#33 The UK Smart Metering Fiasco! 

You can find out how much energy each appliance uses with a cheap power meter that plugs into any outlet. A "smart" meter has no information on what appliances are in use, just the total the same as a dumb meter. The only reason the government are trying to make them compulsory is the remote cutoff feature.

Smart meters were for the suppliers only. You can get the same functionality from a £30 current clamp but a smart meter cost >£300 which we have to pay for! What other industry manages to charge us for their equipment needed to bill us. Then manages to get us to pay for their losses where they are not collecting the bill. Smart meters don’t help the consumer. They are there to save the suppliers money and they managed to get us to pay for it. Most companies would invest in capital investment to save operational cost especially when you have a bit of kit that lasts 10 years and means you can get rid of meter reading staff. Corrupt lobbying must be exposed.

Interestingly discussion listen to this at double speed

The DLMS protocol, used for a much of the world's smart metering, was dragged kicking and screaming towards taking security seriously. When I said in presentations years ago that the network needed to be treated like any other financial network I got blank looks. When I pointed out that it actually is a financial network, as it carries billions in billing information, people agreed, then immediately went back to acting like it was not the case. It seemed me the UKs smart meter specifiers focussed mostly on getting a Guinness Book of World Records entry for the greatest number of recorded parameters of any smart meter.

Never trusted them...never had them....prefer to read my own...not much truble and safer.

What is the carbon footprint of manufacturing installing and maintaining a smart meter? Or what is the energy and associated cost footprint for same?

26.40 - 26.50. What on Earth are you saying Mr. Hunn ? THERE ARE NO PATENTS INVOLVED WITH HEAT PUMPS, neither do you require any bright young things. It is absolute basic technology which goes back more than 150 years. They are nothing more than fridge-freezers in reverse. If you want to be really sophisticated, you may decide to add a thermocouple ! Unless you want your garden dug up at huge expense for earth-source, people rely upon air-source. These grossly expensive contraptions installed by third generation double-glaziers, may cut householders' bills over the year (if you ignore the capital cost), you don't want them in the Summer, they may be VERY efficient in the Spring and Autumn when outside temperatures are 8-16 degrees when they may produce a return of up to ten to one ..... but they are very dangerous when a winter high pressure settles over the country (a Beast from the East for example), wind turbines producing just 5% of average output (very low wind speeds if any, including in the North Sea where a few turbines may continue to lazily lollop around), ridiculous BEVs doubling their demand on the grid, and heat pumps TO WHICH WE MUST ADD THAT ON VERY COLD NIGHTS, HEAT PUMPS MAY USE MORE ELECTRICITY PER UNIT OF HEAT THAN RUNNING A FAN HEATER. (0.7 of a kWh of heat in the house whilst the heat from the full kWh used to run the contraption is lost to the outside air (people tend to have the things outside). Whilst heat pumps MAY give some savings for householders OVER THE WHOLE YEAR (again, if we ignore the capital cost), THEY ARE A DISASTER FOR THE GRID.. I have a different and dirt cheap heat pump that is probably beyond your comprehension. It is called a 30 watt fan. I have a small garden room with a polycarbonate roof. It gets hot in there. In the Spring and Autumn and on bright days in the middle of Winter, I have the door to it open and run the fan. I heat the entire bungalow (about 1,600 square feet) by allowing the warmed air from the garden room to be slowly pushed around. Furthermore, because of the slight movement of air,, therefore mixing, the air is warm floor to ceiling ... none of that nasty hot by the ceiling but cold and draughty round the ankles. I use fan heaters when the garden room ... and/or the West facing patio door do not provide enough heat. For those who are out at work all day, a slightly more sophisticated system involving a thermostat with a bit of ducting may be necessary. Other than in the coldest of weather, we also have at least one window open. The air from outside is (unless you live in Manchester) drier than the air in most people's houses and the dry air FEELS far warmer than damp air ... if nothing else, human beings are filthy beasts and breathe out moisture all the time .. add to that the boiling of kettles and cooking.

