'Smart' Meters

[pfifes 309]

5 hours ago, El Cid said:

You could compare a battery being replaced every 10 years to a bloke in a van coming to read your meter twice per year, every year!

I’ve not had anyone come read the meter for many years.  Even then it wasn’t twice a year every year! When the meter stopped sending remote readings no one came to read it and we send them readings for maybe 3-4 years.  
The replacement of the meters took about 3 hours to install, ran over the appointment time and the gas and electricity were off for some of this time.  I don’t think that’s comparable with someone taking a meter reading in terms of inconvenience.  

[HeHasRisen 3,412]

30 minutes ago, pfifes said:

Fortunately I am not in that position personally.  For those that are, I would think having time to sort out arrangements or possibly errors with billing/payments that come with time lag before they get to the point where bailiffs are knocking on the door than having their energy supply removed at the flick of a switch.  

And that wouldn't happen for a significant period of time either, and if the customer actually engages. 

 

Put your head in the sand and the outcome is the same no matter what meter it is, except one has the embarrassment of all your neighbours seeing your door get smashed in. 

[pfifes 309]

2 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

And that wouldn't happen for a significant period of time either, and if the customer actually engages. 

 

Put your head in the sand and the outcome is the same no matter what meter it is, except one has the embarrassment of all your neighbours seeing your door get smashed in. 

I can’t say I’m familiar with the ins and outs of this process having fortunately not been in that position,  However, I do know mistakes happen and that the massive push to install smart meters was not to save customers the bother of taking meter readings or to have a little gizmo to show booking a kettle uses lots of electricity etc

[HeHasRisen 3,412]

31 minutes ago, pfifes said:

I can’t say I’m familiar with the ins and outs of this process having fortunately not been in that position,  However, I do know mistakes happen and that the massive push to install smart meters was not to save customers the bother of taking meter readings or to have a little gizmo to show booking a kettle uses lots of electricity etc

No, they let me pay as little as 8p a unit some days. Awful things, clearly. 

[pfifes 309]

1 hour ago, HeHasRisen said:

No, they let me pay as little as 8p a unit some days. Awful things, clearly. 

Goodness me, how did we ever survive without a smart meter?  

[El Cid 221]

34 minutes ago, pfifes said:

Goodness me, how did we ever survive without a smart meter?  

I guy would come round and read your meter every so often, I wonder how much that would cost your supplier?

[Top4719 142]

15 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

Is that preferable to the embarrassment of bailiffs breaking the door down and force fitting a prepayment meter? 

This cannot be done neither can turning off your supply, if you have a smart meter they can switch it to pre pay at the touch of a button, crafty eh??

[pfifes 309]

6 hours ago, El Cid said:

I guy would come round and read your meter every so often, I wonder how much that would cost your supplier?

No actually.  I had smart meter put in about 9 years ago.  It stopped being smart after 5-6 years so we sent readings.  No one came to read or asked to read the meter in all that time (3-4years). They were also not too concerned about replacing the meter so it was only when it conked out completely this year it got replaced.  Prior to this and the old non-smart meter someone only came to read it very, very occasionally, certainly nothing like twice a year.  
Given the costs of replacing the meters every 10 years (which took about 3 hours) I’d say that outweighs the costs of someone reading a meter about once every few years.  Also the costs of the relentless hard sell of the smart meters to customers.

I don’t hold with the far fetched conspiracy theories about smart meters but I am astonished that there are so many gullible people who think these smart meters are a wonderful thing brought in to help customers.  The benefits are overwhelmingly for the energy companies and the meters are also quite poor in terms of lifespan.  I’ve previously said that apart from anything else, it’s very wasteful and poor environmentally to have to replace these meters within a relatively short cycle.
 

[El Cid 221]

1 hour ago, pfifes said:

No actually.
 

Yes, actually. Dont you remember the card that they would put through your letterbox if you werent home?

[HeHasRisen 3,412]

6 hours ago, Top4719 said:

This cannot be done neither can turning off your supply, if you have a smart meter they can switch it to pre pay at the touch of a button, crafty eh??

Well if people paid their bills they would have nothing to worry about. 

[pfifes 309]

35 minutes ago, El Cid said:

Yes, actually. Dont you remember the card that they would put through your letterbox if you werent home?

Er, no. Are we in infinite regress here?  I believe I already said that years ago before getting a smart meter that visits from a meter reader were very, very occasional.  Certainly nowhere near twice a year.  I also had 3-4 years recently sending readings  without visits/requests for visits/cards through the door from a meter reader when the oh so smart meter stopped being smart.  

‘I had a smart meter put in about 9 years ago.  It stopped being smart after 5-6 years so we sent readings.  No one came to read or asked to read the meter in all that time (3-4years). They were also not too concerned about replacing the meter so it was only when it conked out completely this year it got replaced.  Prior to this and the old non-smart meter someone only came to read it very, very occasionally, certainly nothing like twice a year.  
Given the costs of replacing the meters every 10 years (which took about 3 hours) I’d say that outweighs the costs of someone reading a meter about once every few years.  Also the costs of the relentless hard sell of the smart meters to customers.’

[gaz678 108]

On 11/09/2023 at 22:49, top4718 said:

I've long been suspicious of these things and the way energy companies have pushed them in the last 12 months definitely leads me to the conclusion that they are more for their benefit than mine, we now have a hideous Tory party that have passed a bill stating "reasonable force" can be used to fit these in peoples homes (Labour abstained therefore allowing the legislation through) be interesting to see them attempting this force.

Nothing smart about them just show you how much you donated to the company!