Just had a smart meter fitted and my gas bill on the display is

[welsh dragon]

I've been refusing a smart meter from Octopus for the last 4 years. I think they have now given up.

So many people are getting angry with them never working so thanks but no thanks.

 

[presta]

The frustrating thing is that I'd quite like one if I thought it wasn't going to be a load of hassle.

 

[classic33]

I once came home from work to find that the British Gas service man had condemned my water heater as unsafe, and illegal to use on the grounds that it was installed with less than the regulation spacing between the flue and the boiler flue below it. When I pointed out that it was British Gas that installed it, that the boiler was in place at the time they did so, and that they'd never said anything at any of the previous service calls, they decided it wasn't unsafe after all.

I once asked a service man to check for a CO2 leak because there were sooty marks on the wall around the boiler flue:

"What do you want that for?"
"I wouldn't worry about it, it's probably ok"
"...well I haven't got anything to measure it with anyway"

CO2 isn't what you should be worried about.

 

[presta]

CO2 isn't what you should be worried about.

I can't believe I wrote that, , yep, CO is what I meant. Too much writing about climate change, CO2 trips off the keyboard too easily.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ofgem haven't replied yet, but Octopus have:

View attachment 726447

Perhaps they should call themselves Parrot Energy.

That looks like a Chat GPT response.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The frustrating thing is that I'd quite like one if I thought it wasn't going to be a load of hassle.

I have had one for year - no real problems with it
it did "go dumb" for quite a long time - several years - but all that meant was that I had to go and read it manually when asked
just like a normal meter

now that it is working again - which was done remotely somehow - I can use apps like Hugo and Loop to see what it has done and how much I have used
I can also save a bit of money during the winter when they have discount periods for people who use less than normal for specified hours

 

[presta]

The media this morning are reporting that 12% (4.3/35) of meters are 'faulty', but with little detail on what constitutes a fault, so I've just sent Ofgem an FOI request:

View attachment 725554

It's the non-evident inaccuracy that interests me in particular.

The reply:

"I can confirm that Ofgem does not hold further detail on the nature of smart meter faults
and therefore we are unable to provide the information you have requested."

Followed by 2-3 pages of general info.

Some up to date installation stats here.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I received an email from Scottish Power yesterday. Before opening it I feared they were going to put my monthly smart meter recorded bill up from the £160.26 I've been paying for the last 6 months to something daft like £230, but no it's come down to £108.37. I suppose I should be slightly happy and I am, but no doubt when they review it again, probably in 6 months they'll bung it back up to the £160.26 it's just been reduced from and maybe even more.

 

[dicko]

My son worked for a Smart Meter manufacturer in the East Midlands. It was bought out by an Eastern Europe company. Slowly the workforce was replaced by other, cheaper labour the management got tough best people left. The Smart Meters were assembled and soldered by hand he was one of the solderers they were cheaply manufactured by the thousands. They were unreliable..

 

[Punkawallah]

Obviously too late for you, but my tame gas engineer, when questioned on the advisability of having a smart meter, advised avoiding one for as long as possible.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I received an email from Scottish Power yesterday. Before opening it I feared they were going to put my monthly smart meter recorded bill up from the £160.26 I've been paying for the last 6 months to something daft like £230, but no it's come down to £108.37. I suppose I should be slightly happy and I am, but no doubt when they review it again, probably in 6 months they'll bung it back up to the £160.26 it's just been reduced from and maybe even more.

Might be an idea to check you own meter reading so you know how much you are using week by week.
There are apps that can do it for you for free - Hugo and Loop seem to work on mine
They access the main central database of reading (so need you permission) so they use the exact same data that the energy company use

saves any surprises

(does need a smartphone - but if you know how, you can use an Android emulator on WIndows - if you know how to then that is all you need and can take it from there- if you don;t then you need to talk to someone who does know about that stuff!)

 

[presta]

The Smart Meters were assembled and soldered by hand he was one of the solderers they were cheaply manufactured by the thousands. They were unreliable..

Soldering by hand has been all but obsolete for the best part of half a century because it's slow, expensive and unreliable. PCBs are flow (and/or reflow) soldered, and wiring is done by crimp & IDC, because it enables consistent quality control using unskilled labour.

Obviously too late for you, but my tame gas engineer, when questioned on the advisability of having a smart meter, advised avoiding one for as long as possible.

Did he go into any detail about why?

 

[Baldy]

Wednesday evening my boiler stopped, red light on, no hot water. I tried restarting it nothing. I tried the gas hob, nothing. Looked at the meter outside, nothing, no display no light. I tried ringing ScottishPower's emergency number, it's only manned 9-5, tried going online the bot said inapplicable input, very helpful.
Tried ringing again on Thursday morning, got through to a very noisy call-centre somewhere in Asia. Took ages to get the chap answering to understand as he kept asking all sorts of irrelevant questions. He had his script to stick to. Eventually he said he'd send an engineer. At this stage I wasn't hopeful. Ten minutes late the phone went. A firm in Livingston, said they'd ring back with an appointment. "Oh great " an hour after that I had a knock on the door, it was the engineer. He put a new meter in and everything is working.
Friday 21.00 had a phone call from ScottishPower "we need to check some details of your meter, not the gas meter, the electricity meter ". Could I send some photos? I put the phone down.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Wednesday evening my boiler stopped, red light on, no hot water. I tried restarting it nothing. I tried the gas hob, nothing. Looked at the meter outside, nothing, no display no light. I tried ringing ScottishPower's emergency number, it's only manned 9-5, tried going online the bot said inapplicable input, very helpful.
Tried ringing again on Thursday morning, got through to a very noisy call-centre somewhere in Asia. Took ages to get the chap answering to understand as he kept asking all sorts of irrelevant questions. He had his script to stick to. Eventually he said he'd send an engineer. At this stage I wasn't hopeful. Ten minutes late the phone went. A firm in Livingston, said they'd ring back with an appointment. "Oh great " an hour after that I had a knock on the door, it was the engineer. He put a new meter in and everything is working.
Friday 21.00 had a phone call from ScottishPower "we need to check some details of your meter, not the gas meter, the electricity meter ". Could I send some photos? I put the phone down.

ridiculous service

but I suggest that the engineer always notes down some details of both meters when they visit - just to check the records are correct
In this case the noted details may not be the same as the ones on record so they need to check where it has gone wrong

 

[Mike_P]

Mine had apparently stopped communicating, then Shell Energy got taken over by Octopus and its suddenly started communicating again.