Testing an Electricity Meter

[Farside]

It's much easier to keep track of what you use and when with a smart meter, as most track usage every half hour and you can normally access the data via the suppliers website or app. For some this can help with budgeting.

For example this is from my suppliers (Octopus energy) website for yesterdays usage.

View attachment 472017

You'll have a better choice of tariffs with a smart meter as well.
I know i'm in the minority on here when I say I prefer having a smart meter

I'm quite glad I got one in, now.
Wasn't too sure about them at first, as the big downside is the possibility of remote cut-off or load-shedding.
I find it very useful for off-peak power, as I wasn't getting that before, at all.

Also, included in the box was a roll of Bacofoil, hats, for the making of.

 

[bricol]

I reckon all the saving I'll make by doing my cutting, grinding and welding in the middle of the night will be offset by having to have to all the lights on . .

 

[gaz1]

As far as I can see the legislation is UK wide for electricity at any rate. This is the regulation ..

The Meters (Certification) Regulations 1998

These Regulations set out the procedure for enabling meters, other than meters deemed to be certified under the measuring Instruments (EC Requirements) (Electrical Energy Meters) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/2607), used for the purpose of measuring the quantity of electricity supplied to...

www.legislation.gov.uk

Schedule 4 gives the certification periods for approved meters

as weve already seen even on this forum theres plenty of meters that havent been changed never mind that loverly cast iron box below the meter

welderpaul had one

im based on that type of mains input to meter whilst the meter is still running perfectly well there no need for me to change to a new meter

 

[MattF]

Conversely, there's no valid reason not to change over to a smart meter.

It merely boils down to personal choice, unless the meter must be changed, for some reason.

 

[Robotstar5]

Conversely, there's no valid reason not to change over to a smart meter.

It merely boils down to personal choice, unless the meter must be changed, for some reason.

I don't have an issue with smart meters, just the folks installing them, the sparkies groups I'm in regularly post pics of smart meter installs they've been called out to.

Examples.....

 

[ukracer]

Smart meter households face £1,172 energy bill due to one-hour rule

The church estimates it has been overcharged by £3,000 in the past year alone.

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[brightspark]

I don't have an issue with smart meters, just the folks installing them, the sparkies groups I'm in regularly post pics of smart meter installs they've been called out to.

Examples.....

View attachment 472416

View attachment 472417

seen it happen a few times after recent meter change

 

[aesmith]

Supposedly someone's coming to fix ours on Monday. It stopped responding early October. A pain in the backside because to make the most of varying prices I need to submit a reading almost every day.

 

[Farside]

Smart meter households face £1,172 energy bill due to one-hour rule

The church estimates it has been overcharged by £3,000 in the past year alone.

www.birminghammail.co.uk

I wonder if there's an extension cable buried out to the car park....

 

[daleyd]

 

[aesmith]

Smart meter households face £1,172 energy bill due to one-hour rule

The church estimates it has been overcharged by £3,000 in the past year alone.

www.birminghammail.co.uk

That journalist has some have weird ideas about how electricity meters work in the first place, what with this "one hour rule" that he seems to have dreamed up. Not a clue about how suppliers get readings from smart meters either.

 

[redlig]

That journalist has some have weird ideas about how electricity meters work in the first place, what with this "one hour rule" that he seems to have dreamed up. Not a clue about how suppliers get readings from smart meters either.

Repeat after me . Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

 

[jmp49]

I have a smart meter (a linky which transmits data back to edf via powerline networking so no data through the airwaves) just because it was forced on me with a new supply feed as my house was a cowshed when I bought it, It gives data a hour delayed in the account online which isnt much use really apart from a general looksee.
But directly after the linky I have my own Shelly pro3-em 3 phase smart meter with clamp ammeters on the tails from the meter down to my main consumer unit. I get the realtime amperage and stats from this and log it, and they never leave my property as all the cloud crap is disabled and its blocked by a firewall rule from leaving the network.
I use these realtime stats to measure when I get more energy out my solar panels than I'm using, to trigger off a automation to turn more load on progressively to soak it up (little heaters, water heater, charge the car etc) because EDF don't give me anything for excess energy returned the grid and I dont have a battery setup. Conversely if I'm having to pay for electricity, I dont really want the water heater etc running, so it sheds the load the opposite way too.

Its also incredibly handy when Im out in the workshop to see how much power we are consuming on which phase that I can see on my phone, both phase loading and balance, and I can do useful things like turn off the water heater when I fire up the plasma cutter and compressor at the same time to avoid triggering the overcurrent protection on the meter and throwing the linky's breaker. snippet of the output, its miserable and overcast and its the middle of winter so the solar is pants but I can see which array is performing best too, because they point in different ways which helps for expansion planning




So smart meters can be handy, local smart meters with privacy are even handier though.