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My non-smart electric meter is inside a cupboard under the stairs 12" from the floor facing inwards. To read it i have to empty the cupboard , lie on my back on the floor with a torch, biro & notepad. I'm 71 years old and wonder if a smart meter is the answer. My last 2 energy suppliers did not do smart meters. Does anyone know if smart meters give the actual meter reading on the remote monitor so that i could read the meter from that. Thanks in anticipation.
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Yes you get a remote display to view your consumption in a way that makes sense.
However the idea of a smart meter is that you never have to read it again, thats done automatically by the utility company
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My dual fuel supplier is OVO and has been for a few years. Monthly email asking me to submit readings, interest on my credit balance, very easy to use website. Happy consumer.
I may have to go down the smart meter route as my gas & leccy meters are in two boxes on the outside wall. Yesterday the ‘lock’ to one of them fell apart when I tried to open it. I heard the gubbins fall down inside, so now it can’t be opened by myself. Hope they don’t charge me for a new one! I suppose I’d better tell them....and maybe get a smart meter at the same time.
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The meter housing is your responsibility I’m afraid, It will cost you. I have OVO and had a smart meter installed by them the a couple of years ago. Can’t say I ever use the gadget they gave me to see what energy I am using but the website is good. Interesting to see comparisons of usage month by month and year by year.
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Many thanks CGN. The tricky bit will be opening the door. The frame is ( currently) perfect, and only painted this year to match my new garage door. Drat.
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Probably easiest to just drill a hole in the door and you can then reach the locking mechanism. Once opened you can always put a patch over the hole.
My door broke in half, it wasn’t closed properly and was damaged one stormy night. Managed to repair it though and now never needs to be opened anyway.
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That’s what I was thinking. It might need to be a large hole to get my hand or some tool through, buy I could patch it with a piece of plastic...maybe araldite a piece on after repairing the very simple locking mechanism.
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Use a hole cutter. The locking mechanism is very simple if it’s like mine . Rather like a gate latch. You just need to lift it..
Rather than glue which might be troublesome make the patch fairly generous an secure it with a few nuts and bolts drilled through the patch and door
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Another vote for ovo, been with them for a couple of years now. Had a smart meter in the old house but haven't bothered in the new one yet. Little bit of a faff iirc last time.
Good company though, nice easy to use website.
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>> My non-smart electric meter is inside a cupboard under the stairs 12" from the floor
>> facing inwards. To read it i have to empty the cupboard , lie on my
>> back on the floor with a torch, biro & notepad.
Mirror on a stick?
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My electric meter is easiest read by a left-handed midget holding a torch. Not helped by the digital, LCD read-out that's easy to confuse a 4 with a 9.
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You could take a photo using your phone. I do this reading my water meter which is difficult to read.
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We have a key top up meter. SSE said that they could change it so that we can top up online, through an App, via a phone call, etc. It would also be a smart meter too. We went along with it for convenience sake, to save having to take the key to the nearest PayPoint outlet to top it up.
So, the SSE engineer came out, disconnected the existing meter, unscrewed it, then went and fitted and wired up the smart top up meter in its place. Took him approx. an hour. Then another half hour of head scratching trying to set the thing up, finally realising it couldn't get a mobile phone signal. Not helped by it being inside a brick cupboard, and the only two phone networks that deliver a signal to our village are O2 and Vodafone, which they don't appear to use.
So, he had to uninstall it all and put back in the original meter again.
Now, despite the SSE now knowing their new meters won't work in our village, they still send endless letters and also the occasional phone call trying to get us to upgrade to one of their new top up smart meters. If it wasn't for the inconvenience, I would let them try and try again until they get the message that they are onto a loser.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 03:00
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They don't need a specific network, any will do. The fact that it does not work in your house does not mean it won't work elsewhere in your village. Most likely due to the specific location of your meter..
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Don't shoot the messenger. I'm only repeating what SSE's engineer told me.
