And you are in good company denying any form of climate change caused by man. In Donald Trump. But I'm sure you love him as much as Farage. Of course it should be obvious clowns stick together.
Would be if they had one, or it meant anything.
Many moons ago they replaced my old mechanical gas meter with an electronic one. Asked if they could connect it to my phone line too, which I refused. A few years later, they changed it back to a mechanical one. Seems the batteries in the electronic ones were failing 'early'. No real surprise there...
All those meters are in my cellar. Mounted sideways, so it is awkward to read. If it was swung round 90 degrees, it could be easily read from the cellar steps. Each time it's replaced I ask for this to be done. But too much trouble. They would move it outside, though.
It's a legal requirement in the UK. Though it may not tell you the
*actual* consumption now I come to think about it, just the maximum.
Well, quite. Don't most people have enough sense to switch things off when not in use? Or perhaps the sound of an empty tumble drier in use gives them company. ;-)
If you were on a tariff where you got cheaper electricity at particular times, might be worth doing the washing etc then. But you don't need a fancy meter for that. But few would be willing to wait until 2 am for that cup of tea. ;-)
Doesn't surprise me you don't know what a watt is. Or able to translate that figure into running costs.
Perhaps what we need is everything rated in Rees-Turnip units. Specially for those who can't do simple mathematics.
Do you from cold turn on ALL the rings on a cooker, and the oven and grills?
And how does that help in working out how much electricity is used simmering a stew?
Well, if you simply divided the number of rings and ovens etc into the total you'd be closer to the true amount for each - rather than just whining about not understanding such things.
If you knew the exact amount it would help you decide on whether to cook or get a takeaway?
About as much as a smart meter will help! :-)
Immersion heaters are very rarely turned off and will cycle at random. Similarly lots of 'convection' fires have a thermostat and cycle on and off. Then there's things like computers, motors in anything, that will take varying amounts of power.
So will a gas boiler heating a water store. However, with a well insulated cylinder, that will hopefully be a small waste compared to the cost of heating the water used. If it is a large percentage, might be better to change the way you use hot water.
As I'd hope would all room heaters.
They will, but it's generally things which heat which use the most electricity - and by a pretty wide margin.
Presumably with something like a Hoover, you'd only have it switched on for the minimum time needed to do the job?
Computers are more of a grey area. Some leave them switched on at all times. So if their time is so valuable they can't wait for it to boot, they'll just have to pay for that convenience.
And if people are so afraid of the dark they have to have all lights on at all times, a smart meter isn't going to help.
Just to drift slightly.
One of my customers claim to fame was that he got arrested breaking into Emlyn Hughes house and he was caught because Emlyn was in the house when he broke in. This came as a surprise to my customer as he had waited until "A Question of Sport" had just started on the TV before breaking into the house and he thought that the house would be empty.
In message , Brian Gaff writes
Free in the sense that they are not sending you an invoice for doing it, but you (and every one else) ends up paying for it through their bill.
Adrian
I tend to do that about once a week when i cook Sunday dinner, well maybe not the grill.
Not that simple, base load is generally higher when a place has active (ie not tucked up in bed) people in it.
There is a certain novelty in having a visible realtime display of consumption. One that has a plot of consumption over say the last 6 hours would be better as that will show things like coffee machines or kettles with a "keep warm" feature or even just the iron left on.
Not until a significant percentage of people have smart meters. Even then I have my doubts as in stead of the meter reader being able to read a meter say every five minutes the wider distribution means he can now only read a meter every ten minutes.
Do any of the "smart" meters support that and what exactly do you mean?
1) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the consumer doesn't know the price at any given moment so can't manually adjust their consumption. 2) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the consumer does know the price and can manually adjust their consumption. 3) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the consumer doesn't need to know the price as the meter can talk to devices in the house and switch them off automagically to reduce consumption. 4) Change "Have the rate charged vary according to national demand ..." in all the above to "Have the rate charged vary according to national and consumer demand ...".I won't have a smart meter unless I have no choice or it offers something that I don't already have (I already log our consumption and supply voltage). It will be interesting to see how they cope with getting the required data connection where the meters are, there isn't a sniff of a mobile signal. If they want to mount an external aerial they can pay rent for the priviledge.
Ah the "usual upgrade and replacement programme" that has us with mechanical meters certified for ten years in 1967 and 1980 and the electronic for (possibly) 20 years from 1996.
When we all get forced into having "intelligent appliances" they could talk to the meter, say what they are and ask for permission to run.
Or even ones that just listen to the meter, and behave as it suggests.
Don't confuse readings for the purposes of billing, and those for the purposes of information gathering and network feedback and control.
You may allow them to take a billing reading once per month. The meter may have the capability of doing it many times a minute - and even if the good guys don't make use of that capability, you can be sure someone else will find a way.
In many households, there will be so many things on at once that identifying what is using what will likely be a 5 minute wonder for those who can't make an informed guess anyway.
Now if each appliance communicated with the meter and said what it was using...
Not impossible in the future.
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