Smart Meters??

Will

Core Member
Hi all. My electricity supplier keep on and on pestering me to have a smart meter fitted. I know what smart meters are and what they do, but I am very sceptica and have been resisting. Basically, don't believe you ever get something for nothing. Why would they be trying so hard to get me to agree to something which is going to cost them money to install if they aren't planning to put by bills up? And if they aren't, how will they recover the cost of the installation? Ir is it just on their saving from having to pay a guy to read my meter?
Does anybody have any opinions or experience on this?
 
I had a smart meter installed by British gas. However if you change companies your new supplier can read what British gas installed.

The smart meter display in the lounge was useful as you could see how much it cost for someone to have a shower, it just makes you more aware of what is using energy and how much you are spending.

I don't know how they recoupe costs, British gas were pretty pricey so perhaps it paid for itself over a year.
 
We had one in our previous house. The novelty wore off pretty quick. You have to live and things like cooking and showers/hot waters are just life necessities and how much they cost is kind of irrelevant.
That’s how it worked out for us anyway. And the visual display ended up chucked in a drawer and never looked at again. I found it when we were moving and left it for the next owner.
 
That was my thought, that while it would initially be interesting to see how much power we were using, we'd still have to cook dinner and shower anyway. I guess the hope is that seeing the meter might make people take a quicker shower, or maybe try using the tumble dryer less. But then, you'd be using less electricity, therefore, your bills would reduce. So I'm back to wondering how they would recover the cost of installing the meter! lol
Unless what they charge per unit would increase after they saw you were using less? But I haven't heard of that happen to anyone. Maybe suppliers get paid by the government each time they install a smart meter?
 
This is from Citizens Advice..

It gives a hint how smart meters might be paid for. It says that if you don't have one installed, subsequent cheaper tariffs may not be available to you. I take that to mean that charges per unit will probably be increased eventually.
I guess what I am looking for is someone to say their bills increased after their smart meter was installed. So, that's not the case then?
 
Last edited:
Smart meters COST you money weather they plug into the mains to tell you your usage or battery with wifi (using your wifi alloance) normally around £3 a year or if you like 2 cups of take away coffee
As A/T has said we all have to live we boil the kettle have showers use the oven,

alot of people don't understand there bills or complaciant with using electric
1KW COULD BE 9P TO OVER 20P EVERY HOUR DEPENDING ON YOUR RATE day rate night rate ecomany 7 10 12 or even 14 rate,
if you not in the room turn of or not using an applance turn it off

if you understand how to read you meter? just monitor it evey hour take reading say for a day and use this to check your bill (and show your usage )
couple of customers i have helped over the years with getting money back (this has been from 300quid to over 1200quid ) as meters have been read wrong or they dont realise how much it costs to us an item with a heater in ie, a 8.5kw shower use for an hour (on a 16p terriff) cost you £1.35 might not sound a lot (alot of modern showers shut down after 30 to 40mins now adays for safty and cost) but just for example, £1.35 eveyday for a month is 40quid plus v.a.t plus the standing charge and thats just for the shower think of eveything else we use on a daily basies

and there are of course key meters , cost the most ( if you got good credit rating get these changed) direct debit or quarty charge and differant suppliers offer differant tarrifs its a mined field out there,
 
I don't have one. I figure that if I leave the heating and lights on all day, I have used a lot of energy. If I want to save money, I will make sure I turn stuff off when I am not using it. I don't need a meter to tell me that!
 
Very true common sense at the end of the day.
 
Sure, makes sense, I get that.
But what I was after knowing is...if I let them install a smart meter... and I carry on using the same amount of electricity as I do now... will my bills "mysteriously' increase?
 
They shouldn't do, your contract should have the cost per unit in it, and they cant change that mid contract if you are on a fixed rate.
 
yes by £3 approx doh you didnt read it doh these pompey lay abouts lol,,,,,
Ok they might do as once they start monitoring your useasge yes your bills might go up but also might go down as they can see what you are using,
 
I have done a bit of web searching and while it seems hard to find unbiased comment, I have read a few accounts from people who claim their bills have increased despite not changing their level of usage. I've no problem with having a smart meter specifically, but not if it's going cost me more just for having one. And there's no going back once it's been fitted is there?!
Although, I've just read on moneysavingexpert that there's ultimately no problem with having one. Martin Lewis seems pretty genuine to me.
 
You can always change supplier afterwards if you are not happy. The chances are the new supplier cannot read the previous suppliers meter.
 
