ATTAK Z Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Are they a good or are they a bad thing ? How do they work ? Any comments/experiences welcomed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Complete brilliance! Regular electric DD was £32.50 per month. Now it's been reduced to £25 a month. The machine doesn't do anything other than tell you how much electricity is being used. Although you end up with a tendency to shout at the Mrs for leaving lights on when not needed. Informative and great fun to see how low you can get it. Great gadget, looks great (EON), serves a purpose and is FOC. Well it's actually saved me £7.50 a month which is a free bottle of Red a month 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy_Baton Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 There are a number of reasons they are being pushed out: 1. Accurate billing - Most people don’t submit their own meter readings and rely on the meter reader coming round every 2 years or so. This means the majority of bills are estimates, this leads to a lot debt. The more debt there is the more debt gets written off, the cost of which is spread across everyone’s bills. 2. Consumption changes pt1 – Being able to see how much energy costs in real time should help reduce consumption and in turn reduce peoples bills. Energy is a quite an abstract thing, so increasing engagement is a good thing as people become more aware of the energy they use they’ll hopefully use less. 3. Consumption changes pt2 – Energy costs suppliers different amounts at different parts of the day but most people are on a flat rate. There will be a move towards more time of use tariffs where the price paid differs dependant on the time/day/season. The end goal of these is to reduce the peak demand by shifting peoples usage period. This is a long term goal obviously if you’re not in and/or your house doesn’t have any storage devices it’s not going to help much. 4. Smart homes – The meter will be able to talk to appliances, and vice versa so it forms an intergral part of the future smart home ‘internet of things’ etc. 5. A move to Prepayment – Prepayment will become the main payment method for most. Smart allows in home pre-payment I.e. you can pay over the internet rather than take a physical key to the shops. This will remove the need for the paypoint infrastructure which adds additional costs and limits the number of tariffs available. Basically every tariff will be available for PPM and PPM will be as cheap as DD. If you’re not thinking of getting one, you can refuse, but you’ll eventually end up paying a lot more as it won’t be cost effective to keep supporting old meters. As the customer base will be tiny suppliers won’t feel the need to target these customers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPod Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I cancelled my smart meter due to it supposedly being harder to switch and I like to switch every year cause its cheaper lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy_Baton Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I should also point out that if you get one now you may need to get it replaced at some point in the future as not all meters will be compatible with the future infrastructure. From mid 2017 all installed meters will be compatible but right now that isn’t the case. If you’re getting one soon, you want it to be SMETS2 compatible otherwise it will lily revert back to a dumb meter if you change suppliers and you’ll need it replaced at some point in the next 4-5 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy_Baton Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I cancelled my smart meter due to it supposedly being harder to switch and I like to switch every year cause its cheaper lol A smart meter won't stop you switching, all that will happen is that if you have a SMETS1 or Trials meter and you swap suppliers it will revert to being a dumb meter. You'll be in no worse a situation than you are now, you'd just need to provide manual reads or wait for a meter reader to come round. If its a SMETs 2 meter than in about 6 weeks time you shoudl be able to swap suppliers and keep it in smart mode. Also electrcity prices bottomed out a few months ago so it unlikly to be cheaper to switch for a very long time. ~10% increase to standard electrcity tariffs are due in the next 6 months, these increases are already being built into fixed tariffs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richf Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Complete brilliance! Regular electric DD was £32.50 per month. Now it's been reduced to £25 a month. The machine doesn't do anything other than tell you how much electricity is being used. Although you end up with a tendency to shout at the Mrs for leaving lights on when not needed. Informative and great fun to see how low you can get it. Great gadget, looks great (EON), serves a purpose and is FOC. Well it's actually saved me £7.50 a month which is a free bottle of Red a month wow might have to take a look at these , our DD is £121 pm if the savings compares thats significant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Complete brilliance! Regular electric DD was £32.50 per month. Now it's been reduced to £25 a month. The machine doesn't do anything other than tell you how much electricity is being used. Although you end up with a tendency to shout at the Mrs for leaving lights on when not needed. Informative and great fun to see how low you can get it. Great gadget, looks great (EON), serves a purpose and is FOC. Well it's actually saved me £7.50 a month which is a free bottle of Red a month wow might have to take a look at these , our DD is £121 pm if the savings compares thats significant £121 PM! Are you powering a mansion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richf Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I wish, its a 5 bed detached, it was £55pm when we moved in 17 years ago ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy_Baton Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Complete brilliance! Regular electric DD was £32.50 per month. Now it's been reduced to £25 a month. The machine doesn't do anything other than tell you how much electricity is being used. Although you end up with a tendency to shout at the Mrs for leaving lights on when not needed. Informative