Smart meters - what is the purpose?

I've got one and, as usual with anything new, its an excuse for people moan.

They fitted it, it sends usage info automatically. What's the problem with that.

I can check my usage by the hour. Do I look at it, no not really.
 
I've got one and, as usual with anything new, its an excuse for people moan.

They fitted it, it sends usage info automatically. What's the problem with that.

I can check my usage by the hour. Do I look at it, no not really.
Eon fitted mine the hour by hour usage reader broke down after a week and I still get estimated bills, so worth a moan if something new's a bit shite.
 
I fit them for a living so I might be a little qualified to answer this
Basically the main reason is to run the grid more efficiently
The grid at the moment are guessing at what capacity to run a power station (like when years ago between 3.45 and 4pm on cup final day they knew there would be a surge in electricity demand)
The new smart meters send back your usage habits like average use,peak use, and start and finish times
In 3 years time when they have 80-90% of the country's meters smart they can start analysing the data and hopefully run the power stations more efficiently
For example if we say Manchester has it's electricity supplied by 1 power station and on 2 o'clock a Monday morning it runs at say 20% capacity by the generators guessing the demand, in 20 years time the data supplied by the smart meters might say that at that time on a Monday morning Manchester has never needed the power station to run at 20% capacity but only 10%, the generators can then run the power station at half the rate they were doing. This means a reduction in production costs (hopefully passed on to us the end user) and less carbon emissions as a country
 
Half of bluemoon is smoking stuff I reckon. KODI thread (they are watching us maaaan, get a VPN), windows 10 launch (hide you information from the man duuuuude), bloody smart meters now (they want our usage information and will use it against us). haha
 
I fit them for a living so I might be a little qualified to answer this
Basically the main reason is to run the grid more efficiently
The grid at the moment are guessing at what capacity to run a power station (like when years ago between 3.45 and 4pm on cup final day they knew there would be a surge in electricity demand)
The new smart meters send back your usage habits like average use,peak use, and start and finish times
In 3 years time when they have 80-90% of the country's meters smart they can start analysing the data and hopefully run the power stations more efficiently
For example if we say Manchester has it's electricity supplied by 1 power station and on 2 o'clock a Monday morning it runs at say 20% capacity by the generators guessing the demand, in 20 years time the data supplied by the smart meters might say that at that time on a Monday morning Manchester has never needed the power station to run at 20% capacity but only 10%, the generators can then run the power station at half the rate they were doing. This means a reduction in production costs (hopefully passed on to us the end user) and less carbon emissions as a country
Savings passed onto the end user? Riiiight...

So you are saying that the meters send in data and it's acted on instantaneously?

"Dave, not much power being used in Middleton, turn a few generators off."

"Righto."

Utter rubbish.
 
Half of bluemoon is smoking stuff I reckon. KODI thread (they are watching us maaaan, get a VPN), windows 10 launch (hide you information from the man duuuuude), bloody smart meters now (they want our usage information and will use it against us). haha

I interviewed for a job at British Gas that was literally doing that. They won't use it against you as such, rather find any way they can to monetise it.
 
We're talking about smart meters here, I'm aware some people get confused with Nest and Hive which are smart thermostats.

The Gas and Electric companies need to know how much you're using, if you don't go to the box and ring up or go online they will estimate the reading, they also have to periodically check to make sure you're not making it up. Smart meters are attached to this box and give an SMS reading to the Gas and Electricity companies to prevent the faf, the meter still runs as normal. As toolah said the energy companies will know how much to buy from the grid as it is hard and expensive to store.

Smart Thermostats you buy yourself, such as Nest and Hive, although some companies discount them, they connect to the internet and don't turn the heating on when it knows it's a warm day or when your out to save you money.
 
We're talking about smart meters here, I'm aware some people get confused with Nest and Hive which are smart thermostats.

The Gas and Electric companies need to know how much you're using, if you don't go to the box and ring up or go online they will estimate the reading, they also have to periodically check to make sure you're not making it up. Smart meters are attached to this box and give an SMS reading to the Gas and Electricity companies to prevent the faf, the meter still runs as normal. As toolah said the energy companies will know how much to buy from the grid as it is hard and expensive to store.

Smart Thermostats you buy yourself, such as Nest and Hive, although some companies discount them, they connect to the internet and don't turn the heating on when it knows it's a warm day or when your out to save you money.

so as I said at the outset its mainly for their benefit but we end up paying for it to be rolled out?

As for Hive and the rest.... I know when its a warm day and I don't turn the heating on. I can watch the weather forecast to see what the weather is going to be like - I know when I am expecting to be home and using a thing called a timer - came with the system and doesn't have to be retrofitted at great cost nor does it go down if the internet link goes down - I can set said timer so I come home to a house thats getting warm.

All this stuff is mainly shit for those obsessed with working stuff from their phone or tablet and is unnecessary if you do things like read the instructions and remember there are off switches.
 

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