Smart Meters

[Dave Liquorice]

Smart meters to save power customers £64 each across Wales, report say s -

19 April 2013

But surely if that is a £64 overpayment you get it back either as a lu mp sum refund or by a £64 reduction in your payments for the next year. There is *no* £64 overall saving. All you may have lost is the interes t on £64 but at current *savings*, ie not current account, rates that is about a quid. More fecking spin...

It also mentions the privacy issues that half hourly or even daily readings raise.

Warning over smart meters privacy risk - 12 June 2012

The default should be readings only required for billing purposes. As a

country we have been happy with quarterly readings for a long time... If people wish to opt in to a higher frequency of reading then that is fine but only as an opt in. With half hour intervals it would be very clear when the property is actively occupied.

The bills need to have the reading frequency on them as well, so when yo u take over a property you know what you have and can get it changed if required. I bet there is still a possibilty for the meter to do one thin g and the billing system to think another though.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Smart metering, as currently proposed, is entirely for the benefit of the suppliers, not you.

With an effective industry regulator, it could have been the other way around.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its a desperate measure by the EU to make renewable energy appear to work, by removing anyone from the grid they dont like, when the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind stops blowing.

Naturally a fully paid up Party Membership Card will be the best insurance.

[Tim Streater]

Why don't you read the meter every month and submit the readings online. I do that for our village hall.

[Chris K]

Agreed, however 'smart' the meter is it is not on your side.

Couldn't a really smart meter be on the customers' side and be empowered to negotiate on behalf of the customer the best tariff on an hour by hour basis. No obscure 'confusion marketing' deals, just give me your price for the next hour/day/week? (with a regulated obligation to supply).

Chris K

[The Natural Philosopher]

I smell the 'raspberry pi meter' in the offing...

Its a lovely thought..

[Dave Liquorice]

Gets man in to look at seals etc after the computer at your suppliers has sounded an alarm bell about readings being consistently below what they estimate you should have used...

If they come to fit one here it will be interesting if they rely on 2G. The meters are inside a windowless boiler room with thick stone walls on the "wrong" side of the house. There is no mobile signal in there...

If they want to piggy back the broadband they can pay a rental to do so. I think 5% off the total bill (inc VAT) might be enough but there is no guarantee what so ever that the connection will be there.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Also things like: "I need to run my washing machine sometime in the next 48 hours. Who's going to give me the best price, and at what time?"

So you might try and buy something like your base load (at 500W, say) for a low fixed price, and then you can choose to buy a peak load (like a morning shower) from someone else who is more competitive (and more able) to handle that sort of short burst, but probably at a higher price.

Instead, all it's likely to bring you is the ability of the supplier to remotely cut off your supply, or more likely a hacker who gets in to the supply's computers doing it, possibly as part of switching off millions of the supplier's customers. I would like to see the disconnect rights passed over to an independant process that requires court action first, so the suppliers can get their hands on that switch.

[Mark]

Sounds to me like it will create loads of extra work for the customer so they can save a few pence a week. IOW not worth it.

Knowing how poor security is often implemented it probably wouldn't take a hacker to cut your power off, just a kid with a mobile phone.

All disconnections should need a physical visit and it absolutely should not be able to be done remotely.

[Jethro_uk]

And a bit of URL hacking :(

[Jethro_uk]

Just an afterthought ... once people learn how to hack the meters to underread, energy companies might lose their enthusiasm for them. Especially as it's quite possible that a hack could be completely undetectable - unlike the old fashioned way with magnets (if I remember my lecturer in electrical engineering).

[The Other Mike]

You could, not sure how you worked it out.

Brewing up improved ice cream in the lab is by far the absolute pinnacle of her career. After that it was all downhill. If it had been an animal it would have been double bagged and chucked in a canal at birth.

Stalin and Pol Pol were IMHO more acceptable leaders of their countries and did less long term damage than that, from the grave, the Bitch Thatcher, continues to inflict on this country .

[harry]

I take it you were a Trotski miner?

[The Other Mike]

You might assume that but you'd be very wrong. The nearest I came to Trotsky is owning a copy of No More Heroes by The Stranglers.

[mcp]

Improved from the manufacturers point of view, not the customer who ended up paying for more air.

[Mike Barnes]

Arfa Daily :

I really don't think so - otherwise it would be.

[harry]

The real evil bastards were Harold Wilson and Calaghan who destroyed the economy as socialists always do.

[harry]

The real purpose of smart meters is yet to come. It is as part of a "Smart Grid" that will do lots more including control of thousands of micro generators.

[Andy Champ]

No-one else achieved anything that they can be remembered by. (go on - what did Blair do? really? Or Wilson? Or Churchill, excepting the war?)

Whether you think what she achieved was good or bad is the only matter for debate.

Andy

[F]

Illegal war?