Smart meter figures: Nearly four million not working properly
Smart meter figures: Nearly four million not working properly
Customers report being hit by hefty bills caused by smart meters not working properly.
Working in IT gives you a deep mistrust of any "smart" device.
The UK government set a target for numbers of smart meters to be installed. It didn’t say that they needed to be working as smart meters. Nobody should be surprised by this.
This is why I'm happy sticking with the meters my house was built with (which are "only" 23 years old)
They keep emailing me to say mine has reached its end of life and needs to be replaced - and yet funnily enough it still works while all these smart meters don't
Mine is no longer sending out readings but I should count myself lucky it's not worse. Occasionally it flashes up readings showing 5-6 times the actual usage but it disappears when I toggle through the options, which does make me nervous.
Are you talking about the meter (the box where the power comes into the house), or the wireless display?
The meter only counts units of electricity. It doesn't tot-up the price of them. The display calculates a price, but it's only meant to be a guide for you. The real price is all calculated by the supplier when they generate your bill. So if you're seeing weird prices on the display, don't worry. Only the kWh numbers matter.
That is a bit worrying for sure!
Touch wood mine has been OK!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Between January and June 2023 her energy bill went up to over £3,500, leaving her "terrified" to use electricity.Her son said the problems began when she was changed to a smart meter on a single tariff, in 2022.
I don’t sleep at night really because my body, it can’t let go.”Mrs Butler said she recently received £2,900 back from Utility Warehouse - which did not cover what she was owed.
"We acknowledge that the customer service Mrs Butler received fell below our usual high standards and we’re sorry for the inconvenience and distress this has caused," they said.
Dianne Green, 75, from East Sussex, has been having issues with her smart meter since she was taken on by British Gas in April 2022, when her previous company went bust.
She said her online account showed she was using roughly £60 per month, but British Gas wanted to put her direct debit up to £169 per month.Mrs Green said her physical disabilities meant she couldn’t reach the electricity meter to get manual readings.
The Desnez says the "vast majority" of smart meters are working correctly, but "reporting errors by a minority of suppliers have uncovered more meters not operating in smart mode than previously thought”.Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, has written to Ofgem, urging "action to ensure suppliers are held to account if they are not supporting customers with issues as they should be”.
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And mine!