Anyone else noticed their energy bills actually went up after switching to a smart meter?

Bit of a tangent since I'm mostly off-grid on the boat, but I watched this happen to my sister in Leeds. She got a smart meter fitted and within three months her direct debit jumped — supplier claimed it was "more accurate readings" replacing years of underestimates. Convenient timing, that.

The thing that bothers me technically is the In-Home Display units. They show consumption in near real-time which should help people reduce usage, but the research I've seen suggests most households stop checking them after about six weeks. So you've got this data-rich device that just becomes a paperweight next to the kettle.

From my own setup — Victron BMV on the battery bank, solar in/out tracked properly — I can tell you that actually seeing your numbers changes behaviour dramatically. But you have to stay engaged with it. That's the bit smart meters seem to fail on.

There's also the SMETS1 vs SMETS2 issue that caused loads of people grief when switching suppliers — meters going "dumb" and estimated billing resuming anyway, which rather defeats the purpose.

Curious whether anyone here runs a hybrid setup, still grid-tied but with their own monitoring layered on top? I wonder if having your own Victron or similar dashboard running alongside the smart meter gives you a proper sanity check on what the supplier's actually recording.

Has anyone caught a discrepancy between their own metering and what the supplier's system reported?

@PanelEwan classic move by the suppliers isn't it — the meter doesn't change your usage but suddenly they can see exactly what you're doing and adjust accordingly. My sister-in-law had the same thing happen in Coventry.

Genuine question though: was your sister on an estimated billing arrangement before? Because I've seen cases where folk were being massively under-billed on dodgy estimates for years, smart meter gets fitted, reality hits. Painful but technically not the meter's fault.

Either way it's exactly why I went down the Victron/Fogstar rabbit hole for the cabin — nobody's sticking a smart meter on my setup anytime soon. The only thing monitoring my usage is a Cerbo GX and it reports to nobody but me.

Has your sister actually checked her unit rates changed at the same time?

@PanelEwan your sister got "visibility taxed" — supplier spent years under-estimating her usage, smart meter rolled in and went "actually mate, it's worse than you thought" 💀

Seen this loads — nothing to do with the meter itself, just the estimated billing catching up with reality all at once. Classic case of ignorance being bliss until a bit of kit tells the truth.

Honestly part of why I went deep on the off-grid rabbit hole — Victron kit doesn't judge me, it just monitors silently like a disappointed parent. At least my direct debit stopped having existential crises.

Worth your sister checking if her old estimated reads were consistently lower than actuals — that's almost certainly the culprit rather than anything sinister with the meter itself.

@VoltMax nailed it tbh — "visibility taxed" is exactly what happened to my neighbour before I convinced him to look at battery backup properly.

The thing is, smart meters are great in theory but the suppliers had been sitting on underestimates for years. Suddenly accurate readings arrive and it looks like usage "went up."

Worth your sister checking if she's on the right tariff too — some suppliers quietly shuffle smart meter customers onto slightly different rate structures. Easy to miss in the paperwork.

For anyone on the fence about going properly off-grid or just having solid backup, this is honestly one of the reasons I went down that road. When the grid becomes a source of stress rather than convenience, something's off.

@VoltMax @TelScott75 "Visibility taxed" is a brilliant way to put it, saving that phrase. Worth mentioning though — some suppliers were actually over-estimating for years and customers got a nasty shock going the other direction too. A mate in Sheffield had built up a £400 credit on his account, supplier spotted the discrepancy once the smart meter went in and immediately slashed his direct debit. So it cuts both ways really. The meter itself is genuinely neutral — it's just accurate where the old system was guesswork. The frustration is suppliers used that guesswork to their advantage for so long. @PanelEwan your sister should get her actual consumption data downloaded and check whether the new figure actually reflects real usage or if they've snuck in a tariff change alongside the meter swap. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

@DuctTapeDave56 finish your sentences mate, we're all dying here 😄

But yeah — the smart meter itself doesn't cost you more, it just tells the truth about what you were already using. The supplier's been quietly underestimating for years via dodgy estimated reads, then reality lands in your face all at once.

My static does something similar when I check the monitoring on the Victron kit — sometimes ignorance genuinely felt cheaper until I could see every watt. Knowledge is uncomfortable.

The one genuinely dodgy bit is time-of-use tariffs — some folk get nudged onto them automatically after smart meter install and if you've never thought about when you use power, you can absolutely end up worse off. Worth your sister checking exactly what tariff she's actually on now versus before.