Major issue with electricity meter

[Deleted User]

Yes, its easy to sort out by the kettle test if its not your meter.Usually the meter mix ups are in communal meter cupboards. Rule out this possibility anyway.The meter serial number being different is also very suspicious.You dont really want an engineer coming out before you have done your best to find the problem before blaming the meter because the suppliers will be billing you something like £60 if the meter is yours and seen to be functioning correctly.
If you find the kettle test not working on your meter it would be a good idea to knock on your neighbours doors, with your mobile phone and a friend handy to try the kettle test on the neighbouring flats. You may then see your meter serial number matches a neighbours.

Observer2015

sacsquacco wrote: »

Yes, its easy to sort out by the kettle test if its not your meter.Usually the meter mix ups are in communal meter cupboards. Rule out this possibility anyway.The meter serial number being different is also very suspicious.You dont really want an engineer coming out before you have done your best to find the problem before blaming the meter because the suppliers will be billing you something like £60 if the meter is yours and seen to be functioning correctly.
If you find the kettle test not working on your meter it would be a good idea to knock on your neighbours doors, with your mobile phone and a friend handy to try the kettle test on the neighbouring flats. You may then see your meter serial number matches a neighbours.

Ok. Our kettle is a Morphy Richards 3KW kettle so I presume turning that on alone for the time it takes to boil should cause the red light on my meter (if it is my meter) to blink quite quickly?

As I mentioned earlier at the present time everything is still off as I wanted to see just another marginally movement in the meter reading after being out of the flat for another 8 hours so should I do the kettle test with everything else still off?

naedanger

Observer2015 wrote: »

Hi all,

I appreciate this is a long post but I've tried to detail absolutely everything. Really grateful if you could take the time to read/review.

I'm really hoping someone can help me on the forum. I'm not overly experienced in electric meters and the like but I've done my best research wise before posting.

I recently moved in with my partner to a flat she bought from new and has been living in since May 2014. When she moved in she received paperwork from the house builder to advise her that her meeting reading was 00029 upon moving in.

Fast forward to a few months ago, let's say around August 2015 this is when I moved in with her.

My partner had never supplied meter readings before and the meter had never actually been read by a meter reader from the company. Well, that's what the company are saying anyway. My partner states that around June 2015 time it was read at her request however the company are saying they have no trace of this.

She did submit readings by phone in August when I read the meter and it was reading 31333. When she submitted these though the company have submitted 313. I can only imagine they have done this presuming the 33 on the end was after a comma or a full stop, but it wasn't.

I didn't think anything of the reading I gave my partner of 31333 as I didn't realize that the meter would have been 0 to start with when the property was built. (Silly mistake)

Anyway... Fast forward to last week - she received an email looking for meter readings to be submitted and forwarded this to me to take care of.

I went out and got the gas reading which looks entirely normal and matches with previous meter reader read readings (they must just come and do the gas when they are in the area as the gas meter is outside so easy access, where as someone would need to be home for them to get into the flat) and then I read the electricity reading which is where the major problem lies.

The electricity reading was 31939. Yes, 31939... There are no commas, no full stops or anything on the display and it is a digital single meter, so no buttons to bring up more numbers.

Now whilst the variance between 31939 and 31333 seems normal over a 3 month period I'm at a loss as to what could have caused the reading to go from 00029 to 31333 between May 2014 and August 2015 and I'm not really sure what to do!!

The company are sending out a fault engineer to look at the meter on Monday but I'm not confident there will be a fault as it seems from reading that this is rather rare?

Last night before bed I took the reading again and it was 31944 and switched off everything with the exception of the TV (sky+), our phone chargers, the boiler and the fridge freezer. I woke this morning (8 hours later) to see it had only moved forward to 31945 so that would appear normal?

I've done the same when i've left today so expect when I go home (in another 8 hours) for it to have moved forward 1 or 2 points again.

If that has happened by the time I go home I plan on each night trying a room at a time to see what's causing the meter to go really fast and then isolate each appliance in that room to work out if there is a particular one causing the problem?

Is there anything else I can do? What do I do if I find there is a particular appliance at fault here?

You'll understand my partner and I are concerned about the potential bill we may be liable for. I used some online calculator and worked this out to be around £4,500...

Thank you all so much for your time and I hope you can help.

Just a thought.

I wonder if the reading when you first moved in was much, much higher than 29 e.g. more like 31029 but that the supplier also thought the initial reading was 29. When they received your first reading of 31333 they thought this was likely a mistake (as the usage seemed too high) and assumed you had given a reading with 2 decimal places. And only now that you are insisting your meter is correct is the original problem coming to light.

I hope this is not the problem as it will probably take some time to sort out. (But even if that is the problem it should get sorted out eventually, though it may take a bit of correspondence.)

