Tuesday, February 17th, 2026, 4:47 pm
“Smart” Water Meters
Filed under: 
think technology is a good thing, but it depends which.
Some weeks ago I chatted with the man who came to check our electric+gas readings. It was a nice chat and a nice lad/pal. He explained that in some of his visits he encounters tampered-with meters, typically in homes that break other laws (e.g. growing weed indoors).
Thankfully we never had such meters installed. It was never obligatory (they were pushy) and our resistance paid off.
When it comes to water, however, it’s not the same. They can do anything they wish outside the home and beyond the fences. So about a month ago they forewarned everybody – by leaflet at the doors – that they’d take out the “old” (mechanical) water meters and replace them with “smart” (digital) ones.
It seems like today, belatedly, they finally did that.
Some “smart” water meters save work for the measurer, they say it is more tamper-proof, but those things can also store info (personal data) on how much water is used WHEN. So that’s a spying opportunity.
We don’t get to give water treatment (“United Utilities” in our case) firms any input on this matter, so the outlet is my blog.
