What a balls up with smart meters

chippychip

Hi, I'm pulling my hair out trying to understand this problem I'm in.

Last year, when we with Iresa, we had a problem, and Iresa fitted a smart meter, but I remember the engineer saying to me " I haven't set it up nor calibrated it yet, but someone will come back, set it up and give you a console so that you can see what electricity your'e using.
Well, 9 months after, Iresa went bust, and a new company took over- Octopus energy.

They welcomed us in, and said that they will honour the DD and keep the payments the same £35 for gas, and £35 for electricity ( there's just the three of us, in a 4 bedroomed house, and we are often away most of the day ). Then they asked for a meter reading for both the gas and electricity. The gas is still on the old meter, and that was straight forward, and I read the smart meter by pressing nine, and took the 1st set of numbers off.

A few days passed, and Octopus sent us an estimated bill for 18/19.

The gas total was £470.13 a year- not bad, but we did have a brand new boiler as our old one had bitten the dust..

The electricity came to £24738.97 ... yes that's right £24738.97 per year. I nearly had a heart attack and rang Octopus.

They asked us to note down the meter readings for each day and submit them to a lady by the name od Joanna, who will sort this mess out.

But instead of getting us out of the !!!!, she said that the meter is calibrated ok, and until further notice the DD will go up to £125 per month, for now....

I tried ringing them as soon as I read the email, but they are closed now!!

What I want to know firstly is
!. how on earth do I get a console so that I can see for myself the amount of electricity used.
Failing that...
2. How do I get rid of the bloody useless smart meter?

I'm trying to sort this mess out, that Iresa started by not calibrating the meter for 9 months, and I'm trying to find out how on earth I can use so much electric!!

Help!!

Graham

matelodave

The meter does not need calibrating as they are already calibrated before they leave the factory. I;m guessing he meant that it needed synchronising or connecting with the network. Did you check your bills and meter readings at the time of the changeover and did you make sure that you recorded the info yourself.

When I've had a meter change I've been handed a card with both the old and new meter readings on it.

You wont get any different readings from using the "console" or In Home Device (IHD) than you will from pressing the button on the meter.

Did you respond to Octopus's letters/e-mails in August when IRESA went belly up. Did you read the meters and send in a reading at the time?.

Have you checked back to ensure that Octopus aren't actually working out your bill based on a combination of old anew meter readings.

Unfortunately this is what happens when you dont keep ontop of your bills, readings and statements it becomes a nightmare too try and sort it out if it goes wrong and you haven't kept your own records.

System

chippychip wrote: »

Hi, I'm pulling my hair out trying to understand this problem I'm in.

Last year, when we with Iresa, we had a problem, and Iresa fitted a smart meter, but I remember the engineer saying to me " I haven't set it up nor calibrated it yet, but someone will come back, set it up and give you a console so that you can see what electricity your'e using.
Well, 9 months after, