Thread: Smart meters customers get $125

Have you magically started useing more electricity with the smart meter? I was renting a small two bedroom unit before buying my house. It had all the mod power saving cons that all these new joints do and I have never lived in a place that was so expencive for power. Moved to my current house built in the 70s no gizmos like solar hot water ect and its much much cheaper like $150 a 1/4

The smart meter is a bone of contention with me , It was installed when we were away , Came back from trip there was new smart meter ! A month or so later our fuse box went into meltdown , almost causing a fire . Energy provider came out 12.OOpm shut us down . Then we had to have a new fuse board $1,000.00 later . No one would take responsibility . It turned out the installers were Indians working on South Australian licenses , working on price work . This was one of these big issues that was very cleverly swept under that big carpet . I will take any rebate with both hands !!.. Jim

I've managed to cut my Electricity bill by over $200 a quarter since my smart meter went in. I have load shifted things like the washing machine, dryer and dish washer to a very cheap off peak rate, which kicks in from 11pm each night to 6am in the morning and all weekend from 11pm Friday to 6am Monday. This also allows me to use my AC without guilt on the weekends when we're home the most.

Smart meter is the best thing that happened in this house for a long time.

No point griping about it now, they are here to stay. Look at what is on offer and work the system to suit. Timers are cheap.

The $125 back is just a bonus.

Why change? The more I get involved with technology, the more of a luddite I become.
Mind you, the smart meter hasn't failed as much as the NBN ( which has been getting noticeably slower ).
As Gav says, it's here so I have to live with it.
One thing I have noticed is my energy consumption hasn't changed much from day to day. I request daily consumption figures from my energy supplier. I think these are available because of the smart meter. Now, this is what makes me suspect there is something fundamentally wrong with the smart meters, or they are still manually reading my meter and fudging the figures.

Interesting thread.

I have 2 smart meters at my property. One I use mostly, the other has the antenna on it, apparently connected to all the surrounding smart meters, apparently used as a relay for the others.

Have had a few visits from techs who may be thinking the second one has been by passed or something.

I'm with Origin and on the bills the meter reading is written as 'actual'.

Anyone know if that means manual or via SMS from the meter with the antenna that doesn't usually have much consumption?

Thanks, DL

Originally Posted by bacicat

I've managed to cut my Electricity bill by over $200 a quarter since my smart meter went in. I have load shifted things like the washing machine, dryer and dish washer to a very cheap off peak rate, which kicks in from 11pm each night to 6am in the morning and all weekend from 11pm Friday to 6am Monday. This also allows me to use my AC without guilt on the weekends when we're home the most.

Smart meter is the best thing that happened in this house for a long time.

No point griping about it now, they are here to stay. Look at what is on offer and work the system to suit. Timers are cheap.

The $125 back is just a bonus.

I have had these same off peak hours for ten years, long before smart meters.

Thie difference might be that old off peak rated were usually only heating load (water or slab heating?). I think the smart meter variable rates are all consumption.

Originally Posted by Mathernet

Thie difference might be that old off peak rated were usually only heating load (water or slab heating?). I think the smart meter variable rates are all consumption.

Not in my case. I only got smart meters about two years ago.

When I shifted here 15 years ago the whole house was on off peak from 11 pm to 7am Mon to Fri and 11pm Fri to 7am Mon. It was 3.5 cents per KW.

I used to call it free power it was so cheap.

A few years later I had the whole caravan park changed to the same.