new smart meter increases my bills?

rob6411

Good Afternoon,

I am new to all this but can someone point me in the right direction please?

I had a smart meter installed in December, mainly to help save money and to stop having to crawl into the cupboard to give readings.

Low and behold the first month i had it my bills went up. I thought that was normal, maybe the reading was a bit old and i have used more than expected since the last bill. but next month comes and the amount is still higher. We are talking a 70-80% increase since last year. I understand the price has increased due to the tariff but this was changed in September.

I have asked several times to help me understand where this price increase came from, the best explanation i have come across is "you are using more electricity". i don't buy it, the whole point of this meter is to reduce the energy usage, and it just so happens my tumble dryer died over the winter, so how on earth am i using more?

The have supported this argument with the meter readings they have received and have told me they do not feel the meter is faulty and would charge me if i insisted on a engineer to visit if he found no faults.

now where can i go from here? I do not have the know how or tech to find out my actual readings outside of what the meter is telling me. any ideas?

System

Hi - welcome to the forum. If we are talking about a replacement gas meter then check that you are being billed in the correct units. It is possible that the supplier has not updated its billing system to reflect the change. Your new smart meter will be recording gas volume in cubic metres: some old meters recorded gas volume in cubic feet.

All electric meters record kWhs so a change of meter isn’t likely to cause a problem

One further thing to check is the meter numbers on your statement agree with the serial numbers on the meter/s.

That said, there is not a smart meter in the World that is going to save you a Penny. It is after all just a meter. Savings will only be achieved if you reduce your usage.

Merlin139

The point of Smart meters is so that you can use a monitor to show how much you are using at any point in time. You then think that is a lot and go and turn some lights out or turn the temp down on your heating, etc etc.

As Hengus said you won't save a penny unless you reduce your usage.

Is it Gas or Electric that has increased? Or both?
How many extra kWh's have you used compared to last year. Do you have the usage for the same periods as last year?

Try making a note of what your usage readings are and reading the meter once a day or once a week . Then look back and see what you were using your energy for.

matelodave

Did you regularly read the meter yourself before you had a smart meter.

If not then how do you know that you are using more than you used to.

Bear in mind that you'll be using a lot more energy at this time of the year and the smart meter will be recording this every few minutes, rather than you possibly only having a meter readinging once every 3-6 months (or even longer if you never bothered to read it yourself).

You probably arent using much more energy than you did at this time last year, it's just that you are probably more aware of how much you are using because you've got up to date info rather than an average over several months.

McKneff

My meter in july was saying £1 or so a day.
My meter in january was anywhere between £3,50 and £4.

House_Martin

Sounds like the OP is complaining primarily about his electric smart meter.
If it is an Eco 7 smart meter and the bills have gone up a lot its because the OP has been getting his readings transposed, and now the smart meter is getting the billing correct because it knows night and day times to the second . Smart meters will not get the Eco 7 times wrong..ever... and if this is the case welcome to the real world OP .
If its the gas as well which has also been exchanged then its because we all use most of our gas in the winter 4 months.
The whole point of smart meters is not to save occupiers money, that can t happen.
The best smart meters can do is to help educate people, and most of them dump the IHD on day one.
Instead of wasting money on smart meter TV ads they would be better served extolling the virtues of gu10 LEDs and telling them how much electricity an electric shower and a dryer /dishwasher etc uses.
The whole point of smart meters is to allow suppliers and producers to run their businesses more efficiently and not have to waste money employing call centre staff listening to Joe Public bickering about their bills when they have nt been submitting readings for years or allowing meter readers into their premises to see our meters.
Also it will have the side effect of cutting down by a large majority of the huge amount of theft of energy in the UK

rob6411

matelodave wrote: »

Did you regularly read the meter yourself before you had a smart meter.

If not then how do you know that you are using more than you used to.

Bear in mind that you'll be using a lot more energy at this time of the year and the smart meter will be recording this every few minutes, rather than you possibly only having a meter readinging once every 3-6 months (or even longer if you never bothered to read it yourself).

You probably arent using much more energy than you did at this time last year, it's just that you are probably more aware of how much you are using because you've got up to date info rather than an average over several months.

I compared it Jan 2017 to Jan 2018. I have apparently used 150Kwh more in 2018 than i did in 2017, even though i have only made positive changes (stopped using the tumble dryer, changed to energy efficient lightbulbs, tried to keep tvs turned off).

I understand the meter wont "save" me money but it also shouldn't "cost" me money. I used to take a lot of manual readings and i asked my supplier to give me information of past energy usage. they dont think 150Kwh is a lot of change from one year to the next.

im not too fussed by gas, i expect that to be high in winter.

Helen28

150 kWh a year is less than 1/2 a kWh a day, 411 watts a day or even 17 watts an hour, half of what my Sky box uses in standby so hardly large amount.

System

rob6411 wrote: »

I compared it Jan 2017 to Jan 2018. I have apparently used 150Kwh more in 2018 than i did in 2017, even though i have only made positive changes (stopped using the tumble dryer, changed to energy efficient lightbulbs, tried to keep tvs turned off).

I understand the meter wont "save" me money but it also shouldn't "cost" me money. I used to take a lot of manual readings and i asked my supplier to give me information of past energy usage. they dont think 150Kwh is a lot of change from one year to the next.

im not too fussed by gas, i expect that to be high in winter.

What level of annual usage are we talking about? How are you calculating your annual usage? Is it based on information from your supplier: if so, this may account for the difference. I always use actual meter readings a year apart to monitor my usage.

badmemory

Have you checked to make sure they haven't put you on the standard tariff when they changed the meter.

In_Cider

It may seem like a daft question, but do you have solar panels fitted to your home?