Smart meters. Has anyone had a bad experience?

Very useful MARYDOLL. Makes interesting reading. I wonder if Eon are experiencing the same issues.?

Marydoll

Jaxjacky

We’ve had one for about three years, no problems and I don’t know of anyone with any issues either.

BBC News - Smart meters: Almost three million still not working
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-67591320

Thank you Marydoll, that’s very interesting. EDF have been spamming me with demands to get a smart meter. I’m not interested until I know they have sorted some of the current issues.

I had over a year of problems with the smart meter. My energy supply tripped nearly every morning around 6 or 7 am. and occasionally at other times during the day. Not a huge problem if I was at home as I usually heard the click or was alerted by all the appliances going off and could run to the fuse box and put it back on. Big problem if I was away visiting or on holiday -several times I came home to a completely defrosted fridge and freezer and had to bin the contents.

Scottish Power were totally useless, kept promising that an engineer would visit, etc but nobody came. Eventually I contacted a local Electrician, who came next day, took one look and diagnosed the problem. Apparently the smart meter was incompatible with my older fuse box and meter. He explained that the smart meter would be trying to send readings to the power company in the early hours But would detect a fault in the system and trip the main fuse. He told me that he hd encountered this problem several times before and there were two solutions viz - a) Install a brand new fuse box at my expense, or b) ditch the smart meter.
Obviously I went for option b. No problems since. I do find it awkward to take readings by myself but my DDs and DGC do it for me

Thanks LOUISA 1523. I am not against smart meters but it is often the separate company of engineers that fits them causing problems.

I have read that the electricity and gas are off for an hour each.
Eon state the area where the meters are must allow clear access.

The thought of having to empty the large cupboard under the stairs fills me with dread !!

I thought I would ask about other Gransnetter's experience with Eon.

Greyduster

As far as I’m aware, you are not under any legal obligation to have a smart meter fitted. The government are very anxious to have them rolled out as quickly as possible but they can’t make you have one. What the energy companies do is to offer tariff incentives for you to change to a smart meter.

I think its a moot point ...my mum is EDF....wad told her meter was obsolete and would need changing....the fitter said they only have smart meters ....no other option....however she did have the option to make it 'live' or not.....she chose not to, so it continues like a non smart meter ....but a proper faff sending in meter readings .....I have had a smart meter for 8 years...no problems

Has anyone had an Eon Smart meter fitted this year?

Well we had a smart meter from the early days (British Gas) and all the display showed was high medium and low so I thought that was useless as I could work that out for myself. I put the display away and the smart meter continued to send readings to BG. However, about three years ago BG wrote us saying that the meter was no longer sending readings and we had to send a reading of both gas and electricity. We did this with some difficulty due to our age and the position of meters in an under stairs cupboard. Then a meter reader appeared from time to time to read them. On the BG app I asked for a replacement smart meter and the automated reply said due to a shortage of meters I would be put on a waiting list. Then I received a phone call from a company that now works for BG saying they could “mend” my old meter. Having seen scary stories about old meters being mended we decided that unless it was an up to date new meter we didn’t want it mended. When I received a phone call before Christmas from this firm asking if I wanted our mended I said no as we we would only have a new meter. The reply was that they would come and look at it. We have decided we don’t want them to come. We pay by direct debit and they work out payments according to the readings they receive from the company who come around to do the readings.

We will never have one! Not spoken to a single person who is pleased with theirs.

TinSoldier

How do people know that their smart meters are accurate? The link that Marydoll posted shows that 8% are not working properly.

That some meters are located in places which are difficult to access isn’t sufficient argument to try to force everybody to have a smart meter.

I have just seen something by Which saying that "Around 9% of smart meters in homes are working in 'traditional mode', according to government data published in August 2023. That's more than 2.7 million meters ... "

It's a lot, but I read that as meaning that most of those smart meters can still be read in the traditional way, and not that they are measuring or displaying the usage incorrectly. Still not great, but not quite as bad as it first seems.

It is probably only a very small number that are doing, or suspected of doing, what most people are afraid of, which is giving incorrect readings, but that happens with a small number of traditional meters too.

That said, I don't envy anyone who has to fight their supplier to prove that they have a genuinely faulty meter, whether traditional or smart, and can see why people who are perfectly happy with their existing traditional one are unwilling to have it removed.
Perhaps it should be a bit like it is with the installation of water meters, where (I think) installation isnt compulsary until a house changes hands.

I would change my supplier MD Octopus have excellent customer service, as did Shell when we were with them.

harrigran

8% not working properly, well that means 92% are. Unfortunate if you have less than efficient one but most work fine.

It is not the meter not working, which is the problem. The problem is to get someone to actually listen and do something about it! Nigh on impossible and unbelievable stress.

I need to know what we are spending, some days we can get through £20 of gas and electric combined.
It’s painful to look at but we do at least know!

My lovely friend and neighbour leaves hers in a drawer switched off, she would rather not know.

Her house is a lot warmer than mine!

8% not working properly, well that means 92% are. Unfortunate if you have less than efficient one but most work fine.

