E.on meter responsibility

crumpsall

[FONT=&quot]I get my electricity from e.on. I have been keeping a reasonably close eye on meter readings as we had PV panels installed in December. I took an 'incoming' reading on 23 Jan and then again on 3rd Feb. When I again took it on 15th Feb, it was exactly the same as on the 3rd. The meter shows a continuous light rather than the normal blinking light. I have therefore concluded that the meter stopped working sometime between those two dates but have no idea when. I advised E.on via their web site on 6th Feb and received a reply saying that they would get back to me within 5 days. They didn't. I thene-mailed them on 27th Feb with a copy of the original report and asking for a response. No acknowledgement, but the email didn't bounce so I assume that they have received it.. No word to date (7March). My concern is that, when they eventually get round to responding, they will try to estimate the amount of electricity used in some way. But - they have no way of knowing when exactly the meter packed up (obviously btn 23/2 and 3/2. Nor do I know how they would estimate usage as, compared with the same period last year, (1) the winter has been warmer (2) we've had the house double glazed and installed additional insulation (3) installed a 4Kw PV system (4) bought some new energy efficient appliances including new dishwasher.
Given that I have now advised them twice, would I be within my rights to refuse to accept any charge from them since the meter broke down?

Any advice would be welcome.[/FONT]

[Deleted User]

Hi, I see that a lot now with solar panels with digital meters especially through the day when only light electric is being used.The meter shows a constant on light rather than any flashing.I have been told that it denotes no load on your household electric and your panels are covering all your supply and imputting into the grid. There could be some fault on the meter though as I cannot see the panels covering all your electric needs in the winter months.Personally I dont think you could expect the supplier to pay for any meter faults. I find a faulty electric meter at least once a week (one stopped today, one blank screen yesterday) and in these cases they always use estimates to cover the time of the faults

Terrylw1

Yes, they do estimate based on any data they have which can be a similar quarter or anything if data is very poor. However, they can also install the replacement meter and monitor that for 7 days and then work it out. If they don't have much data, this would be perhaps more accurate if they deal with it now.

If its a very short period, they can charge you and apologise but given its not too long, a gesture of goodwill for the lack of help from them might wipe out a fair but of the estimate and since they can't ever prove an estimate to be correct, they may agree to a write off to cover a short period.

So, if you make a complaint out of it, make them aware that you have told them several times so you are not happy with estimated because they didnt follow it up. The guaranteed standards tell them they should be getting someone out there within 10 days from your report, so perhaps your first date plus 10 days is the point where your liability ends? They can refuse this easily and just give you a goodwill gesture, but its a very short period and if you haven't used much, they may decide they would prefer to shut a complaint down as they have bigger issues to deal. You can try.

spiro

Did you advise your supplier you have had PV installed? Some meters are not designed to handle 'export' energy and may have to be changed before generation is installed.

Inspectorman

As spiro mentioned - have you informed e.on of your pv install?? As in most cases a new meter gets installed

utility_csa

Pretty sure red lights means no load / reverse energy flow.

Really annoys me this does, you should be having a dedicated generation meter, or atleast a imp/exp smart meter.

Ich_2

Most meters in common use are reverse flow protected as a theft control measure, so if the meter is not changed when PV is installed there is actually no way of measuring the output to the network.
If it isn't measured how can you recover any money from the sale of it!

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Ich wrote: »

If it isn't measured how can you recover any money from the sale of it!

Many (most?) people with PV systems are signed up to a system where it is deemed that 50% of your generated electricity is sold back to the grid. There is often (usually?) only a meter to measure generated power rather than exported power which is divided by 2 to provide the assumed exported value.