[WizzyWigg]

@meldrewreborn Totally agree with you on banking app.
Oh I regularly saw the bank manager when they existed. 😃 Difficult not to as she was my wife 😂.

[theunknowntech]

Just a heads up - this stuff might be considered "tampering" which may breach terms of service with your supplier.

It's also probably not a smart move anyway - fried customer anyone? Or perhaps a free burned down house? Because that's a risk you take if you faraday cage this stuff.

[meldrewreborn]

@theunknowntech

since nobody inspects our installations nowadays the suppliers wouldn’t know . They wouldn’t care either as their remit is only to install smart meters not to ensure that they actually work as designed. Any “cage” would have to allow for readings to be taken.

[wizzo227]

Bad idea, as the coded messages sent by those things might sneak through somehow, and boxing your meter under a tin-foil-hat or whatever radio-proof enclosure might be in the category of 'meter tampering' to evade winter fuel bills. Any volunteers to get nailed for a test case ? If it were boxed in permanently, it would get a meter reader sent and you'd pay eventually, so you'd gain nothing from jamming or boxing it. Hurling it into a cauldron of molten iron Terminator II style would work, but that is definitely meter tampering. I wonder who they'd send next to check up on your meter readings ?

My own bills policy is to open the meter cupboard and look at the 'import' number once a month and write it down on paper regardless of not needing to any more with all the marvels of new technology in my smetsII meter. I download variable prices twice a month (their half-hour price record annoyingly stops at less than a whole month) and download consumption.csv from which I select usually 1488 points per month of price p and quantity q of every half-hour interval. Then I compute a 1488 point pq sum 1st to 1st of the month of what my bill should be at the advertised price, and keep a cumulative total of what I think my bills should be to the 1st of every month, which I overlay on the same chart as cumulative totals of ii) what the electricity company think they have billed for on their somewhat irregular billing days and iii) cumulative total of what I've paid to that billing company (or been credited for special offers vouchers and price complications). I mostly ignore what they say I should be paying and compute a next £ payment which Must always keep the cumulative totals inside one month worth of electricity costs and preferably be closer than that. So, despite having a smetsII smart meter, I keep Their greedy fingers off the bottomless money pit of an unattended user bill and I pay them what I ought to instead. Now for autumn I've increased my payments to about £1 per day. Their billing calculations look fine, but their payment suggestions in the summer were way above what I use. That was not a smart metering problem; it was their policy choice to try asking for more money. By the way, my code to do 1488 pq sums runs in microseconds.

So, despite having a smart meter, I still watch my bills and waste as vigilently as ever and kept the directness of opening the cupboard once a month and looking at the numbers.

[meldrewreborn]

@wizzo227

i just send my readings from traditional gas and electric meter each month. That to me is simple.
however if I were forced into a TOU tariff in the near future I might have to follow your regime. In the far longer term, given that I’m chronologically gifted, I’ll leave the problem to others.

[meldrewreborn]

Plenty of scrap microwave ovens about, and the mesh in the doors would be useful if people wanted to have a device to protect their car keys or make a signal blocking device. Plenty of fabric ads on t’internet too.

education is a wonderful thing , don’t you think?😇😇

[theunknowntech]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@theunknowntech

since nobody inspects our installations nowadays the suppliers wouldn’t know . They wouldn’t care either as their remit is only to install smart meters not to ensure that they actually work as designed. Any “cage” would have to allow for readings to be taken.

They do still get inspected. Has to happen at least once every two years - but in practice happens more like at least once a year.

[Andy65]

Originally Posted by theunknowntech

They do still get inspected. Has to happen at least once every two years - but in practice happens more like at least once a year.

All I can say is that my meters were changed in Jan 22 and the only person that has inspected them since has been me. In the 30 years I've lived here I can confidently say they weren't even read by a meter reader every two years on average, let alone inspected.

[Andy65]

I was 17 when I first got a cheque book @meldrewreborn, back in '82. Whilst I still like to write the occasional cheque I have kept pace with the changes in banking and use the apps, they do have some advantages.

A couple of weeks ago I had to pay some cheques in, my local branch now only does 'digital banking', a paying in machine. I went in, filled in the slip and fed the machine. It made a few noises and after about 40 seconds spat my cheques back out and said not today thank you. Around the side was a long desk with 3 young ladies sitting behind it, almost like a breakfast bar. I went up to one of them and explained that I was trying to pay some cheques in but the machine didn't want to know. She said "I'll put them through manually for you", took the cheques from me and gave me a stamped paying in stub. Why one of them couldn't be sitting behind a pane of glass like they used to is beyond me, they hardly looked like they were rushed off their feet.

[meldrewreborn]

@theunknowntech

I’ve not had an inspection in past 10 years!