Smart meters

I wondered about the ‘budget’ setting on the smart meter. If you set it does it switch your energy off when you reach that sum?
It has made me constantly aware of what the cost is of e.g. boiling a kettle or running an electric radiator in the Conservatory.
It cost 80 pence to put the electric grill on and cook 8 sausages.
I never knew that before.

We've done all the energy saving stuff without help of a meter. Stopped using tumble dryer long time ago. Knocked heating and water down a little. All LED lights. Shower bit more quickly. Don't put dishwasher on unless it's absolutely full. Not much else we can do. But it has all helped.

When we needed a new meter s few years ago, the electrician discouraged us from having a smart one,
I am, and always have been, very careful in my use of power so it wouldn’t affect me much, though it might me make very cross!

Smart meter?
Over my dead body!

There still seem to be a lot of people who think that the little plug in screen with readings, budget etc. is the Smart Meter. It's not. The Smart meter is the big thing in the cupboard that has replaced your old meter. The small screen with readings is an unnecessary distraction that needs to be plugged in and so uses electricity. It is not part of the system and can be safely unplugged and put away.
If you need to read the meter it can be plugged in and booted up at any time.

I moved house.the one does not connect properly.only shows gas usage! (as much use as a chocolate radiator)

We have one smart meter which displays both gas and electric usage. We decided to get one as we had to get on our hands and knees with a torch to read the meters so it was easier for the readings to be sent automatically.
We never look at our smart meter now - it’s just there. It has always mystified me why the adverts say they will save you money as surely only the consumer can do this by turning down the heating/lights off etc. I’ve never bought a tumble dryer as I’d heard they were expensive to run, we have run our central heating at a lower temperature this winter and tried to remember to turn lights off etc.

Obsessed with mine too - but as I only have a max of £2.68 a day to spend on energy, it's hardly surprising really ...

PS £2.68 is only enough to heat my water and run my light, laptop, TV etc ... no heating!

My elderly mother was led to believe by her energy supplier that a smart meter would save her money!!! She actually thought she would get charged less. I was furious and had to explain it only saves you money as you are constantly reminded by the damn thing of what you are spending and therefore perhaps cut back resulting in a lower bill - and possibly hypothermia. Very naughty

Yes pittcity- i know the small screen is the IN HOME DISPLAY but that doesnt connect right to my smart meters which are down in the not nice basement and im disabled so the IHD is needed but its useless.Lady at bulb said its too far away- so i asked why they stuck meters in cellar then? She had no reply.(theres a utility and a little pantry they could have put them in but no! Idiots.

No Tilly- it doesnt go off if you reach budget(shouldnt do) it just carries on and then you continue running up the bill!

I too realise the gadget on the counter is not the smart meter as I have two big ones in the meter cupboards outside. It does not need to be plugged in as it can run on batteries.
I have to admit I find it useful as it has made me aware of how much various things cost.

MadeinYorkshire do you have other heat sources - log burner?
You must try and keep rooms you use around 18 degs for your health.
Nannan2 as useful as a chocolate teapot really 🙄

dragonfly46

I too realise the gadget on the counter is not the smart meter as I have two big ones in the meter cupboards outside. It does not need to be plugged in as it can run on batteries.
I have to admit I find it useful as it has made me aware of how much various things cost.

A lot of posts on this thread refer to the smart meter when they obviously mean the In Home Display. Just thought I'd point it out that you don't need to be driven mad looking at it all the time.

I have had a smart meter for some time . The IHD stopped working this year , I haven’t changed suppliers . EDF sent me a new one - still doesn’t work . They have now told me “due to a National issue” they cannot get my IHD to work. I can’t read my meters so although EDF can take readings I am unable to . I’m a bit suspicious that it stopped working when the huge rises began and I opted to stop a monthly budget DD as they wanted to put it up to an astronomical £350 a month, even in the summer. I will get DS to read the meters this month just to check .

We have declined all offers of smart meters from our energy provider and will continue to do so having read so much about the pitfalls. We are quite capable of taking readings from our old style electricity and gas meters and sending them to our supplier which we now seem obliged to do for accurate bills as meter readers calling at the house seem to be a thing of the past.
We're not happy about the price hikes, although we can afford bigger bills. We have taken to turning down the thermostat (considerably), turning off lights and avoiding using the tumble dryer and the oven to save money.

Why on earth would you want to hand over control of your energy usage to the supplier? That's what a smart meter is intended for, so that the energy companies can monitor and if needed, restrict your usage. In Europe and the US they are now used to send a message asking you to turn off some of your appliances to reduce usage at peak times. How long before the request becomes a demand and non compliance will be a fined?

I have had smart meters in the past, although not at present. I think people get overwrought up about them. They are just meters that send readings to your energy supplier and now can offer you cheaper rates at busy times, if you can manage without power for an hour or so.

All these little displays in the kitchen are just window dressing. If you want to know your consumption there were identical gadgets around before smart meters, and probably still are. We had one of these, called an Owl, 15-20 years ago. It showed us that our consumption went up if we put on a white appiance, something we had worked out decades earlier and that generally we were economical with energy.

When we got a smart meter, we put the device in a drawer - and then it got lost. Didn't really matter as we changed our supplier and it ceased to be smart. When the meter needed changing we were given an unsmart meter. I do not know why, it was never discussed with us.

I am now on a list for smart meters. a meter, is a meter, is a meter and as our electricity meter is outside and last time I got soaked when I went out to read it. So change is on the way.

Messages asking users to turn of some of their appliances during peak times; are you sure Normandygirl? I know some have signed up to restrict their usage during peak times, but that's not the same thing.

I like the IHD - tells me how much I’m using daily - that helps me to regulate my usage

We had solar panels installed a few years ago. The display for the smart meter (electricity only, as we're too rural for mains gas) is in the utility room, and it often reads zero. We're with Octopus and get paid for electricity we export (although there's no feed-in tarriff these days), but that's obviously less than the cost of the energy we use from the grid. So seeing the display reading zero is a good prompt to tell me that now would be a good time to put the dishwasher on or do some vacuuming.

Some of you are getting confused here - the actual smart meters are the ones that replaced your old gas and electricity meters, the main benefit of these is you never need to take meter readings, basically you can just forget about them. The small digital display you have in your house just gives you assorted information about your usage and tariff - this is not a smart meter and you do not have to use it if you do not want to, although I find it useful being a prepayment customer.

If Smart Meters are so smart, why can't they show the energy cost including VAT?

Candelle's husband

I like my smart meters, the fact that readings are sent automatically and I no longer have to crouch down on the the ground to read the gas meter outside. I am not obsessed by the monitor which sits inside the house but I did turn my heating down and there was quite a difference in cost

I was never going to get one but changed my mind and glad I did so

We can’t have one as we live in a penthouse apartment and consequently are too far from the meter so they can’t read each other! We are just being as careful as possible!