On 07/03/2015 12:27, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
newshound writes:
Just had an email from my supplier (OVO) saying that a meter needs
replacing and giving me an option to have a smart meter.

Are there any down-sides?

Just been a small mention of smart meters on Moneybox (Radio 4).
At the moment, none of the smart meters are interoperable between
suppliers.

Also, government has not made any progress standardising the
meters to be used in the national role-out, meaning it now can't
happen in the original timescales, as that required the roll-out
to start this year, which cannot now happen.

Lots of doubt is being raised on the viability of the whole
program in other places.

The main consumer benefit quoted is that you can see your power
usage in real-time. This has been available for many years with
consumer self-install monitors, and smart metering is not required
to do this. Indeed, research with early smart meter adopters has
shown that after a couple of months, the interest in this wears
off, and consumers find that appliances actually cost vastly less
to use that they guessed beforehand, and they quickly stop
bothering to try saving.



being able to see power usage in real time is usefull in cases of
appliances being left on, you become used to the "normal" reading and
soon realise something is still consuming power.

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