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A Minging Manc...
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I have an email from my energy supplier saying they want to come and fit some new, super-funky, smart meters for me, free-of-charge, and this will save me money. I have been on Google!
Straight away this reveals two big fat lies!
So, are they a good thing or a bad thing? I can see benefits, automatic meter readings and no estimated bills. I can also see potential downsides, like what happens when the software gets a bug and starts over-reading or some malicious individual decides to hack into your power meters and start messing with the supply? I can see it clearly, some Chinese or Russian teenage computer geek sat in his bedroom with his mates, laughing as he says "watch this, I am going to switch off Britain for a laugh". He doesn't have to target the power stations, he can do it by recoding all the easily accessible, remotely connected, insecure power meters in each and every property in the country!
Not surprisingly, my fear is not unique and the idea has occurred to other people already!
Do I do it or not? I don't expect it will help me reduce my consumption to a significant degree, certainly not with two young boys in the house, but if I don't do it am I potentially missing something positive?
What says you?
Straight away this reveals two big fat lies!
- The 'estimated' cost of the nationwide smart meter installation programme is £11 billion and this is being footed by the energy firms, who acknowledge that the cost will be passed onto the consumers. This means it is not f-o-c and that actually I will have to pay the cost regardless of whether I have the meters installed or not.
- It will not save me any money. My energy cost will be the same and I will only save if I use the data available from a smart meter to reduce my usage. I am not stupid, I have a reasonable idea of what is a high power appliance and what is low power. It isn't rocket science and if you turn stuff off when not needed you will minimise power costs, simples.
So, are they a good thing or a bad thing? I can see benefits, automatic meter readings and no estimated bills. I can also see potential downsides, like what happens when the software gets a bug and starts over-reading or some malicious individual decides to hack into your power meters and start messing with the supply? I can see it clearly, some Chinese or Russian teenage computer geek sat in his bedroom with his mates, laughing as he says "watch this, I am going to switch off Britain for a laugh". He doesn't have to target the power stations, he can do it by recoding all the easily accessible, remotely connected, insecure power meters in each and every property in the country!
Not surprisingly, my fear is not unique and the idea has occurred to other people already!
Do I do it or not? I don't expect it will help me reduce my consumption to a significant degree, certainly not with two young boys in the house, but if I don't do it am I potentially missing something positive?
What says you?