Last week we had ‘Smart Meters’ installed. The energy company informed us that our Gas meter was coming to the end of it’s life (apparently only last 25 years) and needs to be replaced. The advertising blurb that accompanied the email, indicated that ‘… this would be the ideal time to switch to a “Smart Meter” for free!!’ It also suggested that we ‘could also change the Electric meter, at the same time!’ We thought about it and as there was no actual cost, we decided to go ahead. So last week both new meters were installed. It took the engineer about 40 minutes, which included teaching me how to use the ‘smart’ display and how to get the ‘best’ out of the unit.

I’ve been avoiding getting “Smart Meters” as I felt that it was misleading to hint that it would save us money. I noted that it was never actually stated we would save money just that we would be able to ‘… see what we are spending …’ and ‘… take appropriate action …’

Already we have an issue! The display does not show the amount of electricity being used. It did for the first couple of days, but now just shows the gas used. It is going to need a phone call to the energy company in the morning. Not a good start.