From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
JULY 26, 2023
By Paul Homewood
London, 26 July – Net Zero Watch is warning that smart meters are a threat to privacy and freedom of conscience.
It is being reported today that hundreds of thousands of households have been remotely switched to more expensive tariffs without their consent.
But the campaign group says that this is just the beginning and that smart meters are even more of a danger than people realise, because the Government sees them as a way to reduce demand when the wind isn’t blowing.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford says:
“The grid will have no way to generate enough power when there is no wind. Smart meters enable them to ration power instead. At first they will bribe you to switch off, but if not enough people take up the offer, they will switch you off anyway: first individual appliances, and then potentially your whole home.”
These concerns were set out in a paper published in 2021.
Montford also suggests that smart meters are likely to be abused outside Net Zero plans and controls too.
“Smart meters will turn your home into a tool of decarbonisation policy. But they can also be used to advance other agendas. When banks close customer accounts on political grounds, it’s probable that woke energy companies may use smart meters to similar ends, harassing dissenters from the fashionable agenda of the day.
Smart meters are a 21st century panopticon: a way to ensure that you are constantly under surveillance, and always under control.”
I have had letters and emails from my electricity supplier urging me to install a smart meter saying that it will save me money. I have no idea how a smart meter could possibly save me money. If they are lying about that, how can they possibly be trusted about anything?
Smart meters aren’t a gift, you get them on loan and have to pay for, isn’t-it ?
Smart meters are installed at no extra cost to the individual customer. However, the total cost of installing smart meters which is now about 20 billion pounds is added to everybody’s energy bills.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-5442371/The-9bn-extra-cost-smart-meters.html
so the individual customer does pay
but then, so does everyone who doesn’t have one – got your point at last
same as zero pv power users PAY to subsidize the well off/in debt to sellers units -power costs started the huge rises when solar n wind setups started up
True, 25% of domestic energy costs are “green levies”. Obscenity – and remember, renewable electricity is soooooo much cheaper /sarc
“Octopus Energy are to rebrand as Unicorn Energy because a unicorn better and more accurately represents their values and beliefs following the appointment of Dame Alison Rose as a non executive Director for ESG compliance including SMART meter roll out”.
How long will it be before this happens…
I hope you are joking?!
Clue is in the use of “unicorn” in the same sentence as “Dame Alison Rose”…one thinks its real the other thinks its a CEO….you choose
Exactly true of my own electricity bill.
Thanks for the reminder.
It’s our official Baltic states gov policy to install loads more of the damn windy things, and if you can believe it – at 59-60N SOLAR PANELS, where there is very little daylight and the panels covered in snow and ice 4-5 months a year!
Funny thing, they now introduce a new vehicle tax for 2024, and are desperate to bankrupt the only base load producing systems they have, –
OIL SHALE.
It’s like all the other own goals from them, water that is almost 2x the price of France in a country where it almost never stops raining or snowing!
That estimate is out of date and wrong.
There is ‘out there somewhere‘ and from British Gas (BG), their ‘semi-confidential business‘ estimate for fitting these meters to UK homes. I’ll say from 3 years ago, maybe less.
It was that they were ‘setting aside’ (on their accounts/balance sheet) £11bn for the fitting of their share of the things.
How many that was I don’t recall but did at the time work it out to be ~£1,500 per household.
What I also clearly recall, (from about 10 yrs ago) and because of the carefully calculated figure it was, that Government were telling everyone that they would cost £341 pounds each
And that they’d save their users at least £100 per year
Around time of the BG revelation/admission, even Government were admitting an annual saving of less than a fiver.
