Adam Afriyie MP: Smart meters are NOT so smart Wouldn’t it be great if you knew how much your gas and electricity were costing you minute by minute by looking at a smartphone app, visiting a website or glancing at a wall display? You’d be in a much stronger position to reduce your energy bills and switch suppliers if you could. Thankfully, this data will soon be accessible …
Burglars will love these, using them to find when you are not at home.
Obviously when the security risk becomes too large its another £10 billion we have to pay to reverse the catastrophe.
Also, we are likely need another new power station just to run the damn things !
Seemed like a sound idea, as it meant that my supplier could take regular readings, instead of relying on their wildly inaccurate estimates (in spite of my supplying a reading every month). That's never happened (although, I did change suppliers about a month later).
Theres a nice little touch-screen box that came with the smart meters (looks like a monochrome sat-nav), which ought to save me going out to read the gas meter, or crawling around to read the electric. Except it doesn't have an option for actually reading the meter.
Total waste of time. It's actually made reading the meters harder as, rather than just look at the counters, I have to poke some unlabelled buttons and hope that the counter shows up.
The benefit of smart meters - combined with other kit like zoned smart heating - is that you should be able to access real-time pricing based on the supply and demand. There are already suppliers in the US offering this by combining (I think) Honeywell's Evohome system with smart meters, so users can heat their water when gas is cheapest - like Economy 7 but smarter.
Electricity - although costing about 3x/kWh than gas - is typically a few per cent of domestic costs compared to gas-powered heating and hot water, which account for 40 per cent or more of the bill.
Electricity - although costing about 3x/kWh than gas - is typically a few per cent of domestic costs compared to gas-powered heating and hot water, which account for 40 per cent or more of the bill.
But isn't that just because most homes don't use electricity for heating and hot water? It'd be interesting to know what the savings would be comparing on-demand electric heating v. gas central heating. I'm not interested in storage heaters because they are (in my opinion) just a bad idea. But perhaps it would be cheaper to have genuine electric wall heaters. There's surely scope for them to be more intelligent than a single thermostat for the entire house.
But..I believe that electricity for heating is inherently less efficient than gas because of the transport losses. The closer you burn the fuel to where you need it the less wasteful it tends to be.
"It's about real-time pricing, not just turning things off
The benefit of smart meters - combined with other kit like zoned smart heating - is that you should be able to access real-time pricing based on the supply and demand. "
Correct principle, incorrect logic.
It's not so much '...you should be able to access real-time pricing', more a case of your supplier will impose peak-damand charges. i.e exactly as they already do to most of their larger non-domestic customers whose entire winter monthly bill is dependent upon their peak ½-hour demand. Imagine it, you switch a light on in the garage to check something out, and the price you pay for all your electricity that month is increased!
Having worked in smart energy and been responsible for testing new technology as well as ensuring current technology - used in the INC market - still works, there is a myriad of issues.
Firstly, a make of current smart meter can be completely wiped by writing a 0 to a particular registers.
The CT ratio (in a single phase meter) can be changed to anything from 1000 - 1 to 1 - 1000 meaning a not so legal energy company could in theory set the recorded energy used on your meter to a slightly higher value. On the same make of meter a disconnect rely caused fires several years ago but no one really cared as it didn't affect the ability to settle the figures to the energy market, it only caused a fire which endangered people.
The work I carried out on a range of IHDs was also silly. All they currently inform you is how much energy you have used, something which is easy to do by writing down numbers and doing simple maths. They do not currently tell you that your lights have used 5KWh more than last month or that you fridge is running a little too much, maybe due to a faulty seal. The current idea of a smart meter in the home is flawed and needs looking at desperately.
I no longer work in smart energy due to the dragging heels of everyone involved and the up coming rollout of the DCC (Data Communications Company) and the entire program which is being run by the amazing Capita!
Its going to be a long second half of a decade
Since they have to be "unhackable"[1] then when people do get around to hacking them, it'll be free energy for me ;)
[1]Otherwise the energy companies would have to fight any accusation of meter tampering individually. I still have the 1986 letter from Barclays apologising for a fault in their ATM. It was very useful on a couple of occasions when they tried to claim "our ATMs never go wrong".
£200+ for the new meter per household. Which will tell us what? A realtime value of how much energy we're using?
Why not just give each house a dozen of those timed plug socket things, buy them in big enough bulk they'd be pittance.
"You know your TV / PC / consoles all use power even when they're switched off?" plug in a socket timer, set it to turn off the games console and TV monday - friday from midnight until 5pm. Congrats, you just saved more power than the £200+ smart meter would cost. You just have the annoyance of setting up the time and date on the console every time you play.
Personally I'd do the same with my oven / microwave, but neither work until the time has been set and that's just too much hassle.
Instead of getting the dirt cheap £3 timers they could get the slightly more expensive connected timers, about £10 each, a dozen of those £120, you can still get info for the smart meter from almost every socket, while still setting up timers etc.
