WHO

[rolande]

lol. Yes it could have been....but it wasn't.... there's a certain hard to explain positive kind of oneupmanship when you're the only child in school with your own water and electricity!

It also proved to be a good grounding in resiliency when adult life threw difficulties my way.

But I still think YouTube is an improvement!

 

[enrico]

I do but I never talk to her!!!

 

[roche]

Most certainly not. And I hope to continue dodging a "smart" meter as well.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I swapped to octopus tracker in November. Having a smart meter is a condition of the tariff so I finally succumbed/bit the bullet. Prior to the swap I had an E7 tariff with day rates approx 34p/unit and night rates app 15p/unit. The protection of a sub 100p/unit cap is lost but the average November/December price worked out at 17.60 pence per unit. The next months average should be lower as the windy conditions and warmer weather has given some days well below that and Christmas eve a record low of 7.77 p/unit. The next days price is published about 11.00 am so it's easy to shift washing and baking timing to suit. Todays price 12.60 but tomorrow's is 13.76. Mrs J did the washing today. Unless things go completely awry I think it's not such a bad thing having a smart meter.

life is too short to spend the day working out when to put the washing on.
I'm with octopus, they offered me a similar scheme if I installed a smart meter - I declined

 

[Amari]

We got an Alexa 2-3 years ago as a novelty but whenever the grandchildren visited they made repeated requests for it to play fart noises - to which it obliged! We've not used it since.

 

[enrico]

Most certainly not. And I hope to continue dodging a "smart" meter as well.

The trouble with that is it stops you having loads of cheaper tariffs. My electricity averages 11p per kWh at the moment as I can make the most of smart tariffs. All electric with ashp and ev

 

[roche]

The trouble with that is it stops you having loads of cheaper tariffs. My electricity averages 11p per kWh at the moment as I can make the most of smart tariffs. All electric with ashp and ev

I hope to be off grid by then.

 

[pargyle]

I hope to be off grid by then.

With all the rain we've had lately I think a water wheel installed in the garden would do more for us to generate electricity rather than photovoltaic panels....

 

[pargyle]

Not mine. I remember the days when people had to get up out of their sofa to change TV channels

When we got our first TV there was only one channel so you could sit in front of it and strain your eyes watching the black and white grainy 12" screen without having to worry whether Aussie gold diggers was on channel 38 or 54....

 

[plain_hunt]

We’re meant to have smart meters, but they’ve stopped being smart, apparently they will be fixed sometime. In the meantime I still have to send I. Readings every month. I will not have an Alexa. And I don’t have a smart tv either.

 

[roche]

Strange, is it not, that most things labelled smart are oxymoronic...

 

[Buzby]

I have "smart" meters, one in the house and one in my workshop. Neither work. Alexa, yes, Smart TV yes, Smart phone yes, Smart watch yes, ultra smart wife pending (yes really).

 

[Murox]

The prefix ‘smart’ is intentionally used to obscure or muddle our perception of the true intent, isn’t it?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Strange, is it not, that most things labelled smart are oxymoronic...

same as Cleverley

 

[Pembroke]

I think the house has a smart meter but the monitoring box that sits in the kitchen doesn't work , can't get a signal from the meter, so whether the meter works properly or not who knows. No one seems to be able to make it work so will just have to wait for the bill.

As for other devices the only things I have are light bulbs, and plugs and the only smart thing about them is they have timers to turn on and off controlled by a computer.

No smart TV, well no TV at all actually, no Alex or any of it's ilk as the only ones I've seen in action do as was said above and are unable to answer simple questions. I also won't have these virtual 'assistants' on my computer or phone.

Bah, humbug, Aren't we all a bunch of luddites

 

[Erichalfbee]

ultra smart wife pending (yes really).

Is she smart enough to not marry a beekeeper?

 

[JohnRB]

I swapped to octopus tracker in November. Having a smart meter is a condition of the tariff so I finally succumbed/bit the bullet. Prior to the swap I had an E7 tariff with day rates approx 34p/unit and night rates app 15p/unit. The protection of a sub 100p/unit cap is lost but the average November/December price worked out at 17.60 pence per unit. The next months average should be lower as the windy conditions and warmer weather has given some days well below that and Christmas eve a record low of 7.77 p/unit. The next days price is published about 11.00 am so it's easy to shift washing and baking timing to suit. Todays price 12.60 but tomorrow's is 13.76. Mrs J did the washing today. Unless things go completely awry I think it's not such a bad thing having a smart meter.

Agree - I had a smart meter added to give me access to Octopus go for electric and Octopus Gas Tracker. With a house battery I haven't paid more than 9.5p/unit electricity since and my gas has been incredibly cheap by comparison to variable tarriff. Charging the car off peak is around 2p mile and free when the sun shines, compared to my diesel bee van which is about 15p mile . Battery payback is around 6 years, but that's another story.

 

[madasafish]

We have a Mark 1 Smart Meter which stopped working when we changed supplier. (And yes we are paying for such incompetence).
Three attempts to get it installed and working mean we don't want a rerun.
We get occasional blackouts : we do not want to rely on electricity over much. Yes we have a small standby generator.

 

[Garry R]

We had a smart meter installed which when done the installer said - "yup I thought so it doesn't work in this house" and promptly left without leaving the little meter in the house. It obviously works for the supplier - sometimes - as we get a mix of actual readings and estimated but no clue as to our day by day useage!! We are electricity only through British Gas. The house was built in about 1830 with no concept or forward planning about wireless signals getting through 18" rubble stone built walls. Planners - huh!!!!

 

[JamezF]

The house was built in about 1830 with no concept or forward planning about wireless signals getting through 18" rubble stone built walls. Planners - huh!!!!

Our electricity meter is similarly sited, with the added bonus of being in a cellar. Our water meter is even more fun -- it's buried in the cricket ground next door.

James