Smart Meters (again)

[Murdochcat]

I have to say I can't disagree with much of this:

 

[ericmark]

Some good points, but also a bit one sided.
1) the switch off function was so same meter can be used pre or post payment.
2) the battery works well for the consumer, not so much for the supplier. I look at my power use, 9 pm to 1 am low use, 1 am to 2:30 am high power, then low use again until 5 am, then nothing until 9 pm this is not really helping.

Main problem with the smart meter is people are not being told how it can help them. Silly adds showing clapping hands to turn lights on/off does not help.

If they said how to use off peak, that would help far more.

The heat pump very different. As said for most homes and life styles they are not suitable. The very well insulated home can be kept warm 24/7, but if not, then recovery time is the buzz word. I.e. how fast can the home be reheated.

 

[john4703]

I have had many messages from my supplier, they basically say two different things.
One says that between certain hours there will be an excess of energy available from renewables and anything extra I use in that hour will be free of charge.
The other says that they expect a high demand between certain hours and I will be rewarded for reducing my energy use at that time, This is the easy one, I do not run my dishwasher or washing machine and turn off my fridge and freezer. I got a few pounds credit this way last winter.

 

[ericmark]

I got a smart meter as told without one I could not get paid for export, I still am not paid for export but I do charge my battery on off peak, so in the morning before the sun comes up, I am using power I paid for at off peak rates. So most nights before the smart meter I would run out of power from batteries 9 pm to 10 am now I run out 9 pm to midnight, and then I use off peak.

If I look at the rates, single rate 24/7 was 29.57p per KWh and 62.21p standing charge, with split rate 8.95p per kWh off peak (5 hours), and 31.31p peak with a 59.14p standing charge. So if I used 554 watt (yesterdays use divided by 24) through the day, then £4.55 single rate and £4.14 with split rate. Since at least 2.88 kWh will be over night (charging batteries) and I can set dish washer, washing machine and tumble drier to run at night, the gains will be more than that. Then add the solar production and even more again as hardly use any peak power, so with the minimum of effort, I can save a lot of money, I did a excel sheet to look at if worth a second battery and over a week

got the following, nearly every day I am using more off peak to peak power. Centre day was odd one out.

Today the power used and I would say we should be able to read this with a smart meter from our PC or phone, but that is not available. The full days graph shows even more info, and the software also shows totals imported 7.4 kWh and consumed 9.9 kWh solar produced 3.7 kWh and 4.3 kWh went in and out of battery to smooth out the peaks and troughs, did not get enough solar today to export anything.

It I look at the phone app, connected to smart meter, it shows nothing for today, most resent is yesterday, where is says used 0.45 kWh costing £0.14 with standing charge added £0.73.

The solar software for yesterday shows

now since one uses BST and other UTC there will be a difference. But 0.45 kWh to 6.7 kWh is one hell of a difference. Now go further back 30th Sept then 10.46 kWh smart meter app, and 10.7 kWh on the solar software. The smart meter app always shows a little less than the solar app, but two days behind with reasonable accurate readings is not what we expect from the adverts, clearly the meter is not very smart.

However we are still better off with a smart meter. Radio 4 long wave will not be going for much longer, so all duel tariff meters will need to be smart, you don't need to have a smart meter, but the billing agent is no forced to offer off duel tariffs to those without smart meter.

However the adverts say no estimated bills, which seems to suggest you will only be charged for what you use, OK I can see only billed once a month, and over charging a little in summer so you don't have massive bills in winter, makes some sense, but account balance +£984.36 credit, when Sept bill including standing charge is £59.54 is going a tad OTT.