Smart Meter

[Ttfjlc]

Energy companies really don't help themselves at times with their call centre tactics, easiest Pro's are automatic meter readings, possibly cheaper bills and if you are suffering with high bills the SED/PPMID really does show you where the money is going. Cons vary from iffy signals, occasional software glitches, green flashing lights (yes I really did attend a job for that). 

Of course there are the scare stories about meters having the built in function to be cut off hence pay your bills otherwise someone will hover their finger over the 'off' button🙄 . Truth is I've attended far more emergency call out jobs where it turns out the customer's equipment is faulty rather than our metering equipment, even when it is our equipment its a classic meter which has lost its display. 

Of course the easy way to save money on tariffs is to make sure the local 'well respected electrician' hasn't removed the time clock hence losing your E7/E10 in the process 🤣.

A cutout fuse rated at 80A will run slightly higher, if people do become concerned about maxing out their fuse rating they can always contact their relevant DNO about upgrading to 3 phase. 👍

[HuskyRich]

On 24/09/2020 at 20:07, Velocette said:

Not if you tell them that there is a very poor phone signal in the vicinity of the meter which would inhibit the transmission of meter data. This is in fact true but they were happy to accept my declaration that it is the case. No meter for me !

Up north in Arquiva areas it may be different but down in central UK regions that run on Telefonica the DCC system that SMETS 2 smart meters run on knows where there is signal or not and wether they will work or not or if special aerials are required and it's pretty accurate.
The companies will know this when they book appointments as it will tell them if it's good to go.
Also, SMETS 2 doesn't work on a traditional roaming mobile SIM's like the SMETS 1 sets did, it has it's own dedicated low frequency long distance band. I'm in rural Norfolk and there's not anywhere where I don't get a signal anymore.

Edited October 1, 2020 by HuskyRich

[HuskyRich]

On 25/09/2020 at 22:02, Ttfjlc said:

Energy companies really don't help themselves at times with their call centre tactics, easiest Pro's are automatic meter readings, possibly cheaper bills and if you are suffering with high bills the SED/PPMID really does show you where the money is going. Cons vary from iffy signals, occasional software glitches, green flashing lights (yes I really did attend a job for that). 

Of course there are the scare stories about meters having the built in function to be cut off hence pay your bills otherwise someone will hover their finger over the 'off' button🙄 . Truth is I've attended far more emergency call out jobs where it turns out the customer's equipment is faulty rather than our metering equipment, even when it is our equipment its a classic meter which has lost its display. 

Of course the easy way to save money on tariffs is to make sure the local 'well respected electrician' hasn't removed the time clock hence losing your E7/E10 in the process 🤣.

A cutout fuse rated at 80A will run slightly higher, if people do become concerned about maxing out their fuse rating they can always contact their relevant DNO about upgrading to 3 phase. 👍

Get sick of the constant scare stories touted by the gutter press about literally everything relating to smart meters.
99.99% of it is total BS.

But yeah, I get it quite often "I'm only having it fitted to stop the letters and calls".
What customers don't realise is the massive fines that energy companies face for not hitting the targets for the smart mandate. Not saying the constant bombardment is OK but... They'll be the first to be moaning when tariffs go up again because of the massive fines incurred.

I've not had much in the way of issues with the SMETS 2 sets yet though. Occasional dead hubs and whatnot but that's about it. But with anything electronic, somethings bound to go wrong here and there.
Although, going to be one or two issues with the L&G SMETS 2 PAYG  meters losing connections. Hence why we're now going over to the EDMI's.

[matone]

Bottom line is that when we run out of generating capacity due to decades of procrastination by governments ans suppliers,you will be switched off supply remotely for whatever length of time the suppliers deem necessary.

Very `smart`.

[Dougy]

I dont give a monkeys if they get a signal or not ! all that should have been sorted by all of the company's prior to insisting on having them installed, they get paid enough, or was all that an after thought ?

 

[Ttfjlc]

On 01/10/2020 at 19:31, HuskyRich said:

Get sick of the constant scare stories touted by the gutter press about literally everything relating to smart meters.
99.99% of it is total BS.

But yeah, I get it quite often "I'm only having it fitted to stop the letters and calls".
What customers don't realise is the massive fines that energy companies face for not hitting the targets for the smart mandate. Not saying the constant bombardment is OK but... They'll be the first to be moaning when tariffs go up again because of the massive fines incurred.

I've not had much in the way of issues with the SMETS 2 sets yet though. Occasional dead hubs and whatnot but that's about it. But with anything electronic, somethings bound to go wrong here and there.
Although, going to be one or two issues with the L&G SMETS 2 PAYG  meters losing connections. Hence why we're now going over to the EDMI's.

I like the SMETS2 assets now they've sped up the installation/scheming side of it as it has less impact on a customer's time especially when a lot of my customers are trying to work from home.

You're right about the electronics, when you consider the number of assets out there law of averages dictates theres bound to be a few issues here and there.

10 hours ago, Dougy said:

I dont give a monkeys if they get a signal or not ! all that should have been sorted by all of the company's prior to insisting on having them installed, they get paid enough, or was all that an after thought ?

 

Maybe if all the companies had got together then things might of been different, however some suppliers went forward with their plans while others held back to see how it played out. 

Believe this or not but there were/are some seriously clever people working on the technology, problem is they could never predict every possible outcome, even when the latest smart meters came out we were told we'd still see issues, for example when trials were run by teams in certain areas around the country the computer system could cope easily, when systems went fully mainstream and you have a 1000 technicians trying to scheme assets glitches become inevitable but they DO learn from them quickly. 

What would you of insisted they do to test every single person's property? That would be some task to carry out and could of resulted in bills being even higher, one good example is a customer's smart meter worked fine in the winter (when it was installed) yet come spring it kept glitching, turned out a pretty big tree helped disrupt the signal when it was in leaf. 👍