Smart meter comments
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 9:54 am
Given how important Smart Meters are to Active pricing tarriffs I thought this was worth flagging up, especially the comments...
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/ ... switch-gas (E.ON and Octopus are less than smart over my meter mix-up... I switched to Octopus, but E.ON is still charging me for gas)
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/ ... switch-gas (E.ON and Octopus are less than smart over my meter mix-up... I switched to Octopus, but E.ON is still charging me for gas)
1 I am also stuck in an issue with Octopus and E.ON over gas meter readings, somewhere in the change between N-Power and E.ON the meter readings were messed up and Octopus cannot reconcile them to the actual readings from the smart meter.
Octopus have been great, E.ON/N-Power not so much. In fact they have been ignoring any communication.
2
As a dual electronics and Electrical engineer who has been involved in the metering business for some long time. I have of course some misgivings over "smart meters". The requirement of a smart meter is only to remove the need for visits from the previous army of meter reader who required that we took time from work on the off chance they would visit when they promised to call. This is the only smart part the method of metering has not changed and it is not more accurate than before.
While most countries made singular standards for metering the UK did not, and so allowed each supplier of energy to create its own exclusive meters which basically prevent you from switching suppliers and ensures you are screwed when the utility supplier goes down the toilet.
Other countries put the reading of energy meters in the hands of the energy transport company which is independent and allows this information to be shared when required.
Other countries made sure that energy supply companies were properly funded and could survive market price fluctuations such as UK is now seeing.
While electricity and water consumption is simple to measure and has not changed, Gas metering is very vague and readings regularly have errors above 20% - gas being a "gas" is affected by temperature and pressure variation - it was well known that people with outside gas meters had lower bills than those with indoor meters.
What happens after the smart (or not) meter is not the problem of the metering but the software created by the company that bills you, and companies have deliberately under invested in this to gain maximum profits, and it is here the problem lies.
I have smart metering for some years without problems - the meters report to the utility via a power line modem which sends signals over the 50Hz mains it works fine and no-one needs to come and read my meter