Smart Meters. Usage.

We haven’t got a smart meter and will not be getting one. People have had immeasurable problems with them, and have also experienced bullying from their supplier. I take weekly meter readings, send them to B Gas, and this works satisfactorily. I have an online account with EDF and send monthly meter readings, and that works well too.

I've managed so far to resist all efforts by my energy provider to have a smart meter fitted. They sure are very keen for me to have one. But I've heard too many bad things about them.
I'm glad to see others on here feel the same.
I read my meters regularly and submit them online. No worries.

I am partially sighted and although my meters are placed outside I still cannot read them so I asked Octopus for a smart meter a few years ago. Maybe I have been lucky but I have found it helpful. I get a wake-up call from the electricity section that I am using too much.

I do not have an electric car and I would not use the machines to wash clothes or dishes unless I was around so I cannot take advantage of that lower price during the night.

I have one and had no problems and it does help with budgeting/cost awareness - however its quite scary seeing how fast the numbers go up when you put the heating on etc. It has definitely made me think more about whether I need to put the heating on and at what temperature.

Although you may be pestered, there’s no legal obligation to have a smart meter. I just ignore all communications about them. Apart from the inaccuracies I’ve heard about, I don’t want another item in the house that emits, low level radiation.

And today BBC news reports on the problems with smart meters.

The problem is the government is making the energy companies install them , They want the energy companies to install 250 million over the next 3/4 years and that is why the companies are pushing them. I don't have one and supply monthly readings. I do object that they offer better deals on energy prices if you have one.

I've got an electricity smart meter and want a gas one. Reading the meter monthly is inconvenient because we are often away and the electricity one works fine.

Whether you have a smart meter or conventional meter, they all go wrong at times and, in the past, we had problems with readings from conventional meters and had to have them replaced.

One in 10 smart meters could be faulty - how to tell if yours is working properly. Nearly one in 10 smart meters fitted in UK homes may not be working properly, leading to families paying the wrong amount for their energy, new Government data has revealed

I think when you send in manual readings, after a time the provider are supposed to send someone to check the meter reading. This has happened to me a couple of times and I still don’t have a smart meter thankyou.

The Jeremy Vine show today covered this story and loads of people rang in to say they had been charged thousands of £ by mistake. Most had somebody looking out for them so got help to rectify it but what about those who don’t?

One man rang in and said he was very surprised it was ONLY 4 million smart meters that had problems. When they were first being installed British Gas took on loads of new employees to fit these and he was one of them. He said nobody he met had any relevant prior experience and he had worked in a casino for 20 years and most other people he met were equally unqualified. He said they were given hardly any training and just sent out so he could almost guarantee that all the meters he installed were faulty! 🤣🤣

Primrose53 I find your story almost unbelievable. By law no one is permitted to work on gas installations unless they are fully trained and qualified. These regulations came into force in 1998. www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2451/made
So this man could not have installed any smart meters since that date.

Since the vast majority of meters have been installed since then, they would have been installed by fully qualified Gas Safe staff.

So what about the government stats. one in ten are faulty that’s a huge amount Monica

What has that got to do with whether those fitting the meters are legally qualifed? The meters may be faulty because of manufacturing defects.