My energy provider keeps hassling me to get a smart meter installed. Should I?
My energy provider keeps hassling me to get a smart meter installed. Should I?
I've been very hesitant to get one installed as I've heard nothing but horror stories.
11 comments
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Mine has been fine, although it has stopped sending readings back to base which is annoying.
The only people who should avoid one are those struggling to pay bills as it seems they can switch you over to prepayment.
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Given how easy it is to become struggling, I wouldn't risk it.
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No, it really only benefits them, which is why they keep harassing you.
If it benefitted you they would hide it on a hard to find corner of their website.
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It does benefit you though, it's more convinient
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MSE have a guide:
on the face of it, there's no reason why you wouldn't get them. They make sending readings easy, and also show your spending and how much energy you are using, to help you cut down your usage.
EcoExperts have a guide called Are Smart Meters Good?
And various websites have guides to help people when switching energy:
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Some operators are very slow like Eon, they are still sending letters to the old owners of our house over a year later.
Ovo are the same - I'm clearly paying for the energy used so you'd have thought that they might get the idea that they don't live here anymore. If nothing else it's a waste of paper.
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I really like my smart meter. Never have to do meter reads and the bills are always correct. Plus I can see how much I'm using, if I've left the oven on, etc.
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Depends on your energy use.
I'm on Agile Octopus so the rate varies every half hour, with a price spike between 4pm and 7pm.
My electric bill halved. It's worth looking into.
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I know this is an old thread but just my two cents. The best reason for me was when it came to switching. With a smart meter I have all my year's worth of data online and ready to hand: consumption, KWH used, cost, which month was the worst, what time.of day, etc. This makes is so much more easier to just do a proper price comparison online rather than guessing your usage.
Plus I don't have to send manual readings back to the energy company and there's nobody knocking on my door anymore to check up on me. Couldn't be happier.
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They can remotely put you on to prepayment if you have a smart meter, they can't do that with an old one.
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I didn't want one, but to get cheap power for my EV, it was the only option.
The smart meter display they provided, gave wrong costing from day one because it doesn't do the night rate. There is no update, so half it's use was never there. I setup my own metering that works. If their was open source, I'd have at least looked at fixing it. I count their's as e-waste at birth right now.
11 comments