£6594 job application with no long term prospects.

Reeds are advertising this all over the country:

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Any idea what is going on?

£6.6 thousand will take at least 2 years to pay back. )ffered pay is £8 /hr to start (28 to 35K when qualified) which may be some 300/wk after dedu ctions. If you already have a car and enough money in the bank to cover you rself through the first year you might get along OK.

It seems to me that the companies concerned are going to make a lot of mone y in the first few weeks and steadily wind down thereafter.

£8 an hour is not that great an income is it just a few quid better than basic pay. Why is the primary target ex-military?

Talking of which the intrusive smart meters will eventually be completely i nstalled won't they. Not what you might see as job security and then you ha ve a 6.6 thousand unusable quid qualification.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer
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Any idea what is going on?

?6.6 thousand will take at least 2 years to pay back. )ffered pay is ?8/hr to start (28 to 35K when qualified) which may be some 300/wk after deductions. If you already have a car and enough money in the bank to cover yourself through the first year you might get along OK.

It seems to me that the companies concerned are going to make a lot of money in the first few weeks and steadily wind down thereafter.

?8 an hour is not that great an income is it just a few quid better than basic pay. Why is the primary target ex-military?

Talking of which the intrusive smart meters will eventually be completely installed won't they. Not what you might see as job security and then you have a 6.6 thousand unusable quid qualification.

A bit like training up to be a HIP inspector then! How difficult can it be to change a meter? I notice they mention electricians. I would have thought any electrician would only have to read the instructions on the box once. A rip off. Training for a non-job.

Smart meters are part of the smart grid. What they are advertised to do at present is only a tiny part of their (near) future function.

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Reply to
harryagain

You've already spotted it - cheap labour and questionable 'training'.

2020 is the plan, I think. So 20,000,000 homes, 10,000 'engineers', 2000 meters each. 2-4 years' work.

I've worked for a couple of places that used ex-military. Might be a combination of deferential, work ethic, reliable, and life kicked out of them?

Bit like that energy certification thing to my eye, with all the uncertainty that brought.

Reply to
RJH

Weatherlawyer wrote

A couple of years ago Driving instructors were being advertised in the same way.

Reply to
Sailor

Yes, and I wouldn't bet a lot of money on smart metering as currently proposed ever rolling out. The only reason the industry wants it is so they can remotely cut off customers. You and Yours did a program on it recently, and increasingly, people are realising the figures don't add up, and the benefits as proposed are non-existant.

No real electrician would work for the rates they're paying, so they have to find another way to get them installed.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I asked about a smart water meter with customer remote access - thought it could be handy for detecting leaks during times of expected zero consumption.

Not available in my area...

For gas and electric, I'll bolt my own readers on, meter compatibility permitting.

Talking of which, there don't seem to be any Zwave meter readers (ie stick on optical for a true reading) and all the current clamp types require mains power!!!

Reply to
Tim Watts

Possibly because ex-militaries come with training bursaries and lump sums to help them 'resettle'?

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

I had a long chat with a chap who was replacing all the water meters in my street, and he said that although our new one was dumb, they did have some smart meters in the vicinity and that they were really great for spotting leaks sat in the comfort of his van.

I've got a clamp-on one that uses AAA cells. They last a lot longer than the AA cells in the display unit - which need replacing after a couple of months.

Reply to
Roland Perry

So have I - but I'm looking for a Zwave unit specifically :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

I followed the link and didn't see any mention of ex-forces or any mention of £6.6k up front nor £8/hour.

It shows £20-30k salary with £28-35k when fully qualified.

It offers training, guaranteed work placement, but only an interview with a prospective employer so no guarantee of a job at the end of the training period.

So - no idea what is going on.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David

Because they might not know the going rates of pay and might well have a lump sum to invest in training?

I think being able to monitor your usage in realtime is effective at shaving around 10% off your electricity bill if you are inclined to investigate why the base load is high, but having a red light come on when you happen use the kettle is pointless cosmetics. Most people will not be anything like systematic enough to make these savings though.

My biggest gain was finding which devices had insane default standby power consumption and then dealing with them using smart sockets. You need one of the more sensitive plug to socket testers for this bit.

It works even better for our village hall where it prevents people leaving heating, lights and the main hot water immersion on overnight. The gain there is much more than the nominal 10% off the bill.

"Training" for a tedious repetitive "job" with poor pay, no prospects and little or no future. The electrical equivalent of a McJob.

Reply to
Martin Brown

But you will be gas safe registered and a fully qualified electrician.

Reply to
alan_m

Did you read what that nutter above had to say about them?

Some dimwits on here.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Why do need a link? It would be illegal for someone to work on your gas meter for reward unless they are gas safe registered. Having replaced a gas meter would they not also have to certify the safety of the 'new' installation.

I assume you may also be unhappy for an unqualified and unregistered person to enter your property to first disconnect your incoming mains electricity and then connect it back up in a haphazard way

Reply to
alan_m

Does a meter fitter have to be GasSafe registered? It's not a dumb question because I'm pretty sure electric meter fitters are not NICEIC etch registered.

Reply to
Tim Watts

surely the solution there is to fit it with a timer

tim

Reply to
tim.....

Exceedingly unlikely. Anyone who is gas safe registered or a fully qualified electrician will have gone and found another job.

Transco refused to register all their staff some years ago, and government had to let that through, because otherwise there would have been no one available to do emergency work on the gas network or meters.

No they aren't. They are trained to do exactly one thing, and that thing only. They are not allowed to touch anything else.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I suspected not.

In effect, Transco are the scheme WRT their own fitters. One would hope the company running the gas network was able to train and assess their own staff.

Apart from opening a CU to check you bothered to put the L/N the right way around :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

No, they plug a tester into a socket to check polarity. which is making a whole lot of assumptions of course.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

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