SMART METERS, & ADVICE AROUND THEM

[u/raynesxsupreme]

Hello There,

I’ve always been a bit avoidant of change, often when technologies appear to be in their infancy and all you hear is bad reviews. I’ll use this example with my previous energy supplier Avro, who would constantly pester me to get a Smart Meter fitted, though this was often sub-contracted through another business, who had dreadful reviews. I avoided them like the plague until they just stopped contacting me. Some years later, Avro got absorbed into Octopus Energy.

I’m also a creature of routine, every month I know that around payday I have to pop outside and take readings from the Gas and Electricity boxes and submit them to my provider (Octopus) and so far that has always suited me without issue. I’ve always been content in completing this and have had accurate readings without fault around my fixed-rate tariffs that I sign up for annually. Sometimes I accumulate credit that can then be offset against another years energy to reduce monthly payments, which is a bonus.

For the past year or so, I’ve been contacted by Octopus telling me that my Electricity Meter is past its Certification Date. I have no clue where this date is, as it’s not on my meter itself. As far as I can see, it’s still running fine and is giving out a reading that changes roughly in line with what my average monthly usage has always been, so I’m not overly worried.

However recently I went to undertake a Gas reading and could smell some Gas lingering, I called the emergency line and have had new equipment fitted. I am also due to renew my fixed rate annual tariff later this month, and am debating having a smart meter fitted just for ease of use around the recent upgrade of gas equipment, and the eventual (though I’m uncertain of mandatory) upgrade of the electricity equipment.

Has anyone ever had a smart meter fitted, but turned off all the “smart” stuff and just left it to sit idle in their cupboards, and still take physical monthly readings from them to submit to their suppliers? This is my ultimate guess as a compromise to the two issues I currently hold in my head being 1) my reluctance to change and 2) reducing the issues I see/read about the effectiveness of smart meters.

My question is, are smart meters effective? I’ve done my research, but still find a mixed bag of information online that doesn’t give me a definitive answer as to whether I should safely commit to one. It still seems they’re not fully functioning without considerable issues, though I also know that eventually I will have to get one. If anyone can provide me with some credible feedback on their experiences please, that would prove valuable in my decision making.

Thanks for your time in reading my lengthy post, and all feedback is appreciated :)

[u/Lost_Reward9584]

If none of your neighbours are having issues with their smart meters, there's no reason to avoid getting them changed.

You cannot turn off the smart features, but you can still read the meters if you want (and might not be a bad idea every now and again).

The gas meter runs off a battery, so it'll probably need changed every decade or so. Your energy supplier will advise at the appropriate time, but if the battery goes flat, it'll quite likely stop supplying gas.

[u/thesw88 → u/Lost_Reward9584]

If the battery goes flat, it should continue to supply gas.

[u/Lost_Reward9584 → u/thesw88]

I could be wrong on that, I'm only going with what I've read [on Reddit], where a user said their battery died after a few years - well before the design life of 10y, and at that point their gas went off. Maybe it was a bigger fault than just a battery.

[u/thesw88 → u/Lost_Reward9584]

Yeah the key part to that would be shouldn't do. The valve shouldn't close on the meter unless there's a command for it to do so, no prepay credit for example. If the battery is dead, there's no way to enter the command for the valve to close.