I don't want a smart meter either. My problem though is they say the meter I have is coming to the end of its life and I have noticed that when I read it the time is wrong. What would you all do?

They can't make you have one Brenda as far as I am aware, I should imagine they can just swap you but not give you the smart metre bit?? If they do force one on you, just lob it in a drawer and forget about it, Steve was obsessed with his for the first 3 days now he doesn't bother, just carries on using the same amount of electric as before...if not more lol

brenda google about them Which and Ofgen have some good advice about them saying you are under no obligation to have one. You can say no.
Back in Upwell I was told I would have to one in 2020. My reply what will they do arrest me ? I didn't vote for the Government in power and so couldn't give a t*ss what they want.
Meter reader today says the Government have ploughed 50 million pounds into getting them fitted am I bovvered no. I can think of a lot better things to spend 50 million pounds on like housing the homeless and building social housing. Again I didn't vote this lot in.
Apparently the new meters allow you to change supplier and the fires caused when the first round were installed were installed by Eon and British gas not my supplier so I told him to stop I have done my research and the answer is still no unless my supplier picks up the bill to move my meters outside.
They won't as the whole point of these smart meters is they automatically send your bill to your supplier and so putting people out of work and you can keep an eye on your usage, I can do that on the meters I already have if I feel so inclined to do so.
Chris might be worth getting one of the cool mats and giving it a try.

Haha that's exactly what I have done with mine


They keept pestering me with phone calls etc. I said as long as the actual meter stays the same then go ahead, well the new 'smart' meter is more or less the same 'tho it's harder to read (smaller numbers)


I was going to use it to keep a check on the 'cumulative' reading but would you believe you can't keep it on that figure, you have to go through several key strokes to get to 'cumulative' and then after about 5 minutes it defaults to something else so you have to go through all the key pressing malarky again the next time you want the 'cumulative' figure (which is all I'm interested in) So like Steve mine is in the garage in a box, I take it out from time to time to charge the battery but otherwise it's completely useless and if I want a 'cumulative' reading I just go to the meter outside and take a reading just like I used to do with the old meter.

Lol....I think that's how most people deal with them Harvey, as I say Steve was dead obsessed for the first few days but then he thought he actually wants to use his devices so stopped looking

I'm more worried now about windows 7. I am not tech savvy. I do what I know works but nothing complicated on my PC so bit concerned. Oh well back to watching my uncomplicated TV.

The remote display thing can give you all sorts of data e.g. it can tell you when you've gone over your 'average' use.


Now just picture the scene, Alena is cooking the Sunday lunch and this silly device displays a message "You are now exceeding your average electric use per day"


So I have to go to her and say "Darling we've used too much electricity today, I have to switch off the oven!!"


Well no way..........I don't have a death wish

Oh heck, I was hoping that had all quietened down, still you've got the CCTV and you can use it, soliciters will want to see it I hope.

Yes there was a lot of problems with the first generation smart meters. After a re-design the second generation were issued, they are safer but really not much use to anyone.


As you say you only have to go to the meter, take a reading, subtract the previous reading and multiply by your Kilowatt hour rate.............simple