, I'm yet to see a convincing argument against having one. What reports have you heard on reliability Lurker? The only issues I've heard about are relating to it taking some time to migrate if you move suppliers, and all that means is the smart functionality stops reporting back your meter usage and you go back to manual reading for a while. If that does happen, then you're in no worse position than you are right now, and the flow of electricity into your house doesn't stop, so apart from a bit of a pain to make a phone call or two to sort out there really is no issue.

I've heard people talk about data concerns and cyber attacks. Well if someone can tell anything meaningful from the electricity usage in my house then fair play to them, and it isn't attached to my home network in any way, so there's no risk there.

I'm more than happy to listen to any argument otherwise, but tbh all I've heard so far are baseless scaremongering with no foundation. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.

What I do know is smart metering is vital to better understanding people's usage, to help regulate the amount of energy we need in this country, when we need it, and who needs it at any given time. Data is King/Queen, and the MWHH initiative that came in recently goes even further to giving us that visibility and contol over availability.

I've had my SM for about 5 years and apart from when I swapped over from Octopus from my previous supplier, when it took a couple of months and a few phone calls to get the SM & in house display to work properly with Octopus, I've not given it a single seconds thought or had a single second of issue.
 
Had ours put in about 4 (?) years ago... if anything I find it somewhat helpful to see what my/our daily use has been *should I so wish to look*... especially in winter for the heating used.

The only PITR has been the odd time when the mini display has frozen. All I do to restart it is remove the battery for a few seconds, put it back, plug in and skip the START/INTRO screen. I leave it plugged into the mains because its battery is blah for keeping any charge if unplugged. I've heard many folk just don't bother with the mini display and just put it in a drawer and forget about it... life goes on regarding the energy you'll use anyway so... 🤷
 
the obvious potential negative is when we start to run out of power and the utility companies use their analysis of your usage of power to choose when to feed you more or less power...

having said that - if we get to that state a dumb meter might mean you just don't get power!

I have smart meters - no issues with them
 
I believe first generation smart meters were the ones which couldn't move between suppliers. An outrageous but not surprising waste of money.

New ones transfer fine as far as I am aware. You can use it as a dumb meter, we had an awful fitter and the screen never worked and it sits somewhere in a drawer as I had no interest in using it. We get electricity figures via our solar system and also the Octopus app.

One thing with the gas meters - I don't think our house is unusual: gas meter on front wall, electrical meter in kitchen and house is brick and block (including internal walls). The gas meter connects occasionally, often enough to get data through, and I do occasional readings but I couldn't rely on it if I did want to know daily usage.
 
TrimTheKing said:
I really don't understand the reticence to have a smart meter,.....
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The Russians. The Iranians.

They're doing whatever they can to deniably make a nuisance of themselves to us. Hacking into our electricity distribution system and causing a few days of chaos will change the conversation about smart meters.
 
akirk said:
the obvious potential negative is when we start to run out of power and the utility companies use their analysis of your usage of power to choose when to feed you more or less power...

having said that - if we get to that state a dumb meter might mean you just don't get power!

I have smart meters - no issues with them
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'more or less power'. You either get around 230-240v or they switch you off and you get nothing.
 
TrimTheKing said:
I really don't understand the reticence to have a smart meter, I'm yet to see a convincing argument against having one. What reports have you heard on reliability Lurker? The only issues I've heard about are relating to it taking some time to migrate if you move suppliers, and all that means is the smart functionality stops reporting back your meter usage and you go back to manual reading for a while. If that does happen, then you're in no worse position than you are right now, and the flow of electricity into your house doesn't stop, so apart from a bit of a pain to make a phone call or two to sort out there really is no issue.

I've heard people talk about data concerns and cyber attacks. Well if someone can tell anything meaningful from the electricity usage in my house then fair play to them, and it isn't attached to my home network in any way, so there's no risk there.

I'm more than happy to listen to any argument otherwise, but tbh all I've heard so far are baseless scaremongering with no foundation. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.

What I do know is smart metering is vital to better understanding people's usage, to help regulate the amount of energy we need in this country, when we need it, and who needs it at any given time. Data is King/Queen, and the MWHH initiative that came in recently goes even further to giving us that visibility and contol over availability.

I've had my SM for about 5 years and apart from when I swapped over from Octopus from my previous supplier, when it took a couple of months and a few phone calls to get the SM & in house display to work properly with Octopus, I've not given it a single seconds thought or had a single second of issue.
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I'm not worried about someone hacking my smart meter. What I am concerned about is that the smart meter can be used remotely to disconnect your power. So were someone to hack into your supplier and issue commands to all their smart meters to disconnect power ......
 
TrimTheKing said:
I really don't understand the reticence to have a smart meter, I'm yet to see a convincing argument against having one. What reports have you heard on reliability Lurker? The only issues I've heard about are relating to it taking some time to migrate if you move suppliers, and all that means is the smart functionality stops reporting back your meter usage and you go back to manual reading for a while. If that does happen, then you're in no worse position than you are right now, and the flow of electricity into your house doesn't stop, so apart from a bit of a pain to make a phone call or two to sort out there really is no issue.

I've heard people talk about data concerns and cyber attacks. Well if someone can tell anything meaningful from the electricity usage in my house then fair play to them, and it isn't attached to my home network in any way, so there's no risk there.

I'm more than happy to listen to any argument otherwise, but tbh all I've heard so far are baseless scaremongering with no foundation. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.

What I do know is smart metering is vital to better understanding people's usage, to help regulate the amount of energy we need in this country, when we need it, and who needs it at any given time. Data is King/Queen, and the MWHH initiative that came in recently goes even further to giving us that visibility and contol over availability.

I've had my SM for about 5 years and apart from when I swapped over from Octopus from my previous supplier, when it took a couple of months and a few phone calls to get the SM & in house display to work properly with Octopus, I've not given it a single seconds thought or had a single second of issue.
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I'm half with you and half not.

I'd propose that it's only a matter of time before the (private equity) electricity companies use the data that they gather to leverage greater profits.

I challenge you to argue against what I've just written.

Other than that, smart meters are great 😃
 
I had to take monthly electricity and gas readings from my two externally mounted meters and submit them manually. This gave me pause to make comparisons and monitor my energy consumption. A couple of years ago I was persuaded to install a smart meter to replace them. I haven’t looked at the smart meter since. For all I know, it’s giving the Chinese details of how I cook hot and sour prawns.
 
We have a smart meter for our Hydro and I find the biggest bonus with it is that when I am running the backup generator due to a power outage the meter will have indicator lights letting me know when it is back up and running. Which is handy at night so I can shut the geny off and save on fuel. Keep in mind this happens at least six times a year, the longest being one week. This is what we deal with in a forested rural area.
 
For me I've always been concerned about suppliers fiddling the books so to speak. I've heard stories of people having big increases of usage once a smart meter is installed. Octopus says my meters are out of certification, and I should book an install. I submit readings every month and last month used an extra 200kwh somewhere.
 
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