The government watchdog called on ministers to set out how they plan to convince the public to take up a smart meter after a “troubled” rollout that began in 2011.
They could always ask these guys for advice?
The government has pushed back the date by which it hoped that all homes and businesses would have a smart meter three times since it first proposed a deadline of 2019.
Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who is chair of the committee, said: “Some 15 years later and four years after that missed target, and its vision of access and support for every household to control their energy efficiency remains a distant one.”Because it really means someone else controls it, Meg...
Late last year it emerged that firms had been remotely switching customers on to pay-as-you-go tariffs through their smart meters. Separately, energy firms have been temporarily banned from physically fitting prepayment meters under warrant.
Only temporarily? Until when, I wonder... Still, as Longrider points out, it's a good way to stick it to the government good and hard.
It's notable that neither link here mentions the widespread belief that smart meters have the possibility that the supplier might load-shed by cutting off your supply. The only reason I can think of not to include it as a reason the proles might be suspicious is that it is true.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the government is obsessively pushing the things on people tells you everything you need to know about how useful they are. Any bit of technology that is actually superior to whatever went before it displaces the old tech almost completely within a few years. A meter that worked exactly like the old one but reliably emailed your usage to your supplier every month might have had something going for it
ReplyDeleteMy neighbour has a solar panel connected up. One day I had him tapping on my window to see if he could scrounge some of my electricity. Evidently a number of the houses in my street had lost power.
ReplyDeleteMy meter is of course about 70 years old.
I feel 'old'!
ReplyDeleteThe whole "they might shut off your power" straw-man argument is just ... hilarious [Hint: if 'they' decide to cut off power, it wont be by individual houses but, by entire estates, towns or areas].
The 'idea' of smart-meters is actually a good, legitimate one (where 'you' only pay for what 'you personally' use - just like that other 'nightmare scenario' the "poll tax"). The problem, as always, is in the 'implementation' and (just like with the poll tax) the usual suspects are lining up to hyperventilate about its misuse , all while being the very ones demanding they be allowed to misuse it (to save the planet, and personally/ideologically profit). The rest? Are complaining about it because, just like the poll tax, they think they can get away with paying less (whilst everyone else pays more) for 'their' electricity.
In a sane world, such technology would be accepted, and used sensibly but ... if anything at all has become apparent in the last few years, we ... don't live in a remotely sane world now, and common sense (honour, honesty, trustworthiness, etc.) is all but extinct.
Did I say, I feel old?
@ Anonymous (Old)
ReplyDeleteHow exactly do you pay for electricity you don't use with the old meter? They weren't inaccurate and were related to your property.
The only possible reason is the lag between paying (via month debit) versus the billing which might mean the electricity companies owes you something.
Matt
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for your situation, but mine was based on an 'estimate' (only double checked once every couple of years, by meter reading - challenge it all you like, with a meter reading of your own but until they get an 'official' one they wont rebate or reduce 'ever'). Now I get charged accurately and, amazingly, my bill is less than half what it was.
Water meters don't exist here. I live alone in a small property, as does my elderly lady neighbour. She takes a daily bath, I a daily shower, but we both get to pay the exact same 'estimate' for a single-person dwelling. Is it fair that I get to subsidise 'her' massively larger use. Now repeat for gas and electricity (council services, health and education provision - where single, usually men, get to subsidise ... everybody else's lifestyles).
But ... as I said, a good idea that 'will' be used for "nefarious' purposes at some point (because that's the type of person we now, almost exclusively, have 'in power').
Mr. Old, if you trust the government and don't understand why the rest of us don't you are an utter fool.
ReplyDeleteStony
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest, rather than jumping to erroneous conclusions and ranting randomly, maybe, just maybe ... read 'what I actually wrote' instead of what you 'think' I did (assuming that task, I suspect is beyond you, even occurred). (I know, reading and comprehension are just 'so' hard, when you can just go straight to faux-moral outrage and feeling superior).
[Hint: rather than "trust the government" I suggested that your pitiful paranoia was ... understating what 'they' will do]
So, who is the "utter fool" here, not me.
"The only reason I can think of not to include it as a reason the proles might be suspicious is that it is true."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
"The fact that the government is obsessively pushing the things on people tells you everything you need to know about how useful they are."
Indeed! Like electric vehicles, if they were any good, they'd be selling like hot cakes.
"One day I had him tapping on my window to see if he could scrounge some of my electricity. "
Like a cup of sugar? 😁
"But ... as I said, a good idea that 'will' be used for "nefarious' purposes at some point (because that's the type of person we now, almost exclusively, have 'in power')."
And we show no sign of wising up and voting in someone better anytime soon...