Either way I already know what uses most power in my flat.
PC / monitor > Console / TV / freezer / fridge / oven. (I don't use the microwave so didn't count it) the smart meter will tell me nothing, nor will it change my habits.
Fortunately at present you can refuse to have a smart meter. Which is what I'll do since I don't want to have my energy supply messed about by a script kiddy in Kleptistan.
Unfortunately, whether one has one or not one will still have to pay a 'levy' to cover the costs of providing them to suckers who think Milliband is capable of having a good idea.
Politicians + IT = Chimps + brain surgery (probably unfair on chimps)
The manufacturers magnetic attachments that can go on the meters and capture the LED pulses that the meters give out every x units of energy. These attachments can also 'talk' to the meter to obtain information such as units used etc.
It would not take much to extend these to send this information to the 'internet' so that your smart phone can read it.
The manufacturers obviously will not like this as its cheap and they will not get lots of new meters, they will whine about security of the meters, though this simple comms is not using security.
Note that payg gas meters already have a clip on unit that does this and communicates with a smart card to limit gas and display information.
1. Anyone who is smart enough and concerned enough to make use of consumption and costing data is smart enough to use the data that is already available.
2. Anyone who thinks smart meters will lead to reduced energy costs or use is naïve to the point of stupidity.
3. The meters will be hacked within days of going live, putting them within the control of any bad-hat who wants to use them for their own ends.
I bought a Loop from Amazon for £30.
It has an induction loop that you connect to your supply and it connects to your wifi. You can log on their website and see your energy usage and all sorts of pretty stats.
The really clever bit is that it builds a profile and you can automagically compare energy suppliers via uSwitch.com and switch to the cheapest supplier.
It's paid for itself in 3 months. Never mind saving the world and being green, I want to give those greedy bastard energy companies as little as possible.
"It has an induction loop that you connect to your supply and it connects to your wifi. You can log on their website and see your energy usage and all sorts of pretty stats."
That's exactly the sort of thing I don't want. Why can't it just supply the data via WiFi direct to the app? Why would I want a 3rd party company other than my energy supplier having all that valuable data about me, including when I'm holiday?
The three biggest worries right now concerning these 'stupid meters' is the security of the data being uploaded to the electricity provider (in transit), what they will do with said data after collection, and the dreadful cut off clause that allows remote disconnections... whoever thought of that last one should be fired with immediate effect and have his future job prospects ruined permanently.
We got them in Toronto some time ago. The real use is so they could charge us more then double during peak period of the day so we will do our wash at night or the weekend. But once people switched to save money they started increasing the off peak rates faster then the peak rates so it's now less then double.
If you save money they just raise the rates to make up the loss.
"Why not allow tech companies and entrepreneurs to compete to find the best way to monitor electricity and gas usage? Better choice will help customers make the best decision for themselves. Government’s job is then to ensure that technologies and companies compete fairly to provide customers with the best service."
Competing smart metering? No. Seriously, NO!
If each supplier is left to come up with it's own "21st century" smart metering system, that will make it harder to switch suppliers.
If we MUST have smart metering of some form, then something which Goverment is supposed to good at is mandating a standard across the board so that we CAN switch suppliers easily.
I don't want to have to get new meter installed if changing suppliers. If they all choose to use some form of online or "app" monitoriing, then fine. But you just KNOW that the biggest incumbants will already be looking now at incompatible metering hardware which they will roll out to existing and "new" customers for "free". Can we all say lock-in?
I live in Vancouver, Canada and have to have a smart meter. I also worked for the company rolling them out across the province. The costs of implementing a roll out are high. The smart meters only have a shelf life of 10 years, analogue meters are 50 years. Smart meters are more accurate than analogue too. I'm no electrician but my understanding is that the initial surge when starting something like a washing machine is not fully registered by analog meters, but smart meters can detect it and it seems to increase bills by around 10%. Electricity rates have increased significantly here since the smart meter introduction in part because the rollout cost $1b. Funnily enough there seems to be quite a few links between the local MP's involved and the electricity and smart meter companies. There are quite a number of fires caused by smart meter installation too - although most houses here a wooden constructions.
I would point out that the author of this delightful article says there are new technologies that make smart meters obsolete but fails to give one single example, except for sticking a camera in your current meter! He does focus on the interface for the customer and rightly points out that this can be achieved using smart phone apps or websites. But you still need the data from the meter and the smart meter is designed to record and transmit this data to the supplier. I cannot see how a camera stuck on your meter in a dark cupboard is going to be able to record the data and send it to the supplier so they can bill you accurately.
Given he is a part of a government which has effectively confirmed the strategy of the previous government and forced the suppliers to spend hundreds of millions already on infrastructure to support the deployment of smart meters its a bit late to start re-considering the strategy and sounds like another sound bite from an MP who doesn't know much about technology.
The way the government is going about smart meter deployment is bonkers but the underlying reasons for smart meters are sound and in the long term will probably form the backbone for all manner of technologies that are developing for home automation.
