Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

--
*If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...


Absolute cobblers! Maybe it can read fractions of a unit, but I'm not
sure what use that is.

If you want Big Brother - and maybe the criminal fraternity - to be able
to work out your movements from your rate of energy consumption, go for it!

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings in
Excel tells me all I want to know.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings in
Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

On 29/02/2016 18:28, Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings
in Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

One day it could be how all those people with electric cars end up
paying the avoided fuel duty and VAT by have a special 'electric car
charging rate'. The meter will of course know exactly what you are using
power for.

I wonder if a 1:1 isolation transformer would act as a 'firewall' ?.

It can definately allow remote disconnection if you don't pay your bill
because my neighbour has one and it shows credit/debit information.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 18:59:13 +0000, Andrew
wrote:

On 29/02/2016 18:28, Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings
in Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

One day it could be how all those people with electric cars end up
paying the avoided fuel duty and VAT by have a special 'electric car
charging rate'. The meter will of course know exactly what you are using
power for.

How?



--

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On 29/02/2016 18:28, Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a
smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings
in Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

One day it could be how all those people with electric cars end up paying
the avoided fuel duty and VAT by have a special 'electric car charging
rate'. The meter will of course know exactly what you are using power for.

I wonder if a 1:1 isolation transformer would act as a 'firewall' ?.

It can definately allow remote disconnection if you don't pay your bill
because my neighbour has one and it shows credit/debit information.

You mean it stops supplying electricity when the credit has run out?

That is not the same as remote disconnection.



--
Adam

On 29/02/2016 19:37, ARW wrote:
"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On 29/02/2016 18:28, Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a
smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings
in Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

One day it could be how all those people with electric cars end up
paying the avoided fuel duty and VAT by have a special 'electric car
charging rate'. The meter will of course know exactly what you are
using power for.

I wonder if a 1:1 isolation transformer would act as a 'firewall' ?.

It can definately allow remote disconnection if you don't pay your
bill because my neighbour has one and it shows credit/debit information.

You mean it stops supplying electricity when the credit has run out?

That is not the same as remote disconnection.




My neighbour is on a standard EDF rate, not prepaid, and pays his bill
on time, but his new smart meter still has an icon on the lcd that says
debt.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 18:28:47 +0000, Scott M wrote:

snip

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Hehe.

Stepdaughters CH wasn't working so Mrs took a fan heater up there as
she was going there anyway and didn't want to be cold herself.

She turned down the fan heater, producing a radiant heater along with
the logic that 'fan heaters gobble the electricity up'. So, a 1kW fan
heater consumes more electricity than a 3kW radiant heater apparently.
;-)

Cheers, T i m

In message , Scott M
writes
Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...


I'd be interested to know how a single meter can tell you which (out of
potentially many) devices is using the most electricity.

Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "diy" with "news" and reverse the domain

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceieved SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

Adrian wrote:
In message , Scott M
writes
Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let
you see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you
know to turn it off again...


I'd be interested to know how a single meter can tell you which (out of
potentially many) devices is using the most electricity.

You just measure the changes in current as they switch in/out with the
presumption that only one device changes state at any one time and from
that build up a picture of each device's consumption since they will be
unique (ie a 3kW kettle is 2865W while your 3kW heater is 2920W.)

At least, that works in my mind for obvious things like kettles and
heaters. Washing machines are a bit of a ponder as they draw variable
amounts of current - but perhaps if you set a floor so that only things
over, say, 1kW are logged then the motor drops out as noise.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

Scott M wrote:
Adrian wrote:
In message , Scott M
writes
Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let
you see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you
know to turn it off again...


I'd be interested to know how a single meter can tell you which (out of
potentially many) devices is using the most electricity.

You just measure the changes in current as they switch in/out with the
presumption that only one device changes state at any one time and from
that build up a picture of each device's consumption since they will be
unique (ie a 3kW kettle is 2865W while your 3kW heater is 2920W.)

At least, that works in my mind for obvious things like kettles and
heaters. Washing machines are a bit of a ponder as they draw variable
amounts of current - but perhaps if you set a floor so that only things
over, say, 1kW are logged then the motor drops out as noise.

So you rush back and forth looking at the meter reading while you turn
things on and off? Isn't it easier simply to read the rating plate on
whatever you're interested in? ... and anyway there will be things
turning themselves on and off which will mask the changes you're
trying to see won't there?

--
Chris Green
·

On 29/02/2016 19:54, Adrian wrote:

I'd be interested to know how a single meter can tell you which (out of
potentially many) devices is using the most electricity.

