Smart meters - go for it?

[Rob_B]

I've had a call from my energy provider about getting smart meters installed and I was wondering what the general consensus was on them?

I've not really heard much and wondered if there were any reasons NOT to go for them?

Cheers!

Rob

[Phage]

Not really.
Won't make much difference either way, but then it doesn't cost you anything either. There is a fair amount of Luddite hype on the Register if you're interested. As I now work for a Power Co I can tell you it's all complete rhubarb.

[Rob_B]

I'm not sure what I get out of this, I give regular readings and monitor usage to a reasonable degree (ie I follow my wife and kids around the house turning all the lights off)

I just don't see a major benefit to these but then again as you say, they're free so why not :/

[smargh]

The energy co benefits (and the National Grid), not you.

Check it's not a version which can only be used by the one company & would need changing if you changed supplier.

[BobF64]

I'm not sure what I get out of this, I give regular readings and monitor usage to a reasonable degree

My thoughts exactly. All the "marketing" has been about how it will save users money, which is entirely untrue, smart meters themselves will NEVER save people money.

Knowing how much its costing you and changing your habits because of the real-time-ish cost display will only help those that complain about "high bills" yet leave everything running all the time.

Once everyones habits change, ie switching off lights or using LED lights, not leaving the TV on when youre not watching it, turning off Grandmas life support machine at night etc, then there will be almost no point to it.

However!

The energy co benefits (and the National Grid), not you.

This is the point. The "theory" is that it allows the electric suppliers budget and buy the correct amount of electricity required for their customers, which should lead to cheaper electricity for consumers.

IF you believe that, that is.

I cant see why the companies wont just be passing it on to shareholders instead, with some minimal price freeze or decrease to consumers.

[flearider]

lol the only reason there putting it in is two fold ... 1: to save money no meter readers .. 2:when they need to they can just turn you off .. remember the brown outs in the 70's there coming back .. it's a control con .. just don't do it

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Smartmeters will soon be compulsory by 2020 anyway.

[Rob_B]

I'll hold out for a long as possible to get a new version then

[GoNz0]

I used to fix the laptops for Landis Gyr and during the polite conversation you have with them he said the old mechanical meters were inaccurate but always on the customers side so he was holding out until he had to change meters due to the highly accurate ultrasonic smart meters. I had already made the swap by then

[flearider]

Smartmeters will soon be compulsory by 2020 anyway.

?? this already went to court .. you don't have to if you don't want to ..

[Jasp]

Its OK, you get them fitted and meter men still show up at your door to read them and get pesky emails telling them you haven't sent your readings...

[GoNz0]

They try and read mine, it is up at ceiling height inside a boxed cabinet on top of the kitchen cabinets. Some random will show up with his PDA to read it and I say yeah fine so long as you have ladders as it's up there *pointing*
They then start to ask stupid questions like can I use a chair to stand on, can I borrow your ladders. I then point out no you can't stand on my chair as for one it is against your health and safety as you can only use equipment approved by your company or you are not covered for accidents and the liability insurance if you damage my property is void if I allow it.
I fail to understand why they need to read it when it sends an update every 15 minutes and will report any tamper attempt..

[Spud1]

There is no disadvantage to them as long as you get one of the newer units, which you will do if getting one now

I don't get why people have a problem with them - ultimately you are using the energy and have to pay for it, and so the easier it is to take regular readings - with the potential for the energy co to do it remotely and very regularly when they are fully rolled out - should only lead to more accurate monthly payments. They may be higher, it may be lower than what you pay now, but it will be more accurate.

Thats the major benefit to both us and the energy companies. Add to that the fact you get a power meter included (effectively), which genuinely is a useful way to save money (it's great for spotting when something has been left on by mistake).

I don't have one as they are not available to me yet - but I will be doing so asap.

[aidanjt]

I fail to understand why they need to read it when it sends an update every 15 minutes and will report any tamper attempt..

Then you fail to understand the nature of any bureaucracy. It's the same reason why paperwork exploded with the advent of computers. It's there to provide jobs for bureaucrats. Progress and efficiency is their enemy, it threatens to make them redundant, and only they issue redundancies.

[Bluecube]

Smartmeters will soon be compulsory by 2020 anyway.

So what's going to happen those folk that don't get decent mobile phone signals? My parents didn't get one fitted as the engineer said no phone signal, no meter...

I personally won't get one fitted due to the possibility of a kill switch in them. I don't want to run the risk of some muppet pressing the wrong button and depriving me of much needed electricity! Plus I can see no benefit whatsoever in having one.

[watercooled]

I think energy companies (or their salesmen, maybe without the official nod) are trying to bully people into getting these. I'm not interested - I know how much is used by appliances etc, but we've had a couple of phone calls from our supplier come close to threatening legal action if I didn't accept - I thought at the time the law might have stupidly changed to make them mandatory so I didn't argue but after researching it seems it's nonsense - I just phoned back and said no.

As far as I'm aware though, the meters being used in this country have no 'kill switch'. I mean they could conceivably contain some sort of contactor but that seems hugely wasteful in terms of cost of materials, and even power consumption for the coil depending on the type used. Not to mention another point of failure.

There's a lot of things that are wrong with how it's being done though. First is different energy companies using incompatible systems - as if the ~£11B or so of customers' money poured into this wasn't enough already, that number could end up multiplied several times until some genius works out a way to avoid truck rolls when someone wants to change supplier. And the fact they still seem to send people out to do meter readings, so there's no cost saving there. It would be quite hilarious if it wasn't our money being poured down the toilet as usual.

Another area of concern, as usual for 'IoT' devices is the potential security nightmare, but I've admittedly not looked to closely at smart meters specifically.

I appreciate the desire for realtime energy graphing to run the grid more efficiently but I need more convincing it's being done properly - i.e. properly anonymised and separated from customer billing data. Power consumption can leak an awful lot of data about a home e.g. wake/bed times, when the house is empty, etc.