- Location
- Northampton
Perhaps the calorie count is for a napkin which is out of shot.
NWR Silly Little Things That Annoy You
- Thread starter Adam Holland
- Start date
- Location
- Manchester
You have to know the correct button to press on mine, which then shows the 7(?) digit number for half a second - in a dimly lit corner of my garage, well above my natural line of sight.
I've also given up on using the separate screen/app that comes with smart meters. Last time I checked it, could analyse data in many ways I was not interested in, but you could not get the current meter reading from it.
Probably I need to get it to talk to my (non-existent) cloud-based voice service - "Alexa, what is my electricity meter reading?" - so the usability approaches what it was was when you could read the numbers from dials.
- Location
- Deep South of Cambridgeshire
For me to get the readings, I have to hold down button B for 10 seconds and then (still holding button B) tap button A. This will switch between rate 1 and rate 2.
I'm on an Octopus Smart Tariff group on Facebook and was amused to hear one guy, who claims to install smart meters for a living, say he couldn't get them all to work!
- Location
- Northampton
Need to be an Octopus to do that Alex
- Location
- Manchester
That sort of nonsense goes beyond "a silly little thing that annoys me". When we could make things simple, what propeller-head thought that was a good idea? And even "simple" solutions like Alexa involve layer upon layer of technology, which is fine when it all works, but a nightmare when something goes wrong. I am far from being a technophobe (give me an API and I'll write my own code to display the meter reading) but I seriously fear for the future when I see the direction of travel for unnecessary complexity of end-user devices/equipment.
- Location
- Holmfirth
Button A and Button B - it sounds like the old telephone boxes from when there were 240 pennies to £1.
- Location
- Herefordshire
Being forced to watch manifest on Netflix (bad enough in itself, although easy enough to bomb out to late on an evening), but then the latest episode really crashed into my champagne armour : multiple bottles of champagne being injected with a sedative by using a syringe + needle into the top of the cork….
- Location
- Dorset, England
Producers who regularly change the colour/design of their capsules. J'accuse: Ch. Beaumont.
- Location
- Nottingham
In the good old days before so-called "smart" meters you just read the numbers on the dials.
It's similar with weighing scales. I have an electronic one which I hardly ever use because it's fiddly to use and difficult to read, so I use the old-fashioned sort with 1 2 4 8 16 Oz weights.
It's similar with weighing scales. I have an electronic one which I hardly ever use because it's fiddly to use and difficult to read, so I use the old-fashioned sort with 1 2 4 8 16 Oz weights.
- Location
- Kent
“Smart” anything … from meters to motorways via phones
- Location
- London
I'm thrilled with my current , and I hope last, digital scale, which runs off the mains, in conjunction with a drug dealer's gram scale which reads hundredths of a gram.
- Location
- Manchester
Yup. 240d in fact.
The difference is that the buttons in old telephone boxes were 1) big, 2) silver on a black background, and 3) clearly labelled. Additionally, 4) instructions were displayed in the phone box, 5) the phone itself was a familiar type, 6) it was clear where the money was to go in, and 7) if you got your coins back they made a loud clunking noise and you could see where they were.
It was almost as if someone had spent at least an hour considering how to make it easy to use.
Image attached for the benefit of the young whipper-snappers of the forum.
Last edited:
- Location
- Manchester
I've just seen the Panorama documentary about EVs. It sounds like a horrendous experience using the public chargers. Is there any reason apps and web forms are necessary? What is wrong with just paying by credit card at the machine? Apart from, of course, the companies owning the chargers not being able to track you round the country and spam you with alerts and emails.
- Location
- London
Apps generally.
- Location
- Herts
My wife’s card gets declined every time she uses a Shell recharge point at Waitrose, and has to ring to be disconnected each time. Wondering if is to do with contactless limit. Regularly have to try multiple chargers before one works.
- Location
- Northampton
The advance of badly implemented Tech.
It seems to me that many of us of this parish experience this invasion on an ever increasing scale.
Waking up to check your smart meter, having charged the EV ready for the treacherous trip on a smart motorway, but only as far as the inoperative super charger.
Never mind, that soothing imaginary glass from the L&W stored cellar will help prepare one for the ongoing tussle with the self service checkout of groceries that can only be secured at a not totally stupid price by using the loyalty app
It seems to me that many of us of this parish experience this invasion on an ever increasing scale.
Waking up to check your smart meter, having charged the EV ready for the treacherous trip on a smart motorway, but only as far as the inoperative super charger.
Never mind, that soothing imaginary glass from the L&W stored cellar will help prepare one for the ongoing tussle with the self service checkout of groceries that can only be secured at a not totally stupid price by using the loyalty app
- Location
- London
I don't really know what an app is and certainly don't have any. I intend that it should stay that way; at my age I positively enjoy being excluded.
- Location
- Northampton
Had a problem with a mains powered alarm some while ago - unfortunately when I went to replace the battery I found the el cheapo PP3 that had been fitted originally had leaked and destroyed the battery contacts, and I needed a new alarm.
only good thing was that I was able to buy an identical one so didn't need to get an electrician to replace the housing on the ceiling...
Yesterday had another batch of beeps - wasted loads of time looking at smoke alarms but then discovered it was the DECT phone telling me the charger had failed!
- Location
- London
This is one is ultimately very silly and perhaps mean spirited, but here goes anyway. We are visiting the in laws in Malaysia. She is an obsessive cleaner. I like to keep a water glass for the duration of the evening. However, it has proven impossible to do so. If I leave it for a moment, boom, gone, and washed and back in the rack. I have started to leave it next to me at all times (usually next to my whiskey glass! ). Inevitably, I need to use the toilet. Then, bam, water glass gone but whiskey glass remains untouched!
- Location
- York, UK
And. You get judged on a whole week’s menu in order to be allowed to get to a final in which you hope to get one dish in the event. So many great dishes simply don’t get to final as other courses were poor. Crazy format.
- Location
- Deep South of Cambridgeshire
This reminds me of a limerick in the Blue Peter limerick competition book. Something a bit like...
A woman who lived in Athlone
Made a call from a public phone
She pressed button B
And much to her glee
Got tuppence that wasn't her own
....it didn't make much sense to me at the time (I was about 7 years old). I went around looking for phone boxes that had a "button B" so I could see if I could get some free money!
- Location
- Manchester
x
But I don't remember any stories about bugs - the system always worked as documented.
Yes, I vaguely remember that too, and arguably it was a flaw in the UI. There were also "the beeps" when you had only a few seconds remaining to decide whether to say a quick goodbye or put another coin in the slot. I suppose that was not a great feature either.
But I don't remember any stories about bugs - the system always worked as documented.
- Location
- Deep South of Cambridgeshire
I guess the thing about smart meters is that they were never designed to be read by consumers. The idea is that they talk to the network. I've no idea why a manual meter reading is needed. I suspect it's something to do with inter-departmental warfare in the energy companies!
- Location
- Northampton
Smart metering of energy and water has been a total fiasco.
You really do need to be able to see and submit readings.
- Location
- Deep South of Cambridgeshire
I can understand the "see" bit - for your own sense of audit, but why can't they access that data remotely?
Octopus Energy FAQs