OT Forced new smart meters

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] formulated the question :

For them, it would be :-)

[Max Demian]

Mine says "Certified 85 NE" on the sticker. Is that really 1985? The building was put up in 1985/6.

[Harry Bloomfield]

So then, if I imagine a 3kw heater running 24/7, they would bill me for that? :oÞ

[Max Demian]

Shit. 1995/6.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that [e-mail] formulated :

Yes, I have seen that and read it before and that bit of research keeps on being quoted as though it were honestly researched.

In fact they deliberately set out to prove smart meters over read, by selecting the loads on the meters for worst case results.

There are probably not many houses in my street, which have as many electronic loads and weird waveform demands - yet my bills are consistently low.

[Max Demian]

How do smart gas meters work? Most are outside in a little box and probably don't have access to mains electricity for the cellphone connection. Mine is in a cupboard outside (without power); also how would the consumer hand-held gadget (which is their main "selling point" to the consumer) communicate with it through multiple walls and concrete floors?

[tabbypurr]

obviously it wouldn't

[tabbypurr]

Sounds like you're not familiar with i or j.

NT

[RJH]

Doesn't that just (aim to) standardise the communication to ease switching of suppliers?

If it can't access a network in the first place, doesn't the issue of a weak mobile signal remain?

[Max Demian]

My main objection to smart meters is the horrible radio advert featuring polar bears and whiny children. I think I'll cite this the next time they ring up to ask me to have one fitted.

[tabbypurr]

ie they demonstrated that smart meters do overread

you're welcome to offer us a basis for this

Your bills are immaterial.

NT

[Andy Burns]

The smart gas meter has a 10 year D cell and talks over short-range wireless to the smart electricity meter, which in turn sends the readings over the cellphone network and to the in-house display.

[Andy Burns]

yes and VO by Maxine "gritty Northerner" Peake

[Dan S. MacAbre]

Oh, I'm expecting them to start coming soon enough. I suppose they have the same targets as everyone else.

[Jethro_uk]

What's really got my back up is the lie that they somehow "save" energy. I'll have a smart electricity meter when my smart water meter saves me water. Until then, as I say, FRO ....

[The Other Mike]

You are only ever billed for reactive power if you have a connection / maxiumum demand of over 100kVA.

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[The Other Mike]

Yet both mechanical and electronic meters meet the IEC requirements for accuracy and have done for decades. Not just made up facts but real injection checks on site or in a cal lab with kit traceable to NPL standards.

Installations for settlement metering for grid generation and grid supply points were nearly completed almost exactly 30 years ago (the cutoff was iirc the end of August 1989) at that point in time all 1MVA and above sites were equipped with half mechanical and half fully electronic per installation.

As for electronic ones having a 'harder time' it's little more than CT & VT plus a bit of mass produced silicon.

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[Dan S. MacAbre]

I think the idea is that they make you neurotic about your energy use. We're already below what they say is the average; and I prefer to live a more relaxed life, rather than worry about a few tens of pounds. With hundreds of thousands of people entering the country each year, I'm not really inclined to take their resource-saving ambitions for the rest of us very seriously. :-)

[Robin]

I don't think I said or implied that you are "required" to do anything.

And thanks for that link but I don't see where that says that "the specs deal with real power but don't address the imaginary power". Nor anything to suggest the documents I cited are wrong when they make reports of kvarh part of the specification.

You didn't need to: I quoted a bit which dealt with your claim about "imaginary power"

[RobH]

Fair do's but I have had no notification as yet tho'