I know at some point in the future SSE are introducing new meters with better aerials. Maybe that will help matters, although as a test 2 phones were put in the same cupboard as the meter, one was on the Vodafone network, the other O2. Both rang when dialled so a signal is able to be reached there. That's what makes us (and that includes the engineer) think that the meter uses a different network. Even SSE themselves didn't know what phone network the meters use.
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www.bbc.com/news/business-48266605
Here's a bit of an update. Doesn't seem to have been as popular as first thought. There's no way that the target can be met by 2020, only 1 in 4 meters are smart and the average saving will be £11. Not great.
Ours in the old house turned into a bit of a faff. Not sure I'd have another one.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Wed 15 May 19 at 08:45
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I had BG one then switched supplier to a non-smart-meter company. They were able to leave the meter on the wall but the portable display became useless, and I had to have meter readers again.
Then that supplier was barred by the regulator and I was switched to Octopus, who installed new meters and their flavour of smart meter. Very impressed, as it shows what's being used, how much it costs, what the CO2 effect is and other stuff (bill to date etc). Also it shows how much I am exporting power through the solar panels, so I can judge better what appliances I can run for free (or even charge the car)!.
So on the whole I am a happy smart meter customer, probably similar to many out there. Really, if people don;t like the smart meter then don't look at it. The story about someone being not yet connected isn't necessarily due to a smart meter issue.
ADVERT ALERT if anyone fancies switching to Octopus them let me know as by referring you we'd both get £50. They seem cheap enough to me and have a tariff with a special overnight EV rate for 4 hours of 5p a unit (or thereabouts). smokie_mod at car4play.com. I'm paying 13p for electricity and 3.5p for gas, or thereabouts. And it's 100% renewable!
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>> You could take a photo using your phone. I do this reading my water meter which is difficult to read.
If it's too awkward to hold the phone at the correct angle and press the Capture button, try recording video (with the flash on) - wave the phone in roughly the right direction for ten or twenty seconds then play the recording back at your leisure. You can then pause the video at the point where the reading is visible.
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>>My non-smart electric meter is inside a cupboard under the stairs 12" from the floor facing inwards. To read it i have to empty the cupboard , lie on my back on the floor with a torch, biro & notepad. I'm 71 years old and wonder if a smart meter is the answer.
Mine is also too awkwardly sited to read without a ladder, a torch and a stretchable neck, capable of squinnying round a corner. This is far too risky for a couple of vertigo-suffering, unsteady old people. Supplier EON has made one of us a Priority Service customer so sends a meter reader to check once a quarter.
The payoff is that access to their cheapest deal, which wold save us quite a lot of money, is only available to customers who have a smart meter. (We currently pay 15.38 for electricity and 3.66 for gas.)
You could try getting your meter more conveniently sited. When I tried, some years ago, I was quoted a cost of some hundreds of pounds. I can't recall who does it but it is not the fuel supplier.
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Not sure the fuel suppliers themselves do much of the stuff out and about. The meter readers from BG and elsewhere were actually from some other company, as were the guys who fitted my smart meters. Also the bloke who comes to read my export meter. I imagine the supplier could put you in touch with someone if you wanted to move the meter though.
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AIUI there are two types of 'Smart' meter.
The original version known as 'SMETS 1' are usually supplier specific. The follow up version is the fully smart supplier flexible SMETS 2. Last time I had some refresher training on Energy it was suggested that supply companies still had warehouses full of SMETS 1 meters and were in no hurry to ditch them in favour of SMETS 2.
A think a date had been set for new installations to be S 2 but no guarantee it would not be moved forward again.
My own supplier, SO Energy, still state they're 'not yet' providing SMART meters
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 15 May 19 at 12:38
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How the flip do you guys get a meter-reader to come out any more?
I'm with BG and one of the points they made many years ago when we switched was that 'I would never have to read my meter again', utter hogwash! I'm now bombarded with emails asking for my own readings and I've not had a reader out for over five years.
