Better to have a real smart meter or dumb smart meter?

[Animal]

they haven't done that in years. And when they did, they didn't use monkeys.

[SteveW]

No idea, but new ways of robbing or conning people appear all the time. People didn't used to steal cars by relaying communications to and from keyless fobs, but as the systems became widespread, relaying became a common enabler for theft.

[Animal]

In fact they are so long term reliable that energy companies don't care if your old dial meter is decades past is cal by date. It's purely marketing bs.

[Animal]

Yes, that's what it took to get them to do it. They wouldn't be doing this otherwise.

[Rod Speed]

But wouldn't have saved the cost of manually reading those meters.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

+1 on all of that..

[Dave W]

Citation?

[Andy Burns]

No doubt you're think of this guff?

All the links on Frank Leferink's page have mysteriously become 404s

[Max Demian]

The main problem with deep standby is that an appliance in that state won't pass an aerial signal through to the next device in the chain. And on older days it wouldn't pass the video signal through the SCART.

[alan_m]

I've seen reports of gas bills being many times higher after a smart meter has been installed but when you dig a bit deeper into the stories the old meter hadn't been read for years and the householder hadn't provided any readings. The old meter was read for the first time in many years on the swap to a smart meter and when the bill came in the DD payment needed to be x times more because previously they had been under paying.

[SteveW]

I've had meter readers readers turn up 5 times since the end of November

- which was when we had smart meters fitted! Clearly the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

[SteveW]

Not a problem for us, out quad LNB and our terrestrial aerial feed into a multi-switch, distributing both satellite and TV signals to each room, independent of the boxes themselves.

[Mike Clarke]

I don't suppose there are any plans to change it but the introduction of smart meters means it could be done. How long before the bean counters realise that it's a good way to increase revenue. It could more than double the running costs of all those LED lamps with capacitive dropper PSUs.

[Andrew]

Nothing.

[Animal]

What came out from that discussion is that there is no standard these meters are required to meet wrt reactive current. And surprise surprise, if there were any reasonable standard they would fail, even if we don't use rogowski based ones..

[Robin]

SMETS2 meters in the UK are required to measure both real and reactive power (though currently domestic users are billed only for real) and must be certified as meeting the requirements of Statutes and Directions. Unsurprisingly that includes their accuracy.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Only drawback I can see is the supposed ability to cut you off easily.

The advantages are many. Only paying for what you use due to up to date readings at all times.

[Jeff Layman]

Really? Every quarter EDF send me an email that a meter reading is required in the next week. I read the meters and submit online. I get a completely up-to-date bill by return email, which is paid immediately by Bacs. Simples.

[Chris Green]

But it doesn't always work like that does it? They still take a fixed amount each month and then reduce/increase the amount having looked at your actual consumption. Actually paying for what you have used went out with the ark!

[Jim Jackson]

I pay monthly for what I use. Don't have a smart meter - I simply take readings every month and enter online, then get a bill for that.

No boats and animals in sight.