My understanding is that Smart Meters are 'supply side demand regulators' whereby the user is forced to accept high cost energy at peak time - in order to stop the peak demand on the system. Well it WOULD if we were ALL on the same system but clearly this method of supply regulation can't/won't work while someone can use energy at 'whatever'cost that isn't cost-regulated based on demand.

theres more going on too , smart meters are being installed where theres no cell coverage, and the meters have a built in contactor to disconnect your supply anytime utilities feel like ,meant for non-payment i assume ,but link it to an it system as competant as fujitsu horizon ,yea ! and theres the extra cost of running a smart meter because it now charges for power factor (phase distortion caused by capacitive or inductive loads) waiting for utilities to say smart meters systems are "robust" lol

We need coal fired homes

Smart meters are touted as 'saving power' but they do not, they only tell you what power you are using, but you can get a cheap device to do that anyway. In Australia your smart meter can base your whole months charges on the highest day that month, this is so called 'maximum demand' pricing ...

I requested a Smart meter in March last year. I still haven't got a working Smart meter despite being on a street assessed as high probability of connection. I'm so frustrated. I can't talk to the DCC and the service from Octopus has been appalling.

In Australia they are cutting your power and they charge you more at some times People here do not want them They pay you $/500 but they change the degrees you have set on you air conditioning

And what happened in the 14yrs in-between.

Smart meters are good for time of use and intelligent tariffs. They're utterly useless for anyone else. In home display has never worked, but honestly it's not worth the grief of trying to get someone to fix it because phone app is much better anyway. Roll out has been a skip fire.

Who pay for running the computer in the smart metre.?

Smart people have dumb meters, dumb people have smart meters.

Ireland who introduced smart meters later than the UK, has managed to avoid the problems which occurred in the UK. However Ireland restricted the scope to half hour automated usage reporting, and in addition the meters also allow for electricity exporting. The Irish network operator did the rollout and owns the meters.

No mobile telephone signal where I live.I cannot have one since where we live a 2g/3g signal is required in order to transmit information.Furthermore, 2g/3g is being prematurely withdrawn in this part of Britain.We keep on being told to adopt technologies which are not being thought out properly or being made universally available.For instance soms major electrical appliance manufacturers are now only making warranty information on their products available by use of a "Security Key" device (i.e. a square coded diagram which you need to photograph using a mobile or camera on a laptop computer)No use to many who do not own these devices and therefore discriminating policy!

So many people pretending 14 years of tory rule never happened.

Looking at appliance usage has been covered already by the use of clamp on coils with remote displays so the smart meter gives the end user nothing more but the service companies a complete open collection of users usage much like a Tesla , spying on the users and selling on that data for profit.

My Father- in Laws smart meter has never been smart and Scottish Power have failed to fix it. Mobile signal strength is weak and meter located in the centre of the house. I have given up reporting the problem so just read the meter myself. You don't need a smart meter to save electricity but just a bit of knowledge of the product your using.

Are these smart meter immune to radio interference from an in house transmitter with a peak output of up to 1000Watts across the Licenced Amature radio bands from 137kHz up to 20+ GHz.??

Very good prez.

I am relucatntly due to have one installed next week. The only reason is all new fixed tariffs now require a smart meter as a condition of the tariff.

so if the metering did not have remote disconnect ability and was connected over the almost universal broadband network we would have a system that could be accessed via mobile apps and would not need another wireless network with all the attendant lack of coverage in rural areas.

So l have just been contacted by my energy provider to have a smart meter installed.l don't want it but am told l will have to pay myself eventually if l refuse. What do l do!

Doesn't help when you exaggerate the cost of 'boiling a kettle' - it works out at 1 or 2p not 10-15p.

Your pupils say you've got decent speed, how's about sharing ??

