OVO plan offers

Even if they take a long time to replace, how would you be worse off than you are at present?

Tim

It's very good insulation!

I didn't say I would be worse off, but I fail to see why a 'smart' meter would make ME better off. Other people, yes, but not me. And the saving for the supplier, mentioned elsewhere, of not having to employ meter readers means nothing here, they are as rare as hen's teeth. If that common.

Indeed. I have a water meter fitted on a garden tap and I report its reading to my water company when they send me a bill. They then subtract that reading from the waste water part of the bill as it isn't returned to the sewer. In September 2022, with the dry summer, almost £90 was subtracted from the original bill.

The meter paid for itself with two years.

Well if you’re happy with your current bills and have no plans to add an ASHP, home batteries or buy an EV then it’s true you wouldn’t stand to benefit.

Whilst quite expensive, a home battery is immensely satisfying when you can consume power bought during a cheap rate period at night. You can do this with an “Economy 7” type tariff but even that would probably need a meter change. With a fully smart meter they are better value tariffs available.

Tim

Smart meters won't tell me the average consumption of my fridge/freezer, whether it's more economical to cook a stew entirely on the hob rather than starting on the hob and putting it in the oven or how much more economical it is to cook a jacket potato in a microwave as opposed to a conventional oven.

They won’t give you a bl*w j*b either. Methinks you expect too much. Dismissing smart meters because they won’t do a whole lot of jobs they weren’t designed to do is just daft.

If you want consumption analysis to that degree you’ve got to be prepared to reach into your own pocket.

Tim

All they really do is avoid the need of the company to send round a meter reader (plus undesirables like remotely turning off your supply).

If they had said that in the first place I would have been more sympathetic, but they falsely claim they will enable you to save money.

I'm not sure there are any bought for devices that would enable you to check consumption properly.

I know there are plug in devices, but I think they are relatively expensive and only applicable to devices you plug in a 13A socket, not, for example cookers connected to a cooker point.

I suppose you could buy one or two and swap them in and out, but the socket might be behind the fridge or for something you don't really want to unplug like a video recorder.

You can buy remote-reading meters that clamp around your meter tails and have a separate wireless-linked display; they can tell your instantaneous consumption just like a smart meter can, but not directly cost. I have one on the separate cable to my EV charger to record that consumption separately.

They don't measure power, just current, but they usually have a calibration adjustment for if your voltage is off standard.

nib

You’ve really not been paying attention, have you? They open up a whole world of variable time based tariffs that can be hugely beneficial for many homeowners and save them a large amount of money. Avoiding the need for meter readers was never really the point.

Still, you’ve clearly made up your mind. It’s good that there are folk like you paying well over the odds to subsidise my tariff.

See above. The claim isn’t false. That fact that they can’t perhaps save YOU money doesn’t mean that smart meters aren’t a huge boon to many other homeowners who have the ability to load-shift a lot of their consumption to off-peak times.

There are many wired in devices that can go in your consumer unit and can monitor many circuits using CT clamps. These can all be monitored via Wi-Fi on a phone or computer.

Tim

You can add a small microcontroller to one of those sensors, monitor voltage as well and make your own wifi accessible power monitor...

On a pro install. If DIY your labour is already VAT free :)

Octopus. Needless to say, the 'boys' aren't happy:

I can do that by timing the number of seconds for the spinning disc to make a complete revolution and dividing it into 21,600 for the consumption in watts. Still just the total current consumption.

This "homeowner" [1] doesn't want to be "nudged" into changing the time I cook meals or wash my clothes.

I haven't seen any evidence that they save anyone any money.

That might work for the cooker circuit but not individual sockets on the ring main.

Sheesh, what does it take to convince some folk?

How much are you paying per kWhr?

Earlier this year when I just had an EV I was averaging 12.4 pence. I now have a home battery that should allow me to shift virtually all my consumption to my off-peak rate of 7.5pence.

Tim

But at what cost? What is the payback time? Rising interest rates (on the money used to fund the battery etc) will push that back.

No denying that the benefits will take time to pay back but pay back they will in due course.

Tim

FFS, everyones standing charges WERE doubled to pay for the compo handed out to all the switchers who LOST their credit and who should have simply become crdditors of all those failed companies.