Smart Meter? What can I do with it?

With no evidence to support this, I suspect the main beneficiaries of smart meters will be the electricity suppliers.

I read somewhere that you have to request 'granular' data collection. But its collected by the vendor via GSM. If or how the customer subsequently sees it is something I haven't discovered yet. But I'll make a cynical guess and say the first I'll see of it is on the bill, with a minimum of useful information.

Edit: I'm hoping someone who knows more/better will correct me, and that in fact I'll be able to do precisely what banie02 banie01 is contemplating.

My cynicism was further triggered by a recent EI bill. A price increase had taken place. I worked out that they had simply worked out how many days were before and after the changeover date and then did a pro-rata applying of the new and old rates. However, it was an estimated bill and woefully underestimated. So I went online and entered the accurate reading. Did they recalculate using the pro-rata method? Did they ****. They simply added on the extra units at the new rate.

Apologies to banie01, for suggesting there are two of you! Corrected my post.

Who are you with?

Neither Bord Gais nor SSE offered the data. What MC number is on the bill?

I'm with Electric Ireland - legacy customer. Smart meter was installed as part of the nationwide roll out so I transferred automatically to the equivalent flat rate tariff.

Meter Configuration Code is MCC12, so half hourly data reading.

You have the smart meter enabled, it isnt when you select a smart tariff that it enables the smart meter, you are now, electric ireland let smart users have a 24 hr tariff as well.

Other posters on this thread will have MC01 or MC02 on the bill, even with a smart meter, thats the 24 hr meter or day night. My meter stayed as MC01 for 20 months after i had my smart meter installed.

A couple of my bills when i had it as a normal meter had E on them, i dont know, i have good enough reception to be getting the 1/2 hour reads, and the smart services are working correctly.

Yes they are. (sse shows the data half hourly) xx:00 and xx:30

Rural customer, I hadn't seen a real meter reader in years probably - for ages I'd had estimated readings with the occasional user reading either phoned in or submitted online every now and again to keep it on track.

Enabling the smart meter a few weeks after installing was probably the default to eliminate the need for someone having to come around to read the meter a few times a year or rely on user submitted readings.

Either way I was automatically put on MCC12 and have access to granular usage data. It helped me identify a small leak between the well and house causing the pump to cycle excessively and increase my electricity bill until it was fixed.

Wasn't even mentioned. I had online access to the detailed usage information a week or two after it was installed.

Thanks FishOnABike. Starting to look like my initial post on this was hogwash. As I said above, I'm off to review the EI and regulator websites to see what is made known to consumers about use/benefits of the Smart Meter. Like Banie01, I'd like to do my own analysis of usage before making any rash decisions. I truly feel that a wrong decision could cost a lot of money.

Smart meters use 2g

Beauty of a smart meter is you can change suppliers in less than 2 minutes. No reading required.

If you want to monitor usage I think you have to agree to it and it starts from then.

On price plans you can choose smart meter plans in ADDITION to other plans. You'll probably soon have plans with 3 or 4 or even 5 prices depending on time of day with high prices 9am-5pm (office and factory times) a lower price until 8pm, lower again until midnight and then an overnight price, then a mid price from 6am to 9pm.

I have a smart meter... I also have had a simple €15 wireless energy monitor for the past 6 years that tells me all I need to know. Dressing up the data into fancy graphs that I can clutter my phone with, is not something that I need to do ... I am only interested in price per unit, usage and total cost - I get all that from basic knowledge and my €15 investment.

As a low level energy user, the smart tarrifs are of no benefit to me, as yet. The meter is more of an advantage to the supplier than it is to me. We will all end up paying more, for using less electricity... without or without a smart meter. If you don't have heavy usage devices that you can use through the night (safety and noise issues aside), then at the moment, you do not have much leeway for supposedly 'smart' cost savings.

When/If I can ever afford a new electric car, I reckon there may be some advantage to going on a smart/off peak rate to charge it,...... but until then, it does not give me any advantage over common sense and a frugal cost saving attitude.

Their ultimate use will be to reduce the impact of future inevitable price rises... not to provide cheaper electricity as we would like, but to reduce the unrelenting rip off somewhat. The consumer will have to work harder (cut back) to save money - with or without a smart meter. The meter gives the impression that you will have some control to protect yourself from price rises, in fact most people will have no control or advantage... unless they are already heavy users that don't know how to, or can't reduce their usage.

Have my smart meter now for over a year, So a few weeks ago i asked my provider what benefit I was getting. Apart from more accurate billing, I could change to some type of smart plan with different rates, and access total /daily usage online. I believe the providers now know your usage every 15 mins.

I asked will i be getting a Smart Monitor like in the Uk, but knew nothing about them. This was my impression as to the beneift of smart meters to me.

I Using your smart energy monitor - Meters - Help & Support - British Gas

I am sure they will, offer more... in their own good time and priority.

My point is though that they have stuffed up the implementation from a consumer confidence viewpoint, by introducing the meters with a great fanfare and promising all sorts of benefits... without many of them being available from the start. It does not inspire confidence in a 'we are all in this reduce the use approach together', when the benefits so far, are largely cost cutting operational measures for the suppliers. It is like trying to seek out the three secrets of Fatima to find out what the exact consumer benefits will be ... we are being drip fed hopes of better things to come. Was there an EU imposed deadline to get the meters in... regardless of what they might offer in the early stages? - at least that would be an explanation for the way the implementation is being handled.

So far... my smart meter tells me nothing more that my €15 energy monitor already does, and the current smart plans would work out more expensive for me, as an already light user. I still believe that rather than driving down overall cost, the main advantage of the smart meter will be to reduce the inevitable rip off, for those who are using enough energy to make a timeshift tarrif change, worthwhile.

It's like the waste disposal industry .... if we all do what we are supposed to and reduce waste constantly..... how is 'the industry' going to remain viable? .... the only option is to charge more, for using less. The energy supply companies have the advantage of using smoke and mirrors with smart meters to blur this fact.

Im finding the smart meter rates far higher than the normal day night rates.

Ger,

What electricity usage monitor are you using? I have a heat pump and day/night meter but would like to get some specific data on appliances, especially since working from home.

Thanks.

I agree 100%. Choice isn't always a good thing.

Better just getting an OWL monitor :)

If you want to measure individual appliances, smart plugs are great. Get 4 of them for about €20 these days.

You are comparing different things.

You are getting a currently heavily discounted tariff which will go up with the price rise but you are still getting the discount.

If you break the contract you will have to pay a fee, and you no longer get the new customer discount.

(100 euro is an awful way for energia to behave if someone wants to enable the meter, you'd think they could just transfer the remainder of your contract to the smart tariff for no fee and keep giving you the discount)

The energia smart tariff doesnt look good mind, i'ds end up about 13 euro worse off a year compared to the 24 hour tariff, and SSE's price rise also increased the day rate of the smart tariff by more than the 24hr one.

I think we should all write to Minister ryan and tell him if he wants everyone on smart meters he should tell the energy companies that anyone with a smart meter should be offered smart tariffs but should also be offered a match of any of the 24hr or day night tariffs they offer.

You are currently in contract.

So you are getting a discounted rate, the figure you quoted is with the discounted rate you have for your contract, i agree its good.

If you enable the smart meter you are breaking your current contract, the figures you then quote are without your discounted rate.

Its not a like for like comparison.

i got a smart meter installed last week - am i right in thinking that i should wait until i'm out of contract with Energia to move to a smart plan (with them or another provider?) - contract is up in September

@Ger Roe any recommendations/links for one of these gadgets that you would recommend?