Esb smart meter

It's extremely sneaky bordering on dishonest. It basically prevents anyone doing what would be a relatively easy calculation to determine what your bill would be for a variety of different scenarios to see if a switch to a smart tariff would result in higher bills, and if so, how much usage you'd have to move to mitigate any changes.

We had the smart meter installed. The year with Flogas is up. Im looking around for the best deal - looking like staying put. The offerings are not great. More expensive to run a smart meter!

What are the rates you are getting though, that’s the key thing?

standard day/night meters have rates at 16c/8c. What rates are you paying on the smart meters?

if they are similar, let us know who your provider is!

Guys, I understand where all of you are coming from this whole "smart meter" thing is a farce.

We recently bought an apartment which had been disconnected for over two years so this meant we had to re-apply and pay for the supply to be reconnected.

The meter that was currently in a locked cupboard in the hallway to the apartments had been changed last year to a digital one reading 0000 for both day and night rates (storage heaters in apartment) so I applied with one of the suppliers for their Urban 24 hour tariff with 40% discount as new customer.

Unfortunately when ESB networks came out to replace the fuse on the meter they replaced the meter for a smart meter.

The supplier originally said we couldn't get the 40% discount and best deal was 28% but the rates day and night were much higher than the Urban 24 tariff.

I complained and they have agreed to honour the 40% discount which is good although the rates are still more than the original quote.

But one question I am trying to get answers to is why are ESB or the suppliers not supplying the In house display units or even an App that can show you the real time energy usage?

Surely this is the whole point of a smart meter in that the consumer can actively monitor their consumption and make changes if possible.

ESB networks have not replied to my question Bordgais are saying to contact ESB networks and the CRU told me its nothing to do with them?

Has anyone else had any luck or interest in this area of Smart meters?

Thanks

Hi beachhead, just ask them to supply copy of the T&C's or at very least supply a link to them. Thanks

Have a look at the following on how to read the smart meter:

https://youtu.be/v24enoPl-qE

Well should we get them installed or not?

I was told the smart meter can't be hooked up to night saver rate yet. But will be in the future. Not that we use night saver. But I could do without the hassle of a iffy meter.

Been reading this thread since the start, surprised it's only 3 pages.

So, yay or nay for them?

The OP and some others mentioned their usage increased * - anyone else seen this (in Kw/h or units, not cost)?

As I understand it, the smart meter has the same day and night rates as before, plus the 17:00 to 19:00 peak rate.

So, apart from the convenience of not having to submit your readings (5 min every 2 months) what's in it for the consumer (from a financial POV)? Is there a reduction in the day or night rate, or the standing charges?

* I saw a technical video about the UK meters, and it discussed the subject of power factor correction, and how it's able to register more kw/h s for certain load types that may have gone under the radar in older meters, or at least registered less.

Cheers. This seems like a repeat of the water charges. In principal a good thing that I support, but what a great idea to introduce it in the middle of a huge recession, just after the property tax.

I didn't know the night rate increased, so Ill be refusing it. Also, to incentivise people, there should be a reduction in the daily rate outside the peak to balance things out both for the consumer and grid.

Not sure about that - this Tue received letter(dated 16th Jul) from ESB : "Dear Custommer, As part of our commitment.... Over next few months...." and all that noncense.

I wasn't looking deep, but could not see swift comparison about prices, or even if they are different

Not sure if change is mandatory or costomer has option to refuse - non info on leaflet or letter - only BS how great it is / will be.

So far cant see were that greatness will be if any - need to get more info, if anyone have - please share

Security also of some concern i guess - if provider have connection, hackers potentialy might gain as well

I thought the analytics you get from the smart meter is not yet enabled. Could be wrong on that but it would explain why you have a flat line! 😀

Have a smart meter 4 months now, still getting estimated bills.

Comms level 1..does that imply best or worst?

Nope, only discovered that you could submit readings with EI there earlier when I saw this thread and checked.

Kind of defeats the purpose of a smart meter in the first place though. I guess I am just in a crap reception area so, or the installer never checked, or maybe it's not part of the install process. It's not fit for purpose in my case I would imagine.

Cheers for the reply!

I thought I would have a little chip in with this discussion. About 6 or 7 years ago a friend of mine bought a new build in England and it had a smart meter and he could monitor his energy usage in real-time so he could figure out what was using lots of electric, etc to help bring down his bills. So I was delighted when we were told we would be getting a smart meter several months ago.

Only after it was installed did I realise that you can't monitor your electric usage in real-time. The only way you can get any monitoring is by signing up to a smart meter plan/tariff which gives you an update every 30 minutes which isn't very real-time or smart. Plus if you sign up to a smart tariff you will ultimately pay more as the rates are higher unless you just decide to live at night. I also learned that once you sign up to a smart meter tariff you cannot move back to a standard tariff (according to bord Gais). It's just madness.

I got stung with a super high bill for the last two months so I've been doing some research and switching providers but I really wished that the real-time monitoring was a thing. Really it's not smart at all!!

I did see this device on Amazon which can read the blinking green light on the smart meter and convert that into real-time monitoring on your phone, so I might give that a go! I also saw that you can get a wifi module for the Kamstrup smart meter to allow real-time monitoring.

Is anybody else sharing the same frustrations as me right now?

I believe the monitoring dashboard will be made available just that its not available yet. Could be a few years out though. Plenty cheap electricity monitors can do the same thing anyway, you dont need a smart meter for it.

Level 1 is the worst, manual read required. Must be little or no 2G signal.

Prior to installation of the smart meter were your bills showing estimated or actual readings?

Can I ask what's probably a really stupid question about these meters?

I had one in my last house but it was just a meter upgrade without a change in tariff. In my new house I'm still on a 24 hour plan, but the meter is set up for day/peak/night. So I was able to find out that A+T1 is night, A+T2 is day, and A+T3 is peak. Is A+ just the total reading, as in these three added together?