Smart meters

[Gadget]

Yet again, I've been offered  free installation of smart meters for my gas and electricity.

Have any of you got these and  is it worth it?


Gadget

[Guy Etchells]

Depends what you mean by worth it.
Smart meters can be read every half hour which can be good.
We have one in our house in Scotland that is worthmany times its weight in gold as we don't have to arrange to be their for the meter reader, it sends the reading by internet when required.
It also means we can check it when we want.
In our main house we often just check to see what our consumption has been over the last week or month. Again we don't have to be in for meter readers but they do still call once or twice a year just to check everything is ok seals etc.

We would not be without one but if we had not got used to having them we would not miss them
Cheers
Guy

[ScouseBoy]

I very rarely get sent an electricity bill these days.
Do they connect the Smart meter to your land line?

[ciderdrinker]

Hello
I already had one fitted when I moved into my new house.
It connected to the energy company ,British gas ,for the few weeks i was with them and then when I moved to another company to save money ,it stopped.
Apparently you can't transfer them between companies.
I didn't have internet or land line  so I don't know how it sent the readings to BG but I do know that it's now really tricky to read.You have to keep your finger on the button(s) until you get the final reading.
There's also the possibility that they will charge you more at popular times.
What they aren't saying is that they are primarily about decreasing electricity demand at peak times  to ensure energy supply to the UK.
I find I'm about £20 a year  worse off with these .And as I said the meter readings are a real nightmare.
It depends whether you are going to change your energy usage.Other wise save yourself the bother.

British gas are offering a few hours free electricity at the weekend.It's not from the goodness of their heart ,is it?

Ciderdrinker

[ScouseBoy]

I have got night storage electric heaters and am on Economy seven meter.
The price per unit is lower at night but higher during the day.
I do not have a gas supply

[RJ_Paton]

Can't get them .... not a strong enough mobile signal for them to "phone home" with the data

[rosie17]

Can't get them .... not a strong enough mobile signal for them to "phone home" with the data

Yes I was the same no signal was really disappointed  was looking forward to having a new smart meter ...
Rosie

[Guy Etchells]

I very rarely get sent an electricity bill these days.
Do they connect the Smart meter to your land line?

No it uses a Zigbee network which is similar to GPRS.

There are a number of different Smart Meters, we use British Gas meters which are compatible with Scottish power and of course Sainsbury's (which use British Gas as their supplier in much the same way as many independant internet companies use BT as their network supplier).

You can use smart meters with storage heaters but you must be careful with the storage heater settings to only use the input when on cheap rate (i.e. night time).

If used carefully smart meters can save money but such savings are really common sense (turning heating down by one degree, not boiling a full kettle for one cup of coffee, etc.)
In the future when different daytime rates become the norm, then running washing machines and dishwashers etc at low rate times will reduce power costs.
Cheers
Guy

[cath151]

At the moment they are not compulsory, we have refused to have a smart meter fitted and that is fine. We objected to being told that we were to have a meter fitted and an appointment made to fit it out of the blue. We wanted more information and time to consider the pros and cons.
We are both becoming more curmudgenly  in our old age!

Cathy