UK's climate change dept abolished, but 'smart meters and all our policies strong as ever' The closure of the UK government's Department of Energy & Climate Change should result in a major rethink of the organisation's shambolic and costly £11bn Smart Meter programme, campaigners have urged. Last week DECC was merged with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to form the newly anointed Department of …
> Citation needed. As far as I know there is no such EU mandate.
I have no citation, but you are correct that there isn't a mandate as such. However, AIUI, the energy rating system is weighted such that hot-fill machines suffer a severe penalty such that while they may be using completely free hot water (think of those with solar thermal panels who don't use the boiler at all in weather like today) they get weighted a lot worse than those that use poor efficiency coal-fired* electricity.
* Yes, coal fired because until we have enough of everything else, we'll still be burning coal to make lecky. So it really is a comparison between "burn gas locally" and "burn coal, convert heat to steam (with losses), convert steam to motion (with losses), convert motion to lecky (with losses), transmit lecky (with losses),a nd finally convert lecky to heat (fairly efficient).
PS - in our house it's a combi (yeah, I hate it), and there's about 4 foot of pipe between boiler and washing machine take off - but it's cold fill only. There is an argument, valid for many houses, that with the reduced water consumption of modern machines, you'll seldom dray enough hot water to even flush the pipes.
Annex 1 of Directive 2004/22/EC defines the mandatory requirements of meters, and that does not appear to include smartness. The directive was created only to have all meters across the EU respect the same basic norms, so it went for a low common denominator.
I think at some point, even ElReg journalist will be amazed at how many things they dislike and blame on the EU will stay after Brexit.
I don't think it's an EU directive, it just is more technically unreliable to make a washing machine mix 50-60ºC water from a combi boiler with cold water to get a 30-40ºC wash, plus you run the risk of ending up with shrunken doll's clothes. Many hot fill washing machines never take hot water in for the colder washes anyway, they heat up cold water.
My current meter -- a key-operated Actaris -- was installed a few years ago to replace a card-operated Sangamo. The muppets from the electricity board hadn't been and read the Sangamo for so long, it had been seriously undercharging me.
I won't be able to top up the new smart meter at my local corner shop, either -- I will have to go to a Post Office for that.
Only problem is, Post Offices open after I have left for work, and close before I am home. There is one 35 minutes away from where I work, but I only get an hour for lunch -- and who knows how long before it gets closed down? Something's got to pay for the next round of tax cuts for the rich .....
The proposed "smart meters" are not really smart, just accurate.
A true smart meter would allow demand response / feedback from behind the meter to in front of the meter, and in theory this would allow users to be paid not to use electricity at peak times when the wholesale price is higher than the rate the consumer is paid.
Politicians saw 'Smart' and thought Ah Ha that must be good and will save energy! (because they aint!) Wrong - Smart meters save nothing - only wages as already noted. Its what people do with it (energy consumption info) that will save - if anything and if they can be bothered. Studies show that once novelty wears off saving efforts fall. Also swapping a perfectly good meter for another before EOL just creates (early) land-fill (think DTV switch off!)....and of course they either consumer energy themselves (E-meters - what energy & CO2 cost 27Mu x 1-3W??), or create toxic e-waste (wither 28 Mu LiThyCl batteries every 5-15yrs? (15? yeh right!) for gas & water). Don't get me wrong - I work in the industry - and I wish all well but to me its ill thought out, over hyped, ill-informed, lacks security and user (privacy) control, lacks interoperability and is another gravy train, where early lobbyists got in early to lock down system and reduce scope for new tech intro and innovation, allowing creation of a new set of incumbents and vested interests.
One other thought - for vulnerable households we have protection where if a bill isn't/cant be paid there are protections and ultimately a due process before a household can be cut of - with legal support, due process and police assistance for access.....now with a kill-switch.......just saying nice & convenient for the greedy energy co's! Also cant wait for law suites when 'wrong' kill switch hit and some poor old lady on home dialysis cops it (actually thinking about it can wait given gravity!) because next door (or someone in next town) should have been closed off (this *never* happens with Mobile services, BBand, Subscription TV etc. does it?!), "what do you mean it's in Warrington, Northants?- Isnt it in Warrington, Cheshire?!")......pass the popcorn!
Dan Lewis, senior advisor on infrastructure at the Institute of Directors, said costs of the programme are reported to be escalating further, while the consumer benefits are falling.
costs of the programme are reported to be escalating further
trans: the costs are beginning to get near what independent analysis predicted all along
while the consumer benefits are falling
trans: we still can't think of any benefits for the consumer
I have solar panels and an electric car. Being able to look up my exact usage during specific times of day would give me the chance to see if battery storage is viable, and it would also give me the chance to see if Economy7 would work for me. Generally speaking I don't think either would give a savings - but it would be nice to know. Sure I could go outside and record usage to do the Econ7 stuff, but the battery storage check just wouldn't be possible.
