[Closed] Scottish Power want to install a Smart Meter - do I have to have one?

You can refuse.

http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/

Why would you change what you do now with a different meter?

What a ridiculous mindset, you don't have to stare at the smart metre. What I love about it is that its constantly telling my supplier the readings so the bills are accurate and you don't get a silly credit/debit amount on your account.

Hasn't changed my habits at all.

Embrace technology you stiff.

What a charmer. ^

Every house will have to have one by 2020.
Arqiva are rolling out a Huge network as we speak just for this.

Hopefully they will make most people realise just how much electricity leaving stuff on standby uses and actually turn them off and kick them into choosing more efficient appliances.

and I don't want to go around the house in a paranoid state switching everything off.

You really don't want to know what energy you are using and if you could use less ??

That Stop smart meters website is either really funny, or really sad, I'm not sure which. Though maybe I could tell if the wifis weren't being mean to me.

I'm off to knit myself a pair of tinfoil underpants.

Ease of billing is the best reason for getting one. Personally I can't be bothered contorting myself into position under the stairs to check my usage and it's a PITA when the meter reader comes round.

and I don't want to go around the house in a paranoid state switching everything off.

Simple solution to this, just don't do it.

The one I have can break down the time to a point I can see the result of putting the kettle on when I get up..

Has it stopped me using the kettle? No..

Have I got bored and tried to work out how little energy I can use in a month resulting in some sitting in the dark? Maybe

The end result for me is I can see what times I use energy and then I could use this to save money by getting a different plan. I am too lazy to do this so the only end result is my bill is accurate.

Scottish power's ability to **** up even the simplest thing would put me off having them in my house.

they told me they would give me a date sometime within 6 weeks that they would come and fit mine - and then within that 6 weeks they would give me a weeks notice.

I told them to call me when they could do weekends or give me a days notice as i dont know what country ill be in, in a weeks time

they never called back - that was 2 years ago.

You really don't want to know what energy you are using and if you could use less ??

I love peeing money up the wall on electric and gas - and when I'm feeling really wasteful I put the oven on as high as it can go and leave the door open for a couple of hours.

In a proper response - if I find out my kettle is inefficient do I dump it and buy a new one that's 5% better? Which is more wasteful. I already look for the best energy rating-v-value when I have to buy new stuff when the old stuff breaks.

I don't waste electric, energy saving bulbs everywhere, new combi boiler, plenty of insulation etc.

See, I understand this train of thought if you're unmetered (cf. water rates), but power is [i]already[/i] metered. Even assuming that you don't care how much you / don't use, nothing's changed to your billing has it?

A different question might be... How much are you prepared to pay for someone to read your meter? If the power company gets to the point where a small number of people have standard meters then the cost per reading might start to look high then they might look to pass this on to the customer.

op: why would your behaviour change if you got a smart meter?

Every house will have to have one by 2020.

The one I have can break down the time to a point I can see the result of putting the kettle on

[url= http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/do-i-have-to-accept-a-smart-meter ]Do I have to accept a smart meter? [/url]

Hope it helps

If you get one with, say Scottish Power, if you want to change to someone else when your contact ends are there any issues? I seem to recall that there was the potential for it but maybe that's not reality.

It's the potential privacy implications I'd be worried about. Do I really want a private company with no economic insensitive to keep my data private or secure storing that level of data? To the point where anyone with that data can see when I'm at home? Asleep? In the Bath?

The main driver as far as I can see it for smart meters are the energy companies would much rather have us pay for power in much smaller chunks rather than day/night rates. This would better reflect how they pay for their power and increase their profits. The knock on effect of people using less power at peak times to save money is just a nice by product.

Will these 'smart meters' tell me how much oil I'm burning to warm my house?
Not so smart then.

Do I really want a private company with no economic insensitive to keep my data private or secure storing that level of data?

What level of data? Your energy usage?

Really?

if you want to change to someone else when your contact ends are there any issues?

I'd wait a few years.

That's the problem with this place. The OP gets so much flack and derision for asking a reaonable question rather than just an answer.

Not exactly encouraging community spirit.

whatnobeer - Member
It's the potential privacy implications I'd be worried about. Do I really want a private company with no economic insensitive to keep my data private or secure storing that level of data? To the point where anyone with that data can see when I'm at home? Asleep? In the Bath?

Will these 'smart meters' tell me how much oil I'm burning to warm my house?
Not so smart then.

You could tell you how much electricity an oil pump was using and from that you could work out how much oil was being pumped to a boiler.

But that's not really the answer you wanted is it...

You could tell you how much electricity an oil pump was using

It doesn't use an electric fuel pump. So that wouldn't work. Even if it had an electric pump, the flow rate from the pump wouldn't be constant so any figure of oil use would be very inaccurate.

I'm not against smart meters, just the lack of foresight that means what's being offered isn't useful to 1000's of people.

when you use a phone or internet all yourdetails are being logged same with using any loyalty card or cash or credit card, youre being monitored, and we all know where you shop and who you phone, or at least some of do..............

If you get one with, say Scottish Power, if you want to change to someone else when your contact ends are there any issues? I seem to recall that there was the potential for it but maybe that's not reality

I'd refuse ATM as the current technology doesn't link to smartphones and will be redundant for the customer within 5 years

[i]Scottish power's ability to **** up even the simplest thing would put me off having them in my house. [/i]

Oh yes.

