Intermittent gas meter fault?

uk1

macman wrote: »

You'll be charged only if the meter proves to be within tolerance.

Thanks - they really should have told me! How much do the tests cost please?

ValHaller

The other posibility which crosses my mind is - given that the meter is outside - that someone has taken your meter and left you their higher reading meter. Check serial numbers against the bill.

insanegloss

All good points above.

With regards to accuracy, mechanical meters are extremely rare to be faulty and if so are only marginally out <5%. Electronic on the other hand are rare to go wrong also, but I've seen them go spazzy crazy and in those cases we would just agree an estimated read and change the meter.

Cost of the tests are approx £65.

uk1

Thanks for all your help and patience ....

It's a digital meter.

In fact the meter number is slightly different .. a one digit difference the final number on the meter being 7 and on the bill a 1. It as a relatively new estate and I don't know whether consecutive numbers would have come out of a box. There are one or two people here I cold imagine doing such things ... but the numbers being so similar makes it loo like a mistype. Perhaps it may give me a technical dispute if everything else fails? Are meter readers expected to cross reference meter numbers?

I can't imagine a leak is a real possibility. The houses are mews houses only 12 feet wide and I cannot imagine that a £1000 worth of escaping gas would produce no smell at all ... or an explosion:eek:.

What I don't understand is if they say there isn't a fault with the meter what happens next. Nothing ever invented is incapable of an intermittent fault ... cars, people, toasters .... so saying it is 100% certainly un faulty is a concern.

I guess I'll just have to see how things pan out.

insanegloss

Given what you mentioned about serial numbers, sounds supsciously like crossed meters to me. Advise you supplier of the correct serial number and they should be able to sort it.

Also it wouldn't be a intentional thing, if they are new builds its fairly common mix ups to occur at plot to postal changes.

Does your meter read match that on the bill?

ValHaller

insanegloss wrote: »

Given what you mentioned about serial numbers, sounds supsciously like crossed meters to me. Advise you supplier of the correct serial number and they should be able to sort it.

As I am reading OP, it is their own physical readings which are causing an issue.

uk1 wrote: »

When we left the house on 20/6/2013 we read the meter as 8180 and when we arrived a few days ago it was 10660.

macman

uk1 wrote: »

Thanks - they really should have told me! How much do the tests cost please?

Or you could have asked? The tests aren't charged. You'll be charged for a meter replacement if within tolerance.
As above, around £65.

macman

So two issues here. Crossed meters does not explain the rate of increase in the meter reading!

uk1

Just a very short update to the thread.


This was a complete nightmare and if I were to live long enough to document fully npower's behaviour here ... it would sound so far-fetched no one would ever believe me.


In the end the meter was tested and it was faulty. So badly it couldn't be calibrated and it was advancing when the gas was switched off. npower failed at every opportunity to deal with this and in the end after over 100 emails we had to give up and go to court.


npower sent a barrister and in spite of the barrister attempting to intimidate us outside the court and saying in the court that we were liars and then that npower wasn't legally responsible for much of their actions, the court dismissed their arguments and found in our favour. We received over £1000. The judge said he felt genuinely sorry for us and it was one of the worst accounts of customer service he had encountered.


I am now going to take this issue and some of their comments to ofgem so they can understand how this organisation behaves.


We are still having problems with them in trying to leave but we cannot wait to get away from them. A terrible, terrible organisation.

[Deleted User]

We have had a problem on here a few years ago of a digital gas meter, a Landys and Gyr E6 which went haywire and increased the index like yours. Engineer came and verified the fault. Some of these digital meters are designed for semi concealed boxes and sit face up. These meters are possible to misread with their very small display