Smart Meters

[NeilM]

Re:

I am still waiting to hear back from British Gas, I have Twitter and Ofgen to fall back on if I am unhappy with the answers.

 

[videojetman]

Is there a charge for having a smart meter ?
My energy company is trying to get me to change to smart meters.

 

[legrandefromage]

I dont believe you can be charged for the meters

 

[NeilM]

Re:

Mine were supplied and installed for free.... but they don't work so......

 

[mdvineng]

Re: Re:

I'm originally an electronics engineer by training / profession, but I can't see any way of turning either of them on or off. There certainly are a few buttons on the meters, but I don't fancy prodding them at random in the hope of getting a response.

My thought is, as I can seen no electrical feed to the gas meter, that they are battery powered and the batteries have failed.

I thought that energy providers HAD to take a meter reading at least once a year.

Only whilst older meters are around, it'll change by industry pressure when we're all on smart meters.

 

[M-Power]

Re:

Read recently its best to wait for the new versions which allow supplier swop over without compatability issues.

 

[Mike Muz]

I dont believe you can be charged for the meters

With EDF at least, they are increasing charges to allow for these meters - whether you have them, or like me, don't - as well as 'increased supply costs'

Which reminds me, I must look into switching supplier.

Mike

 

[The History Man]

Obviously not made by Rita as they’re not lovely.





I ave a donkey on a treadmill.

 

[NeilM]

Re:

As I received no reply to my return e-mail, and then an aborted attempt to speak to me by phone, I thought I would take the initiative and ring British Gas.

I spoke to a very knowledgable guy who asked if I could access the meters, which I did, he then told me how to get readings from both, which I did. He looked at my account and said that as both meters had failed at the same time, he thought it was a comms issue, I said they were fine for two years, so he had me look at the little white transmitter next to the meters, sure enough that is the culprit.

So, upshot is an engineer from British Gas is coming to sort things out next week, my meter readings are now up to date and BG's overestimation of my electricity usage means I am going to get a sensible amount of money back.

Years ago I had issues with my broadband, and discovered a similar diamond within BT, the guy I spoke to talked me though the whole issue and we resolved it there and then, the guy at BG was the same last night, it seems that in a sea of corporate mediocrity, every now and again you come across someone who actually knows how to do their job and takes a pride in doing it.

Now all I need is for the engineer to do a good job.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

How do you get readings off the gas meter.
I can read it off our electrikery, but gas has none such reading.

The remote 'display' shows them fine but for some reason our gas is now less than last time and I'm sure I read it right. That and the clock has a shorter day than most people (it looses time). It's about an hour and half out now over twoish years.

We do it manually as the last (EDF) and current (some random cheap one) don't use the smart meter.

(Its just over 2 years old iirc.).

Current supplier doesn't seem concerned the time is wrong. Also told.me I could adjust it myself. I laughed in the email exchange saying if I could do it myself.then I'd be able to fiddle any time of day energy tarrifs.
He seems to skip.over than and not comment again.
Fools the lot of them.

They control my time from their networks, otherwise it wouldn't be very 'smart'.
Which is a bollocks term as its just a Datalogging device that send data via dodgy backend mobile comms.