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Smart Meters

A

Artiglio

New Shoots
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East kent
Good day all , seeking some input from those that understand smart meters and their foibles. I have 2 small blocks of flats, the landlords supply covers the lighting ,tv distribution and firealarm system covering the common areas. Currently on a standard meter and no issues. However the tariff for not having a smart meter keeps creeping up and the endless letters and phone calls pushing a change are a nuisance.
Several tenants have changed over and have had very differing experiences, but as issues are down to the meters itks nothing to do with me.
However the last thing i need are common area lights and alarms being disconnected. I’ve been told that smart meters can be tempermental after power cuts and not reset properly . This from a council electrician that despises the things with a vengeance. Is his opinion valid?
 
Artiglio said:
Good day all , seeking some input from those that understand smart meters and their foibles. I have 2 small blocks of flats, the landlords supply covers the lighting ,tv distribution and firealarm system covering the common areas. Currently on a standard meter and no issues. However the tariff for not having a smart meter keeps creeping up and the endless letters and phone calls pushing a change are a nuisance.
Several tenants have changed over and have had very differing experiences, but as issues are down to the meters itks nothing to do with me.
However the last thing i need are common area lights and alarms being disconnected. I’ve been told that smart meters can be tempermental after power cuts and not reset properly . This from a council electrician that despises the things with a vengeance. Is his opinion valid?
Click to expand...
We've had one(Octopus)for two or three years and had zero problems.
Anecdotal evidence with a very small sample size, I know...
 
Thanks John, but exactly the same sample size / anecdotal as i’ve received that was more negative, so now things are balanced.
 
We’ve had one for three years. For the first three months it didn’t work at all and I had to escalate a complaint to Ovo’s CEO as they kept breaking appointments to fix it. The fix took 5 minutes when they did turn up as the engineer who had installed it had made a mistake.

Since then no issues and that has included going through a change of provider.
 
No problems here either after a year or so. It took about a week for the display to start showing gas usage on installation. Electric use was there immediately. It connects to wifi too but seems to have weak reception in what is a strong signal area. Connection to the meters is not wifi so not really sure what the wifi is for - maybe history? Unplugging the display then plugging it back in some time later has never shown a problem.

Seeing the costs has not changed our usage but it does make you aware of standing charges first thing in the morning! I like the ability to see instant readout of watts used. That had me searching for where the power was going when everything should be off. Answer was fridges, cctv and TV boxes.
 
I don't have one myself but four of my flats do.
Flat 1 installed by idiots as the electricity meter is in a service room and the gas meter is on opposite sides of the block and will never be able to communicate through multiple brick walls. Display unit provided but cannot communicate as it is near the gas meter
Flat 2 Electric only and no known problems. Display unit works well
Flat 3 Gas meter has stopped working altogether and after 5 months octopus have done nothing about it. i also suspect it will be too far to communicate properly. No display supplied but would have worked as the leccy meter is inside the flat
Flat 4 Previous occupant had their provider turn off the supply when they moved out. Took me about a week to get the supply turned back on and restored to a dual rate tariff. Not a fault of the smart meter per se but a dumb meter would not have been able to be turned off remotely. Request for a display unit refused but should work as layout is similar to flat 2.

For a landlord, dumb meters are easier and the potential tariff penalties of not going smart are not my problem but I do permit my tenants to change to smart if they ask me. 2 have technically broken their tenancy agreements by not asking and it has proved impossible for me to get then changed back. The inevitability of all smart metering will come.
 
Octopus here and Bulb before that. Frikkin' bloody thing just does NOT work. Lecky now back on display after two "engineer" visits, gas meter on its third year registered "faulty/ engineer informed". I have to manually submit gas meter readings. Told engineer would be here in May? Yeah, right, the other leg has bells on.
P.S. Octopus back to their sneaky, underhand, duplicitous, almost fraudulent, hiking of the monthly direct debit to line their purse. They claim it is to "even out the payments over the year"...said dipping into my wallet amounted to several hundred pounds rebate 6 weeks ago, so now they are back to see if they can siphon off over a hundred a month on top of what is already going out to get back to what THEY regard as satisfactory. Interest OK for y'all on MY money? I think Bob5digits posted a method whereby he pays in arrears? Going digital fossicking to see if I can locate his tip.
 
Simply tell them you want to pay for the energy used, no "smoothing" over the course of the year. This, of course, means that you pay in arrears.
No good for those who struggle to pay large winter payments unless they have the discipline and wherewithal to save money during the summer months.
Duncan
 
I've been with Octopus since they took over Shell Energy last year and no issues to date however I've flatly refused the constant "encouragement" to switch to a smart meter, (too many people I know have issues) and I won't be able to get a display in the kitchen as the meter is too far away and out of wifi range also blocked by several walls. Additionally I've retained the plan where I submit a reading every month and pay for exactly what I've used, they're not getting inflated standing order payments from me.
No gas supply here btw just leccy.
 
Lons said:
I've been with Octopus since they took over Shell Energy last year and no issues to date however I've flatly refused the constant "encouragement" to switch to a smart meter, (too many people I know have issues) and I won't be able to get a display in the kitchen as the meter is too far away and out of wifi range also blocked by several walls. Additionally I've retained the plan where I submit a reading every month and pay for exactly what I've used, they're not getting inflated standing order payments from me.
No gas supply here btw just leccy.
Click to expand...
It's not WiFi as such - ZigBee I believe, and as such may have better range, but lower bandwidth.
None of which is useful to you, if it doesn't work anyway...
 
The first gen meters were a disgrace and should never have been installed - becoming obsolete when you changed providers was a joke! I went for a gen 2 meter with previous provider and it didn't work from day one. Even complaint to the Ombudsmen didn't sort it, they upheld that the supplier had until a defined date years away to get a Smart meter working in all properties.

However changed to Octopus who got someone out and it working to a degree. The screen doesn't work, I don't use it. The gas element doesn't work as it's through an exterior wall and two internal block walls. This for me is a another unbelievable situation, how can a Smart meter roll out be using a meter which can't communicate if there are walls between the meters. Don't most people have their gas meter outside and electricity meter inside????

Octopus app is really good though and I find it handy to see daily / weekly / monthly electricity usage, including our export figures. Have to give a manual gas reading each month though.
 
Thanks all, i’m not interested in displays. I may not have explained too well, the meters are for the landlords supply, they only cover common area lighting, fire alarms , exterior lighting and tv distribution. I just need to ne sure that the supply won’t be interrupted or else the common area lighting will be off in 3 hours and the fire alarm goes into fault mode and back up battery lasts around 24hours.
A similar post elsewhere suggests that I agree to a smart meter on the understanding that the supplier guarantees a 2 hour response if the meter fails, as they are supplying safety systems, apparently they won’t and then agree to stop pushing them, wether that will also get me off the punitive tariff is another thing.
 
John Brown said:
It's not WiFi as such - ZigBee I believe, and as such may have better range, but lower bandwidth.
None of which is useful to you, if it doesn't work anyway...
Click to expand...
One of my neighbours has one, was never happy with it and has had multiple engineer visits. He cant get a signal and my meter is further away from our kitchen than his meter is and through an additional wall to boot so it's a fair assumption.
I already keep a fairly close eye on our electricity usage, the meter is very easily accessible and at eye level so the monthly readings are simple and I doubt a smart meter will save us anything. There's little doubt of course they're far more convenient for other people so I'm not against them just not for me until I'm left with absolutely no choice.
 
My father has a smart meter as does most in Ontario but Hydro One can not pick up the signal so he reads it and calls it in monthly. He prefers this as it keeps them honest.
 
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