Was on the phone twice with them yesterday, first one was for over an hour. Had to call a second time as their engineer didn't turn up. Got £30 for that plus found out that the guy hadn't recorded anything we'd discussed earlier (billing issues). So the second lady raised a complaint for me.

I wouldn't normally bother, but we'd settled our outstandings (£900) as they'd screwed up the DD (for the past two years). And now they are saying we still owed them £500!

SP overcharged us almost a grand when they screwed up a meter reading. Took three months to get it back. Good job we had the cash to cover it 👿

sharkbait - Member

No hope of that being achieved

There is no standard for smart meters (they've just started working on an outline I believe) and most energy suppliers have their own which will not work with another supplier if you swap so they're fairly pointless.

There are at least two standards for smart meters in the UK (SMETS 1 and SMETS 2), actually, and several for other regions too. But in my experience meter manufacturers have been completely unprepared for the not-so-sudden arrival of new technological demands on their industry and are close to incapable of developing smart meters in a competent and timely manner.

I'd refuse ATM

My wife did when I suggested it too.

If it's the same arsehole who came to install a DP switch onto my mains connection I don't expect the Largs rollout to be complete until well into the next century.

SP can go whistle, they installed a new meter a few years ago and there it shall stay until such time as a proper standard has been ratified and said fitter replaced by someone who actually wants to work for a living. I already have a clamp meter that I don't use which tells me my consumption levels.

It's the potential privacy implications I'd be worried about. Do I really want a private company with no economic insensitive to keep my data private or secure storing that level of data? To the point where anyone with that data can see when I'm at home? Asleep? In the Bath?

What level of data? Your energy usage?

Really?

I'd imagine the energy usage along with time stamps would provide a very useful indicator of house occupation. Makes casing targets a doddle when you can scope out dozens of unsecured meters from your bedroom.

Not that I'm saying this is necessarily the case but when it comes to smart tech I'd say a meter is even less likely to recieve security firmware updates than a new car which has to visit the dealers at regular intervals. How many routers have you had that ISP's have updated? How many security holes are there in using the standard generated passcodes and ID's?

People will hack anything; some for good (who want to make apps for home automation and such), some for bad (who want to sell back door access). It's a fact of life.

The levels of paranoia being reached on this thread are really quite something!

You're talking about me aren't you?

I would like to know what time you sleep and do bad things. Car keys are very popular snatch these days, so are pctablets, jewelry etc.

POSTED 9 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST
Quirrel - Member
I'd refuse ATM
My wife did when I suggested it too.

MAS.

On a serious note, I'd simply not bother as they've yet to decide what to actually record and who to give access to. As the metering company has nothing to do with distribution in most cases, last I heard, nothing would be passed to them.

However, knowing which phase you're on, what load you're going sling and what you're volts are would be massively helpful in locating faults and restoring supplies more quickly. Now that would be of real benefit to the end user.

Smart meters are awesome. Means we can take advantage of better power deals. Not sure if something similar exists in the UK but here we pay the spot price (ie wholesale electric price) plus 10% and a smartphone app shows you the current price. Right now I'm paying 20c/unit, at 11pm tonight that'll drop to around 10c so my dishwasher and washing machine are set to come on then 🙂

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And if you're environmentally inclined you can also see where you power is coming from, athough this isn't a function of smart meters it's still pretty cool:

[img] [/img]

I'm with British Gas and get Nectar points when I read the meters every month, I can't see any point in changing to a smart meter as long as that carries on.
I also have a display in the kitchen that shows how much electric we're using, so I don't see how a smart meter is going to benefit me as a consumer.

I'm not against smart meters, just the lack of foresight that means what's being offered isn't useful to 1000's

Some of the points about compatibility and smartness after switching supplier up there ^^ are a little bit out of date.

There's a company called DCC who are rolling out a network that all meters will (eventually) talk to. It's been a long time in coming though, and a lot of the early adopter meters won't talk to it.

So, if you decide to have it installed OP, ask if it's DCC compatible, and if not then that's a reasonable reason to defer.

I've got a smart meter, I never look at the display as I'm not that interested in it, I do however get accurate bills and would hate to go back to the old estimated bills carry on of years ago.

Smart meters are awesome. Means we can take advantage of better power deals. Not sure if something similar exists in the UK

I'd refuse ATM as the current technology doesn't link to smartphones

Ovo app gets its data direct from the meter, so not strictly true.

I've got one from SSE, but they won't bill on usage like your phone bill so I still have to whine at them once a year to get a refund of credit on the account.

Would be more concerned about them being used to build an advertising profile as it's not difficult for them to figure out what you're watching on TV based on the power usage (Shazam but for power fluctuations).

Not particularly sold one way or the other on Smart Meters.

But I think the "accurate bill" is a bit of a red herring. I have the phone app for my leccy (and gas) and I just take a reading myself and submit it through the app. Literally a ten second job.

Would be more concerned about them being used to build an advertising profile as it's not difficult for them to figure out what you're watching on TV based on the power usage

How's that work with so many channels to choose from?

How much elec do smart meters use? If every house in GB has one aswell- seems self defeating.

How much elec do smart meters use? If every house in GB has one aswell- seems self defeating.

No one's mentioned yet that these meters are costing us (the consumers) an estimated £11Bn. That could fund a lot of extra doctors, nurses and teachers.