Are there any disadvantages to getting a smart meter?

Very useful @Jess_OVO 

It may be worth adding a section on whether a supplier can disconnect a supply remotely for any reason if they have a smart meter rather than an analogue meter as I know this often crops up on social media.

That’s a very good point actually!

The short answer is yes and no.

The long answer is more complicated though. While it is technically possible to remotely connect, disconnect and reconnect supplies and SMETS Commands for doing this definitely exist, pretty much all suppliers have opted not to use them. I suspect most suppliers also disable the ability for such commands to be sent as an additional safeguard. Even if you’re in some really serious debt, your supplier won’t just flip the switch without your knowledge.

I have heard that some other countries do remote disconnections if a property is going to be empty for a while (such as if the current householder moves out and no-one else is moving in), and doing a remote reconnect once someone new moves in. But this doesn’t happen in the UK - over here the power stays on anyway and either the landlord or estate agent will usually pick up the bill in the meantime.

The reason for this is really more about safety than anything else. Suppliers can’t know for sure that someone is or isn’t reliant on the supply for things like critical medical equipment that must never be switched off under any circumstances. Doing a remote disconnection in these cases would potentially cause some pretty serious problems that are not worth thinking about. Likewise, a remote reconnect is really dangerous because the supplier can’t tell if someone has left the gas cooker on or has an iron face down against an ironing board for example. Both of which are seriously nasty safety risks at the best of times.

Prepayment Meters (and Smart Meters in Prepayment Mode) are not an exception to this rule either. If these meters disconnect your supply due to your credit balance running out, this is a locally triggered disconnection rather than a remote one. The only real difference here is that a Smart Meter in Prepayment Mode can send Alerts - Critical Alert Code 0x8F0F Credit Below Disablement Threshold (prepayment mode) with Alert WAN and Non-Critical Alert Code 0x8F83 Disablement of Supply (suspended due to insufficient credit) with Alert WAN and Alert HAN for SMETS2 if memory serves - but even that is just to let the supplier and customer know.

This, from https://www.smartme.co.uk/good-or-bad.html,

has always struck me as very strange (and worrying) wording …

“… most suppliers seem to have decided ...”

Why oh why (as they say) has it been left up to suppliers to decide what’s too dangerous?

Will a supplier one day decide that actually, it would suit their business plan to be able to cut off the supply of customers who are a bit tardy in paying their bills?

It’s not as if the electricity and gas supply industry isn’t already very heavily regulated, including things smart meter-related. For myself, I’d much rather this detail was regulated too.

Well… There’s also another deterrent against any suppliers deciding to suddenly start doing remote disconnections. The reputational damage and impact to the brand as a whole could potentially be so severe that (theoretically) the entire customer base decides to jump ship and leave the supplier empty handed.

Given that making a profit is a very high priority and goal for just about any business, a move like that which could bankrupt a supplier is definitely a very poor business decision.

In theory, a future SMETS3 spec (if it does become a thing) could deprecate and/or remove support for remote connections and disconnections completely and I think this stuff is also regulated in a similar way to existing measures. But yeah… Some very good points in both directions

A really interesting point to raise this one, @nealmurphy.

Whilst it’s true that suppliers can remotely switch off the supply to a smart meter this would only be under very certain circumstances.

I agree, that is quite a weight on our shoulders, @Simon1D! - I have checked this one with some smart meter experts who have explained that our internal processes surrounding disconnections (including who has access to the systems that would enable these) are externally audited on a regular basis across the industry.

I happened across this news item from last year, which includes a quote from BEIS that is reassuring

"cannot" is what reassures me, assuming the spokesperson knew what they were talking about...

1. The government wants everyone to have Smart Meters, ask yourself a question “When did the government last have a good idea” Was it HS2 which started off costing £37.5 Billion now estimated at £120 Billion.
2. What happens when your smart meter goes wrong, my friends went wrong he had a service plan with British Gas, they wouldn’t touch it, he was 5 days over Christmas without heat or hot water.
3. How much power does a smart meter consume, nobody will tell me.
4. Having a smart meter means another person / company can switch your power OFF remotely.

Hi @Geoff Dickson ,

It looks like you’ve picked up a few myths there. Please allow me to bust some of those. Just so you know, I’m a forum volunteer and I don’t work for OVO. Everything I write is in a personal capacity and it shouldn’t be considered as OVO’s official position.

