OT Forced new smart meters

Dunno. I too have an electronic non-smart one that replaced the old dial thing

Well as far as I am aware there is only a suggestion from government that smart meters should be all fitted by the end of next year. I suggest they want to stop paying the outside contractor to read meters to save money. However I wonder how much they pay to the cellular network to read the meters that way? If you have an inside meter it is probably due to people always being out when they come and people just do not like estimated bills. I keep in touch with EDF for tariff info and make appointments for meter readings. They are not in a hurry to fit a smart meter here as I only have electricity. Its the dual fuel meters they seem to want to do. I have no read reason at all, unless there are two teams of readers. Outside meters I see no issue with since they can read old ones when they like. I am holding out for the talking remote unit which I am entitled to under equality law. They are out there, but most companies deny this even though offgem say they only cost a few pence more to supply. Brian

Tell you what though, when the pit in the footway got flooded by rain a few years ago they came along from Thames Water and put in a new lined pit and a new meter. The new metter is smart in that it can be read by a device the person has without them even opening up the panel in the footway. I have notice no difference in the bills other than the few pence extra when prices rise generally, so I'd imagine gas and electricity measurement is still done as it has always been so accuracy should be no different. There have been no end of snake oil ideas to try to make meters read low by changing power factors and loading half the phase only and all sorts, none are really going to work unless they are obviously changing the waveform etc, in which case you might get your collar felt!

Brian

You might find people more inclined to "go read up on" issues by providing links to your sources. That would make it easy to read about the issue /after/ you have dealt with the immediate point, and encourage people to do likewise /before/ you do so.

On the specific point, AIUI (which is poorly!) smart meters:

a. are required to be /more/ accurate in that the error bars are reduced from +2.5%/-3.5% to +/-2%

b. are required also to measure reactive load [1][2]

c. are expected to provide data to give more attention to network losses

Robin reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

E-On seemed always to be bothering me about having a smart meter. Yes, I believe they are all trying to meet a target. When they most recently increased their prices, I'd had enough. I switched to Bulb, who are noticeably cheaper, and haven't yet bothered me about smart meters.

Brian Gaff explained :

In the bad old days of transformers, instead of SMPSU's, I would often build half wave rectified power supplies for things I was working on, which didn't need much current. I doubt they could detect such half wave use without special equipment an a strong suspicion.

If you meant your water meter, my meter is in the kitchen cupboard, which is at the very back of the house and my house is separated from the road by a front garden. They do a drive by water meter read, without even stopping.

The offered me one early on, and it suited me at the time, so I took it, I've since moved suppliers twice and they are now "dumb" but the IHD allows me to submit readings without the hassle of going under the stairs or into the garage.

Once when I logged in to utility point's website to enter my readings, it popped up a banner to say "we are now offering smart meters, are you interested?", I clicked "no" and it said "ok thanks, noted" and has never bothered asking again.

I've read here often enough that the meters get upset when you change suppliers, so waiting for the next generation (assuming there will be one) seems to make most sense. Also, I'd have to take time off work so that they can do it.

When my mum and dad had their's changed just over a year ago, the fitter messed something up, and they were without gas for a couple of days.

No. They would fit a mechanical dumb meter.

They're only installing SMETS2 now.

The way your '[1]' is worded suggests they keep a separate tally of reactive load rather than add it to your real power use. But they could, of course, do both.

The batteries are rated to last 10 years.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com laid this down on his screen :

I did read up on them, before I agreed to having one installed. There is a lot of misinformed opinion about, where they have been tested in wild extreme situations that just do occur in practise.

My own bills between old and smart, demonstrated there no observable differences for either gas or electric.

that's the problem, imagining.

Changing your consumption waveform is perfectly legal. None are going to work full stop on domestic supplies which bill only for real power. The rollout of smart meters might change that, since they do bill for imaginary power.

NT

Yes - I switched to them recently, and they wrote saying a smart meter's part of the deal. It certainly wasn't flagged when I signed, but maybe it was in the small print.

I'm not especially bothered - they can install one if they want. They've now made three appointments and kept two (so that's £30 cancellation credit). The next one is to update the main fuse, followed by another one to swap the meter. None of which will work as there's no signal in the cellar, where it's installed.

Yes, I could. I didn't. I'm not required to. Here it is:

for real power or for low pf? If for low pf, which type of low pf, lagging or rectifier/capacitor loads?

that's a list of documents. I'm not reading them all.

NT

a dc ammeter is not special equipment

suspicion of what? Halfwave rectified supplies are legal :)

NT

Every single tariff I have been on since Amerada has had self-supplied readings.

Every single reading I enter they send a meter reader shortly afterwards.

So that's a crock.

I got the email from Bulb about "great news, we're installing smart meters" before my first bill.

They can FRO.