Smart Energy Meters

It seems that smart meters are a step towards creating a smart grid which will help government and energy suppliers manage our energy needs. It will also allow 'green' energy sources to be integrated more easily in future. I suspect there is a degree of hope that 'green' energy sources will become more significant. Perhaps this is why government, since 2011, has pushed the idea of smart meters, despite questions in 2014 from the Public Accounts Committee as to the cost-benefits of the £11bn investment.

While the advantages to us consumers are widely touted, I suspect that we are mainly a cog in the smart grid machinery. The EU has said that we should introduce smart meters by 2020 unless there is an economic reason not to do so. Germany found such an economic reason but, it seems, the UK didn't.

This was all news to me until I googled the subject recently. This link talks about the smart grid:

www.smartenergygb.org/en/the-bigger-picture/britains-smart-grid

Cunco, with due respect, I have read your link but think that much of what the site says is what has already been said and contradicted on this thread.

Smart meters are all about domestic energy distribution and getting accurate bills without the need for meter readers and home visits. They may at some point integrate with solar or photovoltaic systems installed on people's roofs, but the main supply of green energy from wind farms, solar farms, hydro-electricity etc is through through the national grid and has nothing what so ever do with companies giving end users like us accurate bills for our home energy consumption.

When I change my energy tariff, as I have done today, whether any potential new energy supplier can tie into my presently unusable smart meter is the last thing I am thinking about. It is price I am interested in and nothing else.

Why is it that we were given a smart energy monitor about five years ago but still haven't had a smart meter fitted?

Hi M0nica: My information was mainly SmartEnergygb, as you saw from the link. Maybe I have mis-interpreted its message but it is the organisation charged with promoting the roll-out of the smart meters so I assume its information is correct.

It said: 'Smart meter technology is a crucial step towards a smart energy grid'.

If that is the ultimate aim, perhaps the monitor is a new toy to help persuade us that it is worthwhile to have smart meters fitted. Judging from the comments above, SmartEnergyGB still has work to do.

Yes, I read that sentence and thought it meaningless.

SmartEnergy are an organisation formed to promote smart meters, so they are obviously only going write good things about smart meters and not mention any of the queries. They are behind the 'Controlling Gaz and Leccy campaigns, which I have heard on the radio and I presume also advertise on television.

It is in fact a beautiful site, well designed, just the right typeface to give the right modern go-getting image it wants to promote smart meters, but the text is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who reads it. Lots of short empty statements, like the one above with no back-up material at all of any kind to explain or justify their statements. Even if you drill down deeper into the site all you get is claims of what a smart meter makes possible without any explanation of how.

This site is a triumph of presentation over content.

Hi again, M0nica: SmartEnergy is a promotion vehicle and, as such, its claims may have to be taken with a pinch of salt. However, the smart grid is a very live concept in the UK, EU and worldwide; and smart meters do seem to be a necessary step in the creation of a smart energy grid. If you google smart grid, there is plenty of heavyweight sources including the UK government. This is a summary from the EU which covers the ground:

ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/markets-and-consumers/smart-grids-and-meters

The smart grid was news to me and I was unaware of this background to the installation of smart meters. I am not sure why SmartEnergy doesn't explain more.

I have read the site but I still remain deeply sceptical. To me it is all whizzy technology and completely lacks any consideration of the human factor.

In the current situation with a modern central heating programmer, thermostatic radiator valves and proper insulation it is easy to minimise energy consumption and use it efficiently, but what proportion of the population actually do that? Drive around of an evening and houses have all their curtains open and lights on all over the house, go in many of them and in freezing temperatures outside the inside is so hot that they are opening windows to cool them and walking round in T shirts.

Look at this site www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/the-average-gas-bill-average-electricity-bill-compared.html
It gives average energy costs for three sizes of house. We have what they would define as a large house. It is 550 years old and listed, which restricts what we can do to make it more efficient, no double glazing for example. Nevertheless our heating bills are around, or just below the figure quoted for a medium house, because we have done all we can with insulation with a modern heating system with controls, which we use, and we have a warm comfortable house.

Are all the people not using energy efficiently, hence these high bills going to suddenly become super energy efficient, responding to and operating every subtle tweak of the energy controls and changes. I really do not think so.