Smart electricity meter

Apart from access to different tariffs that may be introduced in the future I don't really understand how they are supposed to save you money. I've resisted one just because there is downtime while it's being fitted which is a pain if you work from home and it doesn't benefit me at all

My provider is trying to force me onto one again. Language has really changed recently

We recently contacted you regarding your electricity meter not being certified, and noticed that you are yet to book in your free smart meter exchange. As your meter certification period has ended, it is essential that we come and replace it for you.
This is a legal requirement, and something we need to do as soon as possible.

This is a legal requirement, and something we need to do as soon as possible.

I'm not sure they can force you to take a smart meter. They may be obliged to offer them or roll them out as quickly as possible.

I always resisted, but I recently moved to a house that had one already...

To be fair it's just a meter. And yes they probably will do demand-led tariffs at some stage, but were a good way from that.

I do watch it though and keep annoying the wife with 'have you seen how much we've spent today!', so I guess they do work at reducing consumption even if it's just small percentages.

But I was never going to waste a valuable days holiday to have one installed! 🙂

We had one fitted a couple of weeks ago to (hopefully) access tariffs beneficial to charging an EV (and likely me banning use of the washing machine, etc. except between the hours of 1am and 4am!). However, it works off radio signal and there's no radio reception in this part of the borders... The fitter mentioned how daft it was, but that the operating company(s) might be looking at solutions next year... Somewhat crazy they can't just connect to the wifi.

EDIT: The electric was only off for 10-15mins if I recall, so not much of a hassle really.

Thanks all for your comments.

I think we would have a problem with a poor signal so not optimistic, can't really see any actual benefits to me. Other than possibly, as said above, highlighting periods of high usage.

I know we have a very high usage, I get an estimate of annual consumption on every bill (Octopus) and this is currently almost 20000kWh/year. So I would be keen to identify possible savings...

Apart from access to different tariffs that may be introduced in the future I don’t really understand how they are supposed to save you money. I’ve resisted one just because there is downtime while it’s being fitted which is a pain if you work from home and it doesn’t benefit me at all

My supplier takes the half hourly reads and has a section on their online Account Management bit to see this uasge down to the half hour or up to each month and then somehow they also show me what they think I am using so heating, cooling, standby, etc. Its not ground breaking insights, but it helps if you wanna understand your usage and maybe reduce.

We recently contacted you regarding your electricity meter not being certified, and noticed that you are yet to book in your free smart meter exchange. As your meter certification period has ended, it is essential that we come and replace it for you.
This is a legal requirement, and something we need to do as soon as possible.

Gas or Elec meters have life spans, when it nears the end they get changed. non smart meters arent available from suppliers now as they make smart meters, so you'd be offered a smart meter. You could ask for it to be installed non smart.

I currently just submit monthly readings so I can see what we've used. I'll get one at some point, but not that fussed. I'd recommend keeping an eye on your billing with a smart meter as some suppliers haven't been billing properly, or connected the meters correctly.

I'd say there's no real benefit to the consumer at all.

The main benefit is to the energy provider in not having to employ people to check meter readings any more.

I have a smart meter and with my provider it is pretty interesting to look at the fluctuations in usage even on a day to day basis - but in reality it has made no difference to our consumption. When the house needs heating, the heating is put on. Same with hot water usage. We're not massive electricity consumers so there's not much scope for reduction there.

Funnily enough I had one fitted yesterday. The guy said it would take up to a week for it connect itself to the network which seemed somewhat odd. Is that other people's experience?

Over a day later it's not connected, though I did have a look at the head unit which can be connected to wifi (which I've not done as I don't want to stop it looking for whatever it is meant to be connecting to).

The benefit to me was that they offered a tariff that was £100/year cheaper if I had one fitted. It connected and they read the meter after the first month, then it missed a few readings, and has worked since. I have PV and despite the meter having an export reading, they're still paying me on a nominal export of 50% of generation.