Smart Meters - Ask me anything!

Bargainhunter777

Hi. I switched to First Utility in Oct 2017 and they installed smart meters. Everything was fine until i decided to switch to E.on in October last year (2018). I gave final readings to E.on when requested. I have now been asked for up to date readings and have discovered that there is a problem with my gas meter readings. I gave E.on a final reading at the end of October of 6877. The current reading 9333. However First Utility gave a final reading of 620 and this is the one that E.on accepted. No one told me there was a huge difference between our readings. First Utility are insistent that their reading it is correct. This means I have used 8713 gas since the end of October! And that I only used 620 in the whole of the previous year! My average annual usage has been 6,500.
Unfortunately I never looked at my meter since the smart meter was installed. My monthly payments with First Utility were based on usage with my previous supplier and I was only £14 in credit at the end of my year with them. Do you know if it's possible for smart meters to transmit wrong readings? Thank you.

Anthorn

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Question: does the Smart Meter intelligently convert from Units to kWh? Are the variable conversion factors downloaded to the meter?

The smart meter doesn't but the in-home display does. Or at least my Scottish Power in-home display did.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Bargainhunter777 wrote: »

Hi. I switched to First Utility in Oct 2017 and they installed smart meters. Everything was fine until i decided to switch to E.on in October last year (2018). I gave final readings to E.on when requested. I have now been asked for up to date readings and have discovered that there is a problem with my gas meter readings. I gave E.on a final reading at the end of October of 6877. The current reading 9333. However First Utility gave a final reading of 620 and this is the one that E.on accepted. No one told me there was a huge difference between our readings. First Utility are insistent that their reading it is correct. This means I have used 8713 gas since the end of October! And that I only used 620 in the whole of the previous year! My average annual usage has been 6,500.
Unfortunately I never looked at my meter since the smart meter was installed. My monthly payments with First Utility were based on usage with my previous supplier and I was only £14 in credit at the end of my year with them. Do you know if it's possible for smart meters to transmit wrong readings? Thank you.

Hello Bargainhunter777 and thanks for joining us.

Following a change of supplier, discrepancies on opening/closing readings like you describe can be challenged using what's known as an Agreed Reads Dispute (ARD). This is an industry wide procedure where the two suppliers re-agree these readings and re-submit them.

Please contact us with an up to date reading and we'll be happy to raise an ARD on your account. Once sorted and given your figures, we'll charge you for less units whilst the old supplier will charge for more. An ARD can take up to 28 days to fix.

It's important our opening readings match the former supplier's closing readings. This makes sure the same energy is only charged once.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction Bargainhunter777.

Malc

C_Mababejive

Regarding credit meters such as the white Landis and Gyr series,,can they really be trusted to measure accurately? They are not positive displacement meters, they are inferential meters. That means they are incapable of positively measuring the volume of gas they pass.

Hampshire_123

Hello!

Can anyone help me please. My electric meter is in a really prominent place in my kitchen. I arranged to have a smart meter fitted prior to ordering a new kitchen, as the units will be fitted around it. Unfortunately the engineer arrived at a different time than expected and someone else let them in and failed to ask any questions! The engineer said he couldn't put the meter in the current cupboard, but could put it below it. This would ruin the new kitchen! Electric company say that I need a 5 terminal meter but do not understand why the engineer couldn't fit that in the same footprint as my old meter. Can anyone shed any light on this please? I now have to wait a month for an engineer to come out and have a kitchen design waiting on it. I have storage heaters and economy 7.

I'm only having the smart meter to future proof the kitchen as I'm worried it will become compulsory to have one. Perhaps I should just continue with the old meter, which was only fitted in 2016.

Thank you

Steve_1234

Hi,

Whats the state with the British Gas rollout - in terms of what kind of smart meters are they using right now?

Are they SMETS1 / SMETS 2 / OTA upgradeable to SMETS2 / Other???

MeterMan

Steve_1234 wrote: »

Hi,

Whats the state with the British Gas rollout - in terms of what kind of smart meters are they using right now?

Are they SMETS1 / SMETS 2 / OTA upgradeable to SMETS2 / Other???

Southern and Central region are fitting smets2 gas and electric meters, Northern region are fitting smet2 Gas only/first (not electric, no word on when) and Smet1 for dual fuel/electric work. smet1 meter can not be upgraded to smet2 as smet2 use radio waves to communicate directly with DCC and smet1 use sim cards to communicate with the supplier. In the far future, I imagine the smet1 data will be sent to the DCC..... When they pull their fingers out.

Mister_G

MeterMan wrote: »

Southern and Central region are fitting smets2 gas and electric meters, Northern region are fitting smet2 Gas only/first (not electric, no word on when) and Smet1 for dual fuel/electric work. smet1 meter can not be upgraded to smet2 as smet2 use radio waves to communicate directly with DCC and smet1 use sim cards to communicate with the supplier. In the far future, I imagine the smet1 data will be sent to the DCC..... When they pull their fingers out.

All smart meters, be they SMETS1 or SMETS2 use 'radio waves' to communicate their information back to the supplier.

The difference is that SMETS1 solely uses the mobile phone network (various providers), whereas SMETS2 uses the DCC (Data Communications Company). In the South and Midlands this uses the O2 mobile network, in the North and Scotland it uses a purpose built network, operated by Arqiva.

Hugh3lf

There seems to be a lot of speculation that Smart Meters charge more for Electricity because they take into account Power Factor, whereas the old Meters didn't. I thought both Meters Billed for KW consumed - so therefore no difference? I assume the inference is that Smart Meters are billing for KVA not KW? Grateful for any info you can supply.

nick74

Hugh3lf wrote: »

There seems to be a lot of speculation that Smart Meters charge more for Electricity because they take into account Power Factor, whereas the old Meters didn't. I thought both Meters Billed for KW consumed - so therefore no difference? I assume the inference is that Smart Meters are billing for KVA not KW? Grateful for any info you can supply.

The speculation is that domestic smart electricity meters could in theory, at some point in the future, be configured to measure power factor. There are no domestic smart meters currently in use in the UK which bill like this. They measure solely in kWh, just like old meters do.