I thought that there was a requirement to have a meter read by the supplier at least once a year?
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When I had BG, (they've been gone about 2 yrs now) I got really irritated with them. I'd do a self reading every quarter, as requested, and about a week later the meter reader would turn up. Absolutely consistently.
Maybe if I hadn't been here the first time they called they wouldn't have returned, and I'd have been like you.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 15 May 19 at 21:27
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As I've said before (!) I will not have a smart meter unless it becomes the law of the land.
It's likely a precursor to the differential charging idea and as we are mostly at home during peak hours and using fuel it is not a benefit at all.
As far as a smart meter telling one how much gas or electricity is being used minute by minute - I don't care. (a) I can't be bothered to look, (b) I use whatever is necessary at the time, to be comfortable, or to carry out fuel using tasks and (c) I have a well insulated house and my fuel bills run at about £850 p.a.
All I do to save money on energy is to shop for the best deal (cheapest) every time my existing contract comes to its end.
This year I'm with AVRO energy, dual fuel, fixed tariff, no exit fees. Come August I will be shopping around again.
Last edited by: Roger. on Wed 15 May 19 at 21:36
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>>> I will not have a smart meter unless it becomes the law of the land.
Differential pricing is the idea of being able to charge more accurately according to cost?
So without that you are currently being subsidised by those who use "cheaper" electricity and that would benefit from differential pricing?
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>>This year I'm with AVRO energy, dual fuel, fixed tariff, no exit fees. Come August I will be shopping around again.
Ditto, until this month when MSE indicated Utility Point. I thought energy suppliers were now supposed to send a final bill and refund/charge any difference within ten working days. That ship's sailed!
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Octopus have their Agile tariff, whereby they publish the next day electricity charges for each half hour. You can then choose when to do your heavy usage tasks.
In the online example I looked at there were a couple of days in a year when they actually paid you (a pittance) to take money from the grid!
However a mate assisted with the programmatic bit of interrogating my actual usage since joining up, and has set it against all tariffs, and that particular tariff was more costly (though obviously I didn't adjust when I did things to take best advantage).
And of course with solar panels, they take priority over the grid, when they are generating. My car was mostly charged for free earlier :-)
PS if you compare your AVRO rates with Octopus you'll see there isn't much in it. But with £50 back if I refer you then I reckon Octopus is cheaper in your first year!
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 15 May 19 at 23:06
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Thought I'd add a comment to this thread rather than create a new one. Someone may find it of interest...
Yesterday saw the deepest and most sustained negative energy costs for users on Octopus's Agile tariff. Agile is the one where the daily tariff for the next day is published around 4pm so you can plan when you want to run your energy hungry appliances the following day, charge your car or you battery bank.
The prices are published for each half hour window of the day. The people who would benefit with least effort are those with energy management systems, which take the data and determine and control when certain loads are switched on and off - so for instance for a washing machine with a two hour cycle they would look for the cheapest consecutive two hours as you wouldn't want to interrupt a run, whereas to charge your car for two hours you just choose the four cheapest half hour periods. I don't recall ever seeing the pricing in negative during the day before, since I stated with them in Nov 2018.
I don't use Agile at the moment as I am on a different tariff which gives me very cheap electricity for 4 hours overnight which is when I charge the car (when it needs it, and if the sun isn't shining during the day). But my program mentioned above does summarise what the previous day consumption did, and would have, cost me. The rate varies slightly from region to region.
Overall the average cost per unit over 24 hours yesterday was 3.73p. The cheapest period ran from 10:30 to 16:00 when elec averaged -1.32p which means they were paying you to take it away. Not much I know but better than most of us did! My actual usage in the same time period cost me just over 20p for the same period (although it was sunny we had a Sunday roast which probably cost about 12p to cook). The whole day cost for me was 96p but only 22.6p on the Agile tariff.
