OT Forced new smart meters

[Lee Nowell]

Hi All

We have had a letter from EON our energy supplier (although not sure whether electric or gas as can't recall) to say that by law they have to change our existing old fashioned meters with a smart meter. Is this really the case or are they trying to meet some target or cost saving to save them reading the meter?

Also, a few years ago I had a meter reader come around and say that the old fashioned meters are notoriously inefficient and whatever you do don't change it as the new one will read much higher. Is there any truth to this?

Would appreciate any experience on this

Thanks

Lee.

[Andy Burns]

In general you can refuse them, though signing up for some tariffs may contractually oblige you to have one ...

[Steve Walker]

They often make it sound like that. By law they ARE required to replace your meter at intervals, as calibration can drift. However, you are still able to refuse a smart meter and insist on a dumb one. They may make it difficult (like hiding the information or giving an online link that doesn't work, but phoning them will sort it out.

When ours was done recently, while on the phone, I told them that I needed an appointment some time off, as I could not afford the time off work for a while, as I was already losing a lot through taking my wife to lots of hospital appointments and they immediately offered a Saturday morning appointment only a fortnight away. Worth bearing in mind if you don't want time off work.

Calibration of an old meter could be out in either direction, but I don't know about any other problem.

SteveW

[tabbypurr]

the latter. You can refuse a smart meter, unless you've already agreed to one in writing

nonsense

yes. Old eletromechanical meters don't read imaginary power, new ones overread it, so you pay more.

NT

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that Steve Walker formulated :

It depends on the OPs contract with E.on. Some of the E.on contracts include a clause requiring you to have a Smart Meter.

[dennis]

rubbish,

[F]

No, you can refuse the smart meter and insist on a dumb one.

[Martin Brown]

Or accept the thing and then immediately change supplier.

They have given up on me and several neighbours. No mobile signal.

[RobH]

I'm with EON and have not received any such letter.I don't want a smart meter either.

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] expressed precisely :

You are making it up.. lol

On certain loads, mechanical ones can under-read, on other load types they can over-read.

Likewise for the smart meters, but on average they have to be just as fair and accurate as the mechanical ones, so essentially - no difference.

[Harry Bloomfield]

F wrote on 19/06/2019 :

Which means they would still fit an identical smart meter, but would not enable its smart features.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Martin Brown laid this down on his screen :

Me too, but not because there is no signal. I think they just lost the will to live, the number of Smart meters they have swapped out here, every time I change suppliers lol

[Harry Bloomfield]

RobH formulated on Wednesday :

Check the small print of your contract with E.on, it may insist you accept a smart.

[Max Demian]

Will these newfangled heat pumps we're supposed to be getting introduce power factor issues, or do they come with whopping great parallel capacitors?

[Steve Walker]

No. Our old dumb meters were replaced by a identical dumb ones.

SteveW

[harry]

They will be fitted with PF correction capacitors. The size will depend on the motor type. In days of yore, we had only induction motors for that sort of thing.

Now there is the possibility of a synchronous (permanent magnet) motor which can be designed to have unity PF without the need for capacitors. But sounds expensive.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually I think not.

mecahical meters wer designed wuite crefully to only intrgte the real component of pwoer . Later electronic ones, dumb or smart, have a harder time doing that.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Heat pumps are motors and a well designed motor tends towards a zero power factor.

And I am sure they will have pretty massive PF correction on them.

[tabbypurr]

no they don't, the specs deal with real power but don't address the imaginary power, ie the out of phase current component. As ever you could go read up on it. But you won't. If you and dennis say it ain't so, it is so.

NT

[tabbypurr]

Electronic loads over 20w require pf correction, but that doesn't apply to motors, which of course are not pf=1.

NT