Smart meters - go for it?

[Dashers]

I don't have one as it impacts my feed-in-tariff for solar PV. Currently the assumption is that I use 50% of the power I generate, and I get paid to export 50%. In reality, currently, it's probably far less as I'm at work when the power is being generated.

With a smart-meter they know how much is being exported and I get paid for that. So until that balance shifts, I'll stick with submitting my readings every now and then.

[Saracen]

Well, these fall into the category of protecting any and all information about me unless divulging it suits me. This may be very limited information, about my power usage at a very granular level, in (IIRC) 30m intervals, but as I can't see any benefit to me, I don't want it.

[Stringent]

Getting one installed this Thursday (Ovo Energy). My gas and electric meters are in a cupboard that I have to crawl into to get the meter readings, so this would help me not bash my head and knees! Its kind of useful to know whats being used and when I guess. As its free, why not.

[Dashers]

If you're not paying for a product it means you're the product.

[virtuo]

Do not want. My normal meters work fine and I'm not risking downtime on any of my systems, UPS or not, so a couple of guys can come in to my house and put in new kit that does nothing for me.

Until the day these are mandatory, I'll pass.

[cheesemp]

I was quite happy to have one fitted as I hate taking meter readings. They turned up last week to fit last week, declared we had no signal and left just telling my builder... If I get no signal in a small town not far from Southampton how are these things ever supposed to roll out nationally???

[watercooled]

From my perspective, it's just another several billion pounds well spent on something pretending to be 'green'.

[Dashers]

There's no need for a smart metre to monitor your energy usage. One of my previous suppliers dished out free energy monitors. You clip a battery powered sensor around one of the poles on the meter or consumer unit, and have a bluetooth receiver thing wherever telling you how much you're using at any given time.

But unless you only power up one thing at a time, it's generally useless. I guess it reminds you you're pouring money down the drain a lot of the time. I made a couple of attempts to get everything down to nothing, but you soon realise that you don't want that as keeping your fridge running is fairly important, and your wifi isn't something you want to faff with turning on and off.

That said, I now can't monitor anything as I've got solar panels, and the meter doesn't know which way the electricity is flowing. So I started looking at it and exclaiming "what the hell is using 2KW?" - took me a moment to realise that was what I was exporting.

What I've found more useful is an inline power meter that you plug into a standard mains socket. It tells you how much leccy that device is using (and averages it too). So you can survey all your appliances over time and get a better understanding.