Note - figures are without VAT and there is obviously a standing charge to be added.
(Actually, typing this has made me wonder how easy it is to swap tariffs then swap back, as while I'm not charging the car, and over the summer, Agile might be the right tariff for me)
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 6 Apr 20 at 09:10
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You really need to get out more..........
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Glad you saw the funny side of my comment. Stay healthy & best wishes.
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Since my original post i've had a smart meter fitted by Peoples Energy.
It was 2 months before the display started working, i'm still being asked to submit readings manually!
Legacyland is right you should get out more.
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Here's a recent blog from Octopus which describes how the negative cost of daytime electricity I mentioned above arose. May be of limited interest to some.
octopus.energy/blog/social-distancing-renewable-energy-negative-pricing/
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How does the customer know when the costs are low or negative.
If it is only afterwards it's not very helpful.
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No, obviously....
Costs are published the day before, before 4pm I think. There are a number of apps which have been written using Octopus's API for smartphones and other devices which not only tell you the cost per unit but work out the optimal period for you to run whatever device you want.
Unless you are somewhat automated it is a bit of a faff. It will get better.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 11 Apr 20 at 11:26
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Two thoughts:
- mirror on a stick but you will have to read it backwards
- take a picture with a smartphone
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For anyone on the Octopus Agile tariff tomorrow daytime is a very good day for prices. There's a couple of slots where the price is 0.0p but the most expensive electricity is only 3.1p (+ VAT) al day until the expensive period from 15:00 - 19:00 - and even that is all less than 20p which is unusual.
This was widely predicted to be a plunge weekend when they would have paid me to use electricity due to oversupply and massively lower usage, but they have come to an agreement with the EDF to half shut down Sizewell for a number of weeks, which is unprecedented AFAIK, and will probably shape the way tariffs are made going forwards.
For anyone not on Octopus if you sign up using my link we'll both get £50 :-). You can reach me through the Report Message button to get the code.
I switched from a different Octopus tariff to Agile about 2 weeks ago and have saved about a third on my bill since then!! Also my gas is nearly half what it was on a different Octopus Gas tariff.
Tomorrow's daytime Agile tariff detail... (prices are per kWh ex VAT)
05:30 0.2
06:00 0.8
06:30 0.0
07:00 0.3
07:30 0.0
08:00 1.1
08:30 1.8
09:00 1.5
09:30 3.1
10:00 2.1
10:30 3.1
11:00 2.1
11:30 3.1
12:00 1.1
12:30 3.1
13:00 3.1
13:30 2.4
14:00 2.1
14:30 1.8
15:00 1.2
15:30 2.6
16:00 13.7
16:30 17.5
17:00 15.6
17:30 17.9
18:00 18.8
18:30 18.4
19:00 5.1
19:30 5.1
20:00 5.7
20:30 5.3
21:00 5.7
21:30 3.5
22:00 4.6
22:30 1.8
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 9 May 20 at 18:29
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And *that* is how smart meters will cause the spikes and troughs to smooth out.
Some good had to come of them one day.
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When the weather is warm people use less energy. If the sun is shining (and a moderate wind) low carbon energy output increases. So market prices will fall. October to March the situation will likely be reversed.
In the medium term the energy companies will use smart meters to set energy prices flexed by time of energy use. This may even be legislated as a way to limit peak demand, make use of low carbon energy when it is available, and minimise investment in capacity.
As a consumer perhaps the right strategy is an agile tariff April - September, then cancel and use a fixed price tariff October - March.
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I have all of my consumption, tariff and comparable Agile tariff data going back to Nov 2018 when I started with Octopus in a spreadsheet.
For most of that time I was on Octopus Go, which gave me electricity at 13.7p except from 00:30 to 04:30 when it went down to 5p. Ideal for charging my car.Depends on your energy requirements really.
