Gas & Electricity

[denislawsbackheel]

I am having a similar problem. I receive almost weekly emails from mine. I am reluctant to get one and have heard you actually have to pay for it. Anyone know if this is true?

No, you cannot be charged for fitting a smart meter.

 

[bluethrunthru]

From memory Coventry played in Green and Black stripes.

Oh yeah - I forgot they had that strip

 

[blue whippet]

To my understanding there should be no cost whatsoever to yourself. The energy companies are being incentivised by the government to get people to install them.
Personally I see no benefit from the point of view of the consumer having one fitted (maybe if you have an electric vehicle). In fact if you have the old style rotating disk meter, there’s a good chance it will be under reading as regards your electricity consumption.

Thanks for the reply. I must admit I don't see any benefit to myself of having one fitted either. I can input my meter readings on line, I can see how much energy I am using by looking at the meter under the stairs. I don't see any need for a smart meter.

 

[mancityvstoke]

I have smart meters I inherited......the display doesn't work and British Gas (South Africa call centre) says they can't do anything. The only thing they can do is keep increasing prices

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Thanks for the reply. I must admit I don't see any benefit to myself of having one fitted either. I can input my meter readings on line, I can see how much energy I am using by looking at the meter under the stairs. I don't see any need for a smart meter.

I’m not having one.

 

[BerkshireBlue]

I keep getting mithered by my current energy supplier to get a smart meter, but seem to recall reading a while ago that it can make it difficult to change supplier once installed. Is this still the case? Any other pros/cons in getting one?

You need them if you want to get cheaper smart tariffs.

see the below

Households set to be paid for not using washing machines in peak times | ITV News

Plans are afoot to reward consumers for easing the strain on the power grid, with rebates for minimising the use of goods like washing machines between 5-8pm. | ITV National News

www.itv.com

if this comes in the demand for smart meter installs will be through the roof

you also need it if you're planning solar/battery/ev/wind installations

plus they definitely save you money as you some is switched that shouldn't be very easily.

difficulties swapping suppliers is a thing of the past with the new generation of smart meters

 

[waspish]

I am having a similar problem. I receive almost weekly emails from mine. I am reluctant to get one and have heard you actually have to pay for it. Anyone know if this is true?

And more chance of getting a wrong bill and if it’s a lot higher it’s up to you to chase them prove it! These smart metres aren’t they run of can be assessed at the power company? Anything that is “smart” can be hacked or easily go wrong!

 

[denislawsbackheel]

You need them if you want to get cheaper smart tariffs.

see the below

Households set to be paid for not using washing machines in peak times | ITV News

Plans are afoot to reward consumers for easing the strain on the power grid, with rebates for minimising the use of goods like washing machines between 5-8pm. | ITV National News

www.itv.com

if this comes in the demand for smart meter installs will be through the roof

you also need it if you're planning solar/battery/ev/wind installations

plus they definitely save you money as you some is switched that shouldn't be very easily.

difficulties swapping suppliers is a thing of the past with the new generation of smart meters

How naive!
Firstly smart meters do not save a penny unless the consumer changes their behaviour and consumption, which they can do without a smart meter.
Secondly I’ll be pissing myself laughing when all you guys on smart meters find that the carrot to get cheaper electricity to run your washer at 2am is joined by much more expensive rates for consumption between 5 and 8 pm. Do you think they can distinguish between washers and kettles, ovens, lights? Can they fuck.
Fancy making your tea at 8.30 pm?

 

[west didsblue]

So first, apologies for such a long post. Its a bit of a brain dump which was quite cathartic.

I watched the Panorama on the energy crisis. Although I knew most of the facts already it still made blood boil.
So here we sit in a nation which:

• is the least reliant on Russian gas in Western Europe
• has the greatest % of our energy generated by cheaper renewals
• has 50% of its energy needs met by reserves of gas and oil in our sovereign waters
• the consumer pays more than anywhere else in W. Europe

Why should that be?

• we have sold our energy assets to the likes of Shell and BP
• they sell the gas they generate to suppliers like British Gas at wholesale prices which are dictated by the energy markets
• gas wholesale prices have been driven sky high by demand caused by Covid recovery and then Russia war on Ukraine (the cost of supply has not rocketed up btw).
• electricity prices are pegged to gas prices. Gas price rockets, so does Electricity.
• electricity generated by wind or wave is relatively cheap but prices are still pegged to the wholesale price of gas. Despite market prices delivering record profit for renewable energy generators (wind farms etc), many still enjoy significant subsidies paid by us through our bills
• all of this results in massive profits for the Energy generators (BP, Shell, EDF, renewable energy producers) and Suppliers (BG etc) whilst consumers are forced into fuel poverty (7m already cannot afford to pay their fuel bills. That figure will rise massively after the new price cap).
• OFGEM are supposed to protect consumers but are more interested in keeping energy suppliers afloat
• the government response so far has been wholly inadequate (including their so called windfall tax which isn't retrospective and includes investment incentives, the cost of which negates most of the benefit)
• we await further proposals from our new Prime Minister

What are other countries doing about the crisis?