(Ideally the problem is the meter is badly designed and there should be a decimal point showing, or there is a meter fault. Your testing should identify if these are likely.)

Observer2015

naedanger wrote: »

Just a thought.

I wonder if the reading when you first moved in was much, much higher than 29 e.g. more like 31029 but that the supplier also thought the initial reading was 29. When they received your first reading of 31333 they thought this was likely a mistake (as the usage seemed too high) and assumed you had given a reading with 2 decimal places. And only now that you are insisting your meter is correct is the original problem coming to light.

I hope this is not the problem as it will probably take some time to sort out. (But even if that is the problem it should get sorted out eventually, though it may take a bit of correspondence.)

(Ideally the problem is the meter is badly designed and there should be a decimal point showing, or there is a meter fault. Your testing should identify if these are likely.)

I did think this myself but I'm told that with new builds the meters start at 00000 - which did make sense to me?

Is that not always the case?

[Deleted User]

Yes, the red light will start to flash almost instantaneously , and stop when it switches off.It doesnt matter if other stuff is on at the same time. 3kw is adequate. If it does turn out to be your meter then the problem is still there. When a meter check is requested, to do the job correctly they have to wire in another meter alongside the other. There is no cost to this if the meter is found to be faulty but they will bill you if its ok.
Have a read through that other thread I mentioned because the end result of that was deemed a fault on the Ampy meter ( or Landys and Gyr )..I often find this particular meter faulty. It go s blank losing all the readings but before it go`s blank its been known to increase the units wildly`

naedanger

Observer2015 wrote: »

I did think this myself but I'm told that with new builds the meters start at 00000 - which did make sense to me?

Is that not always the case?

I don't know. (My guess is that even if that is nearly always true there may be rare exceptions e.g. returned, non zero-ised, meters occasionally being used etc.)

Actually the meters being mixed up seems a real possibility. Can you see a number of meters or just your own?

[Deleted User]

Observer2015 wrote: »

I did think this myself but I'm told that with new builds the meters start at 00000 - which did make sense to me?

Is that not always the case?

With electric meters new builds will usually start with a new meter at 00000 with maybe up to 200 units or so on the meters with builders using power and brewing up.Gas meters are different and its not uncommon to use a fairly new meter in new builds.The little Ampy/Landys and Gyr meters are cheap to buy at no more than £20 each so not really cost effective to use a second hand one.

Observer2015

sacsquacco wrote: »

Yes, the red light will start to flash almost instantaneously , and stop when it switches off.It doesnt matter if other stuff is on at the same time. 3kw is adequate. If it does turn out to be your meter then the problem is still there. When a meter check is requested, to do the job correctly they have to wire in another meter alongside the other. There is no cost to this if the meter is found to be faulty but they will bill you if its ok.
Have a read through that other thread I mentioned because the end result of that was deemed a fault on the Ampy meter ( or Landys and Gyr )..I often find this particular meter faulty. It go s blank losing all the readings but before it go`s blank its been known to increase the units wildly`

Ok - I'll do the kettle test when I get home today. I tried to find this other thread but I'm not sure if I'm just not using the right search criterias but I can't seem to find it.

naedanger wrote: »

I don't know. (My guess is that even if that is nearly always true there may be rare exceptions e.g. returned, non zero-ised, meters occasionally being used etc.)

Actually the meters being mixed up seems a real possibility. Can you see a number of meters or just your own?

Sadly I can only see my own meter as they are inside each of the flats.

These are brand new flats, however, there are more and more pieces coming into the jigsaw at the moment as I've just been told by our neighbour upstairs when he first moved in the meter in his cupboard was for his neighbour across the ways flat. So that does make me think that it is likely they have wired it up wrong but I don't want to bank on that just yet. If that is what has happened though I'm slightly concerned at the neighbour across the ways electricity usage!!

sacsquacco wrote: »

With electric meters new builds will usually start with a new meter at 00000 with maybe up to 200 units or so on the meters with builders using power and brewing up.Gas meters are different and its not uncommon to use a fairly new meter in new builds.The little Ampy/Landys and Gyr meters are cheap to buy at no more than £20 each so not really cost effective to use a second hand one.

That makes sense - thanks

Observer2015

Observer2015 wrote: »

Ok - I'll do the kettle test when I get home today. I tried to find this other thread but I'm not sure if I'm just not using the right search criterias but I can't seem to find it.

Managed to trace this thread but nothing further in it that I think will help me.

How do I know the year of manufacture of my metre?

molerat

Observer2015 wrote: »

Managed to trace this thread but nothing further in it that I think will help me.

How do I know the year of manufacture of my metre?

It should be printed on the front, mine has it several times.