should i have a smart meter fitted?

I'm now thinking about getting one once I haved moved in August, I dont need it to help me save electricity but thought it might be a good idea just for the accurate readings so I don't have to keep doing it, I prefer to pay for what I use not a estimate.
 
With bulb they ask you to submit monthly so you pay for what you use.
 
For years I've read my own meters and submitted therm on line at the end of the month. The website of the energy supplier keeps a record of them by the month as well as the monthly bills. I pay monthly by direct debit. This is based on my usage. I'm usually a couple of hundred pounds in credit by the end of the summer, that gets absorbed during the winter months.
It's pretty painless, I can't see any advantage with a "smart" meter, though if every home had them, the energy suppliers could start charging more for peak period consumption. i.e. mornings and evenings. They can't do that with a normal meter other than with the day/night meters that have been around for decades.
"I'm really good at managing my energy consumption. I turn stuff off when it's not in use." I don't need a smart meter to help me with that. I'm not that worried about the cost of energy.





I really don't give energy consumption much thought other than when it's time to sign up for a new contract.
 
Have got a smart meter fitted by a previous energy supplier. It just tells me how much I have used, nothing else. Have to submit my readings myself.

Have given up trying to get a newer smart reader but need an engineer to do it. Every time I have tried to arrange for one, the slots available didn't fit for my work or things I was doing. Then CV came and given up the idea.
 
I think it's useful for young people who isn't good with money. I'm just lazy if it sends in meter readings then it's less for me to do.
 
Have got a smart meter fitted by a previous energy supplier. It just tells me how much I have used, nothing else. Have to submit my readings myself.

Have given up trying to get a newer smart reader but need an engineer to do it. Every time I have tried to arrange for one, the slots available didn't fit for my work or things I was doing. Then CV came and given up the idea.

I thought that was the whole point it sends the readings in so no need to do it.
 
I thought that was the whole point it sends the readings in so no need to do it.
It is. Sounds like a dumb digital meter. “Smart” is for ones connected to the send data remotely usually :)

Edit - ah it was a smart one and a change of provider killed it :)
 
I think it's useful for young people who isn't good with money. I'm just lazy if it sends in meter readings then it's less for me to do.
I get that it seems to save you a few minutes a month but I would be careful thinking it saves you money or helps you deal with money better - it doesn’t and won’t in that order.

you use electricity, a meter records it and you get charged for each unit used and recorded. How you get there (self-reads, remote reads or a person wandering in once per year) makes no difference to the end game. You need to pay for what you use and is recorded on the meter.

to deal better with money I would actually go and read the meter more often. Work out your usage patterns and see if you can reduce usage without reducing comfort and convenience. Either save an amount monthly or go even pay (and with that read meter even more to have data through the year and avoid leaving lots of money with provider). Here once you have their account details and have a direct debit in place, you can set up a payment on each payday (fortnightly here) and watch the account credit increase. My bill is quarterly so if I make sure there is enough covered the amount DD is zero - or very small. I control the payment amounts unlike even pay type schemes.

I have a dumb digital meter and don’t want smart since it doesn’t help me at all. Some still charge more per day for a smart meter - you know the ones that were going to save us money as they don’t need to be read by a meter reader.......

And yes I keep a spreadsheet or two for electricity consumption and solar production and exports. Fill them in from my readings at least once a week from the meter and once a month for my solar (it gives me a report once a month I can copy and paste into Excel :) )That’s where I learn about how I am spending money and if I can be bothered to do it better :)
 
I've just received a text from pure planet about having a smets2 installed. I love the way they just assume I'll go ahead. I hardly ever send meter reading and don't really care if my bills are accurate. At work I ended up nearly £500 in credit. Likewise if I was in debit I would happily pay up. I have a friend who paid £10pm for 5 years. On moving he wondered why he owed a fortune and was trying to avoid paying. That's the kind of person who needs a smart meter.
 
On moving he wondered why he owed a fortune and was trying to avoid paying. That's the kind of person who needs a smart meter.
Indeed - that is the type costing everybody money so by all means do something with them. Prepay meters were great for those like that but I suppose the modern thinking is those aren’t fair and equitable. I’m fairly laid back about to draw the line personally but it does get grey when you listen to the stories...... I suspect the majority are genuinely struggling to pay but that wa sweat payment plans were and are for really.

again though somebody (well many) like that won’t change behaviour with a smart meter. It still won’t reduce costs for everybody - prepay and a payment plan does more to focus people on managing usage than smart meters ever will.

IMHO
 
I get that it seems to save you a few minutes a month but I would be careful thinking it saves you money or helps you deal with money better - it doesn’t and won’t in that order.

you use electricity, a meter records it and you get charged for each unit used and recorded. How you get there (self-reads, remote reads or a person wandering in once per year) makes no difference to the end game. You need to pay for what you use and is recorded on the meter.

to deal better with money I would actually go and read the meter more often. Work out your usage patterns and see if you can reduce usage without reducing comfort and convenience. Either save an amount monthly or go even pay (and with that read meter even more to have data through the year and avoid leaving lots of money with provider). Here once you have their account details and have a direct debit in place, you can set up a payment on each payday (fortnightly here) and watch the account credit increase. My bill is quarterly so if I make sure there is enough covered the amount DD is zero - or very small. I control the payment amounts unlike even pay type schemes.