When we all get forced into having "intelligent appliances" they could
talk to the meter, say what they are and ask for permission to run.

--
Mike Clarke

On 02/03/2016 21:31, Mike Clarke wrote:
On 29/02/2016 19:54, Adrian wrote:

I'd be interested to know how a single meter can tell you which (out of
potentially many) devices is using the most electricity.

When we all get forced into having "intelligent appliances" they could
talk to the meter, say what they are and ask for permission to run.

Or even ones that just listen to the meter, and behave as it suggests.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
Scott M wrote:
Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

I'd hope most people on here would have a good idea what most of their
appliances take.

Thinks. Must use my tumble drier just for the hell of it. ;-)

--
*Many people quit looking for work when they find a job *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Monday, 29 February 2016 18:28:48 UTC, Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings in
Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

Is it me or is anyone who can't equate consumption with cost really not
cut out to live indoors?

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

At some point they will become compulsary for everyone.

harry wrote:
On Monday, 29 February 2016 18:28:48 UTC, Scott M wrote:

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make it
more expensive at popular times.

At some point they will become compulsary for everyone.

T'woman said 2020 - though I imagine that they'll simply roll in as part
of the usual upgrade and replacement programme.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

On 01/03/2016 08:38, Scott M wrote:
harry wrote:
On Monday, 29 February 2016 18:28:48 UTC, Scott M wrote:

Personally I see it as a way of sliding in multi-tier tariffs to make
it more expensive at popular times.

At some point they will become compulsary for everyone.

T'woman said 2020 - though I imagine that they'll simply roll in as part
of the usual upgrade and replacement programme.


This is part of their replacement programme.
The more they can do now before its compulsory the less they need to do
in a rush later.

Harry won't want one as they can meter exported power on them.

On Tue, 01 Mar 2016 08:38:07 +0000, Scott M wrote:

T'woman said 2020 - though I imagine that they'll simply roll in as part
of the usual upgrade and replacement programme.

Ah the "usual upgrade and replacement programme" that has us with
mechanical meters certified for ten years in 1967 and 1980 and the
electronic for (possibly) 20 years from 1996.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings in
Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let you
see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you know
to turn it off again...

.... but they don't do they? They can't "let you see what's using the
electric[ity]", all they can do is show your total consumption.

--
Chris Green
·

In article ,
wrote:
Scott M wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a
smart meter.

I find that reading my meters once a month and plotting the readings
in Excel tells me all I want to know.

Funnily enough, had the meter reader round this morning and asked what
her idea of the benefits of a smart meter were. Apparently they let
you see what's using the electric so that, if it's too expensive, you
know to turn it off again...

... but they don't do they? They can't "let you see what's using the
electric[ity]", all they can do is show your total consumption.

Many moons ago they replaced my old mechanical gas meter with an
electronic one. Asked if they could connect it to my phone line too, which
I refused. A few years later, they changed it back to a mechanical one.
Seems the batteries in the electronic ones were failing 'early'. No real
surprise there...

All those meters are in my cellar. Mounted sideways, so it is awkward to
read. If it was swung round 90 degrees, it could be easily read from the
cellar steps. Each time it's replaced I ask for this to be done. But too
much trouble. They would move it outside, though.

--
*The first rule of holes: If you are in one, stop digging!

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Roger Mills wrote:

If you want Big Brother - and maybe the criminal fraternity - to be able
to work out your movements from your rate of energy consumption, go for it!

If you can tell my comings and goings based on a single reading per
meter per month, you're a better man than I am ...

On 29/02/2016 19:45, Andy Burns wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:

If you want Big Brother - and maybe the criminal fraternity - to be able
to work out your movements from your rate of energy consumption, go
for it!

If you can tell my comings and goings based on a single reading per
meter per month, you're a better man than I am ...



Who said anything about one reading per month? I know *I* did in
relation to reading my dumb meters - but, AIUI, a smart meter can
capture readings at very frequent intervals.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Roger Mills wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Roger Mills wrote:

If you want Big Brother - and maybe the criminal fraternity - to be able
to work out your movements from your rate of energy consumption, go
for it!

If you can tell my comings and goings based on a single reading per
meter per month, you're a better man than I am ...

Who said anything about one reading per month?

That's the frequency mine are read at, I have the option to allow more
frequent readings (half-hourly and/or daily per fuel).

On 29/02/2016 23:10, Andy Burns wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Roger Mills wrote:

If you want Big Brother - and maybe the criminal fraternity - to be
able
to work out your movements from your rate of energy consumption, go
for it!

