| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies 16:46 - Aug 3 with 2495 views | Bent_double |
I know, exciting thread, eh!
Just wondering if anyone knows about these things. To cut a very long story short, I have (i think) a first generation electricity smart meter.
I had solar panels installed last year, but it seems that that meter is not capable of recording exported electricity - ie what the panels generate.
There is an additional meter next to that meter which does show how much I am exporting - it matches up with what I see on the app given to me by the solar installers.
However, British Gas Lite (my business electricity and gas supplier) will not accept that reading, and they refuse to update my meter to a newer, 2nd generation smart meter (which would record exported electricity), because as far as they are concerned, the meter is working fine!
I'm just going round and round in circles with BG/BG Lite, all they suggest is that I go with another 'supplier' for exporting - but most companies want you to be a customer (buyer of electricity) before they will pay you a decent amount for what you supply to the grid.
I have told BG Lite that I will go to Ofgem, but I'm not even sure they would be interested. I know there is a cost to installing/replacing a meter, but as I understand it, they are the ones responsible for doing it.
Anyone got any views, had similar issues? |  |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 17:28 - Aug 3 with 2399 views | DJR |
I don't have solar panels but I have had issues with ordinary smart meters at my and my mother's property, whose energy account I run.
The meters at my property have always transmitted readings to the supplier, but never transmitted gas readings to my smart meter, which rather defeats one of the purposes of them, namely, enabling a customer to know how much energy they are using and adjust accordingly. I've tried in vain to contact the supplier on numerous occasions to sort this out but have got nowhere, and have given up the will to live.
At my mother's property, about 8 months ago the gas meter stopped transmitting to the supplier and to the meter, and it wasn't even possible to read the meter and submit a reading manually. After a few months, a new meter was installed but this didn't transmit to the supplier or the meter either, but did enable me to read the meter. The energy company therefore replaced it for the second time last week, so hopefully it's all sorted because it is a pain to submit readings manually,
It's all a complete shambles as far as I am concerned because as the engineer explained to me the other day the meters were rolled out before the technology was ready, but we've paid a lot of money through our energy bills for the pleasure. A recent NAO report stated that £13.5 billion was the government’s 2019 estimate of the cost to energy suppliers of the rollout of smart meters over the period 2013 to 2034 (in 2011 prices). The report said that suppliers pass on some or all of their costs to energy consumers, and I rather suspect it is all. [Post edited 3 Aug 2024 17:38]
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 17:40 - Aug 3 with 2339 views | stonojnr |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 17:28 - Aug 3 by DJR |
I don't have solar panels but I have had issues with ordinary smart meters at my and my mother's property, whose energy account I run.
The meters at my property have always transmitted readings to the supplier, but never transmitted gas readings to my smart meter, which rather defeats one of the purposes of them, namely, enabling a customer to know how much energy they are using and adjust accordingly. I've tried in vain to contact the supplier on numerous occasions to sort this out but have got nowhere, and have given up the will to live.
At my mother's property, about 8 months ago the gas meter stopped transmitting to the supplier and to the meter, and it wasn't even possible to read the meter and submit a reading manually. After a few months, a new meter was installed but this didn't transmit to the supplier or the meter either, but did enable me to read the meter. The energy company therefore replaced it for the second time last week, so hopefully it's all sorted because it is a pain to submit readings manually,
It's all a complete shambles as far as I am concerned because as the engineer explained to me the other day the meters were rolled out before the technology was ready, but we've paid a lot of money through our energy bills for the pleasure. A recent NAO report stated that £13.5 billion was the government’s 2019 estimate of the cost to energy suppliers of the rollout of smart meters over the period 2013 to 2034 (in 2011 prices). The report said that suppliers pass on some or all of their costs to energy consumers, and I rather suspect it is all. [Post edited 3 Aug 2024 17:38]
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My mums smart meter will never work no matter how many times they replace it, because the signal isn't powerful enough to get through the garage walls.
And yeah 1st gen ones don't work with solar panels and actually won't work full stop as the 3g and 2g network gets turned off over the next decade |  | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:00 - Aug 3 with 2305 views | Churchman |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 17:28 - Aug 3 by DJR |
I don't have solar panels but I have had issues with ordinary smart meters at my and my mother's property, whose energy account I run.
The meters at my property have always transmitted readings to the supplier, but never transmitted gas readings to my smart meter, which rather defeats one of the purposes of them, namely, enabling a customer to know how much energy they are using and adjust accordingly. I've tried in vain to contact the supplier on numerous occasions to sort this out but have got nowhere, and have given up the will to live.
At my mother's property, about 8 months ago the gas meter stopped transmitting to the supplier and to the meter, and it wasn't even possible to read the meter and submit a reading manually. After a few months, a new meter was installed but this didn't transmit to the supplier or the meter either, but did enable me to read the meter. The energy company therefore replaced it for the second time last week, so hopefully it's all sorted because it is a pain to submit readings manually,
It's all a complete shambles as far as I am concerned because as the engineer explained to me the other day the meters were rolled out before the technology was ready, but we've paid a lot of money through our energy bills for the pleasure. A recent NAO report stated that £13.5 billion was the government’s 2019 estimate of the cost to energy suppliers of the rollout of smart meters over the period 2013 to 2034 (in 2011 prices). The report said that suppliers pass on some or all of their costs to energy consumers, and I rather suspect it is all. [Post edited 3 Aug 2024 17:38]
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I had the gas bloke service the boiler the other week. When he looked and checked the meter, he noticed it was an old non-smart meter one.