Even if you devoted your life to watching the thing.
yeah BUT the original on your home was paid for BY you and paid off well n truly and they refuse to leave them with you
taken to be scrapped at best sold ot Oseas is FAR more likely though
attorney general of Vic Aus said the ONLY people profiting at all from smart meters were powercos
he was 100% right
service and supply charges rose hugely since they appeared
Bill, the official line is that by observing your usage you will be encouraged to make economies by turning things off, something that you could do anyway if you wanted to. It is a bit odd when commercial companies encourage you to use less of their product, something is not as it seems. Your welfare is not their primary concern – fair enough, they exist to make money. Despite all the woke bs in advertising these days, it is the legal duty of the board of a limited company to act in the best financial interests of the shareholders. I think that they are more disingenuous than sinister about this (that is more to do with government and elites), by having smartmeters they can automate billing and eliminate staff that travel around reading meters, I suspect that the savings to them far outweighs any reduction in gas sales volume coming from smartmeters. Of course, there has been no resultant reduction in cost to the customer, quite the opposite in fact. The war in Ukraine and resulting hike in wholesale gas prices saw them massively increase charges to the customer – has a shortage of their product hurt them? Surprise surprise – no, in fact the gas companies have registered record profits.
I remember as a kid my dad going around the house unplugging every electrical item every night to save pennies. Still does it.
The power company likes those pennies in THEIR bank account.
British Gas have announced almost 1Bn in profits for the last 6 months, up 900%
There never was an energy crisis, it was a profits drive that left Britain with fuel poverty, cold related deaths and consumer debt
“Bill, the official line is that by observing your usage you will be encouraged to make economies by turning things off, something that you could do anyway if you wanted to.”
My local electric company isn’t trying to sell me a smart meter, but they are wanting me to sign up to use electricity during times of low demand, and if I sign up, they will give me special rates for using electricity during low-demand times.
My question is: Why do I have to sign up for anything? Just tell me you will charge me less during certain hours and I’ll be governed accordingly. But you don’t get the special rates if you don’t sign up.
It’s ridiculous.
A smart meter cannot save you money, unless you are offered a lower special smart meter tariff for having one
Suppliers are under extreme pressure to get these into homes so that demand side controls, including ToU tariffs, load shifting and ultimately load shedding, can be actioned remotely upon unwary consumers
I personally, will never have one fitted and always advise others not to because of the myriad of problems with them, the main one being control of consumer behaviours
They know when you are home and which devices you are using. But we all are happy to use our smartphone tracking us all day long.
Slavery has never been abolish it just changed its appearance. Direct Taxation exactly tells you what you are, a number and numbers have no rights.
Easy, if you aren’t using electricity, you are saving money.
Did you want to save electricity? You no longer have the right to make that decision for yourself.
Our energy company – Octopus – keeps emailing my other half and she keeps rebuffing them. We don’t want a control box installed, thank you very much.
Because that is exactly what a so-called ‘Smart Meter’ is; a means of individual household/street etc control other than just crudely switching an entire local area off. The account itself is another problem, one you will find it hard to do anything about.
“More than 350,000 smart meters switched remotely to more expensive tariffs”.
Clogged call centres will abound, I’m sure. As far as I’m concerned, all my electrics were replaced entirely, but I won’t be giving up my old meter, out of my cold dead hands… as they say.
Contact customer services and ask them to add. “No Smart Meter ” to your account. The calls will stop.
I tried that.
I also replied to some of the SMS (text) messages they send
I wrote a real actual letter
(This was to EON)
Bless them, after 4 or 5 weeks came a reply to my letter – saying they would comply with my request for “No Smart Meter”
But only for 3 months after the date they’d received it.
Then the bombardment would start again.
Because the delay in their receiving my note and in responding, I never noticed that it stopped
There is/was an option on the SMS to reply with ‘no smart meter’
I tried it a couple of times but it only seemed to convince them that I was actually reading their messages and so doubled up their spam.
The enforced changeover thing has now stopped.
It did, still does, require the signature/approval of ‘a member of the judiciary’ – a Judge basically.
Someone who was supposed to examine each case individually.
