For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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#1870175
Supplier and smart meters are not always that smart.
Family member had smart meter installed, it worked fine initially but the smart meter eventually failed within a couple of years. It took the energy supplier a few months to notice the smart meter was faulty recording zero daily usage for a few months.

Perhaps life is simpler submitting own meter readings to eliminate estimated bills :wink:
I am going to avoid a smart meter as long as possible, although I think (perhaps wrongly) the cheaper tariffs are not available without a smart meter?
#1870210
It’s not only smart meters that can fail .

After two years in our brand new house Anglian Water decided that as we two old pensioners were using more water than a family of six we must have a leak .

I ventured that perhaps the (new) meter was faulty.

An oik visited, mercifully excluded a leak in the house but determined the leak was between the road water meter and our stopcock .

‘Not our problem, ‘

Thankfully our house insurance covered the digging of four holes in the 50 metres from the meter to our house.

No leaks found : ‘OK we’ll monitor it ‘

18 months later another call to say our usage was excessive again (1.5 times annual use of family of six).

Another oik visited to search for leak.

We plied him with tea and chocolate hob-nobs:…
‘Why don’t you just change the meter?’

So he did:

Upshot : Water useage returned immediately to normal and an eye watering refund for nearly five years of overcharging…….. :roll:

Moral : Forget ‘smart ‘ meters - even brand new dozy ones can fail . :lol:

PS EDF have three times been in touch with me to install a smart electricity meter but I’ve waved them off each time . I wonder if they will start to get heavy?…..
Last edited by PeteSpencer on Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
#1870251
I switched from green.energy (who I was happy with) to Igloo about 4/5 months ago, they’ve now put prices up for the 2nd time! So looking for another switch. The MoneySavingExpert tool never recommends Octopus and it’s difficult to work out if it would be worth it with my EV as I don’t have a smart charger at home. Need to get a spreadsheet going I guess!
By Aerials
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870263
JohnathanB, I was researching a change of gas & electricity supplier a couple or years ago and you were with Avro at the time. I gave them a go on a 12m fixed rate then again a year later. Their contractor has sent me several e-mails inviting me to have a smart meter fitted. They've resorted to telephone calls now!

I have a theory that once everyone is equipped with a smart meter, prices will fluctuate on an almost hourly basis; everyone wants a hot drink and perhaps a cooked breakfast somewhere between 06:00 and 09:00 so the price goes up! Same at other peak times like when you get in from work or when Coronation Street finishes!
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870266
Bulb do:
EV tariff:
Off-peak rate, 2am-6am 5.68p/kWh
Standard rate, all other times: 19.70p/kWh

Smart tariff:
Peak weekdays 4pm - 7pm UTC: 25.15p/kWh
Off Peak (everything else): 12.65p/kWh
Standing: 20.56p/day

Standard tariff:
20.3816p per kWh
Standing: 24.8p/day

Until I start commuting again, I'm only charging the car once a week, so the Smart Tariff has been the cheapest for me (I think).
We do now put the dishwasher on after 7pm but other than that, haven't modified how we use power.
#1870270
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Agile suggests you have to start taking delivery there and then?

Not really; they publish hourly costs for the next day each day, so you can work out when you want to draw high loads, but it is far from a set-and-forget system. IIRC they cap the max rate at 35p, but at times they even pay you to draw power. But that hasn't happened for a while.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
#1870340
stevelup wrote:Agile is dead in the water now. May it RIP.

Octopus only buy generation capacity from renewable sources, and we have had much less wind than normal this year, so the price of highly variable tariffs has risen. Agile prices went really low (and sometimes negative) on very windy nights.
#1870342
PeteSpencer wrote:
PS EDF have three times been in touch with me to install a smart electricity meter but I’ve waved them off each time . I wonder if they will start to get heavy?…..

We actually had a chancer turn up at our front door to physically fit the new smart meter. No appointment, nothing. He won't be coming back any time soon. :lol:

My wife's cousin, a widow living on her own, had a smart meter fitted and her bills for electricity sky rocketed. She is not particularly old but is very disorganised (and frankly has more money than sense) and didn't do anything about it. It was only when she causally mentioned it to us that I took a look at her meter and bills. The claimed usage would have required the Brigade of Guards to be secretly living in her garage all charging up military grade devices 24/7. This had gone on for so long that the excess is well into 4 figures and she is having an epic battle now to get it sorted. She has resorted to cancelling her direct debit but the credit will probably see her well into the future. I cannot understand why the power company didn't have some safeguarding in place to recognise impossible changes to consumption before it got to that stage. It does leave me wondering how many elderly or vulnerable people are being fleeced like that.

No doubt, as part of the Green Agenda, we will eventually be forced by government to accept these things. I remain firmly sceptical about advantages to the consumer.

PW
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