On 28/01/2017 12:49, wrote:
Hi friends,

Having used this group for a number of years, I'm hopeful that someone will be able and kind enough to advise on this:

For my house, I have external, old-style pre-payment gas & electric token meters. So to top up, I drive to a local shop to get my key/card credited with £X amount.

I gather that if I had smart meters installed, I could top up using a mobile phone, which sounds more convenient. However, I am thinking of letting my house out to successive short-term holiday tenants during the summer, and want the tenants to pay for the gas & electricity they use. Would switching to smart meters still make sense in this case? Is it easy to enable the tenant to top up the gas & electricity using their own phone and bank account - or are there obstacles making this impractical?

One other reason I'm thinking of installing smart meters is that I hope they are thinner than the existing meters! The plastic cabinets in which my existing meters are housed, stick out from the wall by about 10", partially obstructing the pathway to my front door. Can anyone tell me the approximate thickness of the new smart meters, i.e., how much the project from their mounting boards? I don't want to go the expense of having the meters sunk into the wall, but can I use cabinets that are shallower than the ubiquitous bog-standard ones?

Many thanks if you can advise on either of the above.

Al_n


I have rented a holiday cottage where I had to read the meter and then
leave a cheque to cover the cost of the electricity I used. We used
more than most tenants.

Any kind of prepayment would annoy me, as I could not be sure what I
would use.

The property was rented via Menai Holiday Cottages who could advise on
what most renters do.


--
Michael Chare

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