Smart meters yes or no?

[Tom Christopher]

Been an electrician for around 10 years and always get asked about my view on smart meters. Which every time I’m asked I say that I’m unsure on the whole matter....

Recently moved house and in the middle of renovating it. Just had a letter through about changing over to smart meters for Gas & Electric

What are people’s thoughts on them?

 

[SparkieMarky]

Definately a NO here as well. Have told them repeatedly to go and do one. If you do some research you will find that the models opted for in the UK have issues with accuracy, especially with led’s and dimmer as well as other issues on ober reporting consumption.

The other big swindle is that suppliers have been given leave to recover the installation costs from customers. So the more installed the more if costs all of us.

The ultimately its crap out of date tech that has compatibility issues, does people out of a job, leaves customers at the mercy of big business (that will say thats what you have used and unless you can prove otherwise that’s what you are paying) and will cost all of us a fortune for what is yet another stupid foverment white elephant!

Other than that I don’t have any views about them!

 

[chrisdungan]

OH FFS just get over yourselves.
Love 'em or hate 'em they seem to be a fact of life, eventually there won't be a choice. Here in New Zealand if you do any sort of a domestic board upgrade that involves touching the metering the old meters get swapped for smart.
For example if you want to install PV they're 100% essential as they're the only surefire way of collecting the import/ export percentages.
Yes there are concerns about data collection, but remember it's only units used over short time periods during the day rather than units used over monthly periods. remember the retailers keep that data for years. I've used that data to help prosecutions for electricity theft and the police can access that data via a court order to track illegal dope growing operations.
Yes some have concerns about the radiation from the data transmission......... just wear a tinfoil hat

 

[chrisdungan]

OH FFS just get over yourselves.
Love 'em or hate 'em they seem to be a fact of life, eventually there won't be a choice. Here in New Zealand if you do any sort of a domestic board upgrade that involves touching the metering the old meters get swapped for smart.
For example if you want to install PV they're 100% essential as they're the only surefire way of collecting the import/ export percentages.
Yes there are concerns about data collection, but remember it's only units used over short time periods during the day rather than units used over monthly periods. remember the retailers keep that data for years. I've used that data to help prosecutions for electricity theft and the police can access that data via a court order to track illegal dope growing operations.
Yes some have concerns about the radiation from the data transmission......... just wear a tinfoil hat

 

[Spoon]

I've used that data to help prosecutions for electricity theft and the police can access that data via a court order to track illegal dope growing operations.

Dope growers that don't bypass the meter?? That's very nice of them...

 

[Mark van Hoven]

‘’There's a post on the Plumbers forum where a gas guy went to a boiler not working the day after both meters were changed for Smart.
The installation had been left with reversed polarity by the meter installer.’’

Had smart meters installed on Monday.. Wednesday the boiler cut out, manage to restart the pilot light and it worked again, however it went of again today.. could this be to do with reverse polarity??
How can you check??
(Yes after reading all the posts wish I didn’t bother now)

Cheers

 

[Generator]

I'm with the NO's! The few 'yeses' seem a bit naive to me ( or just not bothered ). Smart Meters are monitoring gone mad - why do the suppliers need that much information - unless variable tariffs are the hidden agenda, plus of course 'computerised automatic load shedding'. As plant margins on the grid get smaller (saving them money) power cuts get ever nearer. Power cuts shed governments, but I don't suppose they've cottoned on yet - it'll happen when they've retired - they think! The suppliers only need one reading a quarter for billing - so why one every quarter of an hour? - think on!
As for security, well, even the banks get hacked - so once your habits are hacked, it's a burglar's paradise!
Think I'll stick to the OWL !

 

[chrisdungan]

Dope growers that don't bypass the meter?? That's very nice of them...

They often bypass the meter, the retailer can look back at usage over several months( years) and even with the old meters get a fairly accurate picture of useage. Then co-relate that to changes in tenancy and get a pretty accurate plot of when the meter was bypassed. The "best" bypass I've seen was done by a line mechanic who stripped back the line and load insulation and twisted a bit of 16mm round the conductors giving a high resistance bypass which allowed the meter to turn a bit and thereby giving a meter advance each month but giving them mostly free power. The meter box was mounted on a hollow wall and the bypass was up inside the hollow section. My sense of humour was tested as I had been poking around with my hand up inside the hollow section to try to find the "fault".

