Smart meters - what is the purpose?

[zandvoort blue]

Took half a day off work a couple of years ago so that they could fit fuel smart meter. After they fiited it they told me it didn`t work as the house is in a blind spot. Had to change my half day off to a wasted full day off as he put the old meters back.
Since then I get endless letters, texts and emails asking me to get my meter changed. I`ve given up responding to them about what happened last time. Now I just ignore them.

Tip - if you want to save money keep moving supplier. Check the comparison website, but then check to see if you can get an offer via Quidco.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I’ve not even booked an appointment and they keep sending me emails and texts to confirm my appointment booking time and date

 

[chesterbells]

Waste of space. I don’t want to be obsessing looking at my energy use every 5 mins scrimping on this or that. I already do a decent job of not unnecessarily wasting energy and I don’t need this to help me “do better” thanks. As others have said, the meters themselves are unreliable too.
I do resent the attempts to make them compulsory, don’t know if that comes across at all.

 

[Plays By Sense Of Smell]

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

And if they had any sense some of them would they’d gain a huge competitive advantage by coming clean at least about the potential savings (no numbers required) they were generating that would help to manage future costs for us. Even if it was the line about reinvesting into the network to improve service etc.
Unless it’s a cartel...
Or worse, unless they are trying desperately to hide a whopping great hole in their accounts/pension fund that’s due scrutiny would shine a light onto...?

 

[city saint]

booked a day off they turned up and said only second gen meters will work on mine.total waste of a day

 

[Gelsons Dad]

And if they had any sense some of them would they’d gain a huge competitive advantage by coming clean at least about the potential savings (no numbers required) they were generating that would help to manage future costs for us. Even if it was the line about reinvesting into the network to improve service etc.
Unless it’s a cartel...
Or worse, unless they are trying desperately to hide a whopping great hole in their accounts/pension fund that’s due scrutiny would shine a light onto...?

The oil powered power stations run on demand already. User patterns are not relevant as wind is variable. Nuke cannot instantly increase or decrease but oil can.

The fitter is repeating what he has been told but it is not correct.

look here for real time data on where your power is coming from. (best not if you believe renewables are the future)
http://gridwatch.co.uk

 

[Mr Partridge]

We had one fitted and in the first full month our bill went up by 20 quid.

So that's why they have them.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Yeah!

They are absolutely relentless with it Ric, even with threats of complaining to various watchdogs and the Ombudsman, they still continue, disgraceful.

 

[squirtyflower]

I had a water meter fitted and the leak dial was spinning like a spitfire prop. Turns out that there was an old lead pipe under my floor that was leaking that had been T'd off at the threshold instead of capped. Crafty sod I bought the place off had put new laminate down prior to sale which was starting to warp and I had no idea why. I decided to have the meter fitted after the last kid moved out and I save about £160 a year. Neither I nor my good lady look or smell like a Junkys bog as a result of said meter or water cutbacks. Having the G&E meter fitted this week as my son, who makes a living with pipes, wrenches and other crap says the new generation ones are ok to have fitted now.

Yes I was surprised when people were moaning about water meters.
We were paying £81pcm for water but all of our kids have left now. When we had the water meter fitted it went down to £22pc.
Although our neighbours are paying a fortune, it seems there’s a leak on the system yet after digging the road up several times the leak can’t be found. Now we have a leak in the road next to the house which becomes a superb ice rink when it’s cold.

 

[blueinsa]

Smart meters allow companies to accurately bill you without having to pay for a meter reading its that simple.

Win/Win for the company and you are conned into thinking its smart and saving you money.

Like fuck it is lol.