My actual electricity cost was about £40 more under Go than it would have been under Agile. As it happened, most of that was in the first four months - from then onwards the total is about the same.
But then I was optimising my usage according to my tariff. Now I am on Agile I am optimising according to that one, and am really seeing savings. I don't think at the moment I'll go back to Go but I might.
We are tending to not cook the evening meal during the expensive time, though we're not being religious about it. Instead of running the appliances (where possible) in the cheap 4 hours I just find the lowest cost appropriate window(s) and start the appliance (or set it to start) at that time.
Of course having the solar panels adds an extra but pleasant level of "complexity" to planning electricity usage. I got about 10 free miles (enough for a week at the moment LOL) into the car today in between the washing machine and other stuff.
The beauty is it is that in my online account I can see historical consumption up to yesterday and can just switch tariffs back online as and when required, with little delay.
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 10 May 20 at 00:57
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I do not have a smart meter.
My electricity costs me around £1.00 per day -
I do not worry when it rises a little - I do not leave lights on, or have the TV on when there is nobody watching it.
I do not have a spreadsheet for anything. I have not budgeted for anything in the last 50+ years - if I can afford to buy something I need/would like I get it. If I cannot afford it I do not buy it.
Simple finance & it has worked well for me.
I do change electricity supplier, car & house insurance company if their price is hiked more than just a few pounds at renewal time.
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>> I do not have a smart meter.
>> My electricity costs me around £1.00 per day -
That's interesting. I don't think we are profligate with electricity , but our bills are between £180 and £250 per ninety days, with seasonal variation. So we are at two to three times your costs.
Is it that you have really cheap deals, that you live in a caravan, or we are excessive without realising it, I wonder.
For reference, I pay about 19p a day standing and 15p a unit. Locked in for another year. It was the best available from anyone when I last switched to it, in November. I checked again last week and now I can't even match it, never mind beat it.
We cook with electricity, but heat, alas, with oil.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sun 10 May 20 at 09:03
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We are OAPs - we have a tumble drier but is seldom used.
We replaced a large Freezer & Fridge with 2 x new ones (£1200) - this made a difference to electricity. We do not use electricity for heating or as a water heater except in an emergency.
However the biggest savings we ever made was the eldest leaving home in 1997 and the twins in 1998. Electricity bills went down by 30+%.
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>> >> I do not have a smart meter.
>> >> My electricity costs me around £1.00 per day -
>>
>> That's interesting. I don't think we are profligate with electricity , but our bills are
>> between £180 and £250 per ninety days, with seasonal variation. So we are at two
>> to three times your costs.
In our last house we cooked with electric, heated with gas. Our electricity was about £12-£14 a week and we were fairly profilgate, lights on when we were out, computer on at night, TV on standby, vampire plugs everywhere.
I've just moved to Avro, which for a 12 month fix is massively cheaper. Our SP tariff ends 31 May and their off is to renew at what are quite high rates.
Avro is 2.1525p for gas, 12.6p for electricity, inc VAT with comparable standing charges of >23p/day each. We were paying >3.5p and >15p with SP.
I used to find SP were reasonable if I switched tariffs regularly, which you can do online without penalty. That changed about 18 months ago. I only stuck with them because things got a bit messy with two addresses and the house fire and I foresaw an administrative cock up (correctly - it took me a while to get them to stop the standing charges on the derelict property).
I did check out Octopus but they were quite a bit dearer - still less than SP - for this area. I do not have a smart meter.
I suppose a smart meter will be obligatory when we build the new house which will open the possiblity of smart tariffs.
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Similar as you FB, although I can’t be bothered changing insurer, utility or whatever just to save a few quid. Gotta to be at least £50 pa before I even consider it.
My monthly gas & leccy DD with Octopus is currently £36 pcm. I’ve no idea what tariff I’m on, or why I changed from OVO really.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sun 10 May 20 at 09:08
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>>Gotta to be at least £50 pa before I even consider it.
