Who actually turns off a Smart Meter

[SimonH2]

I’ve practically dislocated my neck and back trying to take readings from the old smart meters in the most awkward to get at position in the understairs cupboard.

My parents gas meter was in an awkward position - close to the floor in the downstairs loo. Dad made a stick with a couple of mirrors positioned so that the display was readable from a more useful angle - needs 2 mirrors to get the image the right way up (look up Pentax viewfinder for an illustration).
He also made a stick with a magnifying glass and small torch for reading the water meter down in the bottom of the hole.
One of the obsessive types - read the meters every week, put the reading in a small note book, and plotted graphs for each years using translucent graph paper to allow overlaying of different years.

 

[cjard]

So, the display on the meter was blank, and the front of the meter sported one or more things that were obviously pushable buttons, and she didn't even try pushing one or more of them?

Crikey, if she was babysitting for a friend, and friend forgot to turn the TV on for her before they left, would she watch a black screen all night?
What has the modern world done to people's curiosity?

 

[mwatsonxx]

Crikey, if she was babysitting for a friend, and friend forgot to turn the TV on for her before they left, would she watch a black screen all night? What has the modern world done to people's curiosity?

Thats what BAS would do, he doesn't approve of people trying to work things out.

 

[worcesterman47]

So, the display on the meter was blank, and the front of the meter sported one or more things that were obviously pushable buttons, and she didn't even try pushing one or more of them?

Crikey, if she was babysitting for a friend, and friend forgot to turn the TV on for her before they left, would she watch a black screen all night?
What has the modern world done to people's curiosity?

So,according to your philosophy then don't come to Diynot. com to ask for advice and help ,just push any buttons or pull any levers and see what happens....very safe and sensible advice that...curiosity has injured many people...No matter what the problem is if she is not sure of anything I tell her to ask...then she learns !

 

[John D v2.0]

So, the display on the meter was blank, and the front of the meter sported one or more things that were obviously pushable buttons, and she didn't even try pushing one or more of them?

Not everyone is confident to fiddle around at their electrical intake. Given the state of some,I don't blame them.

 

[big-all]

So,according to your philosophy then don't come to Diynot. com to ask for advice and help ,just push any buttons or pull any levers and see what happens....very safe and sensible advice that...curiosity has injured many people...No matter what the problem is if she is not sure of anything I tell her to ask...then she learns !

whilst random pressing off buttons is never a good idea
an item that can and needs to be used by the end user should be designed as such
it should be failsafe and need a key or other device to make it dangerous
simply pressing buttons should be fully safe and never alter anything
you should have clear instructions affixed to meter or area off use to cover everything required to operate it safely or contact details for internet or a freephone number for help in a timely fashion according to urgency
if its not to be touched it should be locked and labled as such

 

[JohnW2]

Not everyone is confident to fiddle around at their electrical intake. Given the state of some,I don't blame them.

Indeed - you beat me to making a similar comment. Although, as big-all has said, 'consumer-usable' equipment should be made safe for such use, and consumers instructed accordingly, as you say, even in this day and age, some people remain very reluctant to 'fiddle' ...

My other half takes a lot of persuading to touch a CU if/when I need her to. My mother was far worse, and was very nervous about even light switches and plugging things into sockets. Her mother (my grandmother) would not touch anything electrical, and that included light switches, until her dying day (in 1990, not ancient history).

My meter does need 'button presses' to read it. However, its display is not blank in its quiescent/default state - it always displays the time. Since I have plenty of clocks/watches, I don't really need that, and they could just as easily have had it displaying one of the usage registers (or even cycling through them), without any additional use of power.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Does nobody make a smart meter with a remote display?

 

[JohnW2]

Does nobody make a smart meter with a remote display?

They certainly ought to. In their infinite wisdom they have installed my meter very high up, and above a stacked WM + dryer (my {overhead} supply enters the property at ground floor ceiling level). Unless we provide him/her with a stepladder (and probably also a Specsavers voucher!) a meter reader cannot get anywhere near the push buttons, let alone the display!

The meter has an IEC 62056-21 optical port (as well as an RS232 one), which I imagine could facilitate remote reading, but they don't appear to use that - and nor is it 'smart', in the sense that it does not seem to have been fitted with the 'optional' GSM module!

Kind Regards, John

 

[JP_]

I turned mine off long before changing supplier - didn't see the point. It just burned more electricity!

 

[JohnW2]

I turned mine off long before changing supplier - didn't see the point. It just burned more electricity!

Turned off what - a remote display (of meter readings, not 'energy usage')?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JP_]

I had a remote display that showed energy usage. BG put a SIM card in the meter box and that sent info to the remote meter. I only turned the remote meter off, I guess the sim is probably still in the box - there is probably a privacy issue there as the owner and supplier both changed....

Anyway, isn't the point of a smart meter that you don't need to read it? So why are people climbing ladders and using mirrors on sticks?

 

[JohnW2]

I had a remote display that showed energy usage. BG put a SIM card in the meter box and that sent info to the remote meter. I only turned the remote meter off

That's what I thought. many suppliers provide remote 'energy monitor' displays with their smart meters, but I'm not sure that any of them can provide actual meter readings.

Anyway, isn't the point of a smart meter that you don't need to read it? So why are people climbing ladders and using mirrors on sticks?

I can't speak for the guy with the sticks and mirrors but, as I said, as far as my meter is concerned, although it is probably technologically capable of being configured as at least a 'partial' smart meter, they don't appear to have put a GSM module in it - so still have to send a human being to read it, and he/she then needs a ladder!

Kind Regards, John

 

[John D v2.0]

Her mother (my grandmother) would not touch anything electrical, and that included light switches, until her dying day (in 1990, not ancient history).

Well when I was in China I noticed people keep their kids we'll away from any sockets etc in the same way people here keep their kids away from wild animals.
Then looking at the uninsulated pins ( common here in the past) and other interesting wiring practices I realised why.

 

[cjard]

(Further perpetuated by the Chinese imports Big Clive dismantles on a regular basis on YouTube )

Re the curiosity comment and its follow ups; a few people did note what I'm ultimately driving at with my despair- we live in a health and safety obsessed world that pours billions of pounds research and development into the design of everyday things. It's massively hypocritical to take an "ooh, that electrical device is a box of voodoo and there's no way I'm even going to touch that single thing that looks like a button, to see if it makes it do what I want, because it's electric and it's dangerous and I haven't been taught" approach, and then go back in the house and wrap up the vacuum cleaner lead working back towards the plugged in socket: they were far closer to a live core fondling that plugged in wire than pushing a button on the front of a meter, and I'm willing to bet the number of people who ring up Dyson and say "ive just bought one of your vacuum cleaners, and I want to make it go. I can only really see one thing that looks like a power button, and it's s different colour and looks like it can be pressed but.. I'm just not sure"

Hang on; you used your iPhone to ring Dyson, right? Have you seen the instruction manual that doesn't come with an iPhone? And yet everyone just dives in and faffs around with it, pushing all the hundreds of obvious buttons til it does what they want

I'm getting old