Smart meters are no doubt a waste of cash...
... then again, so was getting rid of those coal mines in the 80s... and privatising our energy needs full stop.
Don't make us look too closely, mister Tory... we all know that nationalised utilities are what would benefit the public most, not more profit and target-driven crap.
Just hearing on the radio that during sunny days Germany has so much spare power due to solar panels that it disrupts their grid. So they're trying to solve this by selling it to Poland and France. Whose power market is being disrupted in turn. Major issue, apparently.
Smart metering with smart switches that can tempt high spot usage could help a lot.
...And the newer cars already relay how much they are consuming through a smartphone app.
So, naturally, you won't need a smart meter, because all of its functions will be embedded in every single appliance you buy from now on: cars, fridges, air conditioners, through (drumm roll) "the internet of things", which is meant to deploy, generate, read, or manage every kind of useful information about your devices, including energy usage.
It will be just easier to add all these aspects to devices you buy than just enforcing it down on people.
The EON smart meter installer turned up to fit my meter yesterday. He was here for about 7 minutes.
"There's no O2 mobile coverage here so the meter won't be able to transmit the data back to us."
"I could have told you that if you'd asked before coming out. So what's the alternative?"
"Umm.... there isn't one"
"You can't use another cell provider, or transmit the data cleverly down the distribution network?"
"Umm.....no."
"OK, bye. At least you've had a day out in the Cotswolds"
"Yeah, nice here innit?"
MiniPower had elected to install the wrong sort of metering devices and could no longer 'load balance' matters. This of course in 'real terms' as applied to others would not matter. The concern, if there would have been one in one respect, is that people might notice having their usage of power rescheduled at such a large scale. People 'expected' their, luke warm, Victory Coffee at certain times during the day, give or take. Of course the later arrival of left shoes in respect of ordering the right assuming either arrived in the first place was not of much concern. This time shoe delivery would be suspended for all. Even the TeleScreens stopped working. More importantly The Ministries, without power, ceased to function.
"Winston."
Winston turned to see a man he did not recognise. Short, large head with a Vapid Smile dressed in a manner that suggested someone from a higher party echelon.
"Yes?"
"We have a special job for you."
"Nothing seems to be working at the moment Sir."
"Yes, we know but you are highly recommended so we can work around that and get you up and running on this station."
The Vapid Smile handed over a large envelope.
"We need it in about an hour Winston. People need to know the truth here. I know we can trust you."
He paused and placed a box on Winstons desk then left.
Winston opened the envelope. A history of someone called Adam Afriyie. Someone who needed to become an unperson.
Winston looked at the box. It was wrapped in cellophane, black and proudly announced JSP 10 in Gold lettering.
Winston set to work under the failing emergency lighting. Within the prescibed hour he was finished and then the lights failed. He fell asleep and was woken again three hours later.
"Report Citizen!"
Startled but looking left and right all the other stations were in darkness. He spoke into the microphone to deliver his report of 'the truth'. Adam Afriyie, and others, became unpersons.
He looked at the JSP box.
"Want one?"
"Are they real Sir?"
"Yes, but you do not really want one... not after... Look, I've got a torch with some batteries in it. Let's get you out of the building so you can walk yourself home. Apparently there is smoglight outside.
After 1 year having had smart meters installed I switched suppliers. The new supplier was unable to receive the data so I had to return to supplying manual meter readings. Approx. 1 year later I switch back to the original supplier who fitted the original smart meters only to be informed
"It is not a straightforward procedure to resume Smart Meter functionality. It may be likely that a new Smart Meter may need to be fitted."
So despite already having smart meters I will now have to have new smart meters installed again.
So more expense which ultimately the consumer pays.
I agree with the article and with comments here that say that the current set of smart meters are only in the interests of suppliers. For example, we can expect predatory demand pricing and use of big data to rig the energy futures markets, business as usual, in fact.
One thing that is missing from this debate is raw real time data on the consumer side. It's our spend and it's our data. I put this comment into the 'consultation' where, I have no doubt, it was comprehensively ignored by Sir Humphrey and his ilk. Raw real time would enable an eco system of graphing, intelligent control and modelling to build up for the benefit of the consumer [yes, I know, see the little flying pigs] rather than a patronising smiley face LCD display and big data for the supplier.
I tried asking EOn for data logging on my gas meter [electricity is 'easy', just needs a clamp] and was comprehensively blanked. However, I've just asked a smaller supplier for a meter upgrade [from an old U6 type] and a logger and they're listening, at least. If/when I get somewhere, I'll publish the results. Meanwhile to see how the 'ecology' is building up it's worth taking a look at: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/ for example.
How exactly does it know which appliance is using what? Unless monitoring is done socket by socket, this sounds like an expensive solution looking for a problem.
Wouldn't it be much better just to offer a power usage audit for those that want it? Scoring appliances against an average.
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