 

[Spoon]

They often bypass the meter, the retailer can look back at usage over several months( years) and even with the old meters get a fairly accurate picture of useage. Then co-relate that to changes in tenancy and get a pretty accurate plot of when the meter was bypassed. The "best" bypass I've seen was done by a line mechanic who stripped back the line and load insulation and twisted a bit of 16mm round the conductors giving a high resistance bypass which allowed the meter to turn a bit and thereby giving a meter advance each month but giving them mostly free power. The meter box was mounted on a hollow wall and the bypass was up inside the hollow section. My sense of humour was tested as I had been poking around with my hand up inside the hollow section to try to find the "fault".

What I was getting at is, these people are not dumb. The standard house electrics would still go through the meter but the illegal stuff will bypass it. That way everything looks ok.

 

[graysonlad]

With out a doubt the public are not being told the all the facts about swapping to smart meters.
As commented on already one of the problems is data collection from consumer locations. Some time ago I foolishly fell for the installation of smart meters at three remote sites in the false belief that I would be able, either by computer or a phone call to the power supplier, to obtain up to the minute figures on consumption and thus my coatings. Nothing was further than the truth. In the first instant, data collection was by a third party. Data being sent via a Simms card to any one of three data processing contractors. At a time convenient to the data handler , this was then eventually made available to the power supplier and later to myself. Now I accept the situation described is different to a domestic user. However I believe that there is much to be done in collecting data and the use of that by others.
Another problem is what of those consumers who have installed solar panels? My understanding is that smart meter technology can't differeniate between any solar panel generated electricity and mains supplied. Because of this there is always going to be a discrepancy between the true amount of electricity consumed against the amount generated.

 

[mydigitalhome]

No, no, no don’t do it total rip off. Until they make the meter open to all suppliers leave them alone.

 

[Spoon]

No, no, no don’t do it total rip off. Until they make the meter open to all suppliers leave them alone.

Are they not open to all suppliers??? How come???

 

[FatAlan]

I’d quite like a smart meter that has a modern display showing usage but with no remote connection to any corporate rip off exploitation merchant.
Same reason I’ve thought for a nano second about putting smart wiring control systems in my house and decided that I have enough trouble keeping track of the TV remotes and am more than happy with traditional switches so will stick to old fashioned tried and tested.
The only issue is that is if everyone else wants them I should be learning about how to install them.

 

[chrisdungan]

With out a doubt the public are not being told the all the facts about swapping to smart meters.
As commented on already one of the problems is data collection from consumer locations. Some time ago I foolishly fell for the installation of smart meters at three remote sites in the false belief that I would be able, either by computer or a phone call to the power supplier, to obtain up to the minute figures on consumption and thus my coatings. Nothing was further than the truth. In the first instant, data collection was by a third party. Data being sent via a Simms card to any one of three data processing contractors. At a time convenient to the data handler , this was then eventually made available to the power supplier and later to myself. Now I accept the situation described is different to a domestic user. However I believe that there is much to be done in collecting data and the use of that by others.
Another problem is what of those consumers who have installed solar panels? My understanding is that smart meter technology can't differeniate between any solar panel generated electricity and mains supplied. Because of this there is always going to be a discrepancy between the true amount of electricity consumed against the amount generated.

They just need to change the smart meter to one that differentiates between import and export. easy peasy.
I'm a Kiwi electrical inspector who does inspections of PV (high risk inspection required in NZ) the retailer just gets a meter installer to swap the meter, either a dumb meter or a regular smart to an import/export smart.
Another point around smart meters is related to Electric Vehicles.
Your average EV fast charger is single phase with a loading in excess of 30 amps. There is discussion here that the retailers will use smart meters to control system load by having different time of day rates to shift EV charging to later in the evening into the off peak times

 

[Dunc N]

Been an electrician for around 10 years and always get asked about my view on smart meters. Which every time I’m asked I say that I’m unsure on the whole matter....

Recently moved house and in the middle of renovating it. Just had a letter through about changing over to smart meters for Gas & Electric

What are people’s thoughts on them?

 

[Dunc N]

Avoid like the plague.