• It would be wrong to present this as a UK problem. Its not. We just pay more than most. The EU is trying to put together an overall package to help consumers and individual European countries are addressing in different ways to meet their individual needs.
• France has frozen gas prices at October 2021 levels and capped electricity price increases at 4% until at least the end of the year, and handed out €100 to low- and middle-income households to help pay energy bills.
  The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has said any price increases next year would be similarly “contained”, with no catchup costs, while the government spokesperson Olivier Véran said France would “not allow what is happening in the UK to happen here”. The country has embarked on a “sobriety programme” aimed at cutting energy consumption by 10%, including setting temperatures in public buildings higher in summer and lower in winter. The private sector and households are expected to make similar efforts.
• Germany at the start of the war 55% of Natural Gas came from Russia. By this month, however, the figure had fallen to 9.5%. The Government has embarked on an ambitious programme to build floating LNG terminals and vowing to massively expand onshore windfarms. Some coal plants that were due to be shuttered have been reactivated. Several energy-saving measures have been enacted, including limiting temperatures in public buildings to 19C from September and turning off heating in common areas such as corridors, with the private sector encouraged to follow suit. Most heating and electricity bills are up by about 10% year on year, but the real shock will come in 2023: Berlin’s tenants’ association expects landlords to demand additional retrospective energy payments equivalent to two months’ rent.Facing “a tripling, at the very least,” of monthly consumer bills next year, the government is paying all people in regular employment a one-off rebate of €300 in September. Students and welfare recipients have already received double their usual lump-sum payment to assist with heating private homes.
• Norway, a huge natural gas producer it currently supplies approx 25% of UK gas from its largely state owned generator = massive windfall profits for the state. Almost 90% of its electricity is generated from hydroelectric dams. Despite that it has seen domestic power prices soar owing to low water levels in its reservoirs and unusually high electricity exports. The government is considering limiting exports and has capped electricity bills at 0.7 Norwegian krone (€0.07 or £0.061)* per kWh, with the state covering 80% (rising to 90% in October) above that. Further measures are under discussion.
• * UK Electricity cap is currently sitting around £0.28p approx 5 times more expensive.

well done if you got to the end :-)

It’s infuriating that as a country we are in a much better position than most to get through this with the lowest impact on the citizens of the country but we have a government that seems intent on mortgaging our future to allow the country’s largest companies to make obscene profits that will be shared mostly between the richest 0.1% of the population and large foreign investors.

 

[BerkshireBlue]

How naive!
Firstly smart meters do not save a penny unless the consumer changes their behaviour and consumption, which they can do without a smart meter.
Secondly I’ll be pissing myself laughing when all you guys on smart meters find that the carrot to get cheaper electricity to run your washer at 2am is joined by much more expensive rates for consumption between 5 and 7 pm. They can do that with a smart meter. They can’t with mine.

they've saved me 10% for starters. So explain that

 

[Kompany Car]

You need them if you want to get cheaper smart tariffs.

see the below

Households set to be paid for not using washing machines in peak times | ITV News

Plans are afoot to reward consumers for easing the strain on the power grid, with rebates for minimising the use of goods like washing machines between 5-8pm. | ITV National News

www.itv.com

if this comes in the demand for smart meter installs will be through the roof

you also need it if you're planning solar/battery/ev/wind installations

plus they definitely save you money as you some is switched that shouldn't be very easily.

difficulties swapping suppliers is a thing of the past with the new generation of smart meters

Don’t understand the bit in bold, but the problem with this is it’s always jam tomorrow. Get one installed and “we might in the future” have a lower tariff if you consume less energy. In reality it’s the exact opposite what they want, not to charge less but to charge more for using energy at peak times (ie surge pricing).

 

[BerkshireBlue]

Don’t understand the bit in bold, but the problem with this is it’s always jam tomorrow. Get one installed and “we might in the future” have a lower tariff if you consume less energy. In reality it’s the exact opposite what they want, not to charge less but to charge more for using energy at peak times (ie surge pricing).

yep sorry bad English on my part, I'm not even sure what I was writing there.
My experience so far is I almost instantaneously when something is switched on that shouldn't be. The best example I have is having 3 kids all with laptops and mobile phones I know when they switch the on and when they have them off so I can time how long they need to get to full power and then ask them to turn it off. I don't need to constantly ask them to do this anymore as I know when something is off. i've also worked out which of my appliances are costing me cash and figured different ways and settings to reduce them. My biggest winner was streaming through my PS4 i now go through a raspberry pi huge saving.

