Who Could Possibly Have Predicted Problems With Smart-Meters?

[Hymie]

Posted by Hymie: 23:27 Fri 11th Nov 2022:-

//.....And should your smart meter go wrong and disconnect you – if you think your supplier is going to rush round and fix it, your thinking is wrong.

Why anyone would have a smart meter fitted is a mystery to me.//

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11610525/Around-4-000-hit-smart-meter-defect-left-unable-spent.html

[naomi24]

//Why anyone would have a smart meter fitted is a mystery to me.//

From the link: //Around 4,000 are hit by smart meter defect which left them unable to see how much they had spent ///

Unless I'm missing something, those who don't have a smart meter don't know how much they're spending at all.

[Hymie]

£39,025 in a day according to the DM.

[THECORBYLOON]

Not displaying the amount used is frustrating but hardly the same as being disconnected, is it?

[naomi24]

//£39,025 in a day according to the DM. //

According to the DM it's a defect. We know that, so what's the problem?

[emily7]

It is generally expected that any new technology will have some problems or issues when it is first implemented. This is often referred to as the "teething" period, during which bugs or other issues are identified and addressed. Smart meters, which are electronic devices used to measure and transmit energy usage data, are no exception. While it may not have been possible to predict all of the specific problems that have arisen with smart meters, it is likely that many people involved in the development and deployment of these devices were aware that there could be some challenges or issues that needed to be addressed.

[Hymie]

//Customers across different energy suppliers have complained of smart meters displaying wildly incorrect readings in recent months, while others have simply lost connectivity.//

It is not clear whether ‘lost connectivity’ refers to the smart meter communication or ‘loss of electrical supply’ – I doubt DM journalists are intelligent enough to know the difference.

[Gromit]

Er, a very small number had a defective meter so their bill would have been estimated. That is terrible!!!

If you don’t have a Smart Meter your bill is estimated and you prefer that ?

You should tray Confused dot com

[naomi24]

//It is not clear whether ‘lost connectivity’ refers to the smart meter communication or ‘loss of electrical supply’ – I doubt DM journalists are intelligent enough to know the difference. //

The DM reporters are talking about smart meters. That's what the article is about. Presumably they consider their readers intelligent enough to understand that and it's my guess that most of them are. I wonder why you're struggling with it, hymie?

[Gromit]

// It is not clear whether ‘lost connectivity’ refers to the smart meter communication or ‘loss of electrical supply’ – I doubt DM journalists are intelligent enough to know the difference. //

‘Connectivity’ refers to telecommunications and the inability to connect your device to a mobile or broadband connection.
Losing electricity needs a physical break and that is called a power cut or being cut off, not loss of connectivity. If people had been cut off by mistake as a result of a defective gadget, they would have said that. They didn’t.

[Hymie]

People seem unaware that smart meters include an integral relay that connects the property to the supply mains – if the relay fails, or is switched to the off state for any reason, then your electrical supply will be disconnected.

[bobbinwales]

Have you got a link hymie for that. Does it apply to gas too?

[naomi24]

You're worrying too much, hymie. I can't see that any of the consumers who are having problems with their smart meters have lost their electricity supply.

[Gromit]

That would be illegal.

// Your energy supplier cannot disconnect you without first assessing your situation and how a disconnection might affect you. They must also have discussed options for you to pay back any debt, for example through a prepayment plan.
As with analogue gas and electricity meters, disconnection can only happen as a last resort and is only taken after every other opportunity to settle the debt has been exhausted. //

If the Smart Meter is defective, then you are not in debt and a disconnection cannot happen.

[Arksided]

I don’t understand what dimmies don’t have a smart meter unless you have money to burn

[Gromit]

Arksided

A Smart Meter does not save you money unless you change your usage as a result of it’s readings (and hardly anyone does).
But it stops you being your energy suppliers bank by loaning them money for free, which I assume nobody, including Hymie, wants to do.

[youngmafbog]

Er actually I was called out to a property over xmas that had just what Hymie has said (re the relay).

Despite being registered as vulnerable the residents were left without elect for a few days before they bothered to get round to look.

Smart meters are not a good thing. Most 'in the business' both gas and leccy wont have them. Nothing to do with teething problems either.

[naomi24]

Gromit, //A Smart Meter does not save you money unless you change your usage as a result of it’s readings (and hardly anyone does). //

I think people are checking and sometimes changing usage. Even I sent my husband to check how much the tumble drier was using - and so many, rather than using conventional ovens, seem to be turning to air fryers now.

[youngmafbog]

Ah, the good old air fryer (that is anything but) debate.

Everyone knows the big users, Immersion heaters, electric underfloor heating, pretty much anything where you heat. But not all of these items use as much as people claim. There seems to be a continual ignorance of thermostats and how they work in the MSM.

[youngmafbog]

//But it stops you being your energy suppliers bank by loaning them money for free, which I assume nobody, including Hymie, wants to do.//

Well that is an untruth.

I have £2500 with my supplier and they pay be quite well every month in iinterest.

[bobbinwales]

Yes there giving slot of people including me a nudge to look more carefully at usage&costs by doing things like what naomi said. I'm not convinced its the smart meter that causes electric to go off...failures happen even without them...but if there is a small risk i'd still take. Of course main benifit is not having to read meter's or argue over estimated bills