Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Smart meters and solar pv

The fish can't swim anywhere.....

We had this discussion before I remember. How many houses to a substation? What if, as is ideal, they all have solar panels fitted? And more....my basic point that the "deemed" generation is totally theoretical isn't it? That's why the latest solar farms are geared and positioned for supplying a (for instance) single office block, e.g. the Bristol council offices and that the industry is moving away from the concept of solar power entering the grid. You say I'm misusing the term grid, but I say you are. Domestic solar panels don't bolster the grid in any other way than reducing demand whilst they are working. Which is excellent in itself but the concept of paying consumers for a theoretical input to the grid is nonsense. Even supplying the next door house is theoretical you must admit that.
Nick

We had a smart meter fitted and it was interesting to see the usage monitor for a few weeks but basically we use what we need and try to minimise wastage.

The meter display became boring and pointless and ended up in a drawer.

Then we switched from Eon to Robin Hood who immediately raised their prices and can't utilise the Eon smart meter wireless readings, so I am back to taking manual readings.

What a waste of money.

I didn't actually read "in the future" in the paragraph I was referring to. I read "in due course". However, not wanting to appear as nit picking, all I said was hold off moving to a smart meter as long as possible.

Exactly my plan. There has been an interesting article or two in the IET journal. There is one in the present edition which I haven't yet read...

Were you charged for your Smart meter installation? That sounds a bit dodgy to start with - unless you went for a special installation for some reason.

But yes, until all the suppliers get up to speed with handling the Smart data technology, which uses an entirely different data network and set of protocols, then switching to another supplier will always carry risk of ending up with a numpty that doesn't have decent systems.

A lot of the small entry-level suppliers rely on avoiding the higher costs of having larger numbers of customers, and run all their metering and billing on simple 'out-of-the-box' solutions such as supplied by Utilisoft.

As a result, they can offer cheaper headline rates. The downside is that they generally lack a deep understanding of the wholesale market, have poor hedging strategies, and are unable to withstand market price movements with the resilience of the more mature providers.

It might not seem like it, but when you sign an electricity supply contract, it's not really the electrons that come out of our wall sockets that you're paying for. You're effectively buying two additional things - an ability to calculate your true consumption and provide you with an accurate bill, and a wholesale cost management service to insulate you from swings in wholesale markets.

The Big Six suppliers spend a lot of time and money modelling future energy demand and supply capacity, and using that information to hedge their positions to be able to provide predictable prices for their customers. That's generally why they cost more but are able to offer longer fixed-price contracts. They are also generally better at handling complaints - but I suppose one could argue that this is because they are more used to receiving them

Other suppliers, like Ecotricity, don't try to compete on price. Instead they have simple variable tariffs which track the market and pump the extra money into more renewables generation and storage.

Still others, like GB Energy, try to build market share by offering rock-bottom prices and avoiding investment in hedging and capacity management. They go bust.

Tim,

interesting and informative...but I stand by my view that Smart Meters are primarily to benefit the utility supplier.

As others have said the display is amusing/interesting for a while, but like the "Smart Meter" I have on the SMA Inverter and the "Smart Power Monitor" (it has an inductive coupler on the main power feed to measure how much power I'm using) EON gave me about 6 years ago in the end they are just numbers.

In the same vein, in my view, is the "Hive" controller that British Gas are pushing, which allows one to control heating and stuff from a smart phone, it is not actually very helpful.
I researched the smart heating controllers and concluded that for a large, mostly brick and concrete, very well insulated 1980s house the most efficient way to heat it is to use the CH to maintain a steady state at about 18C. The CH is on from 0600 to 21:00 when it is on.
We then use local heating to raise temperature as needed: the AGA in the kitchen and log burner in the living room.....or we put on a pullover....

Peter,
Our Nest remote controlling application allows my wife who has MS to up or down the heat when she needs to without the trouble of having to go to the boiler itself. I'll admit this is a particular case, though.

Having just received my latest bill from British Gas I have to admit that my initial enthusiasm for smart meters is on the wane...



Short of building my own blast furnace I'm not sure how I could have used one and half grands worth of gas in less than 8 weeks... but apparently they forecast I would!

Bob, in our house the lag time between turning up the thermostat and any noticeable increase in room temperature is about 1 hour, likewise turning it down has a very slow heat reduction effect.

I'm curious: how old is your home and what is the internal construction? All the internal walls here are concrete block, so lots of mass. The walls are insulated and on the N and E aspects there is clay tile hanging over insulation felt as well.