Discussion > Smart Meters
@Uibhist a Tuath they always seem to have 2 batteries not one
So you are saying 3KWh, which maybe much more than 3KWh of charge gives them full range
stewgreen
Times article about the delays from 7 days ago
- Smart meter rollout faces costly delays
Consumers ‘will bear costs of technical flaws’
In the comments there is universal condemnation of them
(Almost all the commenters claim to be engineers)
article ends
\\ A new technological release in September should “support the introduction of dual band communications hubs”, which should overcome the challenges of flats and thick walls, a spokesman said.//
stewgreen
British Smart Meters Lead the World !! ...
Apparently some are suggesting that they are £28,000,000 each
courtesy of nalopkt
tomo
A couple of surprises today 9:30am BBC1
#1 Rip Off Britain covered smart meter problems
#2 The talking head used was Lewis Shand Smith of Chief Ombudsman or PRIVATE corp "ombudsman-services.org"
was he on cos his biz has dealt with a few smart meter disputes or more likely cos he's a smart meter fan and ended up hyping "helping us meet our green goals"
Prog went over the main gripes again : That smets1 screws up when you try to change supplier
- that providers try to force them on you, but you have the right to refuse.
Then covered specific case
Leeds lady got a smart meter installed,. Then her bill doubled
Next * Ovo then just cut her off, so when she got back from holiday, everything in her freezer was bad *
Ovo explained that human error had switched her to the wrong plan, so that is not actually a smart meter problem
Bottomline ANY CHANGE opens door to problems
eg #2 Fitter can leave a gas leak & your flat burns down as shown on BBC1 Watchdog
eg #3 Your existing meter may reading too slow, thus new meter pushes up bill
(Some may have meters that are too fast ..I'm wondering if those are the gains that Smart EnergyGB counts)
A glance at Twitter shows me that this morning Kirsty and Phil on the channel were busy talking smart meters up
as they are fronting a new campaign 7:42am ITV
\\ Dear Kirsty and Phil, please feck off. //
I see the latest SmartMeter ad features 2 black skinned people and a white woman in the weird way that adverts these days don't reflect UK demographics you see in the census.
Also in the news
EDF to pay £350,000 for missed smart meter target http://news.sky.com
stewgreen
The exact wild claims in the prog were
Lewis Shand Smith of Chief Ombudsman saying with smart meters "the country will be MUCH greener"
much ? ... FFS that shows like of perspective, they are not a major carbon saver.
But the show framed the item as "smart meters are often increasing bills"
stewgreen
stewgreen
the politicians and activists are yet again trying to "fix" an engineering issue with PR (and lies)
tomo
Aren't you driving your mobility scooter around the world, having endless baths, baking masses of cakes ?
Due all that money you are MAGICALLY saving due to installing a SmartMeter like Maxine Peake tells you to do in her adverts.
I was wondering why they used her
Now someone says
"Maxine Peake busy ticking up further virtue points with the climate change crowd"
...ah that fits.
\\ Last year this same Maxine Peake joined a group of high-profile actors demanding that pension providers move their money away from fossil fuels, which “harm the planet”.
Fellow group actor Mark Rylance stated:
“We must individually stop supporting those who, by their actions, deny that humans … are facing a mortal crisis of global warming”.//
\\ Actors say it’s curtains for fossil-fuelled pensions
A group of famous actors and performers have said the curtain is coming down on pensions investing in fossil fuels. The celebrities have voiced support for the #PensionPower campaign, //
Mark Rylance among actors to press Equity over fossil fuels FT
Commenter points out there is No Equity pension fund
Having decided that Oil corps funding the arts someone using the actors names set up a GoFund me page
After more than a year they haven't made their £5,000 target
That's not likely to displace the millions that BP drops into the arts.
stewgreen
\\ Maxine Peake busy ticking up further virtue points with the climate change crowd. In fact she is currently starring at the Royal Exchange in a re-run of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days,
which some critics have noted is now a long whinge about eco-catastrophe.
