Just had an email from my energy company(edf) telling me to book an appointment for a smart meter to be installed.It was written in such a way that it is compulsory to have one.As they are not mandatory
has any one else had a similar request.I told them I did not want one
Comments
I've kept my electricity bills low by just being aware and turning things off when not needed.
Nope, I don't have a smart meter. Nor do I want one.
Tell them yours is a plague house.
Say there are rare bats nesting around the old meter.
Insist anybody entering the house must do so in bare feet, those feet have to be pristine and not smell.
Cover access to the old meter with clutter and heavy furniture.
Insist on all interactions to be in Kawishana or Liki.
Insist on having the make, model and serial number of every computer your information will be stored on or passed through, and that you see the written log of technical maintenance.
Anybody remember the case of somebody being done for speeding and they pointed the camera at the wall of the court and it registered 40mph or something?
You don’t have to refuse, but with a bit of creative thinking you can string to process out indefinitely.
The top 7 problems
Smart displays can stop responding
The installation can take hours and leave you with no power
The whole machine can stop functioning
The meter may stop being smart after you switch provider
It won’t save you money or fight climate change by itself
Your machine may not connect to the internet
Smart meters can be confusing and anxiety-producing
Power companies will have access to details about the rhythm of your personal life, in particular when you are likely to be home or not.
Such information can be hacked.
Modern life eh? What a fucking waste of time!
Refusing a smart meter
You don’t have to accept a smart meter if you don’t want one. If your supplier tells you that you must have one installed, contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline.
If you refuse a smart meter, you might find it hard to access all tariffs. This is because in future the cheaper tariffs offered by suppliers might only be available to customers with smart meters.
They are simply a (near) real time view of your consumption which may help you both budget better and potentially reduce your usage.
The hacking thing has been discounted on here before.
However the scare mongering you mention would have to be disproved fully before I want to have the faff of getting a smart meter.
If it is related I have a water meter that has greatly reduced my water rates, but those circumstances are very different to a 'smart meter'.
If nothing else, to break free of the relationship I have noticed between people who don't want a smart meter, and low intelligence.
Ignorance is strength and all that..
I'm saying this from a position of intense frustration that my SMETS1 no longer works since changing supplier. Desperate for it to start working again. The data is incredibly useful for helping you to reduce your bills at a time where we all need to be more aware of our outgoings.
Being against that is like rallying against the loom, or being against the internet.
If nothing else it would break the link between high handedness and what I would guess to be low 'intelligence'.
Mind you, to be fair, I wouldn't put myself in a position where I feel I could judge the intelligence of others, who make their own judgements based on nothing other than a prejudiced and possibly febrile imagination.
The meters work and are not confusing - a simple digital display of either kw used or £ spent.
Why look for a problem in a positive tool
I've made the point before that Seth was connected to the internet when he posted his views.
That is a lot of fart arseing and faffing about.
I certainly don’t want the disruption, especially clearing out under the stairs, making room, and ensuring a foot of space in every direction.
As for knowing my Wi-Fi number, I don’t have a clue.
For those with smart meters then great, but my resistance is probably based on my objection to imposition, so admittedly I look for reasons to resist, and find plenty.
Anyway with my dodgy back I am not hauling stuff around and waiting in for somebody to come round and mess up the place.
People can, and do, criticise me for my attitude, however in return I won’t criticise back beyond hitting back against the personals.
Not hassle free at all.
The meter reader has not been round my gaff for years, one of us reads the numbers using a torch looking through a little hatch, the other one writes them down, and I phone them in.
Making space under my stairs by moving stuff is not something I want to do, not because I am not ‘green’, but I can’t be arsed, don’t have the energy, and am too lazy to do the work for no benefit but at the risk of putting my back out again.
Indeed I do a lot for the planet by being vegetarian, probably a lot more than having a smart meter installed which I would probably ignore once the novelty wears off.
By sheer good fortune I got a fixed rate until November next year just before the price explosion happened.
Maybe by November 2023 I can be persuaded if I am still alive.
There you go pile on crew, a lot of personal information about me to fuel further criticism, fill your boots.
As I said, hassle free set up. No disruption unless you wish you make a meal out of it, and some most certainly will. No faffing about. No brainer.
It’s an imposition having a meter at all if you want to get really silly about it. You are obliged to have one if you want to be supplied with the product. The meter you have now is not the same as the meter that you had 20 years ago. It’s been changed possibly several times already. My meters were both changed in less than an hour with zero disruption apart from moving the Dyson and losing supply for what was perhaps thirty minutes for gas and ten for electricity.