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Smart meters......oh dear oh dear...why on earth did I bother!

The last I heard from Pure Planet they contacted me on the mobile when I was out shopping.

The result of the uninformed conversation, from both sides, was an inadequate change to the DD amount, leaving me with the above mentioned debt when the company crashed.

They seemed quite amateurish.
 
gavreid said:
It's only now with the extraordinary inflation that it's exposing what they are up to. I didn't get any say in how much I pay monthly they told me a year ago and again in April what they will be charging me. Every home in the country has an estimated use for gas and electricity. The regulator reviews the cap in the spring, which means you pay more over the summer when you are not using very much so that money is pure cash up front for the supplier. Does the accrued interest reduce my annual bill? I think you know the answer to that... If the suppliers are sitting on near £1000 per household across the country just now that's a big fat wad of free cash to invest at their leisure. The just 'divide by 12' has much more to it than you might think...
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That all assumes that you entered your contract one bright and sunny March day. If you had instead first signed up in October, then it would be you who were ahead, not the utility, as you would use gas every winter that you won't have to pay for until the start of Summer. And as for interest, until this year, banks charged business customers for holding large amounts of cash - they earned nothing on it; all they had was the reassurance that they weren’t going to have to chase you for money come Wintertime.

There is nothing inherently unfair about equalised payment plans. The problem is from utilities not accurately estimating usage on such plans.
 
KrisW said:
That all assumes that you entered your contract one bright and sunny March day. If you had instead first signed up in October, then it would be you who were ahead, not the utility, as you would use gas every winter that you won't have to pay for until the start of Summer. And as for interest, until this year, banks charged business customers for holding large amounts of cash - they earned nothing on it; all they had was the reassurance that they weren’t going to have to chase you for money come Wintertime.

There is nothing inherently unfair about equalised payment plans. The problem is from utilities not accurately estimating usage on such plans.
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No this is a misunderstanding, I think - the regulator reviews the cap in the spring. At the very least they profit on the increase for 6 months before you use it, which this year is astronomical of course. Do you think the huge energy suppliers have normal business accounts and are being charged to hold cash? Not on your Nellie.
 
Just moved from house with no smart meters to one with smart meters on both gas and electric. Works like a treat, one app for electric, and web site for gas. I find it really useful to monitor what is being used daily and hourly. From reading others experience it sounds like I'm very lucky that it's all working.
My only shock was that I thought it was 10p a unit for gas. But no it's 10p a kwh, of which there are 10 per unit. I was previously on oil so didn't know this stuff. Very expensive.
 
I multiply the cubic metres of gas on the meter by eleven to give kW on the bill.
 
venton said:
Just moved from house with no smart meters to one with smart meters on both gas and electric. Works like a treat, one app for electric, and web site for gas. I find it really useful to monitor what is being used daily and hourly. From reading others experience it sounds like I'm very lucky that it's all working.
My only shock was that I thought it was 10p a unit for gas. But no it's 10p a kwh, of which there are 10 per unit. I was previously on oil so didn't know this stuff. Very expensive.
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Surely cheaper than oil.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if the Government decide to only offer any energy credits to users who have smart meters in an attempt to get everyone onto them!
 
Bob McC said:
Surely cheaper than oil.
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Surprisingly not. Around 1500 litres a year, so about £1300 at current prices. That's heating and hot water. Gas seems like it will be more than that, but gas prices must surely come down at some point, they are three times more than last year.
 
Good Morning All,

Smart meters are coming to every household at some point, it is inevitable. There is an illusion of 'choice' about it currently. We need to make sure that the genuinely vulnerable are protected.

I've been paying 12 'equal' monthly payments for my energy for as long as I remember. As stated above it is less hassle. I seem to be up to £735.67 in credit with Octopus currently........... I know this will be eroded by April.

I appreciate not everybody's circumstances are the same..........

Regards

Richard
 
Richard Lines said:
Good Morning All,

Smart meters are coming to every household at some point, it is inevitable. There is an illusion of 'choice' about it currently. We need to make sure that the genuinely vulnerable are protected.

I've been paying 12 'equal' monthly payments for my energy for as long as I remember. As stated above it is less hassle. I seem to be up to £735.67 in credit with Octopus currently........... I know this will be eroded by April.

I appreciate not everybody's circumstances are the same..........

Regards

Richard
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How will smart meters work in the areas of the country with no mobile signal?
 
venton said:
Surprisingly not. Around 1500 litres a year, so about £1300 at current prices. That's heating and hot water. Gas seems like it will be more than that, but gas prices must surely come down at some point, they are three times more than last year.
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Is that current oil price?
 
Bob McC said:
How will smart meters work in the areas of the country with no mobile signal?
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They don't actually use the mobile phone network but yes there are areas with poor signal and I don't have an answer. I guess the PTB will have to install the necessary communication systems.

This goes back to a point I made previously wrt the installers using a signal strength meter and/ or test signal prior to an install........ As somebody mentioned above installing it inside a building with 30" stone walls in a poor signal area is probably never going to work so why install in the first place? It is grief for the supplier and the customer.

Regards

Richard
 
The gas meter has to be close enough to be able to send it’s data to the electric meter too. Plenty of customers of mine only have functioning electric smart meters and not the gas.
 
Good Evening All,

I have been reading tales of people who have had less than successful installs of smart meters for a few years now. Given the problems must be pretty well understood by now I am alone in thinking the PTB really ought to have solved them by now???

It took over 6 months after Octopus replaced my first smart meter with A.N.Other (because some customers with Landis+Gyr meters were experiencing reading issues when combined with PW2 installs - an industry wide problem I understand) and several EM's before I sent one to Greg himself and then things finally got resolved. My electricity use for 8 months was guesstimated and a mutually agreed figure settled on.

In fairness to the suppliers they are having to implement a system which clearly has a number of yet unresolved problems and it must be costing them to do so.

Regards

Richard
 
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