Has anyone had a smart meter installed as yet and have you noticed a reduction in fuel used.

 

Has the energy supplier told you you will save fuel ?

How long did the install take gas&elec ?

 

Please feel free to post any info re smart meters here.

 

Thank you.

 

I have had a smart electric meter installed 3 or 4 months ago.  As far as I know it won't use less electric just it gives me the opportunity to see how much I am using at any given time.  With that information I can make decisions to switch stuff off to change the amount I use or not as the case may be.  Since we have started to use it our electric use per day has never been above £1 and there is just the two of us in a two bed house.

 

On the days where we cook anything it has a marked increase in the amount of electric used but it still is not even upto £1.  We are of course not using the gas central heating as yet so not pumping water about constantly using more electric.  It will be interesting to see what difference having lights on a lot more makes as well. 

 

I don't know other than education as to what we are actually using how it can cut your bill though.

I've had a 'previous generation' smart meter fitted (and subsequently removed when I changed supplier) and there was never any mention of it reducing my fuel amount.

It could be that as more people have usage meters hooked up that they realise how much they're using and then turn things off though.

 

The big advantage for me was that I didn't have to submit any meter reads and got accurate billing. However that could be a disadvantage for some who prefer to pay a fixed amount every month.

We log our meter readings each week to keep a check on what we use, takes two minutes.  If the missus uses the washing machine more or does the ironing we can tell with the readings. Likewise gas usage is sometimes up or down depending on taking a bath or shower more on a particular week. When she does any baking (bread, cakes) we can account for it.

We had one unusual spike in electricity use which couldn't be explained, even Npower couldn't solve it. How can you use nearly as much electric in a week when you're not even in the property as a usual week when you would be there, strange. Other than that we have a pretty even usage most weeks and have been able to reduce our DD doing these checks as you can more or less forecast what your useage is, and of course what it was 1, 2, 3 years ago etc. When they estimate a reading we can tell them it's way out or near enough or send them a proper reading.

Getting shot of a freezer has saved quite a bit on electric, keep just the one running now but buy less stuff when doing a shop. One freezer full or nearly full as opposed to 2 freezers half full most of the time. Doing all this has saved us money over the years and has seen our bills kept manageble, we even got a better deal last year by just a quick phone call. They weren't happy with me suggesting an amount for the DD per month, they wanted more. As it works out we are in credit still and looks like we will get a credit back on our account at the next billing.

Smart meters aren't for your benefit really.

They're there to provide info to the energy company and to reduce the need for meter reading staff.

 

They can also disconnect you remotely if needed.

 

Lots of the smart meters are hackable as well. Not something I'd choose to have if possible.

I don't need a meter to tell be to cut back on energy use, the bills tell me that.

I have a smart meter and its great, I can login to my online account and see exactly what is happening even it not at home. Meter reading is submitted hourly to the provider, so always have accurate bills. Mine was installed about a year ago, and I've only had one issue where the monitor lost connection to the meter. Easily fixed by a call to dedicated UK based CS Team who reset the pairing of the monitor.

 

Installation took about 1/2 hour, then a quick lesson on how the monitor works and he was off.

 

The meters tend to use the mobile phone network to connect to HQ, mine is on O2 as the installer does a test to see which network works best and then inserts a SIM card into the meter.

As said above - smart meters are more for the energy company to save on meter reading staff.

 

Any potential energy savings will come from the customers increased awareness of their usage and making adjustments.

There may be a perceived financial saving if the customer has estimated bills all the time too.

 

I dont have smart meters (yet) - but i do use "loop" for gas and elec monitoring which works quite well.

As has been sais it does nothing except inform you in real time your usage in a more fancy way................

 

The old fashioned way was to watch the spinny disc go around..............

 

Personally I go around & switch stuff off when not using..........

There is another issue, lots of these systems have hardwired security, and a number have already had "proof of concept" attacks documented; someone could reset your system to switch the heating on full during your summer holiday, or switch it off so the pipes burst during your winter holiday.

