Smart Meters - Pros and Cons

[Hard Graft]

Currently do not have a Smart Meter, have heard various stories about them. Can P&B fill in the pros and cons on whether to have one installed or not?

[19QOS19]

Currently do not have a Smart Meter, have heard various stories about them. Can P&B fill in the pros and cons on whether to have one installed or not?

Can't comment on how good they are but FWIW, Scottish Power recommended I book an appointment to get one installed (this was early last month) and the first available slot was the middle of January [emoji38] So it might be worth booking an appointment ASAP either way and then choosing whether to cancel or not.

[bennett]

Got one that sits in a corner and that's about it.

Checked it a few times when I first got it .

[jagfox]

It has let me know my bills have jumped up due to recent price hikes...

[taurus]

I was to get one installed 3 weeks ago and they didn't turn up , on teh phone to them and their excuse was they've ran out of meters?

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, Hard Graft said:

Currently do not have a Smart Meter, have heard various stories about them. Can P&B fill in the pros and cons on whether to have one installed or not?

Keep an eye on it. Mine stopped sending statistics back to base and I didn't know until I was changing to a different provider. My direct debit had been slightly under what was being used, which isn't a major problem until eighteen months have passed and you're suddenly faced with an £800 exit bill  

[Richey Edwards]

Pros - It lets you see how much money you're burning through to avoid freezing to death. 

Cons - It lets you see how much money you're burning through to avoid freezing to death. 

[Jimmy Shaker]

Whoever I had before OVO started emptying my pockets were desperate for me to take one, but couldn't tell me why. 'It'll save you money by telling you what costs the most so you can switch it off' chirruped some call centre woman. 'Everything that can be turned off when not needed is already off because of how much I'm already being charged' evidently wasn't on her script and she returned to the start of her sales pitch.

I know the fridge and freezer are relatively expensive but I can't switch them off, likewise the broadband router and Sky box as they're needed almost as much. So how will a meter tell me to save money? I know how to save money - use less electric. 

[Derry Alli]

15 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

Pros - It lets you see how much money you're burning through to avoid freezing to death. 

Cons - It lets you see how much money you're burning through to avoid freezing to death. 

Hook Bovvy's wheel up to the national grid.

[Gnash]

What do they actually do though? 

They send meter readings automatically - but can you track usage on a regular basis?  

I assume they give you your point-in-time usage, but how helpful is that when you have several appliances running simultaneously?

And even if you turned everything off except (say) your dishwasher, can it tell you exactly how much electricity you used in a cycle?

[thisal]

20 minutes ago, taurus said:

I was to get one installed 3 weeks ago and they didn't turn up , on teh phone to them and their excuse was they've ran out of meters?

When Scottish Power didn't turn up for my installation I looked up their website and found I was entitled to £30 compensation. If this wasn't paid within a certain time it doubled. So I waited till that was up and complained and received £60. This was a few years ago. so it might have  changed or not apply to different suppliers, but definitely worth looking into.

[thisal]

2 minutes ago, Gnash said:

What do they actually do though? 

They send meter readings automatically - but can you track usage on a regular basis?  

I assume they give you your point-in-time usage, but how helpful is that when you have several appliances running simultaneously?

And even if you turned everything off except (say) your dishwasher, can it tell you exactly how much electricity you used in a cycle?

You have a device that tells you how much in units and cost you're using. Several settings that allow current use daily, weekly or monthly. For the first few years it sat doing nothing other than meaning I didn't have to take quarterly meter readings. But as has been pointed out it shows you quite how scarily the cost of gas and electricity has risen.

[BFTD]

Cycling through figures on the wee displays on my smart meters would be an absolute pain in the hole. Might just be mine, but they don't seem to make them terribly user-friendly by modern standards.

Apart from initially trying to work out the biggest consumers in your house, surely you'd be better examining the figures on your provider's website for weekly/monthly/yearly usage. Some of them give you wee charts and all sorts.

[UsedToGoToCentralPark]

At some point in the not to distant future electric prices will vary during the day, those on smart meters will be able to shift their usage to off peak time and save money, potentially getting paid to use energy when their is a surplus.

People without a smart meter won't be able to do that.

I like having a smart meter, I can see how much I've used in 30 minute intervals on the shell energy website and try and reduce usage.

[Smurph]

53 minutes ago, UsedToGoToCentralPark said:

At some point in the not to distant future electric prices will vary during the day, those on smart meters will be able to shift their usage to off peak time and save money, potentially getting paid to use energy when their is a surplus.

That’s what ours is like just now. It’s an economy ten meter or some shit. The cheap times are slightly inconvenient (and doesn’t take into account daylight savings - not that fucking smart) but we make it work.

I like the idea of a smart meter and it’s a good tool. I don’t think we really need it though, and looking at how much a shower has cost or a blast of the heating can be quite depressing.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Smurph

[red23]

Pros - good if your lazy, useful to be able to keep an eye on what you're using

Cons - nothing is for free and there's a reason they are desperate to roll them out. It's effectively putting in place a mechanism and allowing a clearer picture to measure peak usage times to allow for additional charging.  

[TxRover]

I can’t directly address the UK results and issues with smart meters, but I do know the following:

Pro: More accurate than older meters, but this often also a Con…

Con: More accurate than your old meter, and older meters, when inaccurate, have tended to read slightly lower usage.

Pro: Can transmit readings remotely to both your provider and any monitoring device you have.

Pro and/or Con: Can provide readings that would permit time adjustable tariffs. Time adjustable tariffs can be useful if the off peak savings can be used because you have devices able to be scheduled (i.e. a major appliance that can be set to automatically run during the night, taking advantage of the lower tariffs). If you don’t have any items that can use this method, it might cost to get some.

Pro: Allows understanding of how any changes in behavior or usage will impact expense.

Pro: Allows direct feedback on any changes, such as insulation, etc, and their impact on usage.

Theoretical Con: Some people are concerned about the radio frequency transmissions from these smart meters.

Theoretical Con: The detailed nature of the metadata collected by the smart meter is, to a certain extent, spying upon you.

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

It would put me on a downer to see how much shit was costing everytime I walked past it.

Same as the heart rate monitor that lots of devices have. I don't want to hear my heart ticking down. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

2 hours ago, UsedToGoToCentralPark said:

I like having a smart meter, I can see how much I've used in 30 minute intervals on the shell energy website and try and reduce usage.

You know how to live!

[Shadow Play]

I couldn’t work out why they would spend huge sums of (our) money installing them when effectively all they tell you is how much electricity you are using, inducing power the smart meter of course.

Now that they are talking about power cuts and therefore incentivising people to use less electricity at peak times I can see why they would wish them installed.

Smart meters have been getting fitted for a number of years.  There was an article on Newsnight over a decade ago about how the UK would struggle to provide enough every come the mid 21st century.  I wonder…..