I think smart meters are very progressive and a clear improvement over legacy meters when they work properly, also even if they stop communicating they can still be read manually, so it will still be a newer meter than an old meter that may no longer even be in its certified life.
However with all that said, I think the way these issues have been dealt with isnt acceptable, one problem that Martin Lewis is trying to get the government to act on is that there is targets for installations, but no targets for ensuring existing meters work properly. The resources for home visits are stretched way past what they capable off, so there is a big problem in getting these fixed, and some people cant even get one installed if they want one due to the lack of resources.
I think my smart meter has been great, not just for the convenience, the live usage mechanism, but also the smart tariffs I have access to, but Im not a "im alright jack" person, they need to fix the issues that are out there.
It is possible there is no cheap solution, if its a realisation that the signal system used in the north isnt up to the job, then they wont be happy with the idea of replacing the communicator modules en masse to a mobile network system (apparently the meters are modular). But again, engineer resources, thats a huge task. But they need to do something, just sitting there saying well that sucks isnt going to fix anything.
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An added note I expect it doesnt really affect anyone here, but there is a bunch of people who think the in home display is the meter, so if that stops working they think their meter has packed up, the meter will still be metering the energy use. But it would be either an IHD pairing problem or the meter has lost communications.
I have an Octopus mini something Octopus made, this is far superior to the IHD and in my opinion should have been the standard, it has no screens, so no expense wasted on that, instead it communicates with the Octopus app, so you can see everything on your phone instead of needing to walk to where ever the IHD or meter is.