Smart meter problems

I was with Eon for many years and was supplied with a smart meter. Just after Xmas decided to change to Scottish Power. Did I want a smart meter with scot power,yes. Came today to change gas& elec meters-again to scot power, spent almost a hour then said can't do it both meters are not 10 inch apart. My bills have been stupid, paying much too high so thought smart meter would solve it as I am reg blind the readings my wife took of-the meter must have been wrong so we are paying almost double till it's sorted. Anybody else had simuler problems. Told it's up to me paying for one of the meters moving so they are not near each other. Been like this since house was built in 1935

It's an ambition to have everyone on smart meters by 2020, but nobody is forced to have one. You're allowed to say no thank you.

The biggest issue with smart meters today is how the energy companies have been abusing the rollout by installing meters which prevent customers from switching suppliers. It's abit like what the mobile phone industry used to do by issuing handsets that were "locked" to prevent you from switching.

Another misconception is that smart meters save you money. They don't and I think you've experienced that for yourself. The job of a smart meter is to simply provide the energy company with automatic meter readings.

The cost of your energy consumption is dictated by the tariff you are on.

Think of your house as a car. Running your car everyday requires energy (fuel). The cost of that fuel is dependent on your chosen petrol station (energy company). You can purchase your fuel from a forecourt that charges 100p/litre or decide on a cheaper alternative that only charges 75p/litre.

So to ensure you're paying the least amount of money for every unit of energy consumed, you need to be signed up to the cheapest commercially available tariff on the market.

Having a smart meter installed makes this rather difficult to achieve because it restricts your freedom to switch and shop around.

My advice to you would be to contact your current supplier and ask if you can have your smart meter replaced with a standard meter.

If they don't entertain this request you could ask for the "smart" functionality of your meter to be remotely disabled. This puts your meter into 'dumb' mode, acting like a regular standard meter again.

Good luck!

I have read about poorly skilled fitters causing issues. I had smart meters fitted a couple of days ago, it took the fitter about 90 minutes.

My meters are about a foot apart and a foot off the ground, the fitter never mentioned it. I didn't realise that they would be changing the meters, just though they would make them wi-fi

We had Smart meters fitted about a month ago. Last Monday a man arrived to read the gas meter. I said 'It doesn't need reading does it?'. He said 'Things take time' and left without asking where the electric meter was. My supplier (OVO) keeps sending me emails telling me that its time to submit my readings but on their website it states that you don't have to submit readings any more. On my online statement my usage has been calculated using their estimated figure so if I see the gas meter reader again, I will be asking questions.

Last Monday a man arrived to read the gas meter. I said 'It doesn't need reading does it?'. He said 'Things take time' and left without asking where the electric meter was.

It's very unlikely he would have been working on behalf of OVO.

There are many meter reading companies on the market like Morrison Utilities, Meter-U, G4S etc that independently collect meter readings and sell the data back to the utility companies in exchange for a fee.

As they don't operate off a 'live' database, the utility companies are oblivious to the fact you recently had a meter change.

It really is a shambolic system.

The general advice being given by consumer watchdogs like Which and Rip Off Britain is to simply avoid smart meters for now. They are not fit for purpose yet.

I have Smart Meters fitted by British Gas they are four foot apart took the fitter about an hour to set up and test all went well till after six months the Monitor stopped reading and giving any information, B.G. say they are still getting readings and my usage is steady and monthly payments are fine at £100 for both Gas and Electricity together, so how can they still get readings from miles away and I cannot from a sender to the Monitor a foot away, B.G. say there is a problem with the signal but unfortunately it is beyond their capability to fix, they use the old Vodafone network so why are they still pushing Smart Meters is it for just for their benefit only.

so why are they still pushing Smart Meters is it for just for their benefit only.

In a nutshell, yes.

Smart meters lock you into one supplier and therefore stifle competition.

Even though you haven't told me what tariff you're on, I know with 100% certainty you're overpaying for your gas and electric simply by the fact you're on a smart meter with British Gas.

There are over 200 energy tariffs on the market. The top 10 cheapest tariffs at the moment are not any of the Big Six.

Going back to the car analogy - accepting a smart meter is like topping up your car at the most expensive forecourt in exchange for a "free" made in China alarm clock.

Saw a report on Watch dog, very scary they just set on fire.

Yes 18 this year.

Quote:

Even though you haven't told me what tariff you're on, I know with 100% certainty you're overpaying for your gas and electric simply by the fact you're on a smart meter with British Gas. Unquote

Well that’s brilliant then we were lead to believe that on Smart Meters our tariff would be lower than not being on Smart Meters simply because they can keep a better check on what we use.

This is partly taken from an article that was in the Radio Times the other week.

According to Paul Lewis from the BBC Money Program the current meters are not as smart as they are made out to be, each supplier has its own way of reading the meter’s and dumbed-down meters are harder to read than traditional meters the old SMETS 1 meters which are being fitted now will not work with the new system of the SMETS 2 meters and the updated system due to come into being in 2019 so are they going to replace all the meters currently being installed, despite the fact that the current batch of meters being fitted can turn dumb if you switch your energy company supplier even though they are still fitting them in an attempt to meet Government target’s.

Simply another lie sold to the sheeples. Smart for who, certainly not the consumer.

If a unit of gas or lecky is required to boil the kettle, fry an egg or whatever, after the Smart Meter is fitted the cost will still be the same.

Anngel1.

Simply another lie sold to the sheeples. Smart for who, certainly not the consumer.

 

If a unit of gas or lecky is required to boil the kettle, fry an egg or whatever, after the Smart Meter is fitted the cost will still be the same.

You could discover that boiling water in the microwave is cheaper than the kettle.

How can giving people this detailed information be bad? Because I have solar panels, a small amount of my electricity is free; I now know when I start to pay.