Smart Meters are a financial Trojan Horse for Big Energy. This is why we are witnessing – and now catching on film – criminal acts of vandalism, breaking and entering and trespass by energy firms trying to install their next-generation cash machines in the homes of customers.
When energy companies are prepared to treat the personal property of customers with such abject disrespect, the extent to which they will care for highly-sensitive personal data is in no doubt.
A one year study in Toronto, by Toronto Hydro, showed that 80% of people’s bills INCREASE after Smart Meters are installed. “Dozens and dozens of customers…are reporting some billing spikes, in one case more than 1,000 percent” reported CTV’s Consumer Affairs Reporter, Lynda Steele. SSM UK has received reports of bills doubling and trebling after Smart Meters have been installed, with one small business owner in London nearly being put out of business by one.
Big Energy firms are publicly-listed, for-profit enterprises answerable to their shareholders. If you are left with any uncertainty about whose agenda Smart Meters are designed to serve, we encourage you to watch Josh del Sol’s critical investigation of the Smart Metering and Smart Grid phenomenon, Take Back Your Power – premiering 5 September 2013.
Pre-order now: https://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/film/
Help distribute: http://www.ykr.be/1vfwdqlqxr
▶ Energy Firm Caught Breaking Down Door to Install Smart Meters! – YouTube.
British Gas turned up at my very isolated hill top home to install a smart meter at my home on the 29th August 2013. I am not even a customer of British Gas! Over my dead body I said. He went away. I am so relieved to find out that we can now refuse to have a smart meter.
Well done Mary! I have been told by Scottish Power that Cameron WANTS a smart meter in EVERY home in the UK by 2015 or before. Some chance. He can have MINE!
Cameron often comes up with blindingly simple solutions to the nation’s problems. It’s important to listen again a couple of days later.
I am going to put padlocks on my meter boxes and put a window in it so that my analogue meter can be read, and do not install smart meter signs.
I would rather live with out electricity than have a smart meter.
GREAT BRITAIN should be smart meter free.
SSE have written to me saying that my electricity meter (which is very old) must now be replaced for safety etc. Can I still refuse a smart meter and insist on an analogue one? What exactly do I have to ask for to ensure the meter doesn’t have the potential to be activated as a smart meter later?
hi Teresa – we would be interested to know what evidence they have to suggest your meter is unsafe. But in a nutshell, they cannot force you to have a smart meter – you just need to inform them that you do not consent to having a Smart Meter installed.
I know I am not obliged to have a smart meter, but if my meter does need to be changed (and it is very old),can they refuse to fit anything other than a smart meter? If so, what options do I have? Can I have my own analogue meter fitted by a qualified electrician?
No they cannot – they have no lawful basis for doing this. Insist that the replacement is either like-for-like or another kind of non-smart/RF-emitting alternative.
And if it comes to it, there are provisions under the Electricity and Gas Acts that allow you to have your own meter fitted should you need to – see here https://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/a-reminder-your-rights-in-relation-to-smart-meters/
Thank you. I phoned SSE today. They have told me that my meter must be replaced as it is 25 years old (true) and they are obliged to replace meters at certain intervals.
They say that the meter they want to fit is not a smart meter and that smart meters are currently not yet available for their domestic customers. It would be a digital meter with an LCD reading, but it does not have a microchip and cannot emit any radio frequency signal. The old dial and magnetic disk meters are apparently no longer manufactured.
Are such digital meters just an updated electronic version of the older magnetic disk meters, and are they free of radio frequency emissions? I have asked for specifications and model of the meter they want to fit. They contacted the engineers department who confirmed the above, but I don’t know whether I can trust what I am being told. I have a very good radio frequency meter to measure with, but once it is fitted it is too late!
Do you have any advice, as I think many people are like myself confused as to what we should ask for when we do need a replacement meter.