Electricity / Gas Smart meters

im with octopus saving 6 squid a week

 

Time for the govt to renationalise gas and electricity again. The thatcher experiment has been a failure.

 

we should get the utilities at cost, we still got Victorian sewerage and water system here

 

I know my eldest was looking into them. I’m not sure where he’s at in the process.
Re Octopus energy. has anyone had dealings on here.? It appears they are attracting 1000’s of customers.

 

Sewerage? You lucky sods.
We just dig a hole and bury it.
I’m lucky having a stream just outside my door which I use to wash and drink.

 

Not far wrong Red, they privatised because of a supposed lack of funds under public ownership for our delapidated assets, then the industry fell apart due to lack of investment in place of profit.
It is only just being funded now properly because of that. And Offwats interventions. Private ownership is deplorable in my eyes.
Most of our utilities are owned by foreign controlled utility companies. Who won’t allow other foreign countries to invest in theirs.
Why would we not be brought back into the publics hands. We are held over a barrel.
We are one of the only supposed advanced countries in the world. That do not own our own. Wonder who presided over that.

 

You are indeed lucky Ian. We dig a hole, bury it and pay for the privilege.

 

My Mrs doesn’t miss talking/stalling him while I switched my spare gas meter for their real one and pulled the little 1.5mm drill bit out of the electric meter so the wheel could spin again. Happy days, £9 quarterly bills and heating on 24/7

 

ha ha quality work

 

Well, I wouldn't call it that exactly, but I see what you mean. To me it's just part of the contract. Not sure what you mean by pointless, it's just technology. It doesn't affect how much energy we use, not directly, but I guess it saves money for the provider through reduced wages from having less meter readers. No different, I guess, from self-serve checkouts at the supermarket.

 

Does that include the standing charge.

 

Ok maybe pointless was the wrong description.
Unwanted might be closer to the truth.
But my not having one keeps someone in employment.
The energy companies say they save you money. No they don’t. Just show you how much you are using and it’s up to you to reduce consumption if you want.
I do the meter readings and send them in via my computer. If the SSE do not believe what readings I give them there are welcome to read my meter anytime as it’s on the outside wall.
I will resist having one for as long as I can

 

Me too Ian Any savings certainly won't go to customers.

 

Probably not, but I'm definitely on a cheaper rate than I could find (at that time) if I'd not gone for the smart meter option. For me, it was a no-brainer.

 

I have run out of chortles at that line tykester, there is so much wrong with it, it should be in a Carry On film hope you both had a good time though

 

I think it’s only a matter of time before they start to charge you more for what you use at peak times etc. I’ll resist having one as long as I can. The law requires them to read your meter, at least every 12 months I believe is the timescale.

 

I only recently got an email from SSE asking me to take meter readings and fire it off to them because they have suspended having their meter readers come to houses due to the covid crisis.

 

Cant agree more.

 

Yeah, I am with Octopus. I can recommend their customer service, they seem pretty responsive. Their website is also easy to navigate. As for prices, with a normal meter and a standard tariff, I believe they are pretty decent compared to the competition but couldn't say for certain as I never checked that out.

But where they stand out from others is their smart tariffs, particularly if you own an EV, which I now do and which is what prompted the switch. I think they are the defacto go-to supplier for EV drivers.They do a tariff called Octopus Go, where you get an average rate for most of the day (14p or thereabouts per kwh) but 4 hours overnight at 5p per kwh. Perfect for charging the car for buttons.

If you want to get anal about your electricity usage to shave every penny, then they also do a tariff called Octopus Agile which tracks the wholesale rate, so the prices change every half hour. It's all about incentivising people to move their usage to times of lower demand. The rates are published at 4pm the day before and can be accessed on a website. If you want to then plan your use of lecky around the cheapest half hour slots then you could save. The problem is that the rates are very high for 3 hours at peak time between 4.30pm and 7.30pm (they are capped but the cap is 35p which is steep). But at all other times they can be as low as pennies. At rare times when there is too much supply in the grid because it is very windy for example the rate can even go negative so you get paid for burning electricity. It's cheaper for the suppliers than compensating the wind farm owners for turning the windmills off.

Many people say that averaged out, with a little planning, you can get your average rate across the day down to 8 or 9p per kwh. If I ever get back to driving heavy miles again and need more than 4 hours to fill my car up then it may be worth me switching for what it would save me on charging the car. But until then, I don't think I can be bothered with the faff and the missus wouldn't thank me for getting anal about our usage and guarding the oven at 4.30pm to stop her turning it on.

Course, you've got to have a smart meter to use these tariffs.

 

Agree / disagree. If you get a smart meter and stick to a standard tariff then yes, I agree. But the real point of smart meters is to enable the use of smarter time of day tariffs like the one I waffled about in the post above. Then you could indeed save money, but requires a little effort on your part as well to use the energy when its cheaper (e.g putting the washing machine / dishwasher on a timer etc). It depends - for some people the effort would be worth the savings when pennies count. Others might not be bothered with the hassle.