Do I want a smart meter?

[stephec]

At the moment we still have traditional gas and electric meters but are obviously being encouraged to go for a smart meter.

So far I've been holding back, despite it being an amazing benefit for me according to my supplier.

For those that have had one fitted, what are your experiences?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The only benefit is not having to do meter readings and getting an idea of where your costs are coming from. If like me you turn lights off in rooms you are not in, and don’t spend an hour in the shower, you certainly won’t see huge saving or anything of the sort.

 

[Mo1959]

I always laugh at the adverts for them. It's as if they are saying if you install one you will magically save money. Surely, it's just common sense to turn things off or down to save a bit without any help from a smart meter.

 

[Roseland triker]

Don't do it. Make them send you a quarterly bill and pay it as and when.
Do not go direct debit and watch your usages.

 

[Mo1959]

Do not go direct debit and watch your usages.

Do most energy suppliers not offer quite a decent discount for paying by direct debit though?

 

[Roseland triker]

Do most energy suppliers not offer quite a decent discount for paying by direct debit though?

Nope. The same rate per unit applys.

 

[Mo1959]

Nope. The same rate per unit applys.

I'm with SSE and this is from their help page.

• Get a discount off your bills
  For fixed price tariffs, we’ll give you an annual discount for each fuel when you pay by Direct Debit.

Variable Direct Debit​

With a variable Direct Debit you pay your energy bill in full each quarter via Direct Debit. Your bill will show the amount and date of the payment, and you'll get a discount per fuel. To set this up, please get in touch.

 

[BoldonLad]

We have made the switch. It has made absolutely no difference, to us, except I no longer have to send them meter readings. The only way you will save money is by using less, the smart meter in itself has no effect.

 

[Roseland triker]

It's quite simple. You pay for each unit used and it's the same price per unit what ever way you pay.
They just like DD as they can profit from the overpayment investment.
When you atchually look deep it's no saving

 

[byegad]

If you know an on switch uses money, you don't need one.

They've started to change their advert's to say it will help the supply and generation people to plan and supply, which may have some traction and truth behind it.

A friend who worked in the industry on the billing side is hugely sceptical about inter-operability of the current meters across suppliers, the issue being that each supplier was allowed to develop their own smart meter and then they were asked to bring out a second generation that was useable by all suppliers, it failed, although some suppliers' meter will work now with some other suppliers, but not all.

When he left the industry, some three years ago, they were developing and testing a third generation of meter, and were having issues with that.

 

[midlife]

I pay a bit more as I pay quarterly (by cheque sometimes lol), paper bill through the letterbox. quite happy as my money is in my bank and not theirs.....

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I have one for years - installed by BG and worked fine
then I changed to anotehr company and it stopped sending reading to the new company - but otherwise worked fine - could still take reading from the display unit
Then I changed again - and it still worked
after a few years it just stopped
just displayed an error message
So from then on I had to go outside and read the meter just like before

I am currently with EDF and I have been pestering them to get it working
Then - seemingly by magic - it started working a few months ago - they did send me an email saying it was so I plugged the display unit back in (amazingly I found it first time!!!) and it was all fine

Just as well as we are going to get solar panels installed soon and we will need one!!


As others have said - they save you money - something between £0.00 and -£1.00
why minus??
well the display unit must take some electrons - probably less than a pound a year but whatever
other than that the saving are all made by the energy company that no longer needs to send out someone to read the meter as they did before - and they don;t have to have as many telephone operators to take reading - and all that

and - on top of that they can get more accurate reading and hence know who is using what and when

But for $reasons the energy companies have 'persuaded' the government (several of them) that it should all be paid for by putting up the bills to the consumers

In the end they also have the advantage that they will open the door to variable prices based on time of day and supply
For example, at times the grid is receiving more energy than can be used - e.g. a windy night when everyone (nearly) is in bed - so energy becomes very cheap - and Octupus are even saying there can be times when the grid would pay them to take electricity and they would pay the customer to use it

WHich would be great if you wanted to charge a battery from a solar system - or an electric car!!!

 

[annedonnelly]

My supplier asked me to get one sometime in 2020. I didn't care one way or the other so I allowed them to do it. Electric was off for longer than they'd said so interrupted my working from home :-( Then the chap went away saying it was in but wasn't talking to the network so someone would have to sort it out.

No contact until earlier this year when they rang a couple of times wanting to come to look at it. At the time I was housebound and unable to walk & told them I wasn't having anyone coming and turning my electric off. I've not heard from them since and still have to read the meter every month.

 

[cyberknight]

Got an edf one and unplugged it about a day afterwards , we are going to use the same amount of electric no matter what and i have enough to worry about without seeing the ££ rising as the day goes on

 

[PeteXXX]

No.