and great fun to see how low you can get it. Great gadget, looks great (EON), serves a purpose and is FOC. Well it's actually saved me £7.50 a month which is a free bottle of Red a month wow might have to take a look at these , our DD is £121 pm if the savings compares thats significant Is your DD based on actual reads or estimates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Complete brilliance! Regular electric DD was £32.50 per month. Now it's been reduced to £25 a month. The machine doesn't do anything other than tell you how much electricity is being used. Although you end up with a tendency to shout at the Mrs for leaving lights on when not needed. Informative and great fun to see how low you can get it. Great gadget, looks great (EON), serves a purpose and is FOC. Well it's actually saved me £7.50 a month which is a free bottle of Red a month wow might have to take a look at these , our DD is £121 pm if the savings compares thats significant £121 PM! Are you powering a mansion! Mine's £155 a month Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Looks like you ALL need smart meters! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsexr Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 you guys want to try turning a few things off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 you guys want to try turning a few things off I like sitting next to the radiator with a portable aircon blowing hot air while the dehumidifier does its work.... On a serious note I see the benefits of this but I prefer slightly over paying in the summer and under paying in the winter smoothing the costs out. Now I know there are issues with this but it does work for me. In wasso's case a bottle of red in the summer could mean him going without two reds in winter... We are having one fitted next month, other half sorts all this stuff out so will check the type of meter. Great info all and especially randy baton on the limitations of some smart meters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATTAK Z Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 Many thanks guys ... I think I'll partake ! I'm with OVO and send readings monthly ... I'm saving about 40% on the non-DD accounts with npower and British Gas I had last year so I'm already a happy bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robchriscross Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Many thanks guys ... I think I'll partake ! I'm with OVO and send readings monthly ... I'm saving about 40% on the non-DD accounts with npower and British Gas I had last year so I'm already a happy bunny I had me ovo meter fitted a few weeks back already saving £30 a month since switching from npower good piece of kit the meter Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 you guys want to try turning a few things off Well, for a start I don't have gas. However, I do have oil which costs around £50 per month. Secondly, I have 4 high powered PC's running 24/7 365 plus a few laptops which cost around £10-15 a month for the PC's, maybe a fiver for each laptop. On the plus side my water rates are very low as I don't have to pay any sewerage charges. No idea when we'll get a Smart Meter, isolated houses like mine tend to be at the back of the queue. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggalo Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 (edited) There are a number of reasons they are being pushed out: 1. Accurate billing - Most people don’t submit their own meter readings and rely on the meter reader coming round every 2 years or so. This means the majority of bills are estimates, this leads to a lot debt. The more debt there is the more debt gets written off, the cost of which is spread across everyone’s bills. 2. Consumption changes pt1 – Being able to see how much energy costs in real time should help reduce consumption and in turn reduce peoples bills. Energy is a quite an abstract thing, so increasing engagement is a good thing as people become more aware of the energy they use they’ll hopefully use less. 3. Consumption changes pt2 – Energy costs suppliers different amounts at different parts of the day but most people are on a flat rate. There will be a move towards more time of use tariffs where the price paid differs dependant on the time/day/season. The end goal of these is to reduce the peak demand by shifting peoples usage period. This is a long term goal obviously if you’re not in and/or your house doesn’t have any storage devices it’s not going to help much. 4. Smart homes – The meter will be able to talk to appliances, and vice versa so it forms an intergral part of the future smart home ‘internet of things’ etc. 5. A move to Prepayment – Prepayment will become the main payment method for most. Smart allows in home pre-payment I.e. you can pay over the internet rather than take a physical key to the shops. This will remove the need for the paypoint infrastructure which adds additional costs and limits the number of tariffs available. Basically every tariff will be available for PPM and PPM will be as cheap as DD. If you’re not thinking of getting one, you can refuse, but you’ll eventually end up paying a lot more as it won’t be cost effective to keep supporting old meters. As the customer base will be tiny suppliers won’t feel the need to target these customers. 6: Lay off the meter readers and make more profit. 7: When everyone has been lured into having one, the prices will go up to pre-smart meter levels, and some. http://www.thisismon...-need-most.html Edited August 23, 2016 by Juggalo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richf Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 you guys want to try turning a few things off Well, for a start I don't have gas. However, I do have oil which costs around £50 per month. Secondly, I have 4 high powered PC's running 24/7 365 plus a few laptops which cost around £10-15 a month for the PC's, maybe a fiver for each laptop. On the plus side my water rates are very low as I don't have to pay any sewerage charges. No idea when we'll get a Smart Meter, isolated houses like mine tend to be at the back of the queue. Pete Very similar to me , also on oil fired heating but economy 7 for the hot water , beefy pc's and a tumble drier dont help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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