My energy supplier is pestering me to get one of these new-fangled smart meters fitted, but I’m a bit wary of doing so as I believe they are still fairly new and likely to become more efficient after several months of use (by other customers) has ironed out bugs etc. I don’t want to end up with an ‘old’ one when the new updated ones come in (as they surely will). Has anyone had any experiences with these meters, good or bad? Am not really sure whether to ignore them for the time being.
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ATM: Anyone got one of these smart energy meters fitted?
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I had smart meters fitted about three months ago. Haven’t experienced any problems, the only real difference is you get a little plug-in display that gives you a real-time view of your energy usage and via which your supplier can send you messages about stuff like tariff changes.
When you sign up you get the option of when the meter is allowed to upload data, hourly, daily, etc. It’s best not to select the hourly option as were the data to fall into the wrong hands it’s theoretically possible for someone to work out the times when you’re not at home.
Until this year there were no common standards for smart meters so having one would have given you problems switching supplier. From 2016 on they all work in the same way so installs are expected to ramp up with the intention of all homes having them by 2020.
https://www.smartenergygb.org/en has more information.
I`m having one fitted next week. I couldn`t care less whether my energy supplier fitted one or not.
What`s smart about them, will they turn my oven off because it uses a lot of energy? I hope not, but the answer as we all know is no. I think we all know what appliances use most power so the user (us) gains no benefit from them. As long as they are accurate I couldn`t give a flying feck.
I was contacted by British Gas a while back & asked if I was interested, but couldn’t see any immediate benefits.
I don’t need to know my running costs to that detail & it’s easy enough to read the meter myself and send the results in to their website.
Of course it lowers the cost for the supplier & they can monitor your supply constantly, but the downside horror stories I’ve read say that if there is a fault, then your energy immediately cuts out – This can be when the rechargeable battery used fails – which will inevitably be in the winter, during the Christmas break.
It’s reliant on wifi to keep in contact, which if you’re in a dead zone or have frequent drop outs, might also cause problems.
I’d wait – but let’s see how AndyrBird gets on with it!