Moving to these meters could be great too IF they combine Pre-Payment, Regular, and Econ7 all into one unit. Some customers are stuck on Pre-Pay meters and the cost of getting it changed can be quite high - plus suppliers sometimes lock a PROPERTY into that type of meter due to previous tenants (something I think should be illegal!).
What I don't get is why this had to be some crazy new specific program. These things have a natural rate that they are replaced at, why did it need some special rollout scheme?. My gas meter has a regulator on it that was recalled due to leaking gas (on the supply side) but my supplier said they don't deal with problems like that - but they were willing to put me in a new smart meter (for gas)... They should have just given It some sort of phased in requirement. x% of replacements this this year must be smart, then just increase the requirements every year. Knowing what I have seen of the way these things work in the UK, there's probably a lot of money exchanging hands to keep the price of these units jacked up high while the gov is asking for them to be deployed, when the gov gives up the desire to have them then suppliers will sell them for the same price as the old kit.
Read this carefully ...
You do not need a smart meter to get that information. Really, it just doesn't need it, and all the outright lies (which is what most of the publicity stuff is) won't change that.
A clip-on meter will give you a good idea, though a better quality one will work all the time and take into account power factor.
Your inverter on the solar panels will tell you what it's generating - that's a standard function, but may not have been explained to you, or perhaps the f***tards stuck it somewhere stupid (like the attic) where you can't get at it - ask the installers to make it possible for you to read this information, it may need a remote display.
Besides, even if none of this covered it, none of what you ask for actually needs what the meters being talked about can do. Few are worried about the accurate and real time usage information - yes that's useful. The variable rate tariffs are perhaps a bit controversial given that they are intended to be price rationing - ie hike the price until the poor cut back on usage.
But, the smart metering is about huge data collection - knowing your consumption by the half hour for every day of every year can tell a lot about your habits, and would be "quite valuable" to certain types (think what advertisers could do with it, or criminals). Yes we're assured it will be secure - but we don't trust that (the law can be changed, and it's too juicy a target) and collecting it isn't needed as all that is needed is (say) monthly totals for each register* (ie how much you used at each rate).
* Register is the industry term for the "totaliser" bit - the numbers you can read. We've have multi-register metering (think economy seven) for many decades - but that didn't need the intrusive and security risk data slurping these smart meters have built in.
There is one actual benefit - though that is in itself also a downside. These meters can be remotely switched between pre-pay and credit modes. This means it's quicker and cheaper to switch someone from pre-pay to credit mode. The downside is that it's also quicker and easier to switch from credit mode to pre-pay - so find yourself struggling with the bills, hey presto you find you're suddenly part of the pre-pay crowd with all that entails. Of course we all believe the "strong safeguards" will be properly applied don't we ?
And on that last one, we all believe the "strong safeguards" will never fail to prevent an incorrect remote supply disconnection when someone clicks the wrong button on some system somewhere and "click" - that's your power off and it's now down to you to persuade them that they've made a mistake.
putting the 10b into refreshing the lines .. how much do we lose on a daily basis ?
i prepay .. it's easy i know what i spend every week and it never seems to change ..
£20 for leccy .. as thats what the house runs on cooking and everything 4pc's 4 tv's....
gas £20 a week summer or winter it's used for hot water and heating ..
would a smart meter save me anything no ..
but seeing as i am prepaying should i not get a discount ?rather than paying a little more .. ??
"Research by British Gas showed that smart meter customers have reduced their energy consumption by an average of about three per cent for both gas and electricity"
Pathetic! You would probably save 3% by getting a newer tv and replacing a couple of light bulbs.
Haven't they already proven these ththis to be insecure and an easy way into your home network?
In April, ERDF (the electricity distributor) changed my existing meter for a smart meter (after some nagging at me). My original meter was electronic and had an external "antenna" which was read by the passing meter man who placed a device over the antenna. After installation of the "LINKY" smart meter I received a message saying that a technician would call on a certain date "to read my meter". Since I had a LINKY I contacted them and explained that, despite the fact that I wouldn't be home it wasn't a problem since they could read it remotely. The reply was a hoot. Not only can they no longer read my meter from outside the house, there is no set date when "LINKY" will be linked so to speak. Meanwhile I am back to the last century of either trying to coincide with the meter reader or filling in paper slip that he leaves and posting it. Just how dumb can you get?
Smart meters are but one element of a nation wide system strategy which aims to smooth demand for renewable resources and to, in extremis, turn off supply when demand is high and output is low.
Until we have enough power generation to easily cover demand in a long, cold winter, this ain't going away.
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