Smart Meters

[mat1]

Had a leter from E-on with who my electricity and gas are with.
They are fitting smart meters in the area and wanted to know if i would like one.
For those who don't know what they are, they send instant readings of your usage to the company so no estimated bills or meter readers calling.
You also get your own digital meter that gives your readings, live and history.

Anyone on here had one fitted, or anyone who has.
Pros and cons please.
Should it make a difference i pay both bills by monthly direct debit.

Thanks

Mat

 

[Surfer]

Had a leter from E-on with who my electricity and gas are with.
They are fitting smart meters in the area and wanted to know if i would like one.
For those who don't know what they are, they send instant readings of your usage to the company so no estimated bills or meter readers calling.
You also get your own digital meter that gives your readings, live and history.

Anyone on here had one fitted, or anyone who has.
Pros and cons please.
Should it make a difference i pay both bills by monthly direct debit.

Thanks

Mat

If paying a fixed amount a month, a bit pointless although they are a good thing for some. Just another way of creating more unemployment.

 

[RogerL]

The downside is that your costs won't be averaged over the whole year but deducted by direct debit each month according to usage, ie high charges in winter.
Smart meters will do nothing for those who are already careful with their consumption and read their own meters on a monthly basis.
The extra cost of the smart meters has to be borne by the consumer eventually through the charges.
Can't think of any advantages !!!

 

[Surfer]

The downside is that your costs won't be averaged over the whole year but deducted by direct debit each month according to usage, ie high charges in winter.
Smart meters will do nothing for those who are already careful with their consumption and read their own meters on a monthly basis.
The extra cost of the smart meters has to be borne by the consumer eventually through the charges.
Can't think of any advantages !!!

You pay for your current meter through standing charge or the unit charge, so nothing new there. You can continue to pay the fixed amount every month so no issue there. Any supplier that drops that will have big hassles. They are supposed to be cheaper to manufacture than the old analogue meter. You can get a read outs at any time by connecting into it yourself without having to leave your armchair. More advantages than disadvantages.

 

[RogerL]

The downside is that your costs won't be averaged over the whole year but deducted by direct debit each month according to usage, ie high charges in winter.
Smart meters will do nothing for those who are already careful with their consumption and read their own meters on a monthly basis.
The extra cost of the smart meters has to be borne by the consumer eventually through the charges.
Can't think of any advantages !!!

You pay for your current meter through standing charge or the unit charge, so nothing new there. You can continue to pay the fixed amount every month so no issue there. Any supplier that drops that will have big hassles. They are supposed to be cheaper to manufacture than the old analogue meter. You can get a read outs at any time by connecting into it yourself without having to leave your armchair. More advantages than disadvantages.

I've already got a satisfactory meter so supplying/installing a Smart Meter is extra cost.
I don't regard the ability to read the meter from my armchair rather than going out to the meter box as an advantage worth paying for.
Smart Meters are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist - those who don't care about energy consumption still won't even with a Smart Meter installed.

 

[ZeGecko]

We were looking at the smart meter option
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086898/Stop-roll-smart-meters-costs-escalate-fiasco-warns-consumer-group.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2092954/Costly-fiasco-smart-meters-dont-work-Millions-devices-replaced-warns-watchdog.html
Thought we'd give it a miss.

 

[Surfer]

We were looking at the smart meter option
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086898/Stop-roll-smart-meters-costs-escalate-fiasco-warns-consumer-group.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2092954/Costly-fiasco-smart-meters-dont-work-Millions-devices-replaced-warns-watchdog.html
Thought we'd give it a miss.

And you believe the Daily Mail? LOL!

Wheer is this extra cost as the meters are replacing meter readers therefore the supplier is saving even more money in the long gterm!

 

[RogerL]

Where is this extra cost as the meters are replacing meter readers therefore the supplier is saving even more money in the long gterm!

Replacing meters that don't need replacing incurs the cost of the new meter plus the labour to swap it over.
Failure rate among meters isn't high and when they get to 99,999 they just roll over and start again.

 

[Dustydog]

What happens if you change your supplier? Wlil Eon's smart meter work for Scottish Electric say?
It's of no advantage to me personally. Why on earth would I want to sit in my armchair reading my meter electronically

 

[ZeGecko]

The same line of story was in numerous dailies and on a wide range of web sites from news sites to business and a wide range of other sites. Newspapers generally have the same stories featured. Mate is senior manager at Eon, he sent us the Mail links. He's not convinced on smart metering and just suggested we research and google the subject.
" Ministers have been urged to halt the planned roll-out of new energy meters to every home in Britain until they can guarantee that the costs will not escalate uncontrollably.

Consumer campaign group Which? said the Government's "hands off" approach to the installation of smart meters by energy companies meant it was at risk of becoming a "fiasco".

The Department of Energy and Climate Change believes the cost of introducing the meters to 30 million homes and businesses between 2014 and 2019 will be about £11.7 billion.

But Which? said the current plans contained no way of controlling the costs associated with the roll-out or how they are passed on to customers who are already struggling with high fuel bills. It said that allowing energy firms to run the roll-out risked damaging confidence in the entire scheme."