[Tech1] SSE, OVO, OCTAPUS Smart Meters

[patheigham]

Some years ago, SSE offered me a smart electricity meter. There was a good Vodafone signal from the hall cupboard, so meter was installed.
I don’t use much power in a small flat, but enjoy looking at the display for ‘instant’ consumption. A small table top electric oven rockets the reading into Kw! But by switching off various appliances one can get an idea of each one’s consumption!
Electric heating is probably the most expensive – remember night storage heaters? One of the blocks of flats here does not have gas, so they are forced into electric. However, my heating is gas-fired boiler water radiators, and I get the benefit of heat percolating up from the flat below!
I had to have a new boiler five years ago, as the original Potterton which served well for nearly 40 years was bereft of spare parts.
A new Worcester/Bosch cost me £4500, but I got a new hot water cylinder, immersion heater, circulating pump, filter and timer control, as well as getting the engineers to bring the connections to the cupboard installed hot cylinder around to the front for easier access. The original builders had put all that at the back if the cupboard – very difficult to get to when a leak occurred!
Best
Pat

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Geoffrey Hawkes via Tech1
Sent: 12 January 2020 23:34
To: Hugh Sheppard via Tech1
Subject: Re: [Tech1] SSE, OVO, OCTAPUS Smart Meters

We opted for a smart meter about four or five years ago on the grounds that it would enable accurate billing and every household was supposed to have them sooner or later. I wasn’t planning to do close monitoring of our usage as we try to be careful anyway and didn’t want it to be a constant worry. We have a tumble dryer but it only gets used when necessary as we normally line-dry and the washing is nicer when it’s been out in the open air and we have a garden that affords that option. 
This was all very good till we switched from SSE to EoN for a better deal and the smart meter wasn’t compatible with their system. It does still give readings though which is useful as I keep a monthly log of our electricity, gas and water usage and it’s easier to read the gadget than looking at the meters themselves. I’m glad we have it for that reason and when they finally settle on a common system, we will get another smart meter,
Geoff

> On 11 Jan 2020, at 08:37, Hugh Sheppard via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
> 

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