Smart Meters

[vernonk]

Do they really help you making savings, as the promotion leaflets claim?

[fiction-factory]

Yes douglas, you can see the wheel spin round on old meters but the old meters are usually hidden away in the garage behind piles of discarded furniture /bikes etc
The smart meters give you real time and summary info on usage in £ terms and can be accessed from your armchair or while you are out of the house. It's quite a difference IMO

[Dodger666]

We have had smart meters for a few years now. The only use they have been is that someone downstairs can see, by looking at the load on the electricity on the remote display unit, that another person is using the electric shower. This prevents you from filling a kettle, flushing the downstairs loo etc, thereby giving the showering person a taste of hot water from the shower due to water pressure drop. Our shower doesn't have temperature stabilisation.

As for saving you anything, forget it.

[EDDIE51]

Current status of the National Grid here, you can see how much power is being used and produced in real time
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

[EDDIE51]

^^ Note how little is being produced by Nuclear around 14% where wind power is 7.5% !!

[New Judge]

"...but the old meters are usually hidden away in the garage behind piles of discarded furniture /bikes etc "

Off topic I know, but I always find it odd that in the UK people will leave their £30k new car out in the road or on their driveway and prefer to keep two hundred quids worth of old furniture and bikes safe, warm and dry in the garage :-)

[4candles]

NJ - Have you ever driven an average sized car into a modern garage and then tried to get out of the car without damaging the door?

[New Judge]

Then you need to buy either a smaller car (there are plenty around) or build a bigger garage!

[Peter Pedant]

// Hospitals have standby generators but they can not supply the power to maintain full service only 'life support' applications.//

hangover from the good old days of the power cuts and three day week of 1973 I think

used to be tested 9 am Saturdays
alll the machines would go click ( off)
and the relief generator had to click in within 25 s I think

I have no idea what you do now with computerised systems
you cant really glitch them like we used to

good to be reminded of the Good Old Days
"if you strike you will be damaging ill people like those in hospital"
" well you better settle then "
o how I regret the passing of those times

[Old_Geezer]

Side issue, (literally) but I gave up driving my car into the garage that came as part of the extension to the house I bought. They could have made it wider, there was room to the side to do so if desired, but the car fitted through the garages doors with bare inches each side; and nothing could be stored to the side if one wanted to open the car door to get out. Why do folk build structures that are inadequate; or barely adequate if we are being generous ? Still it makes a good storage space, if a little draughty under the door.

[malagabob]

Eddie my understanding is and the power companies don't tell you this, is Smart Meters are not compulsory.

[EDDIE51]

^ At the moment they are not compulsory but the plan is for every consumer to have them eventually.(within 15 years) As well as the remote cut off the power companies will save a lot of money as they do not need to send people round to read meters, it is all done from their computer. They will be able to cut a lot of jobs and still get all the bills out on time.

[EDDIE51]

I actually tried to get a smart meter as they are offering free electricity on a Sunday 8am to 5 pm until March 2018 (I think). But was told my area( North Herts) is not able to have smart meters yet!
I had decided that as we were going to get them anyway I may as well try to get some free power by going in early ! But they said no!

[EDDIE51]

Smart Meter Roll out here , by 2020 so earlier than I thought all UK homes should have smart meters
https://www.smartenergygb.org/en/the-bigger-picture/about-the-rollout
Free electricity details here
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/gas-and-electricity/free-electricity-tariff.html