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Post by Slinger on Jun 11, 2019 16:33:00 GMT
I've just spoken to British Gas and ordered a smart meter for my account as my direct debit amounts are currently going up and down faster than a whore's drawers. For instance, a few months ago I was told that I was paying far too much, and that they're like to cut my DD down to £20.00 per month. Checking my account online today I can see that that will apparently leave me over £400.00 short at the end of the period, and I've had to alter the amount from £20.00 pm to £104.00 pm to compensate. As I've just been shunted onto British Gas by Sainsbury's energy it seemed a good time to do something about the constant buggering around. So, has anybody got a smart meter? Does anyone have any comments, (from experience, rather than "I've heard..." preferably,) either good or bad, about them? Oh, and to really confuse the issue, I've just checked my bank accounts online and found a payment made to me by British Gas, yesterday, for almost two-hundred, quid.  |
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 11, 2019 17:58:21 GMT
No smart meter here.
Not convinced enough to want one.
Don't fancy BG either, even via a proxy
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Post by MartinT on Jun 11, 2019 18:14:16 GMT
I'm avoiding one like the plague.
All I need is a smart meter injecting crap down the mains that I try so hard to clean.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2019 18:28:53 GMT
NO smart here either thank you
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 11, 2019 19:29:15 GMT
Hadn't realised they did that
No smart meter for me either
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Post by Slinger on Jun 11, 2019 20:28:52 GMT
So... four answers, from three people, none of whom has actually got a smart meter, but who felt it incumbent upon themselves to make me aware that they haven't got one. Welcome to the wonderful world of online forums.  |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 11, 2019 22:11:05 GMT
This is primarily a hi-fi forum. I felt that giving advice over the adverse effect a smart meter could have on your listening might be of help to some members.
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Post by zippy on Jun 12, 2019 7:18:02 GMT
I would love a smart meter for electrics.
In fact I ordered one.
Engineer turned up, tut-tut, sharp intake of breath.
Apparently I can't have one because my meter box is too small..
.. and they say size doesn't matter.
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Post by mikeyb on Jun 12, 2019 7:41:59 GMT
Waste of time, unless you're using £1000's of gas and electricity how does it help you save, I mean if you're already using as little as possible HOW does a meter help?
Ooh look the kettle only used 14p to boil my cuppa, pretty sure it was 14.2p last time what a saving, jeezo that DAC is burning my money like crazy, I'll only use it for an hour today instead of 2, can you tell I'm not a fan 🤔😂
I removed mine and binned it
My dad asked if he should get one, I said dad what was your bill last month? He says about £13 elec used, mmmm let me think 😂😂😂
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 8:47:13 GMT
Hacking possibilities any one?
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Post by petea on Jun 12, 2019 9:25:16 GMT
We'll have to wait until he's got it installed!  |
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 12, 2019 9:28:08 GMT
So... four answers, from three people, none of whom has actually got a smart meter, but who felt it incumbent upon themselves to make me aware that they haven't got one. Welcome to the wonderful world of online forums. But but but we have *opinions*  |
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Post by Slinger on Jun 12, 2019 13:03:43 GMT
Waste of time, unless you're using £1000's of gas and electricity how does it help you save, I mean if you're already using as little as possible HOW does a meter help? Ooh look the kettle only used 14p to boil my cuppa, pretty sure it was 14.2p last time what a saving, jeezo that DAC is burning my money like crazy, I'll only use it for an hour today instead of 2, can you tell I'm not a fan 🤔😂 I removed mine and binned it My dad asked if he should get one, I said dad what was your bill last month? He says about £13 elec used, mmmm let me think 😂😂😂 As you can see, from my original post, I'm not looking to save money, I'm trying to "normalise" my bill. Since my wife passed away 20 months ago and I transferred the payments to my bank account, instead of the joint account it was previously paid from, the amount I pay by DD every month seems to change on a whim. 12 months ago I was paying £129 pm, "too much" they said, and lowered that to £98 pm - "that's still far too much" they said 6 months later, we'd like to lower it to £20.00. Yesterday I checked the account (not because of any communication from them, but to try and work out why they'd just put almost £200 back into my bank account. When I checked there was no mention of the money that they'd paid me, but checking did tell me that the £20 pm that I was asked to pay would leave me with a £400+ shortfall at the end of the billing period, and I had to increase my payments to £104 pm. That's why I want a Smart Meter, so I can make as sure as possible that I'm paying the correct account rather then playing silly buggers with my direct debits every few months. |
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Post by Slinger on Jun 12, 2019 13:07:21 GMT
This is primarily a hi-fi forum. I felt that giving advice over the adverse effect a smart meter could have on your listening might be of help to some members. Martin, where did you find the info about the crap they can feed back into the electrics, and do you think a huge ferrite choke might help?  |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 12, 2019 13:25:57 GMT
Martin, where did you find the info about the crap they can feed back into the electrics, and do you think a huge ferrite choke might help? I don't know, Paul, it was a while ago now. Technology may have changed and perhaps they hook onto your wi-fi now but they used to send their meter data back along the power lines for collection at central hubs. A big enough choke at the incoming power end? Yes, that should do it. Of course, your meter may stop working, too |
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Post by zippy on Jun 12, 2019 13:55:00 GMT
Waste of time, unless you're using £1000's of gas and electricity how does it help you save... For me it wasn't about saving money but saving having to fight against next doors overgrown conifers to read the meter every month or so. O.K. maybe I'm lazy.. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 14:20:36 GMT
Hi Paul
I understand your thoughts on this, I've just had my bill for the last 1/4 and it wasn't as much as £129!! pm and here we have a lot of electrical equipment running a lot of time more so than most average households plus its fairly large place.
Mind you I have just switched and it will drop the bill by around £550 a year on a one year fixed plan, we have a duel fuel tariff though.
Can easily measure what the meter dumps back in the mains, I need to find a local with one though!
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Post by Slinger on Jun 12, 2019 14:24:08 GMT
Martin, where did you find the info about the crap they can feed back into the electrics, and do you think a huge ferrite choke might help? I don't know, Paul, it was a while ago now. Technology may have changed and perhaps they hook onto your wi-fi now but they used to send their meter data back along the power lines for collection at central hubs. A big enough choke at the incoming power end? Yes, that should do it. Of course, your meter may stop working, too According to the interweb "They operate using a wireless network, but one which is separate from your home Wi-Fi" and "Each smart meter contains its own SIM card, and sends data over a mobile GSM network." |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 12, 2019 15:05:01 GMT
Ok, so the new ones don't deliberately send crap down the power line. It'll still be worth filtering them as they're bound to use an SMPS.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2019 8:53:16 GMT
I'm avoiding one like the plague. All I need is a smart meter injecting crap down the mains that I try so hard to clean. When we switched over to our new electricity supplier, they said we had to have a Smart Meter and turned up one day to install one. I had checked my contract and at no point did it say I had to have one, so I just turned them away. They did say that apparently it will become a mandatory requirement for all UK homes by a certain date, which has slipped my mind though. I'll wait until then! |
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