Similar proselytizing is to be found in a film she made with Jeremy Irons about climate change called “I Wish for You”.//
stewgreen
Yeah - like Maxine donated her ad antics fees to an energy poverty charity.
Smart Meters are BS piled on lies piled on more BS - and I say that as a long term tech fan ... It's so poorly conceived and executed that all "they" can do is throw PR and advertising at it.
tomo
After a long gap, I've just visited the site and was surprised to find this old thread that I started top of the discussion list. I felt that I couldn't leave without a contribution. Just some observations.
It seems that they are still rolling out SMET1 even though they are obsolete and not compatible with switching. This is inexcusable because they will need to be replaced and the taxpayer is paying twice.
Out of interest, I asked an elderly lady about her new meter. She took great notice of it for the first couple of weeks then put it in the cupboard and forgot about it.
The government is spending tens of millions of our money on promoting these useless meters.
Schrodinger's Cat
@Schrodinger's-Cat Re Smets 1 interchangeability
Twice I have heard the promoters claim that Smets-1 meters are updateable by software coming in Autumn 2018 that will make them interchangeable between suppliers.
stewgreen
Telegraph advertorial with some predictably dodgy assertions from Smart Energy GB
tomo
Maxine is advertising on LBC now
"You can have your cake and eat ! ... with a SMART METER"
'you'll save enough energy to bake 236 cakes'
... cuts to fast voice (small print) "savings are based on a PREDICTED saving of 2% on your energy bills"
stewgreen
Tracking Smart Meter PR trickery
Thursday's Yorkshire Post : pg 12 yet another of the weekly half page Smart Meter Newsvertorials.
Friday's Yorkshire Post :pg 15 One third of a page to boss of the Campaign Robert Cheesewright "Smart Meters are a first step to a Greener County"
A PR not news piece.
stewgreen
OT but closely related
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45244761
tomo
Just putting it here so's it's easy to find
Squaddies of the British Army are being used as guinea pigs for the planned tariff fun that they intend to inflict on the rest of us via Smart Meters.
£14 to power a microwave for three minutes,
£45 to run a tumble dryer,
£30 to heat a radiator
£4.50 to power a laptop for an hour.
With all the advertising the gits are buying – somebody’s got to pay for it….
It was The Sun wot first ran the story as the rather unlikely “£38 to boil a kettle” – the intent is clear though – they are simply working on the detail of consumer reaction to the tariff on a very captive audience.
tomo
I'm not searching the whole thread to see if I've already put my point that the progressive phrase 'smart' applied to everything progressive is apt; the smart stings.
============================
kim
Yesterday at Senna Square
I saw the truth being thrashed.
Not a whisper from her lips,
Only the whip whistled and stung.
She'd grimace slightly at the smart.
Controlled she was, and wasn't.
And I said to myself,
There is your Mother, your muse.
===================
kim
Dec 6th and we are back to SmartMeter adverts without a pseudo-journalist byline
tweeted screenshot
Obvious dodgy claim "vital in ensuring we have energy system.. cleaner, greener and fit for the future"
stewgreen
At the end of November the Parliamentary committee rubbished the SmartMeter programme saying it would cost more & never be on schedule, & made overblown claims about savings.
The PR guys responded by doubling down with a new series of full page newspaper adverts.
There was this advert in the Daily Mail Dec 1
They tweeted similar claims
\\ @SmartEnergyGB Nov 26
It's been 10 years since the #ClimateChangeAct was passed.
Smart meters are crucial in helping us tackle climate change & reduce our carbon footprint.
Potentially they’ll help us save millions of tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of taking 600,000 cars off the road//
hmm another dodgy claim
They Also have an online campaign
"SMART METER BINGO"
stewgreen
"SMART METER BINGO"
Where the advertising and PR luvvies get you to buy the tickets and they get the prizes.
