DARE gives the low down on SMART meters

DARE have successfully been providing independent and impartial advice on the SMART meter roll out in North Tawton and the surrounding area, through our SMART Energy GB funded project. We have been very warmly welcomed by a number of groups including the Bow Friendship group, North Tawton’s Tuesday Chat group, the Create and Craft group and those attending the Bow Christmas Market. We have also held a number of open surgeries in North Tawton.

Following these events, we have found a number of queries have become a running theme of our sessions. Therefore, we thought we would answer these questions through this article and make readers aware that they can contact us should they need any further information.

Do I have to have a SMART meter?SMART Meters are not mandatory. However all major energy suppliers have to offer you the chance to have a SMART meter by 2020. Eventually normal meters will no longer be manufactured - if you have a fault with your meter in the future it may have to be replaced with a SMART meter.

Do I pay for a SMART meter?No, you should not pay any fee for the SMART meter to be installed or for the home energy display unit, if someone asks for money to install a SMART meter it is a scam.

Why would I want a SMART meter?SMART meters are very useful if you find the manual reading of your meter difficult, or if you don’t like energy company representatives visiting your property to read the meter. They are designed to see an end to estimated billing, which can lead to a large number of over-payments.  The home energy display can help you identify high energy using appliances, or reveal the consumption of appliances being left on stand-by and gives you your consumption information in pounds and pence.

Can I change fuel supplier, I like to switch to get the best deal?Currently you can switch supplier, although the tariff information will disappear from the home energy display and you may have to take manual meter readings again for your new supplier. There are two generations of meters; SMETS1 & SMETS2. SMETS1 meters communicate with one supplier, SMETS2 have been introduced to overcome this issue and will communicate with a data control company which will then feed consumption information to your supplier, this means you will be able to switch and maintain all functionality. Only SMETS2 meters will be installed from July 2018 and a software change will happen to all SMETS1 meters to make them compliant before 2020.

Will a SMART meter work in every home?Unfortunately not all homes are suitable for a SMART meter, this is due to difficult access to the meter, a long distance from the meter to the home, certain wall construction types hamper the signal and areas of low mobile phone signal. The SMETS2 meters have been introduced to try and overcome some of these issues, namely poor phone signal, but it is important to make your supplier aware of any of these matters when they offer you a SMART meter, so they can check if your property will be suitable.

DARE is a not for profit social enterprise that offers independent and impartial advice on all renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency matters. We are completely independent and are not partnered with any commercial installers, energy supply companies or consultants.

If you would like further information please call us on 01837 52600 or visit us at the Front Office, Okehampton Library, 4 North Street, Okehampton, EX20 1AR.