It was that, by some hook or crooked means, the companies would bundle together 100’s of their applications into one judicial hearing and without the customer even needing to be told what was happening.
The hapless judge was left no choice but to just sign them all off ‘as one’ and that’s what happened.
They cannot do that anymore – the customer now has to be told and each case/request has to be tested on its merits
From past experience, meters in the UK are replaced by default every ten years; they have a fixed service life. Will it be possible to insist on a replacement dumb meter when that time comes, or will the elec company be able to install whatever they want (given that the meter is their property)?
Mine’s 40 years old and has never been replaced
No. They are not replaced. Not unless you opt for a smart meter.
Mine replaced 2008 – preparing to repel all boarders.
You can demand a new meter be installed in dumb mode
You can send a legal notice to stop the smart meter
I’m with you – never, ever have a smart meter fitted, they are not for consumer benefit – if you need an old meter replacing, ensure it’s supplied & fitted in dumb mode
Slightly off topic, but related. My water provider sent letters to all residents in the area stating that they will be installing water meters, so now instead of a monthly charge we will be billed for usage. This is because the Met office have said that the UK is becoming drier due to “climate change”, and they want us to self ration our water usage (rather than fix any leaking pipes or heaven forbid, build any new reservoirs). I say it’s because they want to charge us more for providing less, much like our energy these days. I find it strange, as it’s only about a year ago that the Met office said the country is wetter because of “climate change”. 6% wetter, to be precise, as griff would confirm were he still posting here. Seems to me that the Met office will produce any confirmation that suits your cause if you’re in the utilities business. And 4 days ago, they came to dig up my street to gain access to the valves to each house. The street is now full of holes and nothing has happened since.
Who is your provider?
Affinity water. Affinity with what, I’m not sure. Of course, they are doing it “for the customer’s benefit”
On the plus side, I was out for a couple of hours and it looks like they have filled their holes. I would’ve thought they might put some kind of notification through the door that the work has been completed, but so far, nothing.
We in Germany allways pay what we use, all houses have water meters afaik.
All houses? How about rural homes- I would think they have wells, which are what most rural Americans have.
If they are connected to the water and wastewater grid, they also have meters.
Or the pump groundwater as I do in my garden plot.
same in aus always paid per kilolitre/gallons used plus a supply charge
smart meters forced with ZERO public vote a few yrs ago
Not FORCED, just bluffed.
With respect to the supply charge, which is a fixed cost, which seems to go up each quarter faster than inflation.
I think here in OZ, the smart meter thing and how they are used, depends on which state you live in.
we have a water meter. Last year, as we have a sceptic tank and no drainage into a drain, our bill was ~£100
Sceptic tank? Freudian slip? 🙂
They had a visitor, OK?😃
Some years ago my water provider insisted that it was essential that I have a meter fitted in our Victorian house as part of the campaign to reduce water usage. They came to do a survey and discovered that we share a stop-cock and supply pipe with two other houses and they had no idea where the pipes divided beyond the stop-cock.
They declared that, in the circumstances. it was too expensive to do all the digging necessary to trace the pipes and put a separate meter in for each house and that they’d put us on an “assessed tariff” instead, based on the number of occupants and the facilities we have.
This turned out to be 40% cheaper than the bill I was paying based upon the (long-defunct) rateable value of our house. Yes, they’d been ripping me off for years!
I also thought that it can’t have been all that “essential” if they weren’t prepared to spend the money to help reduce water consumption…
Not this month (July) that’s for sure
We had a dry spell in Auckland, NZ, a few years back. The implication was that the resulting low reservoir levels were due to “Climate Change!”. Auckland is now suffering through a really wet period, including quite a bit of damage due to flooding. Guess what gets the blame for that.
I’ve had water meters for over 25 years and it’s only in the last few years that my bills have been above what I was paying in water rates way back then.
It’s hard to know fact from fiction but A Story that the water companies come up does seem reasonably valid.
