Smart Meter Nonsense

IIRC it stems from worries some expressed about data protection/invasion of privacy: eg "burglars will know when we are out".

Life expectancy of the battery in the meter? The more it responds to a request to transmit data the shorter the life of the battery?

I've read that when the battery fails the supply may be automatically cut off.

Smart gas meters do have batteries, but smart electricity meters work on mains power.

I'm surprised an electric smart meter has a battery, apart from backup purposes!

Makes sense. I wonder who is paying for the extra electric to run millions of smartmeters, them or us?

Why are you worried about a penny a year?

Smart meters are paid for by consumers/customers at a lot more than

directly them, indirectly us I suppose.

Whether you take them or not presumably.

I'll only take one if I benefit from it. As yet EDF haven't told me how I will.

That is BS. Electric meters don't have batteries to run flat and smart gas meters wouldn't shut the gas off because of safety concerns. You probably heard it from a paranoid I don't want a smart meter person.

Smart meters would not exist if the power companies did not make more money from their use.

The ultimate purpose of smart meters is to cope with intermiitancy as renewable energy sources come to predominate. You will be charged more when the wind don't blow.

Well I expect its some awful default setting in the ever so helpful settings that nobody knows exists until the system runs out of paper and the postal bill goes through the roof. I do sometimes wonder who trains the staff at these organisations when new software is put in. Brian

"You'll know exactly how much electricity you're using"

- You mean like a meter ?

"No, you can see when you are using too much. Instantly"

- you mean like a meter ?

"But we've been told that everyone we'd try to get to take them would think they are wonderful"

- Were you ?

Sorry, guys. The *only* feature of smart meters that the powers that be GAS about is once you have one, you can be cut off remotely, thus avoiding the damaging news stories (with video) of the police forcing their way into Nice Doris' (93) flat to cut her off.

The sum that matters is :

As the Carillion collapse shows, the UK probably hasn't got the infrastructure to build a power station if it wanted to.

Or cut off when the wind doesn't blow!

Electronic bills/bank statements are OK but much prefer paper ones, particulary for card/bank statements. I can tick off the entries as being correct, write on the bill a pay by date and amount, place it on the heap of others for payment to be set up next time I log into online banking.

Trouble is the amount of paper you get with a paper bill thses days is stupid and most of it useless "What is a kWHr?" "How can I save energy?" etc. The core billing/statement information is all on a single sheet, one or two other sheets go straight for recycling... All I want are the facts, for a lecky bill that would fit into 1/3 of a single side of A4, the upper 1/2 having address's, the lower 1/3 the paying in slip.

What amusses me is Barclays bank statements they are now at least three sheets (only one useful). I remember a good few years ago, they cut back paper statements to just to just the statement, this well before electronic ones were available.

WTF can't companies offer a short form option of paper bills/statements containing just the facts? It has to be opt in, so those without net access (thus not able to set and option or download a bill) get the "full" version by default.

Litigation

Explain? Surely litigation can only be based on the facts, not the inabilty of some dumb sod to understand those facts?

Or do you mean the Granny State taking action against the companies if they don't include all the rubbush? But that could be worked round with the opt in acknowledging that the rubbish won't be sent and you don't need your hand held and arse wiped thank you very much.