jonno
Member of DD Central
nil satis nisi optimum
Posts: 2,806 
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Post by jonno on Nov 26, 2022 14:31:16 GMT
I had a smart meter installed ten days ago and I'm beginning to regret it already.Firstly, the installer told me that he'd had five unsuccessful attempts at getting the gas meter to start communicating (but not to worry as EDF will sort it out). Needless to say I've heard nowt. Secondly, my monitoring unit appears to be unable to communicate with the meter for much of the time; the meter is in the garage, and unless I stand on a chair up against the wall nearest to it, it won't work. Reminds me of moving the aerial to get a sixties tv to work. All in all pretty hopeless. I thought it was the job of the installer to ensure communication is flawless before they leave. Mine spent 60 mins on site. Yeah thinking about it I let him off lightly, although he had been on site for two hours, and I was freezing my bo**ocks off.
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scooter
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Post by scooter on Nov 26, 2022 18:42:17 GMT
My octegenarian parents have just found out that their smart meter stoped sending a reading in September 21. The meter is dead. Worse still the 3 letter supplier stopped estimating for gas at the same time. The online account recognises they can't get a reading, but they did nothing about it. We notified them of the error and guess what the response was.... No you won't guess..... They want my parents to prove that the meter isn't working before they come out to look at it! Could they "send in a video of it not working". When did common sense stop being a thing? Is it dead or is the problem at their end? If it's the latter they should be able to fix it remotely. I have a smart meter but noticed in July that my previous 2 bills had been estimates. After investigation, following the guidance on my supplier's website (So Energy), I established that the meter was working fine so the problem must be at their end. I emailed them with full info. 6 weeks later I got a standard reply about faulty meters, asking for a video showing what the lights are doing. I replied to the effect that I'd already looked at the lights and established the meter was not faulty. Please could they read what I'd sent them before and deal with it. I've had no reply to that email but, lo and behold, my last 2 bills show meter readings. So they must have got round to fixing it eventually. Why this rigmarole should be necessary is beyond me. Their systems should (1) automatically pick up that they are not receiving readings, (2) try to fix the meter remotely, and (3) only if that does not work, communicate with the customer that there appears to be a problem. At that point it might be reasonable to ask for a video, which should be no sweat for a tech savvy customer with a mobile phone, but the request should come with an alternative for those who can't supply one. It is dead. Eon have booked a call out but say they won't know until Monday if the engineers will agree to visit without proof. It is odd that they stopped estimating at the same time. Online shows a note showing over 400 days without a reading, but the bill shows no gas at all. I was reading about the batteries that run gas meters which begin to run out after 10 years, send an automatic message to the supplier for replacement and if they actually run out they shut the gas off. My parents do have a working gas supply. But if the battery did run out i wouldn't bank on Eon acting on the message to replace it. Apparently the first smart meters are coming up to 10 years old.....
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2022 19:01:37 GMT
life moves on, we are going with this technology, fighting against it adds no value to your life, just make it work for you
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Post by overthehill on Nov 26, 2022 20:34:20 GMT
life moves on, we are going with this technology, fighting against it adds no value to your life, just make it work for you
Smart meter rollout has been a very expensive tax payer funded cock-up. I won't be installing one unless they have a court order ! I had to replace my gas meter a couple of years ago and they refused to change it to a smart meter. The company that supports the network can't/don't/won't work with the retail suppliers as you would expect...
If you do replace your old imperial gas meter with a metric meter don't jump off the bridge when you take your readings. The metric meter goes up 2.83x faster than the imperial meter. My first reading was a  moment.
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Nov 27, 2022 10:36:50 GMT
Now I love my smart meter, just a pity the gas won't talk to the comms hub, but that's another story...
My electric records a whole lot more than the old meter, but given I live in the Welsh valleys and we have a few Dai the electrics who for a fee adjust your meter. my old meter rarely recorded usage > 1kWh a day
So much so I heard of one guy selling tomatoes from his greenhouse in December and January because electric heating and lighting was costing him next to nothing
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scooter
Member of DD Central
Posts: 403
Likes: 379
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Post by scooter on Dec 15, 2022 20:40:55 GMT
My octegenarian parents have just found out that their smart meter stoped sending a reading in September 21. The meter is dead. Worse still the 3 letter supplier stopped estimating for gas at the same time. The online account recognises they can't get a reading, but they did nothing about it. We notified them of the error and guess what the response was.... No you won't guess..... They want my parents to prove that the meter isn't working before they come out to look at it! Could they "send in a video of it not working". When did common sense stop being a thing? My parents had their Smart Meter replaced today after one cancellation. They also received an estimated bill, which is based on 3 x the number of units they used in each of the 2 years that they were billed for previously. The moral of this story, we all worry about our elderly friends and family getting scammed, we don't expect those scammers to be their energy company.
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keitha
Member of DD Central
2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
Posts: 4,584
Likes: 2,615
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Post by keitha on Dec 15, 2022 23:00:29 GMT
My octegenarian parents have just found out that their smart meter stoped sending a reading in September 21. The meter is dead. Worse still the 3 letter supplier stopped estimating for gas at the same time. The online account recognises they can't get a reading, but they did nothing about it. We notified them of the error and guess what the response was.... No you won't guess..... They want my parents to prove that the meter isn't working before they come out to look at it! Could they "send in a video of it not working". When did common sense stop being a thing? My parents had their Smart Meter replaced today after one cancellation. They also received an estimated bill, which is based on 3 x the number of units they used in each of the 2 years that they were billed for previously. The moral of this story, we all worry about our elderly friends and family getting scammed, we don't expect those scammers to be their energy company. One thing to be aware of they can only back charge for 1 year, legally bthey are not allowed to charge you for energy used more than a year ago
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Post by overthehill on May 17, 2024 10:49:47 GMT
Want this to be the last meter reading you ever send?
Are the utility companies smarter than the meters to know if you have one or not, or do they just badger you regardless forever ? I don't have one so I wouldn't know.
In Octopus' email, I believe the box to request a smart meter is getting bigger and closer to the nondescript link for submitting your meter readings hoping for a few inaccurate mouse clicks no doubt.
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benaj
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Post by benaj on May 17, 2024 11:09:22 GMT
I submitted a meter reading recently to Octopus on someone behalf . The flat is on two rate tariff and it doesn't have smart reader. The estimated bill is a bit higher than actual read.
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benaj
Member of DD Central
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Post by benaj on May 22, 2024 15:23:00 GMT
đź«Ą
It seems the number of of faulty meters is a lot more than 4 millions if we include the non-smart ones.
The energy supplier balance the book with “estimated” bill, how smart.
I have just learned some multi rate meters don’t work. No increment for second tariff for any reasons. Results: over billing if multi rate timer doesn’t switch or under billing because there its faulty or the second rate meter cannot be found anywhere in the household.
Lets hope no one commit suicide for unexpected large bill or energy bosses get a post office style inquiry.
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moment.