We knew ours wasn't working properly because of the high number of units displaying daily on the meter, ( DH checks weekly) despite no heating on and the cooker being rarely used. It took months for Scottish Gas to even listen to our concerns.

I've had 2 smart meters fitted and both times they haven't worked, I'm told that for some reason they are unable to connect to the network?!
After the last try....an engineer at my home for nearly 3 hours, he gave up.
I can't get any sense from the energy company EDF and yet if I have them, I can get a reduced tariff!

TinSoldier

How do people know that their smart meters are accurate? The link that Marydoll posted shows that 8% are not working properly.

That some meters are located in places which are difficult to access isn’t sufficient argument to try to force everybody to have a smart meter.

I know mine are accurate because I can see in detail on my phone app when they say I was using energy.
For example the graph attached shows yesterday's electricity use. The spike at noon was when DH was doing a fry up for lunch.

You’re not obliged to have one. We’ve had one for years, never had a problem with it. The IHD has also been really useful and alerted us to problems we wouldn’t have otherwise realised about until later.

I've had a smart meter for gas and electricity for about a year and had no problems. My gas meter used to be behind a prickly bush in the front garden and was difficult to read. My electricity meter was under the stairs and required a torch to read. It's much simpler now. Not only that, but if I manage to cut down electricity usage between 4pm and 7pm OVO gives me a small rebate.

I have not looked back since getting my smart meter. I had the latest version from octopus, one which meshes easily with smart data networks. There are several linkage processes, hence the old smart meters were not reliable

My gas meter is on the ground and I had to kneel on the soil with a torch in my teeth, notebook and pencil in hand whilst trying to keep the cover open. My smartmeter readings are very accurate. Smart meter positioning is important. I had to wait a while for some extra device to arrive, to be placed by my electric meter in a cupboard, which is less than 1m from my gas smart meter

The systems are complicated to install and depend on local networks to perform properly

I would not have one for all the tea in China. Heard too many bad tales about them. I have blocked their phone number and texts so I dont get calls.

My meters are outside the property so if the neter reader comes they d not have to have access. They are also at a convenient height. I get my nephew to go round and photo them once a month (so I have proof of the readings) and send thyem in to Eon.

How do people know that their smart meters are accurate? The link that Marydoll posted shows that 8% are not working properly.

That some meters are located in places which are difficult to access isn’t sufficient argument to try to force everybody to have a smart meter.

Elusivebutterfly I entirely agree.

I find it difficult to understand why so many people don't want a smart meter. I had them as soon as available. My meters are in an inconvenient place which means partially emptying the cupboard, kneeling down with torch, pen and paper and reading glasses. You then have to go online to input the details.
The gas meter needed various buttons pressed to get to the correct screen and I could not get it right. I was scared of getting a huge bill by sending in an incorrect reading so all my bills were estimated.

I have smart meters for gas and electricity and they have never been any bother.
DH would never have them installed but I did when he died because meters are in a cupboard and had to go on hands and knees to read them. The electricity meter was so awkwardly placed that I had to use my phone to get a reading.
I do have the monitor plugged in but ignore it as I will use the fuel I need regardless of cost. I have the heating set at 22.5 C

I make a diary note and set my phone calendar to remind me to read my two meters on a set day each month. It takes me two minutes to go to the cupboard housing the meters and write down two numbers. It takes another minute to input the numbers into the energy supplier’s phone app. The bill is available hours later.

Until such time as the energy companies can guarantee that the companies sub-contracted to do the installations are employing people with the skills to do the job properly and that the meters can be guaranteed to work accurately, I don’t want a smart meter.

I monitor my gas and electricity use carefully. I did that long before the latest energy crisis. For years, I have kept a spreadsheet noting monthly consumption numbers and monthly bills. Again, it takes just a few minutes to do so.

As a low energy consumer, the standing charges are a disproportionate amount of my bill, so differences in actual consumption are noticeable. I know that if there’s been a spike or dip in consumption it can be attributed to something specific. Electricity prices are so high now that a month of not watching much TV or doing more cooking than usual can make a difference. If there was a particulary cold week and I had the heating on for longer, I know the gas bill will be higher. I don’t feel that I need a machine constantly telling me what I already know.

I think these machines can cause a lot of stress in households, worrying about every unit of energy used. Good if it makes a household think more carefully about its overall energy use, or makes it easier for people who struggle to read a meter, or can’t remember to do it, but for many households, a smart meter is far from necessary for now.

This:

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/getting-a-smart-meter-installed/

Refusing a smart meter

You don’t have to accept a smart meter if you don’t want one. If your supplier tells you that you must have one installed, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

And this if you decide to have one installed:

Your supplier must pay you compensation if they:

•miss the appointment

•change the appointment without your agreement and with less than 1 working day’s notice

*send someone without the right qualifications or tools to do the work

They’ll pay you £30 compensation within 10 working days. If they haven’t paid within 10 working days, they’ll pay you another £30.

That third bullet point is acknowledging that there is a real problem with poor workmanship - companies sending out poorly qualifed staff just to meet a government-set target.