Smart Meter Media Blitz–Paid For By Me & You!
By Paul Homewood
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/smart-living/what-do-you-know-about-smart-meters/
There seems to have been a veritable tsunami of sponsored article throughout the press lately, all extolling the virtues of smart meters. Unsurprisingly they have been paid for by Smart Energy GB, the company set up under the auspices of the government to promote its smart meter agenda.
The above articles all appear to be written by Telegraph hacks so as to give an aura of authority. But given the fact that other newspapers have been carrying virtually identical puff pieces, we can be sure that they are all written by Smart Energy GB.
Unfortunately it is bill payers who are ultimately footing the bill for these pieces of propaganda. Smart Energy GB is financed by the big energy firms, who themselves are under severe duress from government to hit their installation targets, or face punitive fines.
Last year, funding to Smart Energy GB totted up to £47m, according to their Annual Accounts. Energy companies will of course simply pass this cost onto energy customers.
It’s bad enough being pressured to have smart meters that we don’t want and which ultimately cost every household more than £400. But it’s adding insult to injury to have to pay the cost of adverts encouraging us to change our mind.
Meanwhile the fat cats in charge at Smart Energy GB have been dipping their bread. The four members of the senior management team took home £612k last year.
Meanwhile, I have just today received this bullying e-mail from my energy supplier, E.ON:
Firstly they lie about “needing to change my meters”. They may “want to”, but they certainly don’t “need to”. Many customers unfortunately won’t appreciate this, and will think they are compulsory.
Then, to cap it all, they say I must ring them if I don’t want one!
As is often the case, it takes an ordinary guy to tell the emperor he is wearing no clothes. In today’s Telegraph Letters page:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2018/06/25/lettersairbus-threats-leave-brexit-no-flight-fancy/
But don’t expect such commonsense from the Telegraph or the rest of the media, while they can rake in millions of pounds in advertising revenue from the spivs at Smart Energy GB!
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I wouldn’t ring them, I’d let them come out and then tell them to bugger off. Although I suppose the cost of their aborted journey will be added to everyone’s bills 😉
Yes, I saw this piece of rubbish in the Express. Thought it was Government promoted propaganda. Biggest load of c*** I have ever seen. All lies.
Paul, you surely don’t get your energy from EON do you, or is this just a ‘for example’? Gave them up years ago.
Unfortunately there is no sensible energy company to switch to. They are all cr@p.
I keep being told I can save several hundreds by switching to one of the small renewable companies. An example of such is called Bulb, https://bulb.co.uk/, who claim they only supply renewable energy. How they seperate it in grid transmission, I don’t know.
I think there must be a wall socket that glows green when renewable electricity is in the mix.
“Which do you choose: energy that harms the planet or energy that doesn’t? Exactly. 100% of Bulb’s electricity is renewable, and 10% of our gas is too.
Every year, the average Bulb member saves 1.3 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s the same as planting 655 trees.”
I too got one of the letters, told them point blank that I did not want a “Smart” meter at all. For once I actually got a person on the ‘phone who seemed to know what he was talking about, most unusual. He asked what was my objection so I told him that it was not to save me money but to shut me down at will. He just said “OK we will take you off the list”….well until the next time I suppose.
As we have found on many occasions politicians are know nothings.
They will jump on any lib left marginal cause and charge us for the pleasure. Of course the EU was a past master at such virtue signalling.
After next year we can move to making our own Government more sensible and responsive to our needs, that we can afford.
I’ve tweeted about those stealth newsvertorials
June 2nd I spotted Mike Pattenden’s stealth article had “promoted content” written in small letters.
And complained
June 19th I noted the next time , they booted up the font
Sat 30th June, Pattenden has a fourth double-page item in the Times
Smart meters will cost ALL bill payers bigly, including those who decline, but for those who accept there is the power that the things themselves consume, not a lot, but not nothing:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-4607552/How-electricity-smart-meters-use-cost-run.html
“A spokesperson said: ‘The smart meter itself doesn’t use your energy supply”
I don’t believe this claim. I’ve just downloaded a copy of the SMETS specifications from this link:
Click to access SMIP_E2E_SMETS2.pdf
It’s dated 2014, but appears to be the latest version on the .GOV website.
