Only if you are a shareholder.
Though I agree that sending readers around is a waste of resources especially as a reader can only read meters for the supplier that has contracted them. Having three supplies from three different suppliers means three different readers. Not like the old days when the reader went from door to door reading all the meters.
Jeff Layman formulated on Tuesday :
They cannot change the amount without giving prior warning. My account always has enough funds to cover a few months of even the worst case.
and how does that save me money ? if it did they'd actually offer that saving as an insentive.
Any saving will be swallowed up by adminstrative costs and the costs of ru nning the equipemnt which I will be paying for via my bill. In the end this will actually cost more unless those changing the meters ar e working for nothing and the exchange meters cost nothing to make and the software engineers working on them costs nothing. A friend of mine was work ign for one of the big companies, £225 an hour to write the data manup ulating app. and there were quite a few working on the same app. for months .
No idea whether a smartmeter tariff is any differnt to any other. If they said to be go on a smartmeter and you're cost per Kwh will be say 1
2p, but if you remain on the old none smartmeter tariff it would remain at 13p then I could see the savings.I can at about 12:42 last night my immertsion heater came on, at about 12:5
9 it switched off. The company a friend is working for writing a smartmeter app was asked to i ncrease the reading frequency from once per hour to every 30mins, previous ly it was once every 4 hours, they keep increasing the resulution required he told, them that uploading such a large amount of data had caused problem s and he only had about 1000 simulated users.There must be some reason they want more than just one reading a week, don; t forget they only really need one a month if yuo're paying monthly surely, if you're paying one a 1/4 why do they need readings taken every 30 mins.
Can you tell me why they need readings every 30mins if I pay once every 3 m onths ? and as for the little man mine was due in April to check electrical safety so a 'little man' still has to visit me for electrical safety check apparn tly once every 2 years.
Who's more clued about than yuo are about this. Why don;t you tell me why they need so many reading to be taken ?
But the readings aren't for _them_ .... they're for *you*
I have never, ever been in credit except for bloody BT who made it almost impossible to avoid paying by DD.
Multiply your £75 by a few million customers and you can see why utilities just luv 'em, especially when they know that most customers are too lazy or stupid to send accurate meter readings in.
But benefits from *none* of any savings that they (the customer) make on behalf of the company.
Take BT, they used to give credits for customers opting for electronic bills. Then the saving was quietly removed, along with a variety of call credits and free caller-id.
whisky-dave expressed precisely :
They don't, the customer does. You tell them whether you require readings monthly, weekly, daily, or daily uploaded, but logged every 30 minutes.
I am not aware that they do.
WTF !, what are you running to run up usage like that ?.
Is this a domestic residence or a farm or business ?.
If you have a south-facing roof, then some solar PV panels with the much more realistic FIT might help you. Or a panel that heats up water only.
+1
And, I may add, their shareholders.
Because the ultimate aim is demand pricing.
Anyone with the temerity to use leccy at 4PM on a gloomy midwinter day with a blocking high pressure over Norway is going to be paying 50p or more per KwH. (I wonder how much power an MRI scanner consumes per year?).
However if they go down this route, I suspect sales of cooking foil will spike as people learn how to build a Faraday cage around their smart meter to stop it sending data back to base. :-)
I thought they used an ancient ex-C&W 2G system that is due to be switched off in 2020 anyway ?.
A company *is* it's shareholders.
It is still free with a 12 month contract (which is itself a worthwhile saving) :
The qualifying calls (2 per month) can be free (officially "within your calling plan").
As all my calls are made via 18185, I have a reminder to make a couple of BT weekend calls every 4 weeks, to a local line I know always has an answerphone.
The good news is that BT are reducing their line rental by £7 per month if you only take their landline service.
The bad news is that if you have broadband, even if it is Virgin, which uses no BT equipment, you are not eligible.
"I have a broadband service with Virgin, am I eligible for the discount?
To be eligible, you must not have broadband with BT or any other broadband provider. This includes Virgin broadband. This discount is for customers that only have a line rental service."
Chris
why would you need to tell them ? The idea is that you can view it on your phone, it doesnt or shouldn't need to go to them as that sort of information is avaible to me anytime minute by minuite for years, it's called a meter reading.
They do, the last one told me my meter tails needed replacing that was 3 ye ars ago.
Gas and electricity suppliers have a licence obligation to inspect their customers? meters at least every two years, unless we consent to other arrangements
But that was overtaken by Ofgem's decision in 2016
"to repeal the two-yearly meter inspection licence conditions in gas and electricity in their entirety. We consider other legal obligations to be more effective and efficient tools for achieving the policy objectives."
don;t forget they only really need one a month if yuo're paying monthly sur ely, if you're paying one a 1/4 why do they need readings taken every 30 m ins.
No it's to increase profits or should I say to charge people more.
So you'll see hopsitals turning off their MRI and care homes turning off th e power at say 4pm when the cost goes up, I doubt that will ever happen as they want electricity usage planned so they can make better use of the pow erplants so they don't have to keep using backup power at short notice whic h IS more expensive. Do you really think the steel industry (if we have one at the time) will sh ut up and send everyone home at 4pm ?
The companies will get around that by saying if we don't get a reading we'l l use the last highest reading we have and you'll be charged at that level.
Next generation "smart" meters will not pass power if they can't get a keepalive from the mothership ....
Of course they do, if they didn't make the savings the consumer would have to pay more when they put the price up more to pay the extra costs.
And your point being?
BTW you can still have free CI, and there are bill savings to be had if you pay by DD and have paperless billing.
How long do you think that will last ? When will they charge extra for NOT paying by DD and then won't accept any other method of payment other than DD.
You used to be able to get discounts by paying cash few places do this now.
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