Snap - but your insurer will climb down say £30 in a 5 min phone call - worth a call.
Changing insurer can be time consuming.
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I wish. Try that every time. Best offer I got was a £10 M & S voucher which never arrived.
I do shop around for car insurance...it’s due soon I think. Worth an hour on comparison sites like for like.
In the grand scheme of things, car depreciation, investment values dropping, half the year away from home, savings on such like are chuff all.
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>> I have all of my consumption, tariff and comparable Agile tariff data going back to
>> Nov 2018 when I started with Octopus in a spreadsheet................................................
>> The beauty is it is that in my online account I can see historical consumption
>> up to yesterday and can just switch tariffs back online as and when required, with
>> little delay.
I remember now, you were the star of the show at the C4P dinner party. Everybody saying "Please let me sit on Smokie's table".
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Was the party held after midnight to take advantage of the low rates for the cooking?
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>> Was the party held after midnight to take advantage of the low rates for the
>> cooking?
>>
I can imagine the scene,
So when's the main course?
Well the winds dropped a bit but it's due to pick up around 2am, so about 5 hours if that's OK?
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sun 10 May 20 at 08:51
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All joking aside, I think the political angle of all this has been forgotten. The end state of this is that they'll be different tariffs every hour and therefore different costs.
I think the idea that people are going to be sat staring at computer screens figuring out if they should eat, wash clothes, whatever is frankly a fantasy. Most aren't going to be remotely interested in that. The government seems to be willfully ignoring that and the fact they get to vote.
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I'm incredibly nerdy when it comes to this stuff, but then that's my hobby, and I share it as I think it might be of interest.
I am not hung up on always doing stuff as cheap as poss but as you will see below the savings look quite significant. For the 6 days since I swapped tariffs and for which I have data (and excl VAT)
Gas - Old tariff £2.86 new tariff (high estimate) £2.00 (90 units, just hot water at the moment - till this coming week!!)
Electricity - old tariff £7.22, new tariff (actual) £3.97 (60.7 units)
If this is reflected across the year it will make a not insignificant difference once VAT is added. My monthly DD was £95 but I've just dropped it to £60, and this may be too much.
If I got all the proper energy management software and hardware (and storage) it could be even less, but at some considerable cost and complexity, and at a level of nerdiness that I can only aspire to. :-)
Octopus energy is all green too...
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Just looking at my electricity usage I see it has been around £1.40 a day this year. The most I have used was £1.63. We heat by gas and have a gas hob but an electric oven and all the usual appliances. I can’t honestly see us changing our pattern of usage when the cost is so small anyway. Equivalent to half a cup of coffee in Costa or a packet of cross down the pub.
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Talking of pubs, my local which is a 7 minute walk, has a fabulous S facing beer garden which enjoys late evening sun, extensive views over the village and beyond, and lots of birdlife with Swifts and Swallows. I’m not sure if anyone is living there at the moment so I’m tempted to take a bottle or three, sit quietly with a book and see if I get kicked out!
Unfortunately the weathers taken a change for the worse...until now we’ve been meeting on the local golf course or friends garden for our early doors drinking soirées.
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>>until now we’ve been meeting on the local golf course
It's been reported that someone was shooting the muntjac on a local golf course, despite the public wandering all over the greens!
Mmm, could be some venison about.
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Sun 10 May 20 at 19:24
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>> Just looking at my electricity usage I see it has been around £1.40 a day
>> this year. The most I have used was £1.63.
Looks like we are about 50p a day more than you then, CG, so nudging two hundred quid a year. I must poke about. I know I leave the PC on 24 hours, though I "need" to for various reasons. Hmm.
>> or a packet of cross down the pub.
I don't need to go down the pub for that. I get a whole packet of cross if I don't notice a new haircut.
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I never turn my Apple computer off either. Do you use any form of electric heating? Tumble drier?
