Why a smart meter could stop your microwave working
. . . or play havoc with a stairlift or baby monitor
INSTALLING a smart energy meter in your home could stop your stairlift, baby monitor or microwave working, two major companies have revealed.
Nearly eight million households have switched from analogue gas and electricity meters to digital as part of a national upgrade. But Stannah, the UK’s bestknown stairlift maker, says it is concerned that radio waves emitted by smart meters could cause ‘interference’ with its chairs.
People who rely on the devices to get to their bedrooms could find they grind to a halt halfway up the stairs.
In a statement, Stannah says: ‘For stairlift users, this is a serious issue as it can result in their stairlift stopping if the signal is interrupted.’
While Stannah has not yet heard from customers facing smart meter problems, it believes the growing use of different wireless gadgets in the home mean that the radio signals many stairlifts rely on are getting increasingly jumbled.
Money Mail has also discovered an admission by British Gas, buried on the help pages of its website, that smart meters can disrupt other home technology such as baby monitors, microwaves or your internet connection. The web page says: ‘Use of similar channel frequencies by both smart and wi- fi systems is normally trouble-free, but interference could be experienced on rare occasions.’
Claire Maugham, director of policy at Smart Energy GB, which promotes the technology, played down the fears. ‘Smart meters have been specifically designed to high technical and safety specifications to make sure that they do not cause interference with any other wireless devices you might be using,’ she says.
Smart meters are new gadgets that tell you how much energy you are using in pounds and pence, in real time. They do this by sending a radio signal from your meter box to a small computer-like screen in your home every ten seconds.
A signal is also sent to your energy supplier to tell it how much power you are using. That means you shouldn’t need to supply meter readings or have someone visit your home. The Government wants every home to be offered a smart meter by 2020 in the hope they will provide more accurate bills. Having one installed is optional and many Money Mail readers have refused to sign up. Others have tried out the technology with varying success.
One homeowner, who wished to remain anonymous, said his stairlift stopped working after his smart meter was put in.
‘The stairlift worked really well until we had a smart meter installed with a small black box that sent a signal to my mobile phone showing our usage,’ he says. ‘The stairlift kept stopping and the remote would only work off and on.’
He’d had a new router installed, too, and thought that could be causing the issues. He tried unplugging the wireless printer, disconnecting the internet router and getting the stairlift checked out by an engineer. But nothing worked.
He says: ‘ The small smart meter box has been removed and the app is no longer on my phone, so I can’t see how much energy we are using.’
Wireless technology expert Nick Hunn says customers can face problems because so many gadgets use the same 2.4GHz radio frequency and their signals become jumbled. ‘It’s like when too many people in a room are talking at the same time — you can’t communicate over the noise.’ Other Money Mail readers have reported problems after having a smart meter fitted. Verlyne Cummins, 68, a retired machine operator from Oldham, says her TV kept switching off and her washing machine stopped mid- cycle after she had a smart meter fitted.
She says: ‘ The fuses in the sockets kept being tripped and I’d have to go back to the box and flick the switch back, but then it would happen again. I’d never had this trouble before.’
Scottish Power, her supplier, says the problem was with the wiring in her home. Verlyne paid £1,300 to get an electrician to rewire the whole property.
She says: ‘It seems like too much of a coincidence that I only started having problems after the meter was fitted. I wish I had never agreed to have one, as it’s cost me a fortune.’
A spokeswoman for Scottish Power says: ‘Mrs Cummins accepts this was an internal issue and by way of an apology for not sending someone out when she called we have offered a goodwill payment of £100.’
Eileen Priestley, 70, a retired HR consultant from Lancashire, was left ‘tearing her hair out’ when her heating and hot water stopped working after her smart meter was put in.
She says: ‘The engineer came out twice. He couldn’t find anything wrong. After a week of boiling the kettle for baths I had had enough and told them to take the meter out.’
The heating still didn’t work, however, so Eileen did her own research online and found that the boiler and heaters had gone back to their factory settings when the meter was cut off.
E.on says: ‘The issue arose because the customer had a meter exchange, however we do not believe this is specifically related to the fact she had a smart meter installed.’
Stannah says stairlift users can prevent problems by asking its engineers to create a very localised radio signal that is not susceptible to interference.