Smart Meters

[NeilM]

I had smart meters installed free of charge, on my gas and electric supplied a couple of years ago. Once the novelty of watching my daily consumption wore off (about three days), I settled back to checking my bills every quarter or so and since 2015 all has been well.

While I was away for a few days recently, my wife got a phone call from British Gas saying there was a problem with one of the meters and we needed an engineer to call, they promised to ring back and she promptly forgot about the call. A couple of days ago she remembered to tell me about the call and I went on line to check the meter readings at which point I found that BG have been estimating my bill since the beginning of the year. I contacted them and have had a reply back saying BOTH the meters are faulty and need to be replaced, they also asked me to take a meter reading, which was when I discovered the gas meter has nothing on the display and the electricity meter says ERROR.

So, two thoughts; how are BG going to get an accurate reading of my energy use for the last 9 months if both meters are dead? And how crap are these meters that die after two years use? The old mechanical meters were 30 years old and still going strong.

 

[mdvineng]

Firstly they estimate it from old usage records and they will also check up on the usage within the street supply. The first wave of these meters are utter crap, the second may be better but don't hold your breath. The only reason they want you to have one is to get rid of meter readers in large numbers, any benefits to the user are purely coincidental. Google "smart meter faults" and see what other pains they cause. Remember there is no enforcement to have one if you don't want one.

 

[NeilM]

Re:

I don't mind having the meters, I was quite happy to be an early adopter, it's the bills that concern me, as I have installed a new boiler and new roof insulation in the last two years, as well as LED lamps in many of the light fittings so I was rather hoping to make some energy savings, however modest, not pay the same as I was before I improved things.

Off to google with a sense of trepidation.

 

[mattr]

We've had them for 10+ years.
On our second.
First one was in when we bought the place, the meter reader had to get out of his van and wave a doohickey around near the meter.
They replaced that with one that is permanently connected. So the meter reader has a new job. (No, he really does, he's a member of my old cycling club.)
Didn't even know they'd fitted a new meter until i had to go inside the box to check something. It'd been there 3 years.

 

[legrandefromage]

Did you try switching them on and off again?

The 'smart' meter roll out is another big balls up as you have a meter installed by one company but it cant be read by another company if you switch.

Plus the roll out has lead to some howlers by badly trained engineers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... tallations

 

[NeilM]

Re:

I'm originally an electronics engineer by training / profession, but I can't see any way of turning either of them on or off. There certainly are a few buttons on the meters, but I don't fancy prodding them at random in the hope of getting a response.

My thought is, as I can seen no electrical feed to the gas meter, that they are battery powered and the batteries have failed.

I thought that energy providers HAD to take a meter reading at least once a year.

 

[ajm]

Re:

My thought is, as I can seen no electrical feed to the gas meter, that they are battery powered and the batteries have failed.

Come on, it's obvious... it's gas fired!

 

[NeilM]

Re:

Perhaps the pilot light has blown out.

 

[legrandefromage]

New candle?

 

[mk one]

The 'smart' meter roll out is another big balls up as you have a meter installed by one company but it cant be read by another company if you switch.

Thats interesting, so in a few years when everyone has one you will need to pay to have a new meter if you switch, and llkely pay every couple of years when they run out or get upgraded.

And no you dont legally need to have one but the suppliers are getting round it by upgrading their systems so if you want to have a certain supplier and that is the only option they offer you have to accept.