I’m still recovering from making the perfectly simple observation that “I didn’t realise your hair was that grey”
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Since my smart meter was installed was installed
i've discovered the worst overnight energy user that
i could switch off was the Sky Q box. It uses 30 Watts
even on standby.
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>> Since my smart meter was installed was installed
>> i've discovered the worst overnight energy user that
>> i could switch off was the Sky Q box. It uses 30 Watts
>> even on standby.
>>
How much is the cost to leave it on overnight?
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Very rough calculation, £16 per year
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>> How much is the cost to leave it on overnight?
Of itself I'd guess around 5p/week.
If the box takes ages to reboot and/or you frequently record stuff then it's probably 'a price worth paying'. OTOH there's the Dave Brailsford thing about incremental gains.
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My house "at rest" overnight looks to be about 0.4 kWh on average. Not a lot - that's a large fridge, an older fridge freezer, a small chest freezer, two TV boxes, the router, a hub or two, a couple of LED porch lights, and phone chargers and other small gubbins.
So that's somewhere around 50 - 60p for an 8 hr night on a normal tariff. Without some effort and inconvenience I'm not sure I can lower that significantly.
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>> >> How much is the cost to leave it on overnight?
>>
>> Of itself I'd guess around 5p/week.
>>
>> If the box takes ages to reboot and/or you frequently record stuff then it's probably
>> 'a price worth paying'. OTOH there's the Dave Brailsford thing about incremental gains.
>>
That's seems quite cheap I think, £2.50 a year.
Who's he, some sort of energy/money saving type?
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>> Who's he, some sort of energy/money saving type?
Team Manager for British Cycling and Sky/Ineos. Made a lot of incremental or marginal gains as part of his philosophy for winning.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brailsford
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In old fashioned terms, take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves.
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>> I never turn my Apple computer off either. Do you use any form of electric
>> heating? Tumble drier?
>>
Tumble drier very rarely used, especially in summer. But its tyhe usual culprits I dont doubt. Virgin box on all the time, pc, smart plugs, alexa, blahblah.
Obviously if pushed and we wanted to, i'd categorise things into essential and fripparious, and adjust accordingly.
As we're not pushed (yet!) then i think a quick check around just in case of an egregious missed appliance is a handy job. To add to all the other handy jobs in the queue.
Must go, the dishrags need airing.
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>>
>> Octopus energy is all green too...
>>
How does that work?
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Tomorrow's Agile pricing has just been announced and there's plunge pricing overnight tonight, where they pay me to take electricity.
01:00 -1.1p
01:30 0.02p
02:00 0.00p
02:30 -1.1p
03:00 -1.1p
03:30 -1.54p
04:00 -0.44p
04:30 0.00p
05:00 -0.92p
Wish I'd not charged the car earlier now!!
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Smokie...I’ve just checked my Octopus tariff. Both gas & leccy are 12month fixed January 2020 v3 ( whatever that means).
Electric 18.30p a day standing charge, 13.45p/kWh
Gas 16.00p and 2.44p/kWh
Is that good? Their website has just told me I’m on the best tariff. Hope they’re not telling porkies !
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I'm not a tariffs expert but those rates are OK LL. Like other companies they have so many tariffs I'm sure they are designed to confuse.
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Smokie....did you have a £50 code for changing supplier ?
My old mums contract with OVO expires September....I changed to Octopus a few months ago. I do monthly readings for her. It’s no big deal, takes me 10 mins, and I’m round her place several times a week helping with odd jobs etc...when I’m not overseas!
I’m not after the very cheapest tariff, she currently pays £63pcm for dual fuel in her 3 bed detached, just a supplier who are efficient, easy to deal with and submit readings...hence my own move to Octopus.
Thanks
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Oh, did I mention that sometime? :-)
I do have one LL but so do you if you are a customer, so if you recommend her then you'll both get £50. Log into your account, go to your dashboard (My Account) and there is a panel at the bottom with your own link.
