Smart Meter = smart move?

[Kickstart]

Installing a smart meter doesn't give the energy companies any extra powers and they will still need to apply for a court order and send someone around if they get a court order.

Normal solution has been token meters. Hence non paying customers "self disconnect". 

 

There is a requirement to check meters for safety but, in my case and no doubt many others, the suppliers rarely do this.

 

Recertification is required . Time frame is quite long.

 

Perhaps one day, washing machines won't turn on until electricity prices are cheaper, but what about the zillions of them out there, which simply turn on when the owner presses the button? Almost no one is going to rush out and replace a perfectly good one, until they need to, unless a significant saving.

To an extent yes, but how many people have just kept upgrading their TV for minor tweaks?

 

I am one of very few people still using a CRT television though!

 

All the best

 

Katy

[BernardTPM]

That makes at least two of us then!

[JJGraphics]

Recertification is required . Time frame is quite long.

All the best

Katy

 

 

Ours had not been "re-certified" in the twenty-three years before it was replaced after the case was accidentally broken!

 

John

Edited August 2, 2018 by JJGraphics

[Reorte]

That makes at least two of us then!

I probably would be if I hadn't ended up being given a newer one.

 

One of my neighbours definitely has a CRT TV, he recently finished making it himself out of an old oscilloscope.

[Kickstart]

Ours had not been "re-certified" in the twenty-three years before it was replaced after the case was accidentally broken!

 

John

When I worked in the industry, most were recertified every 15, 20 or 25 years.

 

Katy

[JJGraphics]

When I worked in the industry, most were recertified every 15, 20 or 25 years.

 

Katy

 

 

I guess there is probably much confusion between the various suppliers as to who is supposed to do what. As I previously posted, the energy suppliers have absolutely no clue as to how old our meters are.

 

John

[Kickstart]

I guess there is probably much confusion between the various suppliers as to who is supposed to do what. As I previously posted, the energy suppliers have absolutely no clue as to how old our meters are.

 

John

Used to be easy. The date of the meter was the 2nd and 3rd digits for us! L95G12345 would be a 1995 meter for Midlands Electric and made by Landis+Gyr.

 

Katy

[melmerby]

 

 

One of my neighbours definitely has a CRT TV, he recently finished making it himself out of an old oscilloscope.

Did that once at work, using the AM output from a band 1 VHF radio receiver.

Must have been about early/mid 70s. Picture a bit small though, the screen was nice and flat and the only colour was green but it didn't matter as there was cricket on!

 

Keith

Edited August 2, 2018 by melmerby

[locomad]

Coal might be zero, but Drax burns wood now, seems forests are been cut down faster than ever before

[melmerby]

Coal might be zero, but Drax burns wood now, seems forests are been cut down faster than ever before

But wood is a "Renewable"

As long as more trees are planted.

 

Keith

[SHMD]

But wood is a "Renewable"

As long as more trees are planted.

 

Keith

 

What about all that ship fuel, train fuel, petrol moving workers (and family) and parts around, and the mineral oil used everywhere to grease all those bearings...?

 

 

Kev.

[locomad]

But wood is a "Renewable"

As long as more trees are planted.

 

Keith

But wood is a "Renewable"

As long as more trees are planted.

 

Keith

[locomad]

Yes but with the way the market works doubt all the trees will get replanted

 

There's a demand for wood, prices of waste wood gone up, money greed behind all sorts of landowners reasons to chop trees down, railtrack, Sheffield council name but a few. Even so called charities like woodland trusts are cashing in, Drax needs wood shed loads of it

[chris p bacon]

As I understand it burning wood at a power station is just about as bad as coal as it releases the carbons. 

 

There isn't a long term future for Biomass power production in this country.

[Reorte]

As I understand it burning wood at a power station is just about as bad as coal as it releases the carbons. 

 

There isn't a long term future for Biomass power production in this country.

Which, as long as the wood is regrown, are taken back up. There's a contribution from the processing and transport but no net one from the burning itself.

[royaloak]

I'm sure that if people moved their power consumption to cheaper off peak times, the tariffs would soon be adjusted to compensate. Profits have to be maintained, don't you know.

 

Cynic? Moi?

Nope, its called being a realist.

[Zero Gravitas]

Drax needs wood shed loads of it

They’re going to burn sheds as well??

[Metr0Land]

They’re going to burn sheds as well??

 

'Fraid so - men's sheds are no longer safe havens

[Reorte]

They’re going to burn sheds as well??

As far as I can tell the drivers of them wouldn't be too unhappy for that to happen!

[spikey]

It's not just Drax which is a nonsense. I seem to recall that Terminal 5 at Heathrow is "green" in that it burns wood. According to a bloke I know who spends his working week buying and selling standing timber, one consequence of that has been a significant increase in the acreage of woodland in the South-East being clear-felled and replaced by token gesture replanting.

 

ETA - Apparently it's the "T2 Energy Centre" which burns the woodchip. It heats both T2 and T5, and generates some or all of their electricity. I'd love to know the true cost in environmental terms of felling, chipping and delivering what it actually burns in a year (as opposed to what BAA quoted when they built it).

Edited August 3, 2018 by spikey

[Silver Sidelines]

Yes true cost - not just environmental.

 

... I'd love to know the true cost in environmental terms .

 

We have Stevens Croft power station near Lockerbie.  Timber is brought in 'continuously' by road from across the whole of Dumfries and Galloway  (and beyond).  Articulated lorries are making two or three return trips per day.  There are the direct costs, fuel, tyres etc.  There are the indirect costs of running 44tonne artics on the road.  I call it 'damage' the Freight Haulage Association calls it 'wear'.  Either way there will need to be some major road rebuilding works to keep pace with the level of lorry traffic.  Then there is the increase in journey time for car users due to the extra slower moving lorries. Remember in Scotland not only are the drink driving laws tougher than England and Wales but the speed limit for HGVs on single carriageway roads is still only 40mph.  At 20mph below the legal limit for cars this has the effect of increasing journey times for cars by nearly 50%.

Ray

[Mike 84C]

I used to work for a major poultry firm before I retired, which very rapidly put in wood pellet boilers to heat the broiler houses in winter so I expect that grants were handed out by DEFRA, only a supposition.But I did surprise that only token photovoltaic cells were put up and at ground level. All that roof space with a steel frame over it  and covered in cells, maybe making more money growing electricity than growing chicken! Just a thought!

   And we pay farmers to take land out of food production to grow electricity on solar farms, where does that make sense?  'cos I have never seen the factory that produces more land!

[Reorte]

'cos I have never seen the factory that produces more land!

Doesn't stop the Dutch!

[Mike 84C]

Doesn't stop the Dutch!

Never been to Holland , best send some of those stalwarts of the EVA who think letting parts of North Lincs and Norfolk be reclaimed by the sea is a good idea.

[JJGraphics]

We seem to have drifted quite a long way from the original topic of Smart Meter = smart move?

 

I still strongly believe: "Smart Meter = dumb move!"

 

John