I have a dumb digital meter and don’t want smart since it doesn’t help me at all. Some still charge more per day for a smart meter - you know the ones that were going to save us money as they don’t need to be read by a meter reader.......

And yes I keep a spreadsheet or two for electricity consumption and solar production and exports. Fill them in from my readings at least once a week from the meter and once a month for my solar (it gives me a report once a month I can copy and paste into Excel :) )That’s where I learn about how I am spending money and if I can be bothered to do it better :)

I agree and disagree lol

What I mean, when my daughter gets a place of her own it will help her understand what uses more electric etc which will help her to know what things she needs to do to reduce her bill and way of living , Now I have split up with my ex I doubt very much my ex will be teaching her things like I was, my ex use to say if I wasn't with her she wouldn't bother with all the messing around with readings or adjusting thermostat in the winter.

Now what it doesn't work for is someone like a mate of the ex, she knows what she has to do to save money but not necessarily knowing what uses more electric, she has a smart meter apparently to help her but leaves tvs on lights on, doors open in the winter, she is no good with money and has been in debt and had a house taken away. those kind of people will never learn. She has a netflix account but never uses it and doesn't bother to cancel it, so there is no helping her.
 
I take my own readings. The readings are read by a firm who do it for all energy suppliers. I guess they are paid by the number of readings they take.
I've refused to let any of them trapse over our cream carpets to read the meter. They may turn up at your door and insist they have to read them, but I always turn them away, so they've not bothered me for years.
 
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What I mean, when my daughter gets a place of her own it will help her understand what uses more electric etc
Smart meters don’t necessarily help with that ver well. The consumption reporting is only one overall consumption - but it does allow you to see peaks and work out what is what. You can add that very cheaply without the main meter being changed.


Many can learn the big consumers.

Or go all out and get a multiple channel monitor - more money of course


there are others like iotawatt too. These have current transformers that clip on a circuit so consumption is shown per circuit.

the cheap ones will be good enough for your daughter to learn about consumption I’m sure. The others are a bit hard core geeky ;)
 
In the UK they are fitted by or on behalf of the energy supplier.
 
I don’t know anyone who has reduced their bills since getting smart meters. Just shows how much they are using
 
I don’t know anyone who has reduced their bills since getting smart meters. Just shows how much they are using


From the energy suppliers' point of view, (I read somewhere they buy a quantity of energy for say £1 and sell it to you for between £6 and £7). If we're all on smart meters that can be read on-line, they wouldn't have to employ meter readers for those who don't read their own and make even bigger profits.
That's quite "smart."

Same with stores and self service checkouts. This means they can employ even fewer checkout operators. In some smaller stores, they have got rid of all checkout operators. The customer does their work. They only need one person around to monitor the situation. They call it a "facility," that's also "smart."
 
After getting lots of harassment to have smart meters fitted we've finally had them installed about 2 months ago.

The energy monitor is useless. Charged it up and the battery doesn't last long at all so that was threw in the bin - wife did get it back out saying the supplier might want it back because the gas meter isn't showing on the monitor.

Had an email from my provider saying they need meter readings because they can't access the meter/s. The meters are about 3 foot apart albeit one is inside the house and the other is outside.

To top it off the company who fitted the meter rang the other day to see if I wanted to book an appointment to have the meters installed! When I said you've already fitted them he said oh and asked if everything was ok with them and I told him they were crap.
 
I've been badgered for years by phone/email/post to have a smart meter fitted for both gas and electric.

They say it's to my advantage, but I see absolutely no benefit as I already have a usage monitor and like to keep an eye on the monthly readings for my own information.

I also don't like them insisting on inspecting all my appliances, with the threat of dis-connecting them if they decide they are not up to standard.

I'm perfectly capable of deciding what's safe for my family, thank you!
 
We keep getting letters badgering us to have a smart meter fitted. Holding out as long as possible as we don't want to lose our daytime cheap period (3 hrs) for electricity. It will change to 7 hrs night time only with a smart meter.
 
It will get to the point where you won’t have an option though I would have thought 🤷🏼‍♂️
I fixed in March this year for another two years and yes, they did put pressure on me to sign up for a smart meter.

Fortunately, I live in a third floor flat where the electric meter is inside my home, but the gas meter is located outside the building in a cubbyhole in the car park on the ground floor.

The current wireless tech they use to get the meters to communicate with each other isn't strong enough (so I was told) to accommodate that distance, but alas, the rollout of 5G means it should work in the future.

And yes, the woman I spoke to suggested it would become mandatory i.e. no matter what tariff you sign up to or who you're with, you'll have to accept a smart meter as part of the deal.:(
 
We keep getting letters badgering us to have a smart meter fitted. Holding out as long as possible as we don't want to lose our daytime cheap period (3 hrs) for electricity. It will change to 7 hrs night time only with a smart meter.
Without a smart meter, how do you get cheap electricity at any point? Dumb meters don’t record energy usage against time of day.
 

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