Smart meters

Would never have a smart meter,Big Brother in your house.
The price for them is being put on everyones bill which is scandalous as it is to their advantage.
You are also putting a meter reader out of a job if you allow them to fit one.

 

Got them here, yes you can see exactly what your using, do you use any less because of them, no, not here any way.

 

I agree. In any case they've been so long getting them in place that there are fears that they are out of date.
eg the in home energy display has already been supplanted by smart phone technology. I want an app to show my energy useage, not have to trot down to the kitchen to gaze at an EDF box taking up my worktop space.

I'm the meter reader in my house......havent seen a meter reader for a year now..

 

I had one fitted about two months ago, took the guy ages to fit as he tested both the gas and electric systems and it is a complete install not just the meter, master fuse the whole for me.

The huge advantage for me was having something to wave in front of the wife to show her how much she is wasting by leaving the lights on, overfilling the kettle and putting the tumble dryer on for too long.

 

I did try that, got the shoulder shrug, just keep quite now.

 

I got a letter asking me to email my meter reading.Phoned them up and told them I was not putting someone out of work to boost their obscene profits and send a meter reader out.

 

The obvious one is smart meters stop fiddling the gas and electric, it logs if the power goes off and transmits the information to the supplier if there's no power cut in your area they want to know why it went off.same with gas,move the meter and it locks out,

 

Had one fitted at a customers property where there is no mobile signal.

They drilled through a 2 foot thick Grade 2* listed wall to poke an extended antenna out to find they still couldn't get a signal!

 

Meter readers are not all that. I had a call from Eon asking me to read the meter while I was on the phone, a couple days after the meter reader had been. He had written the reading incorrectly, which would of given me a bill for hundreds of thousands!

 

I really like them, no more meter readers needed. Not sure if it's a gimmick or not yet but BG do free electric for a day over the weekend if you have a smart meter. I've signed up and have free hot water all day

 

I was intrigued about this BG deal - if it catches on I can see people storing up washing and tumble drying for the weekend and doing all the other fuel intensive things on Saturday / Sunday

 

Until they withdraw the deal in a couple of years time, once they have sucked in half a million customers.

 

Batteries and an inverter...

 

we got one 3 weeks ago and the installer was in and out in 45 minutes.

it's quite a nifty bit of kit if you want to know what your stuff is using. The difference in power consumption between led lamps and halogen is quite staggering i've discovered

 

oh, and your kettle is trying to bankrupt you.

don't even start me on the electric shower.

 

Over the last two years we have replaced all our lower rated electrical appliances with A+ or A++ ones. This has saved us over £900 a year ! The biggest drain was an "American" Whilrpool tumble dryer that was costing us £550 a year to run by itself. We swapped that for an A++ condenser tumble dryer with a 10 year warranty for £480 !

Your right about the kettle, as soon as it goes on electricity usage goes into the red

 

We had our meters changed and I was a bit worried about the connections,the young lad who changed them did the electric meter and was about to reseal it when I asked him to leave it and change the gas meter.He was a bit puzzled at first but since I was an older spark he agreed as I said I'd teach him something,after finishing the gas meter I asked him to recheck the tightness on the electric meter and he was suprised to be able to get another 1/4 turn on the screws.We had a drink and I explained about copper creep and how connections that appeared tight could be tightened a little more after a few minutes.He said they hadn't told him this in the training centre,however he'd be sure to follow my guidance in future and mention it to his friends at work,it's no wonder there are problems with loose connections on meters and service heads.He was a nice young lad,doing everything the way he'd been trained,the only problem was he hadn't been trained properly.

 

When I did CG electrical installations many years ago, we had one old lecturer, been in the trade a very long time, probably knew Faraday & co, but he was darn good, put a lot of the younger lecturers to shame with his knowledge & the advice, tips he use to give us.