Happy to pass on mine if you feel I'm being too kind though :-)
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Much appreciated. I’d no idea.
Apologies for not asking when I changed to Octopus
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My charges with Peoples Energy
Elec 13.03 pKwh
Gas 2.28 pKwh
Standing charge 13.2p per day each
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Yesterday I had a message from my energy supplier:-
"Good news. We’re now able to take automatic readings from your electricity and gas smart meters. This means you won’t have to send us meter readings again and your statements will be as accurate as possible.
From 6 August 2020, we’ll start automatically taking a meter reading every day".
Apparently my old smart meter which is a SMETS1(?) version, will from August 6th will become properly smart again and will be sending in readings again! I can have readings hourly, daily, or monthly apparently.
No I don't know how they have done that, either!
Do you know?
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Lucky you, Peoples Energy, who fitted my SMETS2 smart meter in December 2019 still ask me for a monthly reading. Grrrr
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Since posting that at 07.19, I have had a little fiddle and done some reading. My little display thing gave me a couple of messages, it tells me it has been up dated and is now working as a smart meter!
Thing is.... what do I now do?
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My meters are SMETS1 too. They are almost like a computer - just like other Internet of Things devices they have firmware, and can be upgraded over the air by the meter managing company (not necessarily your energy supplier!). In fact at some point my SMETS1 will be upgraded to SMETS2 which is the standard all meters will need to be on (though not all current smart meters can be upgrade).
I don't think you do anything now, unless you are interested in gathering more stats about your usage. They will be able to read your meter over the air so no more scrabbling about ion the floor with a torch under the stairs (for me*).
It might not surprise you that I have a program which runs every day to collect my usage and cost figure into a spreadsheet for later analysis. That doesn't happen at all now, after the flurry of interest.
* I used to have a light which came on automatically when I opened the cupboard door but my neighbour, a qualified Gas Safe person, said thats a no-no as it could spark an explosion if there has been a build up of leaked gas.
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>> I don't think you do anything now, unless you are interested in gathering more stats
>> about your usage. They will be able to read your meter over the air so
>> no more scrabbling about ion the floor with a torch under the stairs (for me*).
>>
>> It might not surprise you that I have a program which runs every day to
>> collect my usage and cost figure into a spreadsheet for later analysis. That doesn't happen
>> at all now, after the flurry of interest.
May I refer you to my post at 08.30 on 10th May?
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Smets1 meters were made by different manufacturers. Each model was different from next one. Change your supplier & it did not work.
After years of delay and escalating cost it now seems that DCC have managed to query the meters and then forward that readings to the correct power supplier.
However, it's Crapita in charge of the software development so it may have the odd blip or mega blips. The software development is sub-contracted to India.
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I think the meters are still different brands but SMETS2 brings common interface and standards.
Certainly there have been blips with data delivery to Octopus (and therefore to me) but the meters can hold 13 months of data so usually data is not lost.
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Right. So it's now up and running - apparently.
What can it do? What can it tell me?
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That question is one for your provider. My original smart meters from BG didn't do anything for me except (in theory) save me from having to take/send readings (though stilla bloke used to turn up within days of my reading date).
What would you like to do with them?
Some people have displays in their kitchen showing their consumption and cost in real time but even I'm not that bad!!!
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Don’t suppliers mostly have a website/App where your usage is displayed. OVO certainly have a very good one
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I expect they do but it's usually for the previous day.
There's some clever people doing clever stuff with smart meters and time of use tariffs so previous day info is nowhere near enough.
E.g. their home battery systems report exactly how much power they need to re-fill them, and they have apps and systems which re-fill them at the optimal price, without any user intervention. Or even more simply, will heat a tank of water when electricity becomes a cheaper option than gas. These are only ordinary nerds, not rich ones!
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I guess the website will give all the info the non nerds of the world need.
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Smart Meters - Zero