In section 5.4 (referring to electricity meters) it says :
“ESME shall be mains powered and be capable of performing the minimum
functional, interface and data requirements set out in sections 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7
respectively operating at a nominal voltage of 230VAC without consuming more than
an average of 4 watts of electricity under normal operating conditions”
I damn well hope the 4 watts supply is drawn BEFORE the current metering device! But in any case, it’s another 20 million times 4 watts load on an already creaking grid!
In section 4.3 (gas meters) it says:
“GSME shall include a power source. GSME shall be capable of automatically
resuming operation after loss of power in its operating state prior to such failure.
To the extent that it is mains powered, GSME shall be capable of performing the
minimum functional, interface and data requirements set out in sections 4.4, 4.5 and
4.6 respectively operating at a nominal voltage of 230VAC without consuming more
than an average of 1 watt of electricity under normal operating conditions”
So they both use power, and it appears the gas meter DOES need the customers “energy supply” to run. And just as concerning – what happens to your gas supply if the electricity goes off? We know (‘cos it’s in that spec) that both types of meter include a remote cut-off device – does the gas meter default to “ON” without external power?
Did you post this reply from a mobile device? 20 years ago my electricity consumption would have been far less but no one is out there telling me not to embrace new technology. Phones, tablets, smart home devices. They all require power. Smart meters are purely an advancement that allows the consumer to be billed accurately. I will sign up for one as soon as I’m offered.
Good. Since they cost £400 each, I am sure you would be happy to pay the cost, and not expect everybody else to share it.
We’re billed accurately now aren’t we? So why pay billions for over-complicated hackable gadgets?
The claim is that these meters use about 1kWh per year at a cost of 70p to£1. What? That is a rather expensive tariff approx 3 times what I’m paying including standing charge.
Ofgem just got EDF to pay £350,000 ‘to customers’ for failing to meet smart meter targets. By ‘to customers’ they actually mean ‘from most customers’, and into another wasteful industry scheme.
If you are switching suppliers, watch the small print as the most attractive tariffs include a visit from an engineer to install a smart meter.
I have some sympathy for the energy suppliers for they are being used as stealth tax collectors and are being forced to impose these meters on everyone.
The real salt in the wound is having to pay VAT on the stealth tax, added to which is that 90% of them don’t work and, of course will inevitably be hacked.
A different, but still scaremongering, tactic:
“Energy firms accused of scare tactics as they now claim customers must get smart meters because their old ones may be ‘unsafe'”
From ‘This is Money’ Oct 2017
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-5005763/Smart-meter-scare-tactics-claims-old-ones-unsafe.html
It was Ofgem which insisted meters of a certain age had to be replaced – from memory a measly 15 years.
I’ve seen meters out in the field 30 – 40 – 50 years old, still chugging away merrily, and more importantly still within mandatory limits of defined accuracy. [Again from memory – to within +1% in favour of the supplier to within +1.5% in favour of the consumer]
Testament to their inherent design & manufactured qualities.
Tune to LBC and you are bombarded with smart meter adverts .
Aren’t you driving your mobility scooter around the world, having endless baths, baking masses of cakes ?
Due all that money you are MAGICALLY saving due to installing a SmartMeter like Maxine Peake tells you to do in her adverts.
I was wondering why they used her . Now someone says
“Maxine Peake busy ticking up further virtue points with the climate change crowd”
…ah that fits.
Eco PR works of Maxine Peake
Next : Praising 80’s striking miners
Current : Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days rescripted as long whinge about eco-catastrophe
Adverts : Wild claims about Smart Meter savings
Proselytizing with Jeremy Irons about climate change in “I Wish for You”
–> Eco-projects Maxine Peake gave her name to
– #PensionPower along with actors like Mark Rylance demanding that pension providers move their money away from fossil fuels
..se FT
– a GoFundMe intended to replace BP’s funding of arts
After more than 1 year NOT made their £5000 target
Why are they so desperate? When did bullying become acceptable. Everyone say no and wake up..not all technology is good.
Especially VAR!
Having had a smart meter fitted by EON recently, find it a great improvement on my old-style PAYG meter…… Accurate readings 24/7 PLUS being able to top-left without leaving the house (I am disabled)
Asked my gas supplier (British Gas) to fit a similar smart PAYG meter…… But this was REFUSED, unless I took out a dual-fuel contract with them (which I am Not prepared to do.
So much for trying to meet meter installation targets! Still waiting for the situation to change, but not much hope in the near future.
