Utilities and smart meters

[Workingman]

Do you have one of they cards you "load up" at the local store? Do they work OK? Only asking because peeps always seemed to be having trouble getting them to function up at the Co-op where we last lived ....

Card for Gas, key for Electric.

Only once had a problem and that was a key change, apart from that it works seamlessly.

As for budgeting, you know these HUGE savings the *sperts keep banging on about? Well unless you are spending a small fortune on gaslec in the first place you will maybe save the price of a bottle of milk over a year. For single people in small flats it really is not worth it.

And I will not never, ever, never go on a smart meter. The only person who needs a usage profile of my gas and electricity is me and I do not need a gizmo to tell me what it is. Information Central Control can go sit on one.

[AliasAggers]

We had a smart meter in our previous house, but couldn't see any benefit in having one.

Now we are with SSE and enter our meter readings on line, although they do make an annual visit for that purpose.

I can't see that you need anything to monitor your use of electricity, if you are prepared to use common sense.
It's not exactly rocket science, is it?

[Suff]

The whole point of a smart meter is to get a usage profile throughout the day. Once the energy companies have that, they can target their energy generation to the needs (as they see it).

The problem with that is unexpected needs and lack of capacity.

It's not a panacea for every situation and more likely to make things worse, in the short term, than better.

[meriad]

thanks all - it's been interesting to get everyone's view points and reading through them all I don't think there's all that much benefit in having one installed (yet).

I'll get looking at comparison websites in August when bossman is away again; and go from there.