The leccy man came to call

I thought they were a little portable machine you could put on the windowsill. Wrong obviously. What does it DO now you have got one and do you have to climb a ladder to read it?

The smart meter sends the reading direct to the electricity company so I don't have to climb ladders anymore. I also have a little monitor which sits on the worktop and I can see how much electricity I am using and how much it is costing me. (It's frightening when I put the kettle on!!).

Ah right. Instead of sending meter readers they were making you climb ladders!!
Kettles do use a lot - but not for long. A good reminder to only boil what you need.

The novelty of watching what you are using soon wears off! After all you are still going to boil that kettle, iron the clothes, use the machines so not a lot of point in keep checking what it is costing you. We switched our off ages ago, presumably it uses electricity!

We have a remote controlled display right by the kitchen door where we cannot miss it that tells us how much electricity we are using it. We have had it four or five years and I haven't looked at it for months.

I have always been a careful consumer of fuel. I have more interesting things to spend my money on and beyond noting how much electricity each appliance uses it has made no contribution whatever to reducing our consumption.

I accept that further down the line I may not look at the display as often as I do now but my main reason for the smart meter is to get more accurate readings. I am invariable out when the meter reader calls and as I can't actually see the reading - even on a ladder - I was getting estimated bills. The monitor is a bit of a novelty but it has become a challenge to keep the light on green! EDF didn't make any charge for the meter or installation - so for me its a win win situation

I was sent mine in the post and told to fit it to the cable going into the meter myself. It neither enlightened me about how much I was using, nor saved me any money. After two months, it stopped sending the readings to British Gas, so I still had to crawl on the floor to get monthly readings. I switched supplier a few months ago and it went in the bin!

Surely a qualified electrical engineer is required to fit a smart meter when? When mine was installed the engineer switched off the electricity and removed the old meter and then wired in the new smart meter.

I am finding it interesting to see how much power certain things use - the dishwasher so far is the worst, but as the cooker on my Rayburn has stopped working (don't ask ) I am having to use an electric mini oven and that surprised me by how little power it does use. I have yet to try the washing machine or tumble dryer.

For us the best thing is not having to read the meter and always getting a proper bill

I think When's thingy clipped over the cable without actually cutting into it. They work by sensing the flow through the insulation.

does that mean you will no longer get estimated bills ? I complain to my providers that I am elderly disabled but they expect me to allow a strange man into my home ( and anyone with a computer and printer can print a I.D. that looks about right) and they still send me an estimate, which I refused to pay until I get a proper bill, now I do D.D. and they end up owing me £100's

I have an Owl which tells me how much electricity I am using an hour. I go round turning off the power where I can. However, I pay less than £20 per month for electricity. It's the gas I need to save on.

I thought that power companies had to send a meter reader once a year. They can estimate the rest of the time, but there has to be an official reader at least once a year, or so I thought.

Sunseeker the British Gas SmartMeter just clips over any cable going into the meter and 'reads' energy use, which it transmits to the monitor which can be placed anywhere as long as it's plugged into a socket. Or rather, it did for a couple of months, then stopped telling British Gas what it was reading!

seaspirit that's right, I should no longer get estimated bills. EDF did arrange appointments for a meter reader to call once a year and then my next bill was adjusted up or down. Now I should get accurate bills - unless the connection breaks down!!!

I get an email from my fuel supplier saying that meter reading time has arrived and will I please read my meter and send them the meter reading. If the meter reader calls and I am not in he leaves a card asking me to send in1 my meter reading.

It means that I do not get any estimated bills, all bills are based on actual meter readings, either mine of the meter readers.

I might add that in the past whenever I got an estimated bill I always compared the meter reading with the estimated reading and if they were significantly out wrote the correct reading on the bill and sent it back for them to recalculate a new bill.

We are with EON and we had a Smart Meter fitted. It was hopeless and didn't do what it was intended to do.

The excuse was the meter couldn't be read as it was too far from the source. We had 3 different calls but not one of them had a clue had to fix the problem.

Having said that my father had one fitted and it worked very well.

Mind you we nicknamed him Victor Meldrew and and he would have a sharp intake of breath if it went into the red.