Smart Meters Yes or No - Some Pro's & Con's

When smart meters were being hurled towards us at high speed my response was "No I don't want one", you may ask why? I mostly mean the digital in-home display they have encouraged us to have in our homes when we have smart meter fitted.

Whereas I much prefer to keep a close eye on my actual meters one for electric and one for gas. 

Well in home displays have to be plugged in so they also use a little energy, which is totally ironic considering they are supposed to help us save on energy! 

If you want to save energy buy a smart plug-in energy monitoring device, and monitor the energy use of one device or appliance at a time. This way you will make a staggering difference to your energy use. 

Issues they might arise!

Interconnectedness of technologies is not flawless. communication issues arise.

This is a massive problem WiFi and wireless internet technology is not always reliable. 

Weakness of network signal.  

Rural areas are more prone to poor signal. 

Cables and connections can also become faulty. 

Smart meters need updating.

Smart meters bring with them new security risks. May leave you open to the possibility of a cyber attack and personal data being hacked by third parties. 

Smart meters may become faulty and give wrong readings this can be caused by poor connectivity issues, this can leave customers without readings being sent to their suppliers regularly. This can lead to customers having to pay extra money later on, because of the incorrect readings sent when the smart meter was faulty, or conversely the energy company might owe the customers a refund. 

Smart meters can be blamed when things go wrong by your energy suppliers. 

Changing from one supplier to another can become a problem when you have a smart meter installed, because if you do not have the right up to date one, some suppliers will not take you on as a new customer, so potentially smart meters are restricting your market consumer choices. 

Understanding how your smart meter works can potentially also be a problem for many people, especially the elderly and vulnerable, whereas the original smart meters (electric and gas) are very straight forward. 

Smart meters have the potential to help people reduce their energy consumption, however for those low income households smart meters can cause a great deal of anxiety by constantly reminding consumers of how much energy is being used. Some people will drive themselves nuts by obsessively checking their usage. 

Some smart meters change language sporadically! Imagine trying to understand it in a foreign language let alone in English. 

Some suppliers even try to sell these devices to their customers what a rip off!.

Some privately rented properties are not allowed to get smart meters because it is stipulated in the tenancy agreement, imho who would want one? 

If you have a smart meter in your home energy suppliers could potentially cut your supply off remotely, if you are unable to pay your bill. Whereas if you did not have a smart meter the energy supplier would have to send someone out to your property. However, there are regulations in place to prevent energy companies disconnecting customers in order to protect those who are more vulnerable.  

However, a smart meter can be changed into a pre-payment meter remotely by your supplier, although there is a set of strict procedures in place to prevent this happening unnecessarily.

Another type of smart meter is a pay as you go smart meter, Citizens Advice Bureau recently published an article stating by the end of the some 4 million customers could be pushed on to pay as you go meters, because they are struggling to make regular payments. Pay as you go customers pay about £258 more than monthly direct debit customers who are also able to speak the cost over the year, instead of paying hefty bills in winter time. Energy suppliers say they won't cut customers off this winter however by forcibly pushing them into having pay as you go smart meters, puts customers at a high risk of disconnecting themselves! 

Smart meters have even be known to stop working when an energy company stops trading..-.Whicn?. 

If you damage your smart meter you may well have to pay for a replacement. 

Some compatability issues have occurred when certain smart meters have been used by consumers using Solar panels, not all smart meters can successfully import and export information when supply is running back into the national grid, be sure to check this with your energy company.  

My biggest piece of advice is to not fully rely upon a digital in-home display they seem to be prone to technology problems, and as a back up take your own meter readings once a month keep photos and a record incase you need these at a later date.

Now on the opposite side of the discussion some of the newer models of digital display smart meters I have been told are extremely easy to use, clear to understand and very helpful in reducing energy use, and are far more reliable, usable, accessible and accurate.  

Smart meters can be a big help to those who are elderly and immobile and who struggle to read the actual meters, because smart meters will send the readings to the supplier. 

So if weighing up a decision maybe read reviews and take a look at some of the energy tips pages and ask other people, there appears to be quite a large divide between those who like and use them and those that choose not to use them. 

I'm often deterred with things like this because it reminds me of when I first got a DVD player and struggled to use it, which I will say sounds awful silly now considering I have University Diploma in IT, Computing  Mathematics and Psychology.