Smart Energy GB Employee Benefits include "breakfast provided" and a "bar upstairs" - sounds like they're squeezing every drop of client money while it lasts....
Since they're on a short lease office - I bet they don't even have a smart meter in their own offices.
Ye Gods .... I just noticed it's a bluidy "not for profit" company
Who is Smart Energy GB?
Smart Energy GB is a not-for-profit company created to provide an independent voice for consumers. Our task is to support the rollout of smart meters so that everyone has the opportunity to share in the benefits that they bring for households, our economy and our environment.
pffff....... they've averaged over 3 tweets and a picture /video a day for 4 years....
tomo
stewgreen, the comment is here in full:
Chair's comment
“The NAO’s report highlights the massive delays and problems associated with the roll-out of smart meters. Costs are rising, and the 2020 target will not be met.
Consumers have faced considerable frustration, experiencing glitches with their meters, or finding their smart meters go ‘dumb’ when switching supplier. It’s important that consumers are genuinely able to realise the savings available from having smart meters installed in their homes. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have serious questions to answer about their management of the smart meter roll-out programme and, as a Committee, we will be keen to examine in our evidence hearing in the New Year whether it is feasible, desirable and cost-effective to continue to plough ahead with the Government’s 2020 target. “
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-energy-industrial-strategy/news-parliament-2017/smart-meters-evidence-17-19/
Mark Hodgson
Those comments refer to the NAO Report, whose short conclusions are:
Report conclusions
The Department acknowledges that, notwithstanding the industry and other bodies involved, it is responsible for the overall success of Smart Meters. While recognising the team’s achievements so far, we urge them to make sure the team culture does not become defensive, and resistant to inconvenient truths.
The facts are that the programme is late, the costs are escalating, and in 2017 the cost of installing smart meters was 50% higher than the Department assumed. 7.1 million extra SMETS1 meters have been rolled out because the Department wanted to speed up the programme. The Department knows that a large proportion of SMETS1 meters currently lose smart functionality after a switch in electricity supplier and there is real doubt about whether SMETS1 will ever provide the same functionality as SMETS2. The full functionality of the system is also dependent on the development of technology that is not yet developed.
The facts summarised above, and many more, are not fatal to the viability and value for money of the programme. However, there are serious issues that need to be addressed if Smart Meters is to progress successfully and deliver value for money.
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/rolling-out-smart-meters/
The full report (all 80 pages of it) is here:
https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Rolling-out-smart-meters.pdf
Have a read if you have the time - it's pretty damning stuff.
Mark Hodgson
We have an ASA thread also
Misleading' smart meter ad banned
\\ A 'misleading' radio advert which claimed installing a smart meter could save consumers an average of 354 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year has been banned.
The advert for Smart Energy GB claimed consumers could save 354kWh a year on average with a smart meter – but the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) says it was not made clear enough that this saving would be as a result of reducing household energy usage rather than installing the smart meter alone
* The ASA also ruled a similar press advert, which was seen on 27 June 2018, was not misleading
... as it made it sufficiently clear the savings were based on behavioural changes *.//
The get out words in the press ads
\\ Because when you can actually see how much energy you’re using,
you can make a few small changes and use less of it. //
There is no real world evidence that customers save on average 2%, so the newspaper ad is misleading to me.
The ASA statement
My point has always been : The dead give away is that saving claims are not based on real world experience
but rather SmartEnergyGB use *computer modelling* from an Ofgem report in 2010
If they had real world positive evidence they'd cite it, but they don't.
The ASA say
\\ the ( 2016) report did not introduce its own research,
but drew upon existing studies.
In terms of research undertaken in the UK,
the report referenced analysis by Ofgem from 2011 and by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) from 2015. //
stewgreen
A Tesla does 2.5-4 miles/kWh, depending on model and how it is driven - somewhat worse in cold weather. Hard to see a much lighter buggy being significantly worse. Perhaps the battery charging is less efficient.