Today an electrician from Siemens is coming to fit a Smartmeter. We have had a little device which tells us our electricity consumption before, we got rid of it in the end, as it was cluttering up the kitchen and did not really save us any money as we are quite careful anyway. The attraction of this new device is that it covers the gas and the electricity and takes meter readings automatically ensuring that we are only charged for the energy we use.
The meter is free from our current supplier and I was very attracted by the idea of monitoring the gas use. Sometimes MissShoestring or someone else leaves the water heater on all night ! This is obviously very expensive and I think the meter will show us when these little mistakes are happening and we can avoid them.
I know some people are not keen on the idea of these meters because of the mobile phone signal they use, but with several young people in the house this is a none issue for us as they are using their mobile phones a great deal anyway !
I am also quite looking forward to having some sunny days over the Summer and seeing exactly how many kilowatts the solar array is generating. It is certainly working well just now as I have not needed to put on the hot water since the start of April !
If anyone has a Smartmeter I would love to know if they are as good as they sound ?
Also, just wanted to let you know that Kate Singh has another of her ebooks for free this week, it's the "Lazy and Cheap Housewife", great tips in there too !
We had a smart meter installed earlier this year and given a device similar to yours to monitor our gas and electricity consumption. But of course, this doesn't help save fuel, only tells you what you are using. From what I understand, the meters were installed so that there wouldn't be any need for someone to come and read the meters, it could be done directly by the server from their office base. Furthermore, I have since learned that we didn't have to have a smart meter installed if we didn't wish to have one, although I don't see the point of actually refusing one. But, as I say, it doesn't save money and a lot of money has surely been used (wasted?) in installing them. Let us not kid ourselves, the companies make money our of our consumption, they don't really want us to use less fuel, surely? To save money, turn down the thermostat, only used machines such as dishwashers and washing machines when full, use free fresh air for drying clothes, and so forth. I put the little device away in the drawer, it had been plugged in ... using electricity! OK, a minimal amount, but that's not exactly 'smart' is it? I have a pretty good idea of how much fuel we are using when all the machines are on, I'm making cups of tea using an electric kettle, making toast, baking cakes, washing clothes and dishes, and on a wet day, using the tumble dryer. No smart meter is going to change things - we have to have clean clothe and we need and eat.
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
www.margaretpowling.com
Dear Margaret,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your experience, you have said just what the engineer shared when he fitted the meter. I asked him what would happen when we change suppliers and he said that they would come out and do the same thing all over again, very wasteful !! Looks like the government are not as thrifty as they could be !