First Utility Gas Readings.. anyone else got odd readings?

MGSteve

Despite the meter being installed in October, we've only just got the readings through on their website. The problem is there are some odd readings in there!

Apparently on the 15th of December we managed to actually return some gas to the supply network. I know I can produce a fair amount of gas from time to time (especially if Curries have been consumed), however I didn't know I could return it to the supply network.

The actual supply data shows that the reading on the 14th of December was 165.365m3, on the 15th it was 165.148m3. Ok, so it was tiny, the question is, how are we supposed to trust the accuracy of the meter if the reading is so obviously incorrect.

Never mind the fact that we were away from the 14th to the 21st and the heating was off whilst we were away, but the usage graph shows usage in common with the house being used. Ah, just realised the hot water was left on, (doh), but the heating was turned right down. Still, the heating should be the major use of gas, not heating a brand new & smaller hot water tank.

I'll ring them and see what they have to say!

It wouldn't surprise me if they took a reading at the end of February and simply generated data for the days up to that date which had no basis in fact for the various days.

Never mind the fact their reporting is incorrect anyway. The readings are taken at midnight and the reporting system shows the date for that usage data as being the day the reading was taken at midnight, not the day the gas was actually consumed (the day before).

MGSteve

Speaking to them now, they say they know the reports are a day out, but its a hard one to fix..

No its not, its simple. The code that spits the data out for the reports just needs to take one day off the reading date and it would be fixed.

Also, the charts are in m3, not much use when the invoices are in kw/hr.

About the return supply, they're going to look into it! However, what they did say was that the reading from the gas meter can be troublesome and they may not get a reading every day, so if they get two good readings a week apart, they then estimate the usage between those two good readings.

Which is why the reported usage is probably complete tosh prior to late February, where it does seem to be more accurate.

I think I'll start taking readings before I go to bed each day from the meter and see how they match up to the reported data. If they can't get 100% accurate gas readings from my gas meter, which is all of a couple of feet away from the electric meter, they really ought to scrap the system they have and get a new one. God knows what it must be like were the gas and electric meters aren't close to each other.

Next time we're both out of the house I'll turn the heating and hot water off completely as well, should be interesting to see what it reads then.

JasX

you are complaining that by introducing a 24hr delay your gas meter reading has a margin of error of up to 0.2 m3 at any one time, equivilent to about 11p worth of gas?

I'm not sure what you're expecting, your gas company to give you an extra day to pay for the 11p of gas you might not have used till then?

I think you can take moneysaving too far -> did the phone calls to complain about the 11p of extra gas not cost more than 11p?

MGSteve

No, you mis-understand, I wasn't complaining about being charged anything.

The 24 hour problem is a bug in their system, the usage is right, just shown against the wrong day in the reports.

The first point was asking how accurate their readings can be, when one day we apparently fed some gas back to the supply network as the reading was lower than the day before (and a day that we would have used some gas as we always use some).

Surely the whole point about the smart meters is their accuracy!?