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House Price Crash Forum

Smart Meters


Frank Hovis

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HOLA441

Aha! You're following the example of the Carlton Club. Each toilet stall (in the ladies at least) has a cctv camera. Certainly inhibited my ability to pee. I believe they were installed after the bombing in 1990.

Conservatives like to look at lady parts, except the ones who like to look at man parts. :blink:

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HOLA442

The "benefit" of "smart meters" is wholly in the interests of the supplier, not the cinsumer. You can but £30 tat rom Maplin that tells you all you need to know :unsure:

+1 it's so they can turn you off without a call out operative not much more to it than that hence their enthusiasm for the technology

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HOLA443

Um ... can you have solar panels without a smart meter? What measures your production?

A separate meter for which I give readings quarterly; plus I have a gadget called a Wattson wired in which shows me how much I'm generating (numerical, kW) vs how much I'm using at any point (colour). When it glows green as below I'm generating more than I'm using. When I boil the kettle in the morning before the sun's up it glows red. There are intermediate shades. Very neat gadget.

Wattson-Solar-Plus-nh.png

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HOLA444

Frank. That's a nice gadget. I don't want anything in my house smarter than me, and that includes a wife. :blink:

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HOLA445
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HOLA446
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HOLA447

The "benefit" of "smart meters" is wholly in the interests of the supplier, not the cinsumer. You can but £30 tat rom Maplin that tells you all you need to know :unsure:

I am in the mind of if it works why fix it.....the speed the wheel goes round tells me how much I am using.....this is more to benefit and to control remotely for the energy companies and I suspect the costs will be rolled into bills over time......will create many meter making and fitting jobs so there are benefits to be had for some......to be given the choice would be the best way, see how it works from others feedback, sit back and decide later, doubt they will allow people that democratic choice.;)

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HOLA448

+1 it's so they can turn you off without a call out operative not much more to it than that hence their enthusiasm for the technology

This is why I won't have one. Reserve capacity is getting low apparently, although the drop in oil prices has probably helped this, however I suspect Joe Bloggs will face rolling blackouts before before the captains of industry.

My tfh has 'HPC' stamped on it!

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HOLA449
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HOLA4410

A separate meter for which I give readings quarterly; plus I have a gadget called a Wattson wired in which shows me how much I'm generating (numerical, kW) vs how much I'm using at any point (colour). When it glows green as below I'm generating more than I'm using. When I boil the kettle in the morning before the sun's up it glows red. There are intermediate shades. Very neat gadget.

Wattson-Solar-Plus-nh.png

Oh, so you're the bloke who makes the sun glow red when it rises.

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HOLA4411
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HOLA4412

Heard an advert from British Gas offering 'free' electricity to SMART meter users during Saturday! (Marketing push.)

Nothing is free of course, but an example of price differentiating that will come with these gadgets. Will start off nicely then once critical mass reached then the true colours will be seen. Profit will win out.

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HOLA4413
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HOLA4414

I was told (by someone involved in the design and manufacturing of Smart Meters some years back) that there is an EU Directive mandating all utilities go smart meter by a certain date/time - is that right?

Per Chumpus Rex's comprehensive answer earlier the targets are with the energy companies. This is similar to when they were having to do carbon offset, such as paying for big programmes of External Wall Installation for social homes, about six years ago.

They will have financial penalties if they fail to meet their targets but the target won't be 100%, did somebody mention 80% by 2020 earlier? Initially it will be a mixture of simple encouragement and small beenfits, like the BG free Saturday daytime (when there is surplus supply as the sun's out and offices are closed, but still worth having). If this brings big take up then the offers won't be much better than that. If take up is very slow and they risk missing their targets then they may even pay you to put one in.

When they reach their targets the offers will stop and you may be required to fit one when you change supplier.

I don't want one but I'm not violently opposed so if they do end up offering me £100 and other perks to get one then I'll probably take that as otherwise I'll eventually end up being required to have one for nothing.

I deliberately didn't pick up on it being EU legislation as we'll probbaly retain it.

The energy companies are legally obliged to fit them. Although you can refuse a smart meter, there are installation targets for the energy companies to meet, so they will say anything to meet them.

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HOLA4415

Per Chumpus Rex's comprehensive answer earlier the targets are with the energy companies. This is similar to when they were having to do carbon offset, such as paying for big programmes of External Wall Installation for social homes, about six years ago.

They will have financial penalties if they fail to meet their targets but the target won't be 100%, did somebody mention 80% by 2020 earlier? Initially it will be a mixture of simple encouragement and small beenfits, like the BG free Saturday daytime (when there is surplus supply as the sun's out and offices are closed, but still worth having). If this brings big take up then the offers won't be much better than that. If take up is very slow and they risk missing their targets then they may even pay you to put one in.

When they reach their targets the offers will stop and you may be required to fit one when you change supplier.

I don't want one but I'm not violently opposed so if they do end up offering me £100 and other perks to get one then I'll probably take that as otherwise I'll eventually end up being required to have one for nothing.

I deliberately didn't pick up on it being EU legislation as we'll probbaly retain it.

I've visited quite a number of new build estates recently. None of them have smart meters

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HOLA4416
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HOLA4417

You will get smarty meters anyway, when your old one is changed. Not much point having a "target", or a forced rollout.

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HOLA4418
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HOLA4419

Not if you say no to one.

There are some security issues if it can be contacted remotely, or via blue tooth for example. Nobody comes to read my meter anyway. I do it, and enter it on a web site. This seems OK to me.

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HOLA4420
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HOLA4421

What happens if the only meters they offer are smart ones?

Then over the next hundred years as existing meters break we will all end up with smart metres.

Though as pointed out earlier (not by me) the tech is so rapidly evolving that if you allow them to change it now they'll be back every ten years to change it again.

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HOLA4422
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HOLA4423

Then over the next hundred years as existing meters break we will all end up with smart metres.

Though as pointed out earlier (not by me) the tech is so rapidly evolving that if you allow them to change it now they'll be back every ten years to change it again.

It's usually ten years!

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HOLA4425

I think one of the driving forces behind this was to prevent people using gadgets to illegally wind the meter backwards. If they think you are fiddling in this way; due to suspiciously low bills; I expect they will try to force a smart meter onto you.

They have certaintly lost millions over the years due to people cheating in this way - which the rest of us are paying for indirectly.

The problem is that smart meters will be suceptable to other methods of cheating - if you can connect remotely, it's only a matter of time before someone hacks into them if not already. (If I know one thing about power companies it is that they are hopeless with anything IT related.)

The privacy concerns are a little more worrying, if the meter measures exactly how much power you use on a minute by minute basis they can workout all kinds of things - when you are at home, when you make a cup of coffee, when you run the washing machine, what time you go to bed. Theres all kinds of big brother uses for that data if it falls into the wrong hands. I suspect they would ultimately like to move to pricing electricity differently at different times of the day - not like the current economy 7 but dynamically based on demand - so if theres a football match and everyone goes to make a cup of tea in the interval - the electricity price would suddenly jump up.

Now if someone just made a conventional meter with a one way ratchet to prevent it going backwards.. no no what am I thinking that would be far too simple.

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