Add to this I'll be going solar/battery in the near future and a smart meter is a no brainer but like I said it's already saved me a ton of cash

 

[BerkshireBlue]

How naive!
Firstly smart meters do not save a penny unless the consumer changes their behaviour and consumption, which they can do without a smart meter.
Secondly I’ll be pissing myself laughing when all you guys on smart meters find that the carrot to get cheaper electricity to run your washer at 2am is joined by much more expensive rates for consumption between 5 and 8 pm. Do you think they can distinguish between washers and kettles, ovens, lights? Can they fuck.
Fancy making your tea at 8.30 pm?

Not sure if you've read the article but they pay you money back but you pay the same rate as everyone else

 

[Kompany Car]

yep sorry bad English on my part, I'm not even sure what I was writing there.
My experience so far is I almost instantaneously when something is switched on that shouldn't be. The best example I have is having 3 kids all with laptops and mobile phones I know when they switch the on and when they have them off so I can time how long they need to get to full power and then ask them to turn it off. I don't need to constantly ask them to do this anymore as I know when something is off. i've also worked out which of my appliances are costing me cash and figured different ways and settings to reduce them. My biggest winner was streaming through my PS4 i now go through a raspberry pi huge saving.

Add to this I'll be going solar/battery in the near future and a smart meter is a no brainer but like I said it's already saved me a ton of cash

So what you are saying is you can monitor your energy consumption more easily and that has made you change your behaviours.
Which is a fair point, but you can have exactly the same effect using an energy monitor which British Gas used to give away for free that just clipped around the live incoming feed into your meter.
If it’s working for you then good stuff, but I can’t say I will be in a rush to have one fitted.
I’ve looked at Solar and come to the conclusion, that if I get it fitted, I’m not intending to back generate onto the grid but instead will get a battery system installed and/or a thermal store. That said I’m still not convinced it economically makes sense until the more efficient solar panels come to the market and the price of the current technology falls a bit.
You’re right by the way regarding games consoles, the instant on feature of the XBox Series X consumes 13w as opposed to 0.5w when set to the normal standby mode.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

So what you are saying is you can monitor your energy consumption more easily and that has made you change your behaviours.

Very appropriate coming from @Kompany Car

 

[Saddleworth2]

It’s infuriating that as a country we are in a much better position than most to get through this with the lowest impact on the citizens of the country but we have a government that seems intent on mortgaging our future to allow the country’s largest companies to make obscene profits that will be shared mostly between the richest 0.1% of the population and large foreign investors.

yes. It does not seem unreasonable to me for any government to claw some of what is a windfall profit through a windfall tax.
This whole set of circumstances should also provide an opportunity for any forward thinking government to plan our energy strategy for the next 20 years or so. Yeah, right.

 

[RobMCFC]

So what you are saying is you can monitor your energy consumption more easily and that has made you change your behaviours.
Which is a fair point, but you can have exactly the same effect using an energy monitor which British Gas used to give away for free that just clipped around the live incoming feed into your meter.
If it’s working for you then good stuff, but I can’t say I will be in a rush to have one fitted.
I’ve looked at Solar and come to the conclusion, that if I get it fitted, I’m not intending to back generate onto the grid but instead will get a battery system installed and/or a thermal store. That said I’m still not convinced it economically makes sense until the more efficient solar panels come to the market and the price of the current technology falls a bit.

Our meters are on the outside of the house.

It's a shame that the hand-held monitor that was provided with the smart meter no longer works now I've changed supplier, but being able to monitor energy use via the EDF website is going to be very useful for us this winter.

The spreadsheet is already loaded with Sept 21-Aug 22 usage figures and we're determined to reduce by 10-20% this winter.

Having a smart meter doesn't save money directly, but it's a useful tool to help you modify your energy usage and save money.

 

[remember arthur mann]

any forward thinking government to plan our energy strategy for the next 20 years or so. Yeah, right.

They have, they've planned to rip you off.

 

[bobmcfc]

OVO have pit my DD up to £500 a month I am £700 in credit plus £400 to come from gov has me paying 7k pa my usage says 3.5k based on Oct figures but they standing firm on not reducing

Put it back down to what you can afford, cheeky feckers

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

Davey Jones (Viz Comic cartoonist) on Twitter:

"Instead of wasting money on expensive gas or electric grills, simply staple your sausages to a wooden slab suspended by a pair of chain hoists, and instruct your hunchback to winch it up through your castle roof at the first sign of a storm."