Many moons ago our utilities company was one of the first to fit Smart Gas and Electric meters. It was wonderful, and sobering, to be able to watch the consumption and cost of individual devices and made us very aware of cost saving - like, for instance, only boiling enough water for purpose so a cupful at a time if you're just making one cup of coffee and taking showers of shorter duration whilst turning off the water while you soap and then back on again to rinse off. We didn't think we were wasteful before but having the "live" consumption meter definitely helped us make savings.
Then all the rubbish with switching to get a better deal kicked in and as soon as we switched the smart meters went dumb so we had to do manual readings and email them (we've probably had at least four providers non of whom could remotely connect to our meters). What I hadn't realized until very recently is that the gas meter is battery powered (if I'd bothered to look it would have been obvious due to no wire going to it) and probably a good thing too from the safety aspect. So, a few weeks ago, the meter started behaving erratically and not always giving a reading when I pushed the button. I rang our present supplier (to whom we were recently moved due to our supplier going out of business) and they informed us that almost certainly this battery had expired. Rather surprisingly, the batteries cannot be replaced so a whole new meter is required! Anyway, the very pleasant meter fitter - who was subcontracted to our supplier - has just fitted us with new gas and electric meters. The gas meter again is battery powered and again can not have it's battery replaced when it runs out! I had a wee discussion with him about the waste in doing this but he said that probably by the time the battery runs out, if not before, we will need to change it anyway because the communication protocol (G3/G4 just now I believe?) will have moved on by then and this new meter won't work with the new one (maybe G5?) I had read about this a couple of weeks ago so wasn't surprised to hear this but what a waste? My old meter was working just fine it was just that the communications side of it had failed.
And, to cap it all off, having fitted the new meters, he started clearing his tools away into his van and turned to say goodbye. But hold on, don't we get a usage display so we can see what we are consuming? Oh, sorry, said he. We're out of stock of those just now. We're hoping to get more soon and when we do someone will come out and sync it to your meters. If you haven't got one within about a month then Email your supplier and ask about it. I've informed them that I haven't supplied one with this installation. So what's the problem I asked (we were looking forward to concentrating on making further savings in advance of the humongous bills which are shortly going to be coming) I believe it's to do with the shortage of chips/brexit and container availability he said.
So there we are, quite pleased with our new Mini Meters - the gas one in particular is much smaller and looks "lost" in the old cabinet - but disappointed we don't have a new monitor to "frighten" us.
Then all the rubbish with switching to get a better deal kicked in and as soon as we switched the smart meters went dumb so we had to do manual readings and email them (we've probably had at least four providers non of whom could remotely connect to our meters). What I hadn't realized until very recently is that the gas meter is battery powered (if I'd bothered to look it would have been obvious due to no wire going to it) and probably a good thing too from the safety aspect. So, a few weeks ago, the meter started behaving erratically and not always giving a reading when I pushed the button. I rang our present supplier (to whom we were recently moved due to our supplier going out of business) and they informed us that almost certainly this battery had expired. Rather surprisingly, the batteries cannot be replaced so a whole new meter is required! Anyway, the very pleasant meter fitter - who was subcontracted to our supplier - has just fitted us with new gas and electric meters. The gas meter again is battery powered and again can not have it's battery replaced when it runs out! I had a wee discussion with him about the waste in doing this but he said that probably by the time the battery runs out, if not before, we will need to change it anyway because the communication protocol (G3/G4 just now I believe?) will have moved on by then and this new meter won't work with the new one (maybe G5?) I had read about this a couple of weeks ago so wasn't surprised to hear this but what a waste? My old meter was working just fine it was just that the communications side of it had failed.
And, to cap it all off, having fitted the new meters, he started clearing his tools away into his van and turned to say goodbye. But hold on, don't we get a usage display so we can see what we are consuming? Oh, sorry, said he. We're out of stock of those just now. We're hoping to get more soon and when we do someone will come out and sync it to your meters. If you haven't got one within about a month then Email your supplier and ask about it. I've informed them that I haven't supplied one with this installation. So what's the problem I asked (we were looking forward to concentrating on making further savings in advance of the humongous bills which are shortly going to be coming) I believe it's to do with the shortage of chips/brexit and container availability he said.
So there we are, quite pleased with our new Mini Meters - the gas one in particular is much smaller and looks "lost" in the old cabinet - but disappointed we don't have a new monitor to "frighten" us.