Author Topic: Smart Meters (Read 10938 times)

culzean · « **Reply #30 on:** April 29, 2017, 07:25:21 PM »

We have an Owl energy readout that when you put tariff in will give you readout of cost of your usage and also read out and live graph showing real time energy use, it also takes multiple tariffs and the times those are in use.

it cost £20 and batteries have lasted 2 years so far.

Co-op energy also send you a reminder e-mail 4 times a year for a reading.

Apparently if you change supplier the meters revert back to 'dumb meters'.

John Ratsey · « **Reply #31 on:** April 30, 2017, 10:44:56 PM »

I think that the gov't gave smart meter installation targets to the energy providers so they didn't have much choice but find people willing to have them installed.

I sometimes look at both the meter read out unit and the daily consumption data in my Ovo account. However, while it is interesting to see that my gas bill almost doubled between last Monday and Tuesday (when the weather turned chilly) there's not much I can do about it. On the other hand, the daily electricity consumption is almost constant except when the wife decides to have a cooking session and loves to have pans bubbling away. But there's not much I can do about that either!

madasafish · « **Reply #32 on:** May 01, 2017, 10:25:16 AM »

Quote from: John Ratsey on April 30, 2017, 10:44:56 PM

I think that the gov't gave smart meter installation targets to the energy providers so they didn't have much choice but find people willing to have them installed.

When /if electricty shortages happen, smart meters allow the Grid to switch off consumers.. and control a switch back on...

John Ratsey · « **Reply #33 on:** May 01, 2017, 11:17:28 AM »

Quote from: madasafish on May 01, 2017, 10:25:16 AM

When /if electricty shortages happen, smart meters allow the Grid to switch off consumers.. and control a switch back on...

Cutting people off is the extreme but there's the option of being able to sign up to a lower tariff subject to being disconnected for agreed maximum periods. Places such as cold stores do that already as they don't need continuous power.

More appropriate at the domestic level is that because smart meters measure consumption by the hour (or less) there is the potential to vary the charging according to the time of day and thereby herd people towards using the energy at times of lower demand (and cost). Not that I would be able to get the wife to do her cooking in the middle of the night but one could put a time delay on a tumble drier (and hope it doesn't catch fire). However, there would need to be a very interactive system to handle a glut of solar energy when the sun shines.