Smart meters yet again - EON

[David]

"We need to upgrade your electricity and gas meters to our new self- reading smart meters. Why are we changing your meters? We need to install smart meters into all of our customers' homes as part of a government led nationwide upgrade programme. The good news is they have great benefits for you: ?No need to provide meter readings, they're sent to us automatically ?No more estimated bills1 ?See how much energy you're using and what it's costing you, with a helpful in-home display. "

However I can ring up and tell them that I don't want one. :-)

I wonder how many neighbours will go onto smart metering?

Having had the knee jerk "No Way!!!" response, I am wondering if there is a major down side if the meter is SMETS 2 compatible.

Do all power companies support SMETS 2 meters and use them if you switch suppliers?

The only minor benefit I can see at the moment is monitoring of gas usage as I already have a free clamp on meter from EON for the electricity.

Cheers

Dave R

[Huge]

You should always look at these things from the PoV of;

- What happens if it goes wrong?

- What happens if it's hacked/compromised?

- What benefits accrue to the people trying to "sell" this to me?

- What happens if it's abused?

rather then from the PoV of the minimal benefits that accrue to you.

[Martin Barclay]

Smart meters - 5 points:

[Nick Odell]

I was under the impression that they haven't yet started rolling out the series 2 meters so the necessity for change in the future and current incompatibility between certain suppliers is still at issue(BICBW)

Nick

[Broadback]

Eon keep pestering me to have a smart meter. They cannot understand that they attempted to fit one "eons" ago, and fail;ed. it was too far from their useless base to work. However they keep pestering me.

[dennis]

Well that's pretty much BS.

Smart meters save you money even if you don't have one as they don't need an army of readers to go out and read them.

They can save you money as some companies are now offering different tariffs to customers with smart meters as they can give free days or variable tariffs. If your lifestyle fits one of these tariffs you save money if it doesn't, well neither does the one you are on.

As for data mining, well just what can you tell from a meter reading every few minutes? Answer not a lot. Is it worth anything, well to them as buyers of energy yes, to anyone else probably not.

[dennis]

Maybe the mobile phone network has been upgraded? If the smart meter doesn't work then the O2 network signal is weak.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Which contains mostly bullshit, technobabble.

They don't transmit low frequency they transmit on UHF to the indoor unit. Once per day they transmit on the mobile phone channel, to send the data. The risk is several orders of magnitude less to the customer, than using a mobile phone next to the head.

I have never heard of an SM being hacked, to monitor their usage, nor anyones gas or power being turned off by a hacker. There are much easier methods of finding out if a home is unoccupied, than trying to hack into a meter anyway.

The one thing he got right, was that you can still refuse to have an SM.

[Andrew]

Then that 'saving' is for the company, NOT the consumer.

I send an accurate electric meter reading every three months when EDF send me an email requesting it. My balance is updated immediately and I can pay immediately or wait 2 days to get an actual electronic bill and then pay it.

However, if I was on direct debits (sic) then i would be paying an *estimated* amount every month, whereas I actually pay the proper balance in FULL, and yet derive none of the financial bribes for DD.

Since most people on DD ended up in credit it is easy to see why the energy companies preferred DD's.

[Robin]

We have had smart meters for 5+ years. We have never been in credit by more than about £75. With the interest rates over that period, the loss of income to us is trivial. It is dwarfed by the discounts/lower tariffs offered for monthly DDs.

[whisky-dave]

How does that save me money ?

you assume smart meters are here to save YOU and teh customer money ?

It's not you know it's for larger company profits.

How many on here have been given a discount if they have a smartmeter installed ?

I can.

I know when my immersion heater comes on and off.

[charles]

I don't think they use a mobile phone network. They have their own.

[Broadback]

I have no problems with my mobile phone, so that cannot be the case. Just p*ss poor equipment.

[Martin Barclay]

Smart electricity meters can be dangerously insecure, warns expert.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Martin Barclay pretended :

Well, if its in the press, it must be right and must be believed - not.

Does anyone seriously believe any of this? Has there ever been a single, reliably reported incident of any of this actually happening? I guess not, but it helps to sell newspapers.

?He can do billing fraud, setting your bill to whatever he likes ? The scary thing is if you think about the power they have over your electricity. He will have power over all of your smart devices connected to the electricity. This will have more severe consequences: imagine you woke up to find you?d been robbed by a burglar who didn?t have to break in.

?But even if you don?t have smart devices, you are still at risk. An attacker who controls the meter also controls the meter?s software, allowing him to cause it to literally explode.?

[Harry Bloomfield]

charles was thinking very hard :

They use the nomal mobile phone network, when there is surplus capacity on the network, after midnight.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It avoids them having to employ a little man to drive around in his van, collecting meter readings. It is greener that burning fuel driving around to collect them.

For you, there is no immediate benefit, but all of these things help reduce running costs and long term we will see some benefits.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They use the mobile phone network. They do not have their own

[charles]

It's a wonder it works here, then.

Charles

[Martin Barclay]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2018 16:27:31 +0100, Harry Bloomfield stuck his fingers in his ears & chanted "La, la, la, la, la, la.