My energy supplier has sent me an email asking if I want a smart meter.
Good idea?
What's the advantage/disadvantage to me?
My supplier contacts me by email and letter every few weeks about this.
As red_mark says they're supposed to do away with the need for meter readers (leading to job losses) because the Smart meter sends its readings wirelessly and without you having to do anything. That could be useful as you supposedly never have to worry about meter reading again. But in practice I've heard enough reports that they don't always work and you get ridiculous bills or other problems. Also sometimes if you change supplier the meter won't work with the new supplier - or at least that used to be the case.
For those who worry about such things, they can also send realtime information, which can be a privacy concern, and supposedly be very informative about what you are doing in your house at any given moment. So you wake up and switch the kettle on and someone somewhere will know because there'll be a characteristic change in your usage that says 'kettle switched on'. Or if you're out of the house, someone could theoretically know the place is unoccupied because the power-usage profile will be consistent with an empty house. Or if you're binge-watching Netflix when you've told your boss you can't do that work at home as you have to go out to a family function. And so on.
In reality I'm not sure whether these privacy concerns amount to much or not. But in total I think there are enough questions still with the technology for me to have stayed away from it thus far (mostly because I can't be bothered with the hassle of them mucking up bills and having to call the to fix it etc).
I think they are developing a new type of smart meter that is supposed to be fully reliable, and I imagine at some point they may become compulsory.
Like all Smart meter tech it's also supposed to be able to give you realtime information on how much you are using, the amount of the bill so far, how much you are using at that given moment etc. But you can get gadgets that do that which don't risk mucking up your bill etc.
