Hi Factor, when it was installed the engineer didn't even understand it! The meter sends your readings wirelessly to BG. You get a display monitor which you can have anywhere in the house which gives you the actual usage of gas and leccy in real time how much it is costing you and a history of the usage over the previous 28 days/12months. It also has a traffic light system of red, amber, green so you know how high or low your usage is. Our monitor didn't like the kettle, microwave, hoover or iron.
Since the meter was installed the cost of electricity was always more than the gas which never used to be the case, but British Gas were insistent that there was no problem and wouldn't change the meter (or even check it). It came to head earlier this year when we got a bill for the winter quarter of nearly £900 (we don't pay by DD). I paid the bill and thought at least we had 3 months grace before the next quarter, silly me. We then got a bill headed "Your Spring Bill" is here, yippee which ran from April to May of this year and was a further £157.00, we were struggling to pay this so soon after the previous one that I ignored it until the red letter.
My husband rang BG to ask what was going on to be told that a new bill was on it's way for £300.00 which was our "Summer Bill" and included the unpaid £157.00 this covered May through to June. At this point he got a bit annoyed!! and told them to remove the smart meter, surprisingly they agreed. It was taken out a week later (can't fault their engineers) and was suggested to us that maybe the meter was over running.
I paid the £300.00 last week after another red letter and have been told my next bill will be 1/10/13. I will be very interested to see how much it is.
Jan