It that Water Companies are relentlessly blamed for not repairing leaks in their network(s) and that they are allowing immense amounts of water to go to waste.
Their response to that is that because:
as suppliers of treated water they know how much water they send outas receivers of sewage/drainage and dirty water they know how much comes back to themTheir claim is that those two amounts usually tally with each other quite well.
i.e. There are No Leaks
Where they come unstuck is that the companies know where the water is going but if they say so they catch so much politically correct grief it’s just untrue.
It is that The ‘Leaking’ Water is going into un-metered properties that are (illegally) occupied by dozens and dozens of ‘migrants’
These being houses (in London and big cities) that would normally contain just a Typical Family of Four but actually contain dozens of individuals – each and all consuming endless baths and showers and toilets and everything
And returning all that dirty water to the water companies expecting it all to be ‘gratis free of charge‘
It is the landlords of those properties who are kicking up the ‘water metering stink’
Round here, two different companies handle the “input” and the “output”.
Which “output”, I should add, is – by definition – slightly larger…
The gubmint in BC wants “water saving” meters, regardless of whether water is short – ours is not. But the previous Board of our “Improvement District” bought and started installing them. The new board cancelled the program.
It is an interesting psychological phenomenon that people will actually pay extra to punish those that they think are freeloading. It turned out that people without gardens to water were in favour of the installations, despite the fact that everyone’s bills would go up to pay for the meters.
On the other hand, the meters that did get installed have been useful in locating leaks.
What ever you, do not mention smart speakers if automatic electronic intrusion is something you are concerned about. My preferred name for those devices in so many peoples homes is Hal. As in ‘Hal turn on the lights’ ….’Sorry Dave, I am sorry I can’t do that’…
I can switch lights on and off, play music I like etc
I don’t need dependency on crap
i roared laughing at all the fools with smart homes that couldnt GET into them when the new went down no locks with keys? no access no lights cooking etc etc
I live in South Africa where daily scheduled power failures (euphemistically called “load shedding”) are the order of the day.
Most wealthy people – myself included – have installed battery inverters and in many cases, generators as well – in my case both are 5kW and serve me well.
However, the government is now fulminating about their use as in the case of inverters it totally defeats their “load shedding” as in my case it does not save power as I simply catch up when the power comes back on – in fact I now use more power because of the inefficiencies back and forward through the inverter.
Thousands of inverter battery packs coming on line is obviously proving problematic for the distribution network – the lengthy high demand when power is being re-established is frustrating their efforts which lengthens “load shedding” – this effectively means that “load shedding” hits the poor much harder than the rich, worse it’s being amplified by this process. This is I understand politically unpalatable.
They want us all on smart meters to defeat our subversion of their practices.
‘Aint gonna happen.
And of course they don’t like fuel powered generators because they produce carbon dioxide – not that I give a monkey’s.
But you can see the ramifications of smart meters being used to control you in the above scenarios.
Anal compulsive bureaucrats hate having their grand policies defeated by the populace.
Legislation will follow – start resisting right now.
I know the sound of tumbrels when I hear them – and they’re getting closer all the time.
Thanks for the heads up Chasmsteed – these punitive demand side controls are embedded into smart meters – they can remotely switch you onto a higher ToU tariff and ultimately off
They are all about control because a grid full of unreliable renewables will never be able to match supply to demand, so the blob will force demand to match supply
People have been saying this since they were first proposed – they’re another way for people to be controlled.
Opening for bright young lads.
Form a start-up company selling smart meters that the user controls, not Big Brother.
