Blogathon 03/25: Smart?

We have been smart metered. Not smart metred, that’s something quite different.

Anyway.

Our electricity and gas meters were replaced with devices that have SIM cards which allow the meters to send up-to-date information about our energy consumption to our energy supplier, to enable them to charge us an arm and three legs per day so we can boil the kettle, have a meagre shower and, occasionally, eat hot food.

I’m slightly disappointed the dead but almost reanimated Albert Einstein hasn’t popped in for tea with not-yet dead Angela Rippon in tow, but I’m sure they’ll be along in a week or two.

The dashboard meter thingy (to use the technical term) helps us answer such mundane questions as “how much does it cost to boil the kettle?” (about 3p), and “how much does it cost to run a cycle of the dishwasher?” (about 8p).

However the dashboard meter thingy also shows us a daily budget. We have exceeded our daily budget twice (due to heavy dishwashering activity and multiple washing-machine cycling – both during peak hours) but… I’m not convinced the dashboard meter thingy is really smart. For example, does the dashboard meter thingy take into account seasonal variations (we know, for example, our energy use during the summer months can flatline at almost zero on weekdays)? I don’t believe it does, I have a suspicion it isn’t that smart.

I’ll ask Albert about it when he pops in for a brew.

2 thoughts on “Blogathon 03/25: Smart?

  1. I think that it is ‘smart’ in two ways:
    1. It allows you to see your energy usage in real time – something you’ve never been able to do before – allowing you to then have a better understanding of your usage and how to reduce it where possible.
    2. It gives the energy companies more data on where and when high periods of consumption occur, so that they can better manage it at their end.
    And that’s about as smart as it will get, until Smart 2.0 comes in, with added AI and Skynet cuts off your electricity because you boiled the kettle too many times in a 24hr period.
    Albert may confirm or deny all of this, of course.

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