Re: Energy: SMART Meters

[QUOTE=Jazzi;523413]Like Meg, I can find ways of keeping my electricity usage down.

When you live alone you can find ways of keeping bills down. My bugbear is the BT phone line. Putting their prices up this December to pay for the Sports. Arrrghhh! There is absolutely no way to bring this cost down. I'm damned if I go to a new supplier as I cannot take out a new contract, not knowing where I'll be living in a year's time.[/QUOTE]




I agree Jazzi. BT also charge for 1571 now as well, and it used to be free.

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

The other morning on BBC they were on about Smart Meters again and the emphasis from the impartial BBC seems to be we should all immediately get Smart Meters.

Their correspondent also went into switching banks as well as insurance for your car and your home regularly too and Credit Cards, to "save money" but really, for me it's all a complete waste of time my doing that.

I am with two banks because it suits me to use one as my working account.

The main account at Nationwide gets all my money paid into it - over the £10000 mark and therefore just qualifies for a different account where I got interest for 12 months of 5% - infinitely better than my ISA!

The 12 months was up in January but I still get a small interest amount as I used to long ago.

Apparently, according to the BBC, I should be switching to another bank to avail myself of their offers, quite possibly on a par with those I have been receiving BUT my circumstances now and / or in the near future mean that my holding in my main account will drop like a stone very shortly as I have large amounts to pay out soon.

I actually calculated it all from one particular reference point and found that the difference to me until June of this year, when my major expense for 2015 becomes payable, is about £0.67!

To me it's simply not worth the hassle of changing banks, especially when I do not have any confidence whatsoever in the main High Street banks and I will not use a bank that doesn't have a branch that I can go into because I am deaf so contact is an issue.

Credit Cards is another area where I am constantly being bombarded to switch but I use one credit card most of the time, purely to buy petrol because I get a discount by using my ASDA Credit Card, which incidentally I pay-off in full every month so why would I need to switch to another provider?!

One last thing I thought rather odd was when one of the studio presenters asked what the benefits were to keep switching and the correspondent said the banks / energy companies / insurers could abuse our trust and loyalty but is that really the case or is the BBC the Government's propaganda "mouthpiece" now, regardless of whether it's left or right-leaning?

I say that because so many people insist that the BBC is a left-wing organisation.

I worked for the BBC for ten years and back then it wasn't but it's more complicated than that. stevmk2

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

Well thats odd Steve because when I was listening to the BBC the other day they were advising people to accept the offers of a smart meter with caution because they are tied to the installing company so if you change suppliers the meter may well be useless.

It was also stated that the meters will not save as much as it was originally suggested so it may not be financially viable to spend billions fitting them in every home.

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

That's exactly right Meg.

It's also clear from what you say that political direction within the BBC seems to be entirely dependent on the editing team or the producer / director, which is indeed odd within the BBC.

I caught the end of a piece-to-camera on Thursday morning on the BBC News channel by the way. stevmk2

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

They must have asked me about half a dozen times to let them install a smart meter here, they pestered me by phone, and letters. I refused every time. This was a year or 18 months ago, and at the time of writing, I haven't heard anymore recently. (Probably will now )

All their talk about it being better for us is rubbish. Why would they spend money on it if was better for US? It will be better for THEM in the end. For a start, they can sack all their meter readers and save on their wages!

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

Yup, Government has legislated that they are to be OPTIONAL. Doesn't seem to have got thru to the suppliers, probably because they're offered cash incentives to get them installed.

Germany has given up on them altogether, think France is about to as well.

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

Bumping this up - it seems there is a campaign of outright lying by the authorities who are supposed to be informing us re Smart Meters. Just to reiterate, Smart Meters are OPTIONAL not MANDATORY in the UK!!
+++++++
At 09:47 on March 7, 2015, the Communications Director for Smart Energy GB — the government body tasked with “ensuring customers understand smart meters” -- appeared on the BBC One Breakfast show and told viewers that every home in the UK would need to have a smart meter fitted by 2020 -- a colossal untruth.

The following transcript was recently obtained by Stop Smart Meters! UK directly from the BBC complaints desk and shows the exchange between Smart Energy GB's Claire Maugham and presenter Charlie Stayt:

[Time stamp 09:47, 7 March 2015]:

CHARLIE STAYT: How do you get one [a smart meter]?

CLAIRE MAUGHAM: They are being installed by energy suppliers and they are being installed at no extra cost to the consumer.

CHARLIE STAYT: So, you just call up your supplier and say “I’d like one” and they are obliged to give it to you?

CLAIRE MAUGHAM: You need to contact your supplier. Some of them have already started installing them and there are already one million of them out there, but they have to install them in 100% of homes by 2020. {emphasis added]

As we have repeatedly revealed throughout our campaign against the now "widely hated" smart meter roll-out, energy companies are commonly lying to customers in order to dupe them into thinking that smart meters are obligatory, when in fact smart meters are voluntary; a fact confirmed by the Government as well as by consumer group Which?.

Now we have evidence of where energy firms are getting their misleading ammunition -- from the government-created body tasked with "helping customers to understand smart meters". The body whose communications director, Claire Maugham, is prepared to go on national television and make the same provably false claims as the industry whose dirty work she is doing.

The need to expose the facts about the smart meter programme -- which the Institute of Directors recently blasted as being "unwanted by consumers, devoid of credibility and mind-blowingly expensive" -- is today more pressing than ever. Not only is the readiness to lie about smart meters endemic within the energy industry but now, seemingly, state-sanctioned.

Stop Smart Meters! UK is urgently calling for this programme to be terminated, for Claire Maugham to issue a public apology and for the BBC to issue a full retraction and correction to Maugham's misinformation.



Stop Smart Meters! UK is a grassroot campaign raising awareness about how 'smart’ meters affect our health, privacy, safety, security and utility bills.

Original link to this story: stopsmartmeters.org.uk/smart-energy-gb-c...n-bbc-one-breakfast/

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

My electricity bill has gone up since I have run 2 servers that is for sure! My main server has 4 processors, 2 power supplies, and about 10 high powered fans, along with 4 hard drives: my other server has 2 processors, 1 power supply, not as many fans but also 4 hard drives. Both are on 24 hours a day!

Woe is me ...

Mind you they are making me lots of dosh .

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

I run two NASs one with 4 drives ( x 3TB) and one with two (x2TB) they are on from 9am to 1am plus a UPS but can't say I have noticed a big increase in my power bill. They only have one fan each though

Re: Energy: SMART Meters

I have decided to say yes to a smart meter and see their faces when they try to fit it, I have lost count of number of letters and calls saying we should try one and me saying we can't we are in a flat. Well now let them try I decided so they are coming on Tuesday