Smart meters. Pros and cons

[timhoward]

Having been in metering for 11years, energy suppliers just cannot cut supply.
If money is owed they have a duty to keep the customer on supply with a pre payment meter, and debt can be put on the meter with a recovery charge which will be discussed depending how much debt has been accrued, and what the customer can afford at no interest at all.
Equally with repeat offenders by passing meters to obtain free electricity, the above process is normally applied, the revenue protection teams are even told not to go out and look for by passes as they used to.
The only time I have seen full disconnection ie cable ditched in street is on cannabis farms by order of the DNO.
Energy suppliers dont like the publicity on these matters. They offset their tariff prices to cover such events ie the honest consumer always ends up paying.

I wonder if this varies by supplier? I don’t doubt your comments at all but I have a customer/friend who is on pre pay / smart meter and the electricity very definitely did just turn off. I’ve been there when it happened.

He then logged onto the portal on his phone - slung then some cash and it came back on again. Opened my eyes a bit!
In some ways this is not dissimilar to the key card meters where it turns off when get to zero. But you could obtain £5 emergency credit on those.
I don’t know the score regarding his standing with the energy company, but know he struggles to make ends meet sometimes so he could have been in debt with them.

 

[buzzlightyear]

I'm on another post at the moment ,typing about isolators speak amongst you selfs ,back soon.

 

[7029 dave]

I wonder if this varies by supplier? I don’t doubt your comments at all but I have a customer/friend who is on pre pay / smart meter and the electricity very definitely did just turn off. I’ve been there when it happened.

He then logged onto the portal on his phone - slung then some cash and it came back on again. Opened my eyes a bit!
In some ways this is not dissimilar to the key card meters where it turns off when get to zero. But you could obtain £5 emergency credit on those.
I don’t know the score regarding his standing with the energy company, but know he struggles to make ends meet sometimes so he could have been in debt with them.

Hi Tim yeah, it sounds like your friend is on a smart prepayment meter, once the emergency has been exhausted it will cut off, and until its topped up it will remain that way.I understand fuel poverty etc, my point really was that technically they cant cut off the supply, as they have provided a means of energy whether it can be afforded is another matter.

 

[brianmoooore]

Advantage I have is that I have another supply and meter from a different supplier less than a metre away, the other side of a single block dividing wall. A hour, couple of Henley blocks and 2m of tails, power would be restored, and Scottish Power can go whistle.

 

[timhoward]

Advantage I have is that I have another supply and meter from a different supplier less than a metre away, the other side of a single block dividing wall. A hour, couple of Henley blocks and 2m of tails, power would be restored, and Scottish Power can go whistle.

We are getting off the point...but one country estate where I work has a substation on site and everything is generally fed from this supply. It's an old school.
One very old bungalow on the edge of the estate had a supply which I've traced to the middle of a road outside the boundary wall, uniquely not from the substation on site.
For 20 years this wasn't known, and this property got free energy. One night this property still mysteriously had power while the rest of the site was subject to a power cut, which led to this anomaly coming to light. My customer then spent 18 months trying to get ManWeb / Scottish Power to install a meter and re-adopt this supply, but it wasn't on the computer and doesn't officially exist. In the end we gave up, and ran a new cable to it from the site supply and simply left the old cutout there with no fuse inside. It's still there and ready for service if needs be!

 

[Aaron b]

Reading the little displays or relying on the companies websites can be a pain. There's a free app called loop energy that you can link your meter to and it displays your energy usage. It would be good to work out maximum demand and just if you're curious about your usage.

Are the issues with RCBO's common? Does anyone have direct experience with it and did a metal CU sort it? I've heard it was supposed to be RF being picked up on the functional earth but that seems unlikely considering they are usually connected to the MET.