1. For this one, the government isn’t covering most of the costs directly per se. It’s mostly being funded by suppliers who recover the costs as part of providing the supply. It is genuinely useful to have a Smart Meter, but you’re not forced to have one if you really don’t want one and you can opt-out right up until they’re installed. It’s only after the meters are installed that you’re effectively committed to it
2. Faults like this aren’t very common, but admittedly some meter brands are more prone to it - especially the Landis+Gyr ones used by British Gas for example. OVO uses Aclara for electric and Flonidan for gas however with SMETS2 meters (and previously Secure for SMETS1), which are generally a lot more reliable. Even if there’s a fault, there’s ways to get things going again - but you need to ask your energy supplier for help, not whoever you have maintenance or insurance products/cover with
3. Not much. Smart Gas Meters are battery powered and the batteries are usually designed to last around 10-15 years minimum in order to last the entire service life of the meter. Smart Electric Meters use literally just a few pence worth of electricity per day at most because their own consumption is tiny - however the electricity they use is taken before the point of measurement and is therefore disregarded from your bills (it’s considered a Distribution Loss). This has also always been the case with traditional electric meters as well so you won’t see any difference because of it. You do technically “pay” for the electricity that any electric meter at your property uses - but it’s part of the daily Standing Charges instead of your Usage Charges. According to this document on the SmartMe website, you’re talking roughly 2-3% of all 400 MWh per annum Technical Losses being attributed to meter consumption for every electric meter in the country combined, smart or otherwise.
4. That is true in that the capability is there, but pretty much every supplier in the UK has agreed not to use it for safety reasons. In actual fact, the ability to issue the SMETS Commands that initiate a remote connection/disconnection are often very heavily restricted so that they can’t just be issued by mistake. It’s worth noting that even without a Smart Meter, energy suppliers have always been able to disconnect you by getting a court warrant to break entry and remove your meters anyway - which is again only used as a last resort option and is extremely rare. So the remote disconnection thing is a bit of a moot point to be honest. If your supplier really wants to disconnect you, they’ve always had other options. In actual fact, suppliers are now held even more accountable than ever too - and if one did remotely disconnect supplies, there’d be records so that the supplier can’t hide it.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know if there’s anything else you’re unsure about.

Hi @Geoff Dickson and Welcome to the OVO online community,

Can see our community volunteer, @Blastoise186 has already given some great info in response to your smart meter concerns. If you were looking for more info we’d recommend checking out the advice above or this related topic:

It’s also worth mentioning that while we’re big fans of smart meters here and would always encourage you to get one installed, that decision is entirely up to you.

Hope this information helps. 

Getting a smart metre could have certain drawbacks, but they are not significant. The metre may need to be installed by an expert, which is costly, and there may be problems with how it is used. It is still much simpler to operate than a conventional metre, though.

The meter will need to be installed by an expert, but it will mean :-

1. It can be shut off remotely, which could be your supplier, or it could be China where most meters are made, do not know which ones Ovo install.
2. It can be converted to a pre-paid meter without your approval, should you fall behind on your bill.
3. It’s something else to go wrong, which cannot be repaired easily, my friends smart meter shut his gas off on the 23rd December, so had no hot water or heating until a week later over Christmas.
4. They are a government idea, When was the last time the government had a good idea, was it HS2, going Green for 2030?, or going broke which it looks like it is not far away, and I voted for them.
5. How much power do they consume, it is probably a small amount, but when you only have a small amount, every little helps as Tesco are fond of saying.
6. I will probably now get an email from Ovo telling me how wonderful they are, what happens when you live in a rural area with no mobile signal.

While the technical functionality exists, it’s basically disabled at most suppliers, or at very least HEAVILY locked down by so many layers of red tape that it’s almost impossible to trigger. Only suppliers have the power to trigger a remote disconnection (if at all). No-one else can do that and this is by design - not even DCC can do it! OVO’s meters are also made in Barcelona (for the Aclara meters) or Denmark (for the Flonidan meters). Aclara and Flonidan have previously confirmed they do not use Chinese factories to build their meters

Again, there’s STRICT processes about this and Ofgem is watching like a hawk. It cannot just be used randomly - ALL other steps prior to this must be used first and it’s the same requirements as for getting a warrant to force entry to swap the meter out. It cannot just happen

This does not happen with Credit Mode - any faults and the meter keeps the supply active if possible. It’d only go down if a catastrophic failure occurred which is extremely rare and no different from any other meter anyway. Plus, there’s always 105 if you need it.

There are actual benefits as well other than that. https://smartme.co.uk does a brilliant job of explaining them.

Barely any extra power over the older types. Advances in the tech means it’s actually more efficient than the older types too. Plus, you don’t pay for the energy they consume as it’s part of standing charges - the meter takes its own power from BEFORE the point of measurement to ensure this remains the case

They can still be installed and function without smart capability if push comes to shove. But there’s tons of tricks that can help boost the signal or relay the connection via other meters that do have a signal. Plus up north, they don’t use the mobile network anyway

I can see you’re quite negative about smart metering. While I don’t mind that, it would be preferable to check your facts rather than speculating.

Hi, I don’t keep my smart meter switched on 24/7. I put it on for about 5 minutes every Saturday morning as its a ‘vampire device’. I give meter readings every week manually. Is there a certain time of day that OVO sweeps for readings? Does it ping to OVO when I switch it on? Thanks.

The thing in the house is just an In Home Display (IHD), it isn't what talks to OVO. The smart meter is the actual meter (usually outside) and what communicates to OVO. You can't turn those off as far as I'm aware. You shouldn't need to be calling in with meter readings, regardless of the IHD on or off status.

Thanks GrumpyTrucker. I thought I would ask one of you guys as there has been occasion when OVO have said they have been unable to get any readings.

