Smart meter con
Sat 6:24 am +01:00, 21 Oct 2023 4How the electric company tried to con me into a smart meter today
After I had already filled in their form AND notified the town manager they were not allowed on my property to touch the existing meter
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The utility company (in this case, Versant) owns the meter but I own the house it is attached to and the land it is on.
So when we were informed the meters would be changed out to a smart meter (which made one of my patients sick and has allegedly led to fires and very high, crazy bills in some areas) I told the town manager I would not accept a changeover and was instructed to write to the company with their form, which I did. I explained to both that changing the meter entailed trespassing, an illegal act.
Nonetheless, today a young man drove up and announced he was changing the meter. No, said I. Well, we will change it to a non-transmitting meter, he said—which comes with a $15/month service fee. No thanks, the old meter is working fine. Well, said he, I will give you the OPT-OUT form. While I had alreaedy sent one in, I thought I’d take a look at it.
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As before, they give you the general number to call, so it takes awhile to get the right person. I was able to confirm with him that yes, in fact the “OPT-OUT” non-communicating meter was the exact same smart meter they planned to install, except Versant would not turn on the communicator. Hello? My meter had come to the end of its useful life, you see. Except it was still working just fine.
Do you see their attempt to mislead? Your two choices are opt-in or opt-out and each involves a switch to the very same smart meter. I suggested to the man at the other end of the call that he might reconsider his job choice, since it involved misleading his customers. He replied that he liked his job. In the current milieu, he should go far.
I informed him that if anyone tried to trespass and install the new meter, I would call the police. I carefully avoided mentioning my 20 gauge purchase, though I leave the box it came in by the front door for people like the meter man to be aware of.
I wonder if the utility companies are being paid by the government to install new meters, and if the meters have any other functionalities. Why the bait and switch?
So if you don’t want a smart meter, be cognizant that “opting out” may in fact opt you in.
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They’ve been haranguing me for months. That means it benefits them not me. If it was any use to me I’d have to sort it out myself. It’s just a whole new way for them to fleece me.
ozzoforest
It benefits energy companies as they’ve essentially been set quotas by the energy regulator Ofgem to install a certain number of smart meters within a specific time frame. The aim is for all homes to have a smart meter by the end of 2025. If they miss these targets, they can be fined. It’s the government driving to have them installed in everyone’s homes, not the energy companies themselves.
See Ofgem Website
inked_idiot_boy
Lack of understanding what they actually do and a general distrust of the government and/or energy companies would be my guess
motific
In my case I don’t want one because I do have an understanding of what they do (and don’t) combined with a general (and well earned) distrust of the government and energy companies.
When I looked at the pros & cons, the benefits are almost exclusively in the suppliers favour. There are benefits for PAYG customers, or micro-generation systems like solar panels – they don’t apply to me. The display is not especially useful because it isn’t granular enough and I can’t query or access the data directly.
Then I looked at the tactics being used to get me to have one… I’ve had my supplier tell me outright lies to get me to take one. That alone is a big old nope and won’t be changing.
sjr0754
I don’t need one, it takes less than two minutes once a month to submit readings. Scheduling the install for a time when one of us, isn’t in work or asleep (we’re both shift workers) is fun.
I really fail to see any benefit as a consumer to them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/wtwwpa/why_do_people_not_want_smart_meters_for_energy/?rdt=46111
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/smart-meters-how-they-work
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/getting-smart-meter
Smart meters are a big scam, totally unnecessary, but a big money spinner. The old meters lasted for decades, these “smart” things just a few years:
“Billpayers will be forced to foot the cost of upgrading seven million smart meters which will become obsolete in less than 10 years, the spending watchdog has warned.
In a damning report highlighting a number of failures in the smart meter roll out, the The Public Accounts Committee said seven million smart meters would need to be replaced before the 2G and 3G networks they use are switched off in 2033.
It warned that the financial burden of replacing the redundant smart meter hubs will be ultimately borne by energy bill payers and could be “very significant”, exceeding previous estimates.”
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/10/20/seven-million-smart-meters-need-to-be-upgraded/
Yes they are a scam Gordon. They advertise that they save you money, so why would a company push it so much to get less income! In fact I am told they measure kilovolt hours instead of Kilowatt hours! When an appliance is on it is drawing intermittently from each wave of the ac current. However, sm is recording a constant draw. A friend of mine found this out when they had a long power outage and had to draw from a battery, Although using the same amount of power, the saving were considerable, because in charging the batteries there is constant draw but an intermittent one on running the appliances.