If you can tell my comings and goings based on a single reading per
meter per month, you're a better man than I am ...

Who said anything about one reading per month?

That's the frequency mine are read at, I have the option to allow more
frequent readings (half-hourly and/or daily per fuel).

Don't confuse readings for the purposes of billing, and those for the
purposes of information gathering and network feedback and control.

You may allow them to take a billing reading once per month. The meter
may have the capability of doing it many times a minute - and even if
the good guys don't make use of that capability, you can be sure someone
else will find a way.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 29/02/2016 22:58, Roger Mills wrote:

Who said anything about one reading per month? I know *I* did in
relation to reading my dumb meters - but, AIUI, a smart meter can
capture readings at very frequent intervals.

Surely if you have a smart meter, all you have to do to fool the
burglars who might read it while you are away is to leave on a fire or
cooker on a time-switch, so that your consumption pattern makes it look
as if your home is still occupied. That won't save much energy, indeed
it might use rather more, but that's beside the point.

I don't believe that smart meters will much difference to consumption,
but they surely save money on salaries of meter readers, and make it
much easier for the energy companies to introduce variable pricing
depending on demand. I will resiste having one as long as I can.

--
Clive Page

"Clive Page" wrote in message
...
On 29/02/2016 22:58, Roger Mills wrote:

Who said anything about one reading per month? I know *I* did in
relation to reading my dumb meters - but, AIUI, a smart meter can
capture readings at very frequent intervals.

Surely if you have a smart meter, all you have to do to fool the burglars
who might read it while you are away is to leave on a fire or cooker on a
time-switch, so that your consumption pattern makes it look as if your
home is still occupied. That won't save much energy, indeed it might use
rather more, but that's beside the point.

I don't believe that smart meters will much difference to consumption, but
they surely save money on salaries of meter readers, and make it much
easier for the energy companies to introduce variable pricing depending on
demand. I will resiste having one as long as I can.

I won't as long as it doesn’t cost me any more for peak power
and allows me to do the high power stuff at a time when the
electricity supplier is happy to sell me the electricity at a much
lower cost because that allows them to load balance much better.

"Clive Page" wrote in message
...
On 29/02/2016 22:58, Roger Mills wrote:

Who said anything about one reading per month? I know *I* did in
relation to reading my dumb meters - but, AIUI, a smart meter can
capture readings at very frequent intervals.

Surely if you have a smart meter, all you have to do to fool the burglars
who might read it while you are away is to leave on a fire or cooker on a
time-switch, so that your consumption pattern makes it look as if your
home is still occupied.


Just to drift slightly.

One of my customers claim to fame was that he got arrested breaking into
Emlyn Hughes house and he was caught because Emlyn was in the house when he
broke in. This came as a surprise to my customer as he had waited until "A
Question of Sport" had just started on the TV before breaking into the house
and he thought that the house would be empty.



--
Adam

On Tue, 1 Mar 2016 10:31:50 +0000, Clive Page wrote:

Surely if you have a smart meter, all you have to do to fool the
burglars who might read it while you are away is to leave on a fire or
cooker on a time-switch, so that your consumption pattern makes it look
as if your home is still occupied.

Not that simple, base load is generally higher when a place has
active (ie not tucked up in bed) people in it.

I don't believe that smart meters will much difference to consumption,

There is a certain novelty in having a visible realtime display of
consumption. One that has a plot of consumption over say the last 6
hours would be better as that will show things like coffee machines
or kettles with a "keep warm" feature or even just the iron left on.

but they surely save money on salaries of meter readers,

Not until a significant percentage of people have smart meters. Even
then I have my doubts as in stead of the meter reader being able to
read a meter say every five minutes the wider distribution means he
can now only read a meter every ten minutes.

and make it much easier for the energy companies to introduce variable
pricing depending on demand.

Do any of the "smart" meters support that and what exactly do you
mean?

1) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the
consumer doesn't know the price at any given moment so can't manually
adjust their consumption.

2) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the
consumer does know the price and can manually adjust their
consumption.

3) Have the rate charged vary according to national demand but the
consumer doesn't need to know the price as the meter can talk to
devices in the house and switch them off automagically to reduce
consumption.

4) Change "Have the rate charged vary according to national demand
...." in all the above to "Have the rate charged vary according to
national and consumer demand ...".

I won't have a smart meter unless I have no choice or it offers
something that I don't already have (I already log our consumption
and supply voltage). It will be interesting to see how they cope with
getting the required data connection where the meters are, there
isn't a sniff of a mobile signal. If they want to mount an external
aerial they can pay rent for the priviledge.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...

Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

--
*If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I seem to recall reading somewhere a while back that people who had
installed a smart meter are inextricably linked to their then supplier. This
meant that it became difficult, if not impossible, to move to another
supplier to take advantage of a better deal.

Alaric

Alaric wrote:

I seem to recall reading somewhere a while back that people who had
installed a smart meter are inextricably linked to their then supplier. This
meant that it became difficult, if not impossible, to move to another
supplier to take advantage of a better deal.

A different supplier may be unable to read the smart reader remotely,
but it still functions as a dumb meter, so you or their meter reader can
take readings the traditional way - there's no tie-in.

The only wrinkle I can think of is what happens if you change gas
supplier and the 10 year battery eventually gives up? I guess if they
aren't geared-up to replace the battery, they'll be round to replace the
meter.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

A cold call? Why would anyone listen? It only encourages them. If no-one
listened, there wouldn't be any cold calls.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

In article ,
Mike Barnes wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a
smart meter. I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried
to 'sell' it by saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via
its phone link. I said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as
it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one
would be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he
couldn't...

A cold call? Why would anyone listen? It only encourages them. If no-one
listened, there wouldn't be any cold calls.

I am a customer of theirs, so not strictly speaking a cold call. Sorry.

--
*Stable Relationships Are For Horses.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one
would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

A cold call? Why would anyone listen?

Because sometimes it does make you aware of
an offer worth taking advantage of, particularly
with those who dont continuously analyse who
is offering the best value product.

It only encourages them. If no-one
listened, there wouldn't be any cold calls.

And if pig flew, we'd have carry umbrellas at all times.

On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...


I inherited a smart meter in one of my factory units, when the tenant
moved out. The next occupant found that he couldn't change to the
electricity supplier he wanted as thye used different protocols and
couldn't read the data from the meter.

--
Colin Bignell

On 01/03/16 09:28, Nightjar cpb wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one
would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...


I inherited a smart meter in one of my factory units, when the tenant
moved out. The next occupant found that he couldn't change to the
electricity supplier he wanted as thye used different protocols and
couldn't read the data from the meter.


That's interesting. Is this the same case for domestic?

--
Adrian C

"Adrian Caspersz" wrote in message
...
On 01/03/16 09:28, Nightjar cpb wrote:
On 29/02/2016 17:15, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one
would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he
couldn't...


I inherited a smart meter in one of my factory units, when the tenant
moved out. The next occupant found that he couldn't change to the
electricity supplier he wanted as thye used different protocols and
couldn't read the data from the meter.


That's interesting. Is this the same case for domestic?

I believe so.



--
Adam

ARW wrote:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Nightjar wrote:

I inherited a smart meter in one of my factory units, when the tenant
moved out. The next occupant found that he couldn't change to the
electricity supplier he wanted as thye used different protocols and
couldn't read the data from the meter.

That's interesting. Is this the same case for domestic?

I believe so.

There's nothing to stop the meters being read by eyeballs!

According to EDF, they have a dedicated team fitting themfor free in various
parts of the country. They are evolving all the time. I was told that at the
moment the current device cannot speak or be used by the blind, but this
they hope will change. Priority service users are thus not having them
fitted at the moment unless they want one, but only in the areas they
mentioned to me.
No I did not recall the list, but parts of London are on the list.

I did say that the time these have been in gestation, I'd have expected them
to not only speak but calculate the bill and allow you to i insert your card
to pay as well by now...
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Had a cold call from someone claiming to be from EDF offering me a smart
meter.
I've no real view on whether I want one or not. He tried to 'sell' it by
saying it did a reading automatically and sent it via its phone link. I
said it was no hardship for me to read my meter as it's very accessible.

He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

--
*If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Brian Gaff
writes
According to EDF, they have a dedicated team fitting themfor free in various
parts of the country. They are evolving all the time. I was told that at the
moment the current device cannot speak or be used by the blind, but this
they hope will change. Priority service users are thus not having them
fitted at the moment unless they want one, but only in the areas they
mentioned to me.

Free in the sense that they are not sending you an invoice for doing it,
but you (and every one else) ends up paying for it through their bill.


Adrian
--
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On 29/02/2016 19:34, Jonno wrote:
He then said that my reading was only an estimate, and the smart one would
be much more reliable. Asked him to explain, and of course he couldn't...

As far as I am concerned anything `new` smart meters and other marketing
ploys are designed to earn companies more profit and not to reduce my
bills, so they can all Fekc off as far as I am concerned.

Give me more money in my pocket and I may listen, but you better be able
to prove it.