No that’s not correct actually. The very small amount of electricity they use is taken from the unmetered supply, so you don’t pay for it.
Best
David
Who does pay for it?
Not the Power company
Therefore we do pay for it
The power company pays for it, obviously. It comes from the supply before the consumer’s meter.
Best
David
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The power company pays for the cost of the meter itself and any cost of running it. Those costs are, of course, passed on indirectly to the home or business user through the unit charge, just like any other infrastructure costs.
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Sorry David but the power company gets its money from us (the customers)
I think we are agreeing. HH expresses it most clearly in his post just above. Anyway I don’t understand why you think it’s an issue.
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David
The issue for me is that all the advertising says that smart meters will save you “lots of money”
The reality is that you end up paying for the meter plus the installation cost via your electricity bill. Also you then end up paying a very small amount to keep it running.
Where on earth do the savings arise??
It must be costing every energy user £100s plus to have then installed.
If you want to see whats using power just go and look at your existing meter.
The vast majority of people don’t (and never will) monitor their power usage.
Rant over.
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The latest Cost Benefit Analysis published by the Government explains it all. The cost of electricity to run the smart meter is truly de minimis. A bigger cost is probably maintaining the wireless connection back to the DCC, especially in the North region where the network isn’t used for anything else.The DCC is the centre where the data is processed and these costs will be much larger than the cost of electricity used by the meters!
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David
A major goal for smart meters is to enable the network to better understand our use so as to get power where it is needed when it is needed. This helps reduce the environmental impact.
I don’t obsess now because I have got used to turning things off (apart from my HiFi!). I also have triple glazing etc. So a home twice the size of average is run on below average power.
Phil
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They already know that.
If you don’t have a smart meter they only know the usage between meter readings.
Do you have a problem with that?
Phil
If I am at all interested, then I can just look at my existing meter. It tells me how many Kw I have used in any time period I choose. Its not exactly rocket science to convert that into £s
Or is this planet full of incompetent idiots???
Who wants to know any more??
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Ooops
I am an incompetent idiot
Well sort of.
The power companies know exactly how much power they are supplying every second.
Granted they don’t know how it is split up to each individual household, but do they really need that information… I very much doubt it.
If the National Grid gets close to not having enough power it might make a difference if parts of the grid are shut down. It might affect whether yet another power station is built just in case. Technology advances. Personally, it means I don’t get an estimated bill. Maybe in future electric can be priced to even out generation. With Electric Cars it might enable us to store power and sell it back. These are some of the ideas floating around.
Phi
My understanding of the main benefit of smart meters is that by converting gas/electricity usage into £s where users can see in real time what turning on and off some appliances cost, those users will be inclined to use less energy. A while ago this was called ‘nudge behaviour’.
I guess they also mean you don’t have to email meter readings to the supplier every so many weeks/months.
Neither benefit holds value for me so I shall continue to resist.
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With respect you are looking at the whole thing in a surprisingly superficial way. For example, it’s not about meter readings as such. It’s so that the energy companies can move to a smart tariff that charges more during peak period and less at other times. It’s so that consumers are incentivised to use electricity (in particular) when there is plenty of capacity and avoid using it when there isn’t.
There are lots of other things. People who pay in advance can have the same tariff as the rest of us who are on credit meters and they can top up by pushing a button on a display on the wall or a table instead of taking money to the corner shop, charging it on to a token and then reaching into the cupboard under the stairs to plug that into the meter. They can see from the display how much credit they have left and manage that until pay day for example.
Anyway you can read all this online if you are really interested.
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My thoughts absolutely
I will resist a smart meter till the end of Brexit i.e. for ever
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I thought the same - I know exactly how much we use, had already done the energy saving measures and knew that moving to a Smart Meter wouldn’t save us money. Predictably at renewal time this year, the best deals seemed to come with the need to fit a Smart Meter so having exhausted all the options to refuse (and doing a bit of due diligence before signing on the dotted line) i gave in and booked an appointment.
All went smoothly and it’s actually quite useful seeing what we are consuming on the display. I can finally, and in near real time, demonstrate to Mrs n that although the cooker hood halogens provide a nice ambience (!) the LED downlighters in the ceiling use less energy…
That’s a win in my book 
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Can you not convert the halogens in the hood to LED? It’s good to be able to see what you are cooking. If we ever get a smart meter we will refuse the display. It’s bleedin’ obvious that the more things you turn on the more it costs. The associated benefits that David highlights above are interesting - anything that makes the grid more efficient and reduces the use of fossil fuel has got to be a good thing, though goodness knows what the carbon footprint of making millions of new meters might be.
If you don’t want a smart meter, Utility Point are my cheapest option and have never mentioned one to me. I’ve just renewed with them as Uswitch couldn’t beat their offer - a rare case of customer loyalty being rewarded.