@pem Are these OVO fitted meters or did you come from another supplier? If they're not getting readings then it's possible there's a communication issue. It may be worth giving customer services a call and trying to get an engineer to come to inspect the meters for connectivity.

As for turning off your IHD cos it's a vampire device it's probably not really worth it. It will use so little, probably only a couple of Watts, that all you're doing is negating any benefit of having it in the first place.

You can check whether daily readings are being received from your smart meter on the page Meter readings history - OVO Energy. If the meter is working properly, you’ll see Smart next to each reading. If you see anything else (Manual or Estimated), it’s not working as it should.

You can see whether more frequent readings are being received on the Usage pages. The meter can be set up to send readings to OVO as frequently as at 30-minute intervals. Your IHD gets electricity readings every few seconds; gas readings will be less frequent, probably every 15 or 30 minutes.

The IHD - as GrumpyTrucker has pointed out - has no influence on communication between the smart meter and OVO. It’s only for your convenience.

i’ll be refusing a smart meter and if i’m forced then i will change company

Hi @Geebz

Welcome to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you. 

1. Currently if you have a working traditional meter that isn't deemed end of life, you can't be forced to have a smart meter by any supplier.

2. If you meter becomes faulty, you can't refuse a smart meter from any supplier

3. If your meter is out of certification and needs to be replaced, you can't refuse a smart meter from any supplier. 

Hence over time all traditional meters will be replaced by smart meters.

Of course the OFGEM rules may change in the future to speed up the transition to smart meters

By not having a smart meter you may find you are very limited on the tariff you can have. Suppliers are under no obligation to offer fixed rate tariff to traditional meter customers. The new OVO fixed rate tariff is not available to you unless you switch to a smart meter for example.

Feel free to ask any follow up questions. 

Actually, Smart meters do not replace human meter readers. Those jobs are still required for regulatory reasons and to help deal with fraud detection.

If, as you say, you work in power generation then surely you must know the benefits of Smart Metering.

As smart meters use radio or mobile phone signals to communicate rather than your home’s WiFi, they won’t affect your internet connection or surfing speeds.”

Does WiFi not operate on radio communication? Actually would depend on the frequency they operate on. Most routers WiFi today will operate on 2.4 or 5GHz

Hi, forum volunteer here.

@nuru26 I can confirm from my own experience that they won’t interfere. The WAN link does not run on any frequency even close to 2.4GHz or 5GHz (or even 6GHz for that matter) and won’t affect Wi-Fi at all. I can 100% guarantee that.

Source: I live in a block of flats with absolutely tons of Wi-Fi flying around, have a Smart Meter setup and my own home network runs on Ubiquiti UniFi kit.

The HAN link runs on ZigBee, which is in the same 2.4GHz band as Wi-Fi 1, Wi-Fi 2, Wi-Fi 3 and Wi-Fi 4, but is designed to find free space and Channels which aren’t in use, thus avoiding interference. If you’re having Wi-Fi issues, I recommend using the Ubiquiti WiFiman app to help with diagnostics - in particular to help find a free channel that won’t get in the way.

Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E use either the 5GHz band or 6GHz band, which ZigBee doesn’t use.

In the interests of full disclosure, I do not work for OVO or Ubiquiti. The reason I recommend the Ubiquiti WiFiman app is basically because it works well for Wi-Fi diagnostics and doesn’t spam you with ads. If you use it, I get nothing in return.

Most of what you said there is Incorrect.

What radio band does your smart meter use as 2g and 3g bands will be closed down in a few years.

GSM and GPRS. The GSM link will remain active regardless and there’s absolutely tons of time left anyway. Most meters will be dead before the 2G network is turned off.

-After 12 months energy companies can make you pay for faulty meters.

Nope. That’s IHDs, not the meters themselves. Faulty meters will always be replaced for free regardless of age.

Plans are to use the devices to charge households more to use power at peak times.

That’s opt-in only stuff. There’ll always be flat rate tariffs on offer which charge the same rate 24/7/365. Also… Economy 7 is a thing and that’s charged more at Peak Times than it does at Off-Peak times for over 30 years. I’ve yet to see mass complaints about that.

Those who fall into energy debt also risk their smart meters switched to prepayment mode.

And those without a Smart Meter will find that a supplier can just get a warrant to force entry and replace the existing traditional Credit Meter with a Prepayment Meter anyway (or more likely these days, a Smart Meter in Prepayment Mode). Same hyper-strict rules apply for both i.e. absolute last resort ONLY. It’s not a default option, never has been one and never will be one. Also, the chances of this happening are massively reduced if you get in touch with the supplier early and work with them to find a path forwards. If you do that, the idea of getting a warrant or forcibly switching to Prepayment Mode won’t even come onto the table.

If Ovo can’t take my readings correctly when I input them on the website, what reassurance does a smart meter give? Is the Internet going wrong? I have absolute faith Ovo will ensure they get their money in advance as the £2500 hike in my April bill shows.

While they still go through all the same checks, balances and validations, readings submitted directly by a Smart Meter are usually a little more trusted than those from a human, they’re less likely to get the numbers wrong!