Here in Victoriastan, I called the bluff on “compulsory” smart meters, so I retain the old reliable dumb one. Does any reader live in a country where smart meters are truly compulsory? Lawyer up. There should be no way a country can do that to you, legally. Geoff S
I’ve thus far refused the frequent invitations from my (UK) supplier to have a smart meter – they’ve even tried making appointments to install one, which I then have to cancel. But as noted in a comment above, meters here have a 10-year life and are then replaced; what I don’t know is whether, when that time comes, it’ll be possible to insist on a replacement dumb meter – the meter, I think, is the property of the supplier, so at that point they may be able to install a smart meter whether you want it or not.
i padlocked my gate for 4 yrs to deny entry to smart meters, eventually i was told I would be charged 50$+ for a read if i didnt comply
stazsi-state Victoria
anyone daft enough to buy smart TV fridge or washers is asking for trouble
the old ones arent controllable
but they CAN and will cause damage to them via brownouts if not blackouts anyway
Change your supplier.
Some now have schemes for consumers to read their own meters and send in the readings monthly, no extra charge.
Here in the NE Wales countryside we get a text every 3 months asking for a meter reading.
My electricity supplier is Scottish Power.
I received an email from them last May saying they need to replace my meter “for safety reasons”.
I said I didn’t want a smart meter and the nagging emails dried up, so I wrote to them and asked them why my meter no longer needed replacing “for safety reasons”. The response was vague and I eventually received an email confirming the meter didn’t need replacing for “safety reasons”.
I’m now in a daily email exchange with Scottish Power telling them they did not answer my question: Why did Scottish Power lie to me about the need to replace my meter “for safety reasons”.
Next will be a complaint to OFGEM.
Anyone else I should complain to?
Try:
keith.anderson@scottishpower.com.
You could also try the Chairman but cannot find his email – however you might want to read this first especially top of page 2 …..
https://www.scottishpower.com/userfiles/file/CV_Ignacio_S_Galan_May_2023.pdf
cheers, mate
Panopticon as a word is important to know when reading utilitarian litterature. Put digital in front of panopticon and you get digital-panopticon. Panopticon – or The inspection House was published back in 1791 and written by Jeremy Bentham.
The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, with out the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched. Does this sound familiar.
Although it is physically impossible for the single guard – read an AI – to observe all the inmates’ cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched motivates them to act as though they are all being watched at all times.
Why mention this … because the question why is the most important word when it comes to science. Yesterday Charles Rotter posted a video with the titel: “We just stopped just stop oil”. Nothing wrong with that, what he should have left out, was the part, support us, Goon Squad, or what it was called. Because, it was entertainment with out the portmanteau of information. Why it diden´t qualified as infotainment. Here´s another exampel of “portmanteau”
The Dancing Nurses Are BACK! | Cringe Nurses Dance To Protest Climate Change – YouTube
The foundations and several big private sponsors behind the grenn movements loves this entertainment because it´s with out the portmanteau of information.
What i´m trying to say, is that panopticon is an important word to know about, another is quixotic, the digital-panopticon is extremely idealistic, and to get there, they are depentent of this form of “portmanteau” – lack of information, just mere entertainment. The two other words to describe quixotic, is unrealistic and impractical. Reverse the order, first you need to create the unrealistic and the impractical as the “truth” with out teeling the truth that what it is all about are extremely idealistic, the dream of the digital-panopticon.
The same principle should be used, when wellfare is discussed, to understand you have to reverse it, wellfare means, to fare well. The Green movement, just as it is with intrusive smartmeters, the Green Movement therefore is step two to cover up the truth about step one which is, the extremely idealistic dream about the digital-panopticon.
Think about that Paul Homewood, Charles Rotter and guest bloggers – and btw, based on, philosophy, psychology and neurology, “love” your contributions, they help to expand my understanding about the grifters role – and why, science is about power and only a “grain” of the truth.
Best Regards
MB1978 …!!
Not that it´s any news to most people in here, to get to the extreme idealistic, step one, they are depentent of the creation of extreme headlines, the lock(step)two, so a speak.
If the “smart meter” is installed at the home, what stops someone from modifying the signals to fake power usage? There has to be some communication protocol used to assert control from the remote control center.
