Smart Meters. Usage.

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

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

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.

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! 🤣🤣

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.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

When I moved into my wee flat there was already a smart meter installed. To begin with there were no problems and I was pleased to see that my Direct Debit was much less than when I was in my old, much bigger house. Occasionally the power for the sockets would trip over night and as time went on this became a regular almost daily occurrence. I contacted Scottish power and eventually an engineer came, inspected, found no fault and advised that I should try unplugging a different one of the sockets overnight to find out if one was faulty.

I tried this for a while but the tripping continued. I went away for a fortnights holiday and came home to find the socket circuit tripped. The fridge freezer had defrosted and the entire contents had to be thrown away.

I hired a local electrician who diagnosed the problem, which was that the old fuse box was incompatible with any smart meter . He said he had seen this before where the power tripped in the early hours, when the smart meter sent the usage to the power company. he offered two solutions viz 1. have a more modern fuse box installed or 2. dump the smart meter. I chose No 2. - No problems since then.

Why I m am very cautious like Marydoll I had a yearlong constant worry with the fuel provider going from my usually £110 a month readings (always sent in on time) to being told I owed £6000 and nothing, no letters, no phone calls could get them to see it wrong. It was a series of their mistakes eventually after being quite ill with the worry I got the ombudsman involved and although it took him another 3 months it was resolved
The whole problem started when they replaced a faulty meter of mine that had a gas leak this was a few years back, BUT the old meter number was never removed from the system and basically for years they were charging me for running two meters which obviously built up as they never changed my DD

It was awful after lots of nagging I did agree to a smart meter stayed in on the allotted day the man came to change it got the old one out ready to install the new one got a phone call to say something was wrong with the system reinstall the old manual meter which he did that was well over 12 months ago I ve never heard another word about a smart meter but will decline if they do start asking again

I have the same problem, harrigran, and, like you, I am very happy with my smart meter, supplied by Good Energy.

It's good to hear that many have had no problems.
However, the stress of being harassed by constant emails, ridiculous amounts taken from our bank account and patronising communications offering debt counselling and payment plans to manage a debt, which was totally false and not of our making, had a detrimental effect on my already fragile health.
Shades of the Post Office scandal. Anyone with half a brain would have realised something was far wrong, but no-one would help us.

We are now on our fourth gas meter in a year, the other three being faulty. The chap who installed the most recent one (now a non smart one, at our insistence) informed me that all he does all day is replace faulty smart meters.
Unfortunately, the new meter wasn't put on the system, so we are now once again being persued for the original debt.
On two occasions, we closed the complaint, rather than contact the Ombusman, after being promised that everything had been resolved.
We are now on complaint number three.

For those of you, who say their meter has given no problems, keep checking your readings and contact your provider ASAP if you think something is amiss.
Our meter worked fine in the first instance, then it started sending rogue readings.🤬

I didn’t have one until moving over to Intelligent Octopus which has a very low electricity tariff during the night so I can charge my car. So far I’ve had no problems (and saved £100s).

That must be very frustrating for them BlueBelle.
Daddima Octopus replaced our gas meter as it wasn’t displaying or sending readings.

DH would never have one but when he died I had them fitted because I was unable to get on my hands and knees to read the meter and to use my phone to photograph the reading.
There has never been a problem and I have not had to submit a reading since, makes life so much easier.

Jaxjacky I didn’t mean go on the complaints site for your needs but you said you didn’t know anyone who’d had a problem and I was advising if you were to look on the complaints page you will see many people have problems with them

"not legally obliged"!

Do not have a smart meter fitted. Utility companies are I believe paid commission by the Government to push for installations. The artist Grayson Perry has highlighted a recent scandal where customers with smart meters were being charged ridiculous sums of money, I mean thousands, when their usage had not altered.

Many ordinary people's bank accounts were emptied leaving them unable to pay mortgage, rent etc and in seriously dire straits. The last I read it was all going very slowly through solicitors but meanwhile those affected remain out of pocket.

You are no legally obliged to have one but they make it sound as if you are.

BlueBelle

If you go on any of the complaints threads on the various fuel providers you will see numerous complaints about smart meters Jaxjacky

Thanks BlueBelkebut I’ve had no need to, my usage is similar to that pre smart meter, bills as expected with the various price increases.