Not so smart meter

I think I have posted before, in Portugal you choose the amount of electricity you can use at one time. We have the very lowest amount 1.15kw so cannot have high consumption appliances like kettles tumble driers electric grills. Generally most people round us have it restricted to 3.59kw but you can have,and pay, more. Makes me very aware of how much everything used and we ration ourselves. Also noticed that appliances here (toasters for instance) have a lower kw than in UK where there is no limit and people don't know how much their tv, washing machine, toaster etc use. If I h try to use too much it just cuts out! Bonus is 5Euro month bills!
 
REC said:
I think I have posted before, in Portugal you choose the amount of electricity you can use at one time. We have the very lowest amount 1.15kw so cannot have high consumption appliances like kettles tumble driers electric grills. Generally most people round us have it restricted to 3.59kw but you can have,and pay, more. Makes me very aware of how much everything used and we ration ourselves. Also noticed that appliances here (toasters for instance) have a lower kw than in UK where there is no limit and people don't know how much their tv, washing machine, toaster etc use. If I h try to use too much it just cuts out! Bonus is 5Euro month bills!
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A low watt toaster takes longer to do the biz,so in fact uses the same electrickery,same with a kettle,trick is only fill what you require in it.
 
trevskoda said:
A low watt toaster takes longer to do the biz,so in fact uses the same electrickery,same with a kettle,trick is only fill what you require in it.
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If the low wattage thing takes longer it wastes heat to the atmosphere for longer hence must use more leccy than the high wattage version on for less time...,high wattage is greener than low wattage
 
ricc said:
If the low wattage thing takes longer it wastes heat to the atmosphere for longer hence must use more leccy than the high wattage version on for less time...,high wattage is greener than low wattage
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That is a moot point: Higher wattage/heat means bigger heat loss, (Newton's Law of Cooling) albeit as you say shorter time so overall much the same !
 
jagmanx said:
That is a moot point: Higher wattage/heat means bigger heat loss, (Newton's Law of Cooling) albeit as you say shorter time so overall much the same !
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Look at a kettle, your putting energy in to heat the water to boiling point. Energy required to do that is the same. Regardless of the wattage of the heater. Heat will be lost to surroundings air for longer with the low wattage heater. I was taught to take extreme. Instant boiling with very high wattage will be little heat loss ,take hour's with low wattage and heat loss will be far greater. too low a wattage and heat loss will be so great that you never get to boiling point.
Toaster is much the same your heating tha bread to get it hot enough to go brown, with no heat loss it would take same energy regardless of how long it took,
 
In general then all this low wattage is a con,but again the lesser spotted public fall for it hook line and sinker,more money out of our pockets to be taxed.
 
I've never been offered one, probably because our walls are 2 foot thick solid stone. No signal gets through them.
Shame 'cos my meter is high up at the top of the wall & the only way I can read it is to photograph it with my phone & then blow the image up.
 
Don't want one, don't need one.

If I'm cold then knowing how much leccy I am using isn't going to make me turn the heating down. If I need a bath then I'm not going to go round smelling like a pigsty just to save money. Ditto when my clothes need washing, they need washing. I've never wasted leccy, I was brought up not to leaves lights etc on unnecessarily.

On the other hand, a smart meter must use more leccy than a normal one so that is a waste.
 
Caz said:
Don't want one, don't need one.

If I'm cold then knowing how much leccy I am using isn't going to make me turn the heating down. If I need a bath then I'm not going to go round smelling like a pigsty just to save money. Ditto when my clothes need washing, they need washing. I've never wasted leccy, I was brought up not to leaves lights etc on unnecessarily.

On the other hand, a smart meter must use more leccy than a normal one so that is a waste.
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the whole thing is a con. i really cant be bothered to do the research but i am betting there is nepotism somewhere along the line between the manufacturers of smart meters, utilities companies and westminster.... i feel sad sometimes that i have become soo cynical about this dreadful country.....
 
The idea for smart meters is so electric board can work out the high usage spots and switch more power onto the grid at that point or shift power away to other spots at peak or low times.
This could be done at the transformers and not on your property as its the zone not just a few homes.
 
trevskoda said:
The idea for smart meters is so electric board can work out the high usage spots and switch more power onto the grid at that point or shift power away to other spots at peak or low times.
This could be done at the transformers and not on your property as its the zone not just a few homes.
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Quote from the web,
ENERGY giants can use smart meters to cut off the power supply to your home in a bid to make you pay upfront. If you have a new digital meter, suppliers will be able to switch it to a pre-payment setting without even entering your property. ... This includes being able to access data about customers' energy usage
 
harrow said:
Quote from the web,
ENERGY giants can use smart meters to cut off the power supply to your home in a bid to make you pay upfront. If you have a new digital meter, suppliers will be able to switch it to a pre-payment setting without even entering your property. ... This includes being able to access data about customers' energy usage
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generators at dawn. 😂
 
so who wrote this "quote from the web" could be anyone with an opinion however fanciful.

smart meters are sold to the public as energy savers, in reality their benefits are for the electric companies, the remote reporting of usage means they dont employ meter readers this is a real tangible immediate saving. theres also the potential to use the usage data for more efficient generation and distribution in the future. remote switching of individuals supply and multiple tarifs related to peak usage times is another ball game which may come later.
 
trevskoda said:
A low watt toaster takes longer to do the biz,so in fact uses the same electrickery,same with a kettle,trick is only fill what you require in it.
Click to expand...
my point is, we use much less electricity overall since we can't use certain things, we find an alternative. Washing machine for instance, uses 2200kw, my twin tub uses 46watt and water is heated either by solar or on a small fire under a tank. Don't use as much electric, hence the low bills? Cannot see how this is "fooling" us?
 
REC said:
my point is, we use much less electricity overall since we can't use certain things, we find an alternative. Washing machine for instance, uses 2200kw, my twin tub uses 46watt and water is heated either by solar or on a small fire under a tank. Don't use as much electric, hence the low bills? Cannot see how this is "fooling" us?
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You can buy tumble dryers and washing machines that catch fire, they think of every thing these days :eek:
 
ricc said:
theres also the potential to use the usage data for more efficient generation and distribution in the future. remote switching of individuals supply and multiple tarifs related to peak usage times is another ball game which may come later.
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As part of this "more efficient" system, there is every chance that suppliers could start charging by VA consumption instead of watts. So if your power factor is low (as it is for most domestic loads) you end up paying 50% more than you do now. Smart meters allow them to do this.
 
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