He said ‘don’t get a smart meter. They break down and don’t read accurately. Worse than that, the tend to over read. Stick with the old mechanical one. Accurate and won’t go wrong’. |  | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:10 - Aug 3 with 2274 views | DJR |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:00 - Aug 3 by Churchman |
I had the gas bloke service the boiler the other week. When he looked and checked the meter, he noticed it was an old non-smart meter one.
He said ‘don’t get a smart meter. They break down and don’t read accurately. Worse than that, the tend to over read. Stick with the old mechanical one. Accurate and won’t go wrong’. |
Sounds very good advice. | | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:31 - Aug 3 with 2209 views | Ryorry |
20% of smart meters, even the latest ones, don't work correctly according to recent customer surveys (Which? mag I think). That includes lack of sufficiently strong net connections. |  |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:34 - Aug 3 with 2204 views | dickie |
Our smart meter (2nd gen) and our solars have nothing to do with each other. The solars have their own meter which I have to give readings of to get FIT payments | | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:41 - Aug 3 with 2183 views | Ryorry |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:00 - Aug 3 by Churchman |
I had the gas bloke service the boiler the other week. When he looked and checked the meter, he noticed it was an old non-smart meter one.
He said ‘don’t get a smart meter. They break down and don’t read accurately. Worse than that, the tend to over read. Stick with the old mechanical one. Accurate and won’t go wrong’. |
"Stick with the old mechanical one. Accurate and won’t go wrong’."
Unless your elec provider deliberately switches your peak & off-peak readings around to suit themselves, as has happened 3 x with me (Ovo, Shell & Octopus, the last of which I got a £1,250 refund from in May, after fighting tooth & nail for months with them). Only achieved that with the help of their rep on Twitter/X though - their people on email/phone were totally incompetent/useless/didn't care.
Also got similar refund from Ovo years ago, had to enlist the help of my MP to wring that out of them though & it took 2 years.. [Post edited 3 Aug 2024 18:46]
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 19:30 - Aug 3 with 2088 views | USA |
Break your existing meter and they’ll have to replace it? | |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 19:53 - Aug 3 with 2041 views | Reus30 |
I don't have any specific guidance to help you but all I know is the BG are terrible.
But so is every other utility provider!
Before you go ofgem I think you have to raise a complaint. I would raise a complaint with the normal channels but then find the highest person I can and pester them relentlessly.
Your hopes of finding someone decent on customer services is like 1 in 10...
Time to nationalise |  | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:15 - Aug 3 with 2000 views | Bent_double |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 19:30 - Aug 3 by USA |
Break your existing meter and they’ll have to replace it? |
the thought has crossed my mind.....  | |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:18 - Aug 3 with 1994 views | Bent_double |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 18:34 - Aug 3 by dickie |
Our smart meter (2nd gen) and our solars have nothing to do with each other. The solars have their own meter which I have to give readings of to get FIT payments |
So was that done when the panels were installed, or did you have to sort it? | |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:29 - Aug 3 with 1971 views | Freddies_Ears |
I have so far managed to resist EON's insistence that they must fit a smart meter. I have no desire to track my usage in real time, but I do want to be able to receive accurate bills when I choose. There are too many stories about dodgy smart meters for me. | | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:42 - Aug 3 with 1935 views | dickie |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:18 - Aug 3 by Bent_double |
So was that done when the panels were installed, or did you have to sort it? |
The panels and solar pv meter was all here when we moved in. I had to arrange the FIT payments to be moved to my name. The smart meter was added later (on advice of Martin Lewis). | | | |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 21:14 - Aug 3 with 1846 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 19:53 - Aug 3 by Reus30 |
I don't have any specific guidance to help you but all I know is the BG are terrible.
But so is every other utility provider!
Before you go ofgem I think you have to raise a complaint. I would raise a complaint with the normal channels but then find the highest person I can and pester them relentlessly.
Your hopes of finding someone decent on customer services is like 1 in 10...
Time to nationalise |
I have only had good experiences with Octopus ... but have just installed a smart meter so I hope that doesn't cause a problem. The installer said to take no notice of the display stating they are not made by Octopus and are inaccurate but that the meter readings sent will be accurate.
I have no experience of selling back solar and the OP's problem but it sounds like switching supplier would be a good idea and I would recommend Octopus. |  |
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| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 22:00 - Aug 3 with 1813 views | factual_blue |
| Smart meters and the responsibility of electricity companies on 20:29 - Aug 3 by Freddies_Ears |
I have so far managed to resist EON's insistence that they must fit a smart meter. I have no desire to track my usage in real time, but I do want to be able to receive accurate bills when I choose. There are too many stories about dodgy smart meters for me. |
Not had a problem with ours (from Octopus). Had to have it with solar panels and to sell back to the grid. Our monthly fuel costs (gas & electric) have gone down by £100 a month in the last year. Net electricity costs are now about £25-30 a month from April to October, and we come out of the winter months still with a healthy credit balance. |  |
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