All the people moving around in the background is a total distraction and an illustration of the poorly organised situation with this podcast. The main presenter lacks gravitas,

A disaster on legs, millipede and his demented views of this planet served on the british public.

Most people I know who have these say when they change energy suppliers they don’t work or they just stop working , I refuse to have one firstly they don’t work and secondly I know some people who they do work get obsessed with how much energy they are using and have had mental issues with them

Isn’t the point of the utility company, make profit for shareholders holders? Using less gross power will only make the unit price increase to provide the same level of profit! There is no possibility bills will be reduced, the concept is a pure scam!

I know how much electricity I use each day, with or without heating (I have air source heat pumps). I have measured all my appliances using a Hopi power meter. I give a meter reading to my supplier each month and pay Direct Debit. I don't need anything smarter than that. This is about control, they can cut your supply or charge you more during peak periods. It's all about charging more for supplying less. Wake up people, if smart meters gave the consumer an advantage they wouldn't be forcing them on you.

Get the government out of the way and stop blanket legislation with massive fines as punishment for non compliance!!!! 55years in construction and all district heating systems have failed and removed , only the ones using surplus heat are viable ! The plans look good on paper and scteen but NOT in thereal world!!

Water born heat-pump systems are very efficient with under floor heating however; it requires a well insulated under floor. And all the rest, but heat pumps are very efficient machines; 1 kw in and at -7c - 2.8 Kw out.

My smart meter gives me electricity at £0.07 per KWh for six hours at night and occasionally during the day. A time shifting battery moves the cheap electricity to the daytime. My smart meter even allows me to get free electricity when there is a surplus. If you don't want that then fine, pay more. I do not use it to find which appliances are more efficient as I actually do not care. A heavy washing load may cost 28p. Saving 5p on that, again who cares. A heat pump tumble drier means I can dry for as long as I want when I want again for pennies. All this fuss over a tool that gives me a stonking amount of savings. Well if it floats your boat pay 400% more. Mad but I know some people prefer to over pay and then complain. Weird.

By definition Smart-metering had to fail - because the UK's suppliers, wanted an untried system in the UK. "Poorly designed" tell me about it, typical UK design something that no-one wants. Smart-metering has been implemented in most of the EU's member states, the last 15 years. It works completely perfect. Most customs the EU, that have Smart-metering, can read their hourly power consumption using an App or a PC. All with power consumption charts covering; hourly,weekly,monthly and yearly consumption. Economic use of energy; the UK is way behind.

What these two probably don't even know so they cannot advise you of the UK real law. They probably do not know the difference between legal and lawful. Have I lost you? If so, you as well as the two in the video are part of the problem. You probably know the phrase "an Englishman's home is his castle" . What most people don't know is that phrase has the rule of law -a lawful rule. Any legal statute that allows authorities to your home can be countered by using the lawful rule of law. I have proved this three times by stopping police assisting bailiffs who had legal court warrants to force entry to homes. I quote the legal Criminal Law Act 1977 section 6 which confirms the lawful constitution. It states that ANYONE commits an offence if they force entry to an occupied property where the occupier objects unless they have lawful authority. Legal warrants are not lawful. I doubt if many will use this to stop smart meters being forced on them because most people believe that the government can control them.

Any evidence

My smart meter allows me to access temporarily cheap electricity. That's it.... nothing controversial.

Nick who

Only the poor worry about paying for electricity and are often on those meters where you buy £10 worth at the local shop. From my own experience, they're math is poor and the data they would get would not be useful. I think the guest is under the impression that all people have the same intellect as him. Bet when he drives his car he doesn't wonder where the £70 went as he fills it up or why his council tax went up 15%. Perhaps we need meters for them ? It also seemed stupid to suggest a 3kW battery for each house! The more assets required to live, the more it will cost people to live an unnecessarily complicated life. Sack people like him and make him do something useful.

Everything to do with this inept govt is a disaster...