Prior to the new smart meter installation, I submitted a reading. Airtricity then did an ACTUAL reading which was no different to what I had submitted as the house is unoccupied and the power had been turned off at the mains. Then ESB installed their meter. I assumed that the meter would be set either at the last submitted meter reading OR 'zero'. Airtricity did an actual reading on the 20/11 and based on a zero reading now want me to pay €300.
New ESB Meters being installed by KN Group.
- Thread starter Odea
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Prior to the new smart meter installation, I submitted a reading. Airtricity then did an ACTUAL reading which was no different to what I had submitted as the house is unoccupied and the power had been turned off at the mains. Then ESB installed their meter. I assumed that the meter would be set either at the last submitted meter reading OR 'zero'. Airtricity did an actual reading on the 20/11 and based on a zero reading now want me to pay €300.
We had a smart meter installed in September, only looking at the subsequent bills now and comparing them with the old meter (I have readings going back to 2015).
The first reading in October showed the highest daily usage of any reading I have on record - nearly 17kW/h per day, last year around the same time we were using 13kW/h a day. This was in October, so not the dead of winter and not during a lockdown. The reading I took today myself is even higher (almost 19kW/h a day vs 15 for the Xmas period last year).
I'm seriously sketchy about the accuracy of the new meter - it's seems to be reading about 25% higher than the old meter. What can I do about this?
The first reading in October showed the highest daily usage of any reading I have on record - nearly 17kW/h per day, last year around the same time we were using 13kW/h a day. This was in October, so not the dead of winter and not during a lockdown. The reading I took today myself is even higher (almost 19kW/h a day vs 15 for the Xmas period last year).
I'm seriously sketchy about the accuracy of the new meter - it's seems to be reading about 25% higher than the old meter. What can I do about this?
I installed one of these a few years ago and found it very accurate - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Efergy-Technologies-HUB-1-1-Monitor/dp/B00G5DZK8I. I think measuring yourself should give you the comfort you need?
I have something similar Airtricity gave me years ago, doesn't connect to the phone or anything but should be sufficient to cross check the meter readings. Just need to go and buy some D batteries for the clip sensor.
I compared the full Autumn/Winter period since the meter was installed with the same period last year, and it's actually a 35% increase in usage, which even allowing for people being at home more often, seems implausible, but we'll see.
It would be great if you could report back. There's a lot of FUD knocking around about smart meters and them 'reading high' is a common point these conspiracy theorists latch onto. The odd one will surely be faulty, tech is tech, but I'd bet you'll find your numbers are correct as will be the case for 99.9999% of people.
it's possible the old meter was reading low, I'll report back either way.
Just looked at my last Airtricity bill which included the swap over to the new meter
Old meter reading was showing we used 16.55 Kw per day
New meter reading 15.74 Kw per day
So for me it all seems to working as should but I wonder if people are seeing higher readings with the new meters could it possible be a fault with the old meter not recording their correct usage
Old meter reading was showing we used 16.55 Kw per day
New meter reading 15.74 Kw per day
So for me it all seems to working as should but I wonder if people are seeing higher readings with the new meters could it possible be a fault with the old meter not recording their correct usage
Slightly off-topic I am heading for probably 25% increase in usage (not bill amount) from March 20 to Feb 21.
right, I dug out my old Airtricity "Smart Energy Monitor" and after a bit of fun trying to get it to pair up with the sensor I started measuring my total usage versus what the new meter is reading.
The results are in, the meter is reading about 10% over what the smart monitor says I've used. From reading up on these monitors it seems that's within the margin of error, and the average for the last 20 days is 16 units a day which is not far off last year's average. So it's probably not worth pursuing. In other news, I've now turned into my dad in the 1980s, obsessively turning off lights around the house (even though they're all LEDs so it's making sod all difference to the bill). I've also realised how often my kids are boiling the kettle - it's a lot!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, my father was just the same in the seventies and early eighties
It was a mad time not just at home but when I used to go into the factory with him at the weekends there was stickers on all the light switches and the taps and the machinery telling people to turn the off after use, that's of course if we got to the factory most the time we had to turn back as somebody forgot to turn off the immersion, good times
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I know a man who installed solar panels on his roof but still had the old ESB meter from the 80s. He found that the solar panels were driving the meter backwards very good for him but obviously the ESB wanted to investigate why his electricity usage was actually going negative. That would explain why they are so keen to get so many "smart meters" installed. Yes they give you a very small discount for electricity you put back to grid but not the full wholesale price the old meters were giving
fidelcastro
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RTE news : New smart meter plans offer free weekend electricityI know a man who installed solar panels on his roof but still had the old ESB meter from the 80s. He found that the solar panels were driving the meter backwards very good for him but obviously the ESB wanted to investigate why his electricity usage was actually going negative. That would explain why they are so keen to get so many "smart meters" installed. Yes they give you a very small discount for electricity you put back to grid but not the full wholesale price the old meters were giving
New smart meter plans offer free weekend electricity
Bord Gáis Energy has launched new plans for the 250,000 households across the country that have smart meters installed.
One good reason for smart metering
fidelcastro
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Do tell me....I'll never guess.... wait.. ah I get it...its coming....... . working from home...and locked up 24/7 since Mar 14th last year,.... I never turned on heating, cooked lunch, baked, had copious cups of tea, binged on Netflix to wee hours, power housed every cm of path, had a hot shower twice a day after exercising...
Nah, the 70s spinning top beats the solid state circuit installed in 100s of millions of consumer units worldwide by von Siemens, elec engineers from 1840.
Could it be that the spinning top is inaccurately reading Low and the 1% accurate solid state, designed & researched by some of brightest and best brains in the world is accurate.
Never..
Help us Lord...
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how do we monitor energy consumption when the meter is in a box outside?
You will get access to an app to see it.
I cannot see how they save energy, the dryer, oven TV fridge use the same amount of electricity, and how do I know how much they're using when the meter is in a box outside
The smart meter doesn't save any energy, sure how could it, what it does is let you see your consumption live and potentially make changes to how you use electricity to save energy/money yourself.
I put in an energy monitor myself a few years ago as I was considering solar panels. In my experience seeing the dial in the app turn red and rocket from 0.2kW (€0.03/hour) to 5kW (€0.85/hour) certainly made me think before I stuck on the oven ages before I needed it, boiled full kettles unnecessarily, left the immersion on etc. I have little doubt most people would end up saving themselves a few quid through visibility of their consumption realtime.
The argument isn't that the meters themselves will save money, rather that access to more detailed information will encourage people to change behaviour.
Edit - SNAP! What he said