At least one was hacked so they could enter any energy consumption data they liked - IE resetting the meter to say you were consuming a megawatt per hour!!

 

I dont know of any "in the wild" attacks, but the potential is there to wreak havoc.

My smart meter has no connection whatsoever with my central heating panel so is unlikely to do either of the above.  As for someone hacking into it.  Why would they?  Don't you think we get a little carried away with some of these horror stories?  Some days on here it is just like reading the Daily Fail!

There is another issue, lots of these systems have hardwired security, and a number have already had "proof of concept" attacks documented; someone could reset your system to switch the heating on full during your summer holiday, or switch it off so the pipes burst during your winter holiday.

At least one was hacked so they could enter any energy consumption data they liked - IE resetting the meter to say you were consuming a megawatt per hour!!

 

I dont know of any "in the wild" attacks, but the potential is there to wreak havoc.

 

How, when my smart meter have no connection with anything in the house, other than the 2 meters?

Even has it's own battery power supply.

I think you must be thinking about something totally different.

How, when my smart meter have no connection with anything in the house, other than the 2 meters?

Even has it's own battery power supply.

I think you must be thinking about something totally different.

 

You're forgetting that the new Smart meters are actually connected to your 'fuel' and could indeed be switched off remotely as IIRC that's part of their specification.

When I worked for the Hydro-board the control room could remote switch a transformer etc by sending a signal down the power cable, no need for other cables, much like the way you sent data down a power line for d-lan home internet extensions...........if the meter that is your main meter is compatible then it is possible to switch it off remotely.

I have had a smart electric meter installed 3 or 4 months ago. As far as I know it won't use less electric just it gives me the opportunity to see how much I am using at any given time. With that information I can make decisions to switch stuff off to change the amount I use or not as the case may be. Since we have started to use it our electric use per day has never been above £1 and there is just the two of us in a two bed house.

On the days where we cook anything it has a marked increase in the amount of electric used but it still is not even upto £1. We are of course not using the gas central heating as yet so not pumping water about constantly using more electric. It will be interesting to see what difference having lights on a lot more makes as well.

I don't know other than education as to what we are actually using how it can cut your bill though.

Obviously it depends on your boiler and system, but boilers really dont use much electricity now.

Around 150watts for an average combi.

So it might not be as bad as you think.. Of course, depending on your individual system

You're forgetting that the new Smart meters are actually connected to your 'fuel' and could indeed be switched off remotely as IIRC that's part of their specification.

 

I have a NEW one, but it still couldn't do what GG implies.

argh stupid stupid thing, Ive just lost my lengthy response three times

 

shortened significantly due to frustration

 

smart meters good

remote disconnections will never happen (with bg)

remote switching to pay as you go will though

myenergy report and other such things quite insightful

 

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/smarter-living/control-energy/smart-meters/my-energy-use.html

 

meters dont currently work with other supplier infrastructures

may want to wait for regulatory compliance and infrastructure centralisation by the dcc end next year

 

https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/about-dcc/

When I worked for the Hydro-board the control room could remote switch a transformer etc by sending a signal down the power cable, no need for other cables, much like the way you sent data down a power line for d-lan home internet extensions...........if the meter that is your main meter is compatible then it is possible to switch it off remotely.

Similar system's been in operation for yonks for Hydro customers. One variation of this was the remote controlled off peak storage radiator system,where a control was sent to give a mid day boost to storage radiators. So if that was possible, then it's not beyond the realms to think that remote control would be possible. But something I notice that's not been mentioned, and is seldom heard of from the energy companies is best selection of household items  . i.e. - a gas oven ,for example needs to be vented ,and as such is less efficient than an electric one,which is best sealed. Hence the gas oven has to work harder (and use more energy ,by definition) to maintain a set temperature, whilst an electric one gives out less heat..Similarly a gas hob is more controllable. (but I have no experience of induction hobs).