They are being advertised on TV as saving electricity. Now we all know that adverts are all accurate and never lie. But how exactly do they save electric? Or do they mean that customers can use the information given to save it?
That's what I understand. TPTB expect you to look at the meter every few minutes and run around switching off lights, phone chargers etc to save a few watts. My impression is that most people pretty soon get bored by them and stop looking, presumably reverting to their former wasteful or otherwise behaviour.
Yeah. Save £40 something per annum, allegedly - having a larf there. Try getting a wife and daughter (let alone yourself) to change habits for an extended time. We all are used to consuming electricity, gas and water in the manner to which we have become accustomed. Only when these resources are unavailable will we change.
Maybe the reason for establishment encouragement of smart meter adoption is so they can cut off supply to force prevention of resource waste. Family X is consuming 1% more electricity/gas/water than the average for their type - click, fixed.
Their ultimate real purpose is energy demand management, in the new world of renewable energy.Tariffs will be instantly adjustable depending on electricity available.
I believe that the official figure has been revised to something like £15 per annum. However the cost of the smart meter, for which you are paying for in your bills, has to be factored in. Various recent estimates put the cost of a smart meter at £400 per household.
They warn you how much it all is costing you so you rush out and replace all your lights with leds etc.
Brian
It means customers look at it and get a feel for what consumes the most electricity in the house, and cut back.
Independant trials have shown this lasts for about a month before the thrill wears off and the meter is ignored, and after that, the savings drop back to nearly nothing.
Clip-on power meters have been available for many years which do this (albeit less accurately), and their impact was identical, so it comes as no surprise.
I think the biggest saving will be for the utility companies by not having to pay for all the meter readers hence they become more profitable.
I have monitored my gas/elec for a few years now and my bills are less now than 5 years ago, I didnt need a smart meter to do it.
Except it doesn't tell you which appliances are using the electricity, or allow you to see what the average consumption of your fridge/freezer is, or the total used for an operation such as a wash cycle or cooking exercise.
I expect this would happen with most people even if they did give any useful information.
Or just look at the spinning disc (if you have an old meter).
Not quite. instantly adjustable up, long-delayed down. Just like power supplies and petrol/diesel at present.
That is an interesting Wiki article, though. I thought the examples () were particularly informative, and a bit worrying: "The utility companies in the state of Queensland, Australia have devices fitted onto certain household appliances such as air conditioners or into household meters to control water heater, pool pumps etc. These devices would allow energy companies to remotely cycle the use of these items during peak hours."
What is the point of having an air conditioner (or heater in cold climates) if the electric company decides they will switch it off? It would be bad enough not owning an air conditioner in a heatwave, but actually having one and just sitting there watching it do nothing because someone else is controlling it would be especially galling.
This is quite common in the States for A/C. For a reduced cost rate, there is the option for the utility company to shut off the A/C power for a period of time. In all the time we had this, we never noticed it being switched off, so it was either for a short enough duration to be un-noticeable, or was never invoked.
+1 I've had a clip on meter for many years. The novelty wore off after around a week. The only time I now look at it is before leaving the house for an extended time (holiday etc.) just to see that I haven't accidentally left something on such as the immersion heater.
You forget the annual safety checks that the meter readers perform!
Is this because you have actively tried to use less energy or that the winters have been milder than previously and use have used less energy heating your house?
My energy bills have gone down because in the past year or two I'm taking more holidays or visiting friends hence using less energy at home.
In the good old days of electro-mechanical meters there was a nice big wheel which you could monitor go around. You could see or measure what happened when you put the kettle on, or as one did in those days, switched on the electric heater. Which was all fine and dandy but it didn't give alternatives to boiling the water or from being cold so even in those days no money was actually saved.
Then there's sitting in the library reading the paper, and making a half of mild last all evening in the pub.
Bill
All evening? Half a pint would only last me 5 minutes :)
In article , Broadback writes
384kwh according to the latest ads on Classic FM. No given that one of the supposed benefits of SMs is that you can see your usage in "pounds and pence" why are they giving the potential savings in old money I wonder? Surely not to confuse people or to save loss of face by having to reduce their previous over-optimistic claims? Another question. Is it permitted to have unattributed adverts on radio- or on any other media platform?
Particularly if you have a resident whose body temperature control is not very effective and would suffer extreme distress without said air conditioning.
Which saves you SFA because you've already got cfls. In article , Brian Gaff writes
In article , Andrew Gabriel writes
Each item of my electrical equipment has a little label on it which gives me that feel. There's also a big EU label which tells me how energy efficient it is - whatever that means.
Yup
Yup
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