According to EDF, the current smart meters cannot cope with Economy 7 systems like mine. However since all this about how hackable the current ones are and how the comms has had to be redesigned etc, I really feel they should lay off installing them till they are sure they work on all systems, cope with mixed tariffs and are not hackable. Brian
Sounds like it's not going to happen.
Has the Smart Meter program ever been compulsary?
'Classic FM' is carrying adverts ATM encouraging people to install them. Yet at the same time, TPTB know they're flawed. How sensible is that?
Not yet, (although they don't make it obvious that you can decline) but what's to stop a supplier saying we're changing your meter on safety grounds, because your current one is x years old and we only fit smart ones now?
Yes it was originally back when the smart meter industry convinced the government it would save so much electricity they could get away without building so many power stations. Since then, every study (ignoring those by the smart meter industry and some naive greens) has shown no savings, particularly those based on real life experience rather than just theory.
However, it ceased being compulsory a while back - that's not a new change in the manifesto.
The ads are all over the place, and generally use the argument that you wouldn't allow the supplier of a different commodity to estimate your bill.
In the past, over-estimated bills have worked in my favour when the price per unit was about to increase.
I received one in 2012 (I think) as part of a pilot. I got a recent call from Scottish Power (or its subcontractors?) offering me a new smart meter. I asked if it was compulsory. He said no. I said in that case I was declining the offer.
I then got a letter from Scottish Power. I contacted customer services to ask if the meter to be installed would be SMETS1 or SMETS2. They replied to say that SMETS2 meters would become available at some time in the future and they would (a) note my decision to decline meantime and (b) contact me once SMETS2 meters become available.
Methinks the cat is well and truly out of the bag.
Thanks Andrew, I didn't think it was a new chnage, so yet another political non-story.
If mine does that I will tell them I regard these calls as marketing, I am withdrawing my consent to marketing calls* and will report them to the Information Commissioner and see what they make of that.
You seem to overlook how things are done these days. EDF and the like subcontract out the installation of smart meters to another organisation because they don't want the head count of the extra fitters on their books. The subcontractors are incentivised to fit meters at a certain rate under the terms of the contract. The Contract will also have punitive terms in it to stop EDF (or others) doing anything to slow down the rate of installation. there will also be cancellation terms so the fitters get most of their costs of disposing of staff in the event of termination.
The net effect of this is that it takes someone with real balls to call a halt to the fitting contract or delay it until Smets2 meters are ready, approved and the fitters have been retrained on how to commission them. In fact the contract terms are often written such that it costs more to terminate the contract than let it run on or modify it.
You might think this is cynicism but in a past life I've been involved with govt contracts that were like this and even when a requirement had changed, it was decided that the original deliverables were still to be made and a new contract issued to modify the equipment to a new requirement. Such is the nonsense of firm price contracting over the far more sensible predecessor of cost-plus contracting where the customer (govt) could modify the requirements during the contract and the contractor was paid his audited costs plus a modest margin on the capital employed during the work.
In article , Chris Hogg writes
According to another oft-repeated advert on Classic FM an advert must be honest accurate and true - or words to that effect. An ad on behalf of the Advertising Standards Agency.
It is probably precisely because of the c*ck ups that this is happening. Pity as I was looking forward to having a talking meter that for once I can be sure the reading is correct. Brian
For the industry it was supposed to be complete by 2020, but since the debacle about them not working with different energy companies systems and the gchq leak that the current ones are easy to hack, I suspect this will be dropped or at least moved off anothe five years as the costs involved in re replacing the current ones must be paid for by somebody, and since they promise to cap bills that does not leave anyone to pay it does it? Brian
I thought that was the whole "point" of smart meters - demand management or whatever they call it - different prices at different times of day.
All of this crap about no more estimated bills and see how much you are using instantaneously was just a fortunate side effect.
I found the spec sheet for my meter and it does have the ability to record usage into different registers at different rates at different times of day - but I do remember NOT being on E7 was a pre-requisite for getting from Eon.
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