But smart meters collect the readings so much more efficiently and cheaply,
meaning consumers will be paying less over time.
Also electricity theft is a big problem in the UK, reported to cost honest consumers an estimated £20 per person, per year, at least.
Maybe the installation of smart meters would disrupt and reduce this theft,
again saving the honest consumer ?
Collecting the readings is fine. That’s all you need. So if they saved money for the power companies they’d be paying out of their own pockets to install them.
OK, if you have pay extra on your bill for the new meter,
then I can understand your opposition.
Here in Australia there was no extra fee paid only by those who installed.
“Also electricity theft is a big problem in the UK”
Anyone serious about stealing electricity (such as gangs growing cannabis) won’t be bothered by smart meters (or any other meter), as they just bypass them anyway…
I guess you’re right, unless all the data they collect can help them detect anomalies somehow, but it probably doesn’t help.
There’s stealing electricity and there’s stealing electricity:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2010/04/29/a-stupidsuicidal-way-to-get-electricity-for-free-meat-hook-power-line/#.WzNqrSAnbs0
Or, as in South African ‘townships’, just hook up your house to the nearest public lighting pole…
I suppose the simple answer to theft is that those stealing are not going to apply for a smart meter!
The argument about the cost of sending out meter readers and posting meter cards was a valid one ten years ago, but now it is so easy to enter readings on line (which also generates automatic billing) has rather made that justification obsolete.
Yes well if they are so good for everyone involved then they should be free.
Nothing is “free”.
The smart meter roll out will cost at least £11bn, according to govt figures.
This cost is added to consumers’ energy bills.
I recently moved house and it had old meters that were pre payment as the previous owners had debt problems I believe. I wanted them replaced and the two companies replaced them normal credit meters. I was expecting them to push smart meters but they weren’t even mentioned.
The idiots have got theirs, we’ve reached smart meter saturation point, most wise people have seen through the bumpf and hype and decided in no nonsense manner, politely done of course! To tell the Government and at that, smartly, to Fork Orf.
My sister got them fitted a few years ago. Changed suppiler and the remote usage/cost display device they gave her no longer works so she’s got no way of taking a manual reading to verify her bill. Not much cop for £400
My supplier wrote and said my meters were unsafe. I rang and was told that actually it was just the electric one that needed replacing.
I asked what the design life was and was told 20 years. I asked when it was installed, thinking that would stump them, but they came back and said 2006, and when would you like the installer to visit?
I said that since the new ones would all need replacing in six years, I would stick with what I have. It would last longer.
They still write regularly, “In case you have changed your mind.”
Paul Homewood and anyone else who does not want a smart meter: go to inpowermovement.com and watch their videos on this topic. By utilizing the power of PERSONAL liability and understanding how contracts work, you can get rid of your smart meter or prevent it from being installed. Please do this! In Power Movement also has a Facebook if you want to look at that first!
Jeez that looks like people going for EMF conspiracy
Smart meter prog is flawed, but they don’t give you cancer from radio waves.
The ones initially installed in Randburg, South Africa didn’t give anyone cancer (as far as I know), but they DID broadcast for over a week and jammed all of the Bluetooth frequencies! So no working remotes for car, garage, electric gates, or house alarm, and even my little weather station couldn’t report!
And then the remote reading company was fired, and we got estimated electricity usage for the next 18 months.
UK public paid for another SmartEnergyGB #smartmeter news advert in Yorkshire Post today
Bylined : Hannah Burley (Johnstone Press ? Publisher of YP)
+ Sheena Campbell (PR lady ?)
Screenshot
People who choose a smart meter are also volunteering to be switched off remotely when the cold winters cause the green grid to overload. I doubt that that is anywhere in the publicity.
I’m told the smart meters are too large to replace the 50 year old meters that I have.
In case you haven’t had enough of Smart Meters ….
Take a look at Smart Energy GB’s plans for regaling you with the wonders of Smart Meters in 2018 – yes … their Consumer Engagement Plan and Budget is online.
Simply another collective noun of PR and advertising folk running up lots of bills for clients with deep pockets.
A fourth double page ad in today’s Times
Bottomline the campaign is supposed to be about stopping waste and ultimately less CO2
but they waste so much.
: All the ads
and don’t forget all those lost earnings as you wait around for the technician and the installation.