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Smart Meters Thread

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I must not be very smart, certainly not as smart as a smart meter. Have I got this wrong somehow, the oven is on, the rings are on cooking Sunday dinner, the kids are watching TV, it's getting dark outside so we put the lights on, lets have a cuppa while waiting for lunch to cook. How does a smart meter help.

 

Angel1.

 

Works for me; my tariff, only available with a SmartMeter has free electric 9-5 of a Saturday or Sunday. Sadly not both.

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Has anyone out there had any problems with British Gas’s Smart Meters in the S35 area of Sheffield both the Gas and Electricity, problems such as the monitor not connecting to the meters, switching on and off in the day time, did you report it to the British Gas Meter team, did they say they are getting readings from you even though you are not and you cannot monitor your usage and what was their response, their system uses the old Vodafone Phone network, the Smart Meters don’t seem to be as smart as they say. Thanks

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The monitors are rubbish! I'm on my 2nd one and thats gone caput now! I contacted british gas who assure me my smart meters are working fine, to switch off my monitor and move it closer to the meters and switch it on again, which impossible cos they are outside! Leave it 7 days and if it still doesn't connect then contact them again and they will send me a monitor free of charge! It's unplugged and in the ruddy bin!

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Has anyone out there had any problems with British Gas’s Smart Meters in the S35 area of Sheffield both the Gas and Electricity, problems such as the monitor not connecting to the meters, switching on and off in the day time, did you report it to the British Gas Meter team, did they say they are getting readings from you even though you are not and you cannot monitor your usage and what was their response, their system uses the old Vodafone Phone network, the Smart Meters don’t seem to be as smart as they say. Thanks

Our monitor went off for a week but re-connected, you basically use the same amount of gas and electricity every week, so I don't see a problem if it loses wi-fi for awhile.

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Yes been there I'm on my second monitor, it can run off batteries so I put it on top of the sender in the Electricity box still no contact, what worrys me is that they have admitted that they have not had constant readings so my bills are still in a way being estimated they have asked me to send them readings so they can compaire what they have got so to up date their readings, what is worrying is that they may set me with a larger monthly payment than necessary to cover their error.

Edited by MEC176

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The monitors are rubbish! I'm on my 2nd one and thats gone caput now! I contacted british gas who assure me my smart meters are working fine, to switch off my monitor and move it closer to the meters and switch it on again, which impossible cos they are outside! Leave it 7 days and if it still doesn't connect then contact them again and they will send me a monitor free of charge! It's unplugged and in the ruddy bin!

 

The consensus of all the consumer advocate groups is to avoid smart meters at all cost until the energy landscape has reformed itself.

 

Anyone on a smart meter will be locked into a tariff that is significantly more expensive compared to the cheapest tariffs on the market.

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[/QOUTE] Anyone on a smart meter will be locked into a tariff that is significantly more expensive compared to the cheapest tariffs on the market.

 

That’s nice to know, yes your energy company should know how much energy you are using but only in theory to send you an accurate bill, B.G.’s have dropped my monthly payments down twice in the last six months, I think as compensation because of the messing about I’m getting and they are not getting accurate reading's.

 

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 SMETS 2 meters and the updated system due to come into being in 2019, 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.

 

But that does not solve what I am after being does anyone in S35 Chapeltown also have a contact problem's so I can set a question to B.G. about loss of contact.

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Lots of ads on TV lately telling us how they will save us money.

Pack of lies. The ads should not be allowed to make the claims which they do.

A smart meter will not save you one single penny but it will save your electricity suppliers a lot.

The meter will just tell you how much power you are using and, if it's using a lot, you can turn the heating down by a degree or two or turn it off altogether.

This will save you money but you can already do this without having a smart meter.

The electricity suppliers save a lot because they no longer have to employ a meter reader to read your meter.

They tell you the smart meter is free but they have already upped their tariffs to cover the cost of installing a smart meter in every household so you are still paying for it. 

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9 hours ago, Organgrinder said:

The electricity suppliers save a lot because they no longer have to employ a meter reader to read your meter.

So if the energy suppliers will save money, that means that they could charge their customers less.

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Completely agree, yet again public money being used for a government backed con like cavity wall filling and condensing boilers, i find it hard to believe that the average person can believe that they will save any money with a "smart meter". Even the name is fashionable crap labling suprised it wasn,t called a"Digital  I smart E meter", it just reads the meter electronically, no -  "smartness" at all

I know one person (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) that was telling me they had one and it was going to save them £100 a year, i asked where it was (the display part) - "i put it in the drawer out of the way" was the reply, "how will it save you money in the drawer?" i asked, " i dunno how it works but the people on the phone said it would so i must be right" was my answer.

:roll:

If you have to have a meter telling you how much you are using to not leave the shower on more than you need then you are a strange person to say the least.

 

A plugin meter that you can keep a check on your fridge/freezer as their consumption can rocket when worn / faulty or stick it on the dish washer or washing machince/ tumble drier to compare the cost of different programmes and ask yourself if its worth it rather than getting  a pot towel out to dry the pots or wait for a dry day and hang the washing out, now thats real benefit.

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I refused to have one fitted.

 

As an aside,  i also feel that paying a charge for the meters for most of your life should be abolished. How much does that amount to over the course of a lifetime? Utility companies should pay for meters out of their profits.

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