That’s one of their greatest flaws and a hackers dream – a hacker could potentially alter your meter readings, tariff, harvest your data being sent to the supplier, know when you’re in/out and what smart appliances you’re using and when, even operate your remote disconnect and leave you powerless
I feel very sorry for all those duped into smart meters – I always advise against them for many reasons, one of which are these perverse ToU tariff remote switching
When the City of Seattle swapped out our meter for a ‘smart’ one, 4-5 years ago, the installers confirmed that the on-off switch is downtown in the hands of bureaucrats.
“they will switch you off anyway: first individual appliances…”
How does a ‘smart’ meter get control over individual appliances?
You would have to have smart enabled household goods, eg, TV, cooker, fridge/freezer, heating controls, lighting controls etc – these are integrated with your smart meter hub via Wi-Fi for monitor/control – your supplier could, via the smart meter hub, switch off your appliances to reduce load on the grid at times of low supply, ultimately switching you off completely
In Kentucky my water meter electronically sends its reading to the water company. You can go online and see the instantaneous flow. This allows me to see if I have any leaks – don’t use it often but it is handy. They cannot shut the valve.
The gas companies meter does the same thing – reads the meter but cannot control the flow.
I don’t believe my electric meter has been converted yet – a cute young lady was reading it last time I saw the meter reader.
We don’t have an option to have a meter installed – if you don’t they turn you off.
Smart Meter, Smart Phone, Smart Car, Credit Card, Direct Taxation etc etc. And you still think you live in a free country ?
Okay let me please add to this convo…I am in no way a supporter of man made climate change. Climate changes naturally and it is mostly controlled by that big gaseous thing in the sky that comprises of 99.9% of the solar system. That being said…
Last winter I was fed up of £450 a month gas/electric bills so I built my own battery storage system using 2 tesla battery packs. Shifted 95% of my electricity use onto cheap rate. Since then I have had a smart meter installed after years of holding back. Why? Well I had witnessed other installs and they cannot switch off various parts of the house. Its either all on or all off, unless you have a car charger and they wire that in a special way, I cannot be sure on that, but mine is wired as a straight up meter only. Since then I have moved to an agile tariff where prices change every 30 minutes. Most of the day it averages 19p a kwh but in the evening it can go to 40p a kwh. So I avoid the peak price and use my battery inverter system I personally built and installed. Can they change my tariff? Maybe but I would argue to go onto a different tariff or I would move my business to another electricity company. Also on some days I am paid to use electricity. Recently I was paid 20 pence a kwh to use electricity. On that day everything electric went on in my house including old, inefficient bitcoin miners I have. Used the oven to cook 4 chicken nuggets…
Gas – moved onto gas tracker. Over the past 8 months the average price of gas on standard tariffs has been 10.28p kw, now 7.25p kw. On the wholesale price it peaked for 2 days in December 2023 at 11p a kw then has been below 9p a kw since then. Gastracker.uk – and you can see the wholesale electricity prices by day. So since having a smart meter I am saving more money now even though my electricy use has been the same if not higher. If they choose to cut me off I have the battery system I can use and a 3kw petrol generator, but they would need a good reason to cut me off. Am I locked onto these tariffs? No. I can drop them and the company at any time and move to another supplier with their tariffs.
I was dead against a smart meter but I have moved onto one…Will I suffer for it? I doubt it but in the meantime I will get energy cheaper. How did the energy companies make a fortune? Because energy prices have been below tariffs and price caps set by ofgem, so we have paid a higher price whilst the prices have dropped. What happens if they go up again? I will drop back onto a standard tariff which will be price capped by often then when the price drops I will move accordingly…
You must be a Smart guy and I suppose you have a Smart Phone. Those in power really don’t care what you pay they just want to know where you are what you use and when. Like they don’t care about the weather.
The choice of who to turn off first will be based on your social score, which will be determined based on how well you adhere to government edicts and your ability to echo the party line of the day.