Over 42,000 forced to renovate homes to get an energy saving smart meter installed Smart meters allow people to manage their electricity use more efficiently. Photo: PA
by Buddhasear
Over 42,000 forced to renovate homes to get an energy saving smart meter installed Smart meters allow people to manage their electricity use more efficiently. Photo: PA
by Buddhasear
8 comments
“Smart meters mean electricity companies can charge more accurately for usage by households and the need for estimated readings will no longer be necessary.”
Estimated readings are never necessary if people just submit their own readings. Sometimes that can be tricky if you live in an apartment block but for the majority of homes its very easy to access the meter.
I think renovate is probably a big word for what has to be done to these houses.
They aren’t being forced to build a two story extension.
WTF is “energy-saving meter”? How does a meter save energy?
the “smart” plans are currently hugely restrictive and you’d have to really regiment your life to properly take advantage of the “cheap” hours.
Also, everyone should know this – if you switch to a smart plan, the companies won’t allow you to revert to a “non smart” plan in the future.
I went through a year of usage, over the phone, with a rep from one of the companies offering reduced off peak rates, plus a “free weekend day” which worked out more expensive.
You’d have to make fairly drastic lifestyle changes to run a dishwasher daily, and all of clothes of an average sized family washed – you’d either have to spend the whole 8 hours of your off peak day washing clothes and batch cooking for the week maybe, to make it worthwhile.
You could make simpler usage reductions by regulating your usage having studied your smart meter readings over a period of time.
If you have an old style meter, you could submit artificially low readings now, deferring that expense to a later date to when unit prices are lower. This is a bad thing to do and smart meters prevent it.
“Forced” if you’re house can’t fit the meter, then you either want it changed or you don’t.
I didn’t really want it, but they put it in and now my energy provider keeps pushing the smart meter plans, which are dog shit.
I’m on a 24 hour plan and it works out cheaper than a smart plan.
This might be an ignorant question, but i have a smart meter.
How is it supposed to help me save money exactly?
I have read the docs on it from electric ireland, but it’s still not clear.
I managed to convince the crowd operating the meter installation programme that I definitely not want a smart meter. (My usage is so low, so routine, tbst there’s no benefit to me to know when I boil the kettle or switch on the oven.) I must say I was gobsmacked to receive a polite email thanking me for getting in touch, and removing me from the installation timetable hereabouts. I’d been expecting a real battle of wills!