You can always change supplier afterwards if you are not happy. The chances are the new supplier cannot read the previous suppliers meter.
Yeah, I'd heard that. Also that there are two basic types of meter and if you have the older type and change suppliers, they go "dumb" and can't transmit readings to the new supplier, which is pretty much what you are saying I guess. But presumably if they fitted one now it would be the newer type.
 
I had one fitted by British gas, its 3G mobile, it still buzzes away under the cupboard even though the new supplier cannot read it. This was installed around 6 years ago. I guess the 3G sim card is owned by who put it in, i guess the sim could be transferred, its odd why suppliers don't work towards some form of standard. Mind you, why are there so many suppliers, at the end of the day our Electric is 'delivered' by Southern Electric, and the gas pipes are owned by British Gas. how can suppliers be buying it and selling it to us cheaper than the main supplier. Surely cutting out the middle man should make a saving.
 
I had one fitted by British gas, its 3G mobile, it still buzzes away under the cupboard even though the new supplier cannot read it. This was installed around 6 years ago. I guess the 3G sim card is owned by who put it in, i guess the sim could be transferred, its odd why suppliers don't work towards some form of standard. Mind you, why are there so many suppliers, at the end of the day our Electric is 'delivered' by Southern Electric, and the gas pipes are owned by British Gas. how can suppliers be buying it and selling it to us cheaper than the main supplier. Surely cutting out the middle man should make a saving.
Yeah, you'd have thought whoever designed the follow-up smart meter to the first one might have stuck to the same system.
And I think the reason for so many energy suppliers is called capitalism lol
 
Quite interesting reading the opinions on smart meters, we have them and are with Octopus Energy, I wont put a link to join as I don't think that's appropriate, but it would earn both of us money off, back to the point, we also have solar panels, I believe we have enough on top to keep the new housing rules happy, BUT here is the BUT we can see what they are producing, from there it falls apart, we do not know how much they are helping our bills, our electric is high, compared to our last two houses we were using about £45 a month, nothing has changed and were now using £58 a month, we have stopped using the tumble dryer just to see what difference it makes, but we do have tropical Fish, two 50w heaters and two filter pumps running, they were also running in the other houses, we receive a Feed In Tariff payment from Scottish Power who assume we use 50% of whats generated, we have had 3 quarterly payments of £9 £10 and £6 which over the summer seems a little bit of a joke, I am waiting answers from the suppliers to see if in fact we do actually use any we generate. The house is a New build, two bed, I have replaced all lights with LED units as the builders had fitted Fluorescent energy savers, and I feel we are being over charged, our Gas usage is £12 a month summer, we wait to see what it will be over the winter, sorry if I dragged this off topic a little but I have so many questions and very little in the way of answers
 
we receive a Feed In Tariff payment from Scottish Power who assume we use 50% of whats generated, we have had 3 quarterly payments of £9 £10 and £6 which over the summer seems a little bit of a joke,
Sounds very wrong to me. Do you know how many units you have generated? there should be a generation meter. I have a 4kw system which is most common and yours is probably 4kw too. I receive around £700 per year from solar generation, since October 2015 its been installed and generated 14,481 kwh.
Say if you generated 7kwh in a day. Feed in tariff is 12.95p,and you get export tarrif at 4.77p. So (7 * 12.95) + ((7/2) * 4.77)) = £1.08 in one day.

I know they have reduced payout per units, but do you know what you reward per unit is?
Every quarter i just pass my meter reading onto British gas, they do the calcs and send a cheque. The meter is a generation meter value, so even if I used all of that energy myself I would still get paid the same.
 
This is the information we have.

76913770_2436397829948589_369815646466211840_n.jpgFIT.jpg
 
wow, I was hoping to get my hand on mine. If i can find it I'll take a photo.
Export price is very similar to mine. However the Generation is very low. I knew it was going to come down over the years, but that is extremely low, not an incentive to get solar. At least you can save on bill in the day as you can use what you generate. Like cooking a roast dinner in the middle of the day when its good weather and the solar can run the oven.
My tariff is an old one form 2015, and that tariff stays with you for a long time, I thought I saw 20 years written down. Getting aound 12.95p per unit, which is similar price to what I buy it in at. Yours appears to be around 50 times less. Tarrif rates over the years:- https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/fit/fit-tariff-rates, it seems to be showing you should be getting around 3.7p per unit even at todays rates, you are getting 0.26p, so 10 times less than what the government website says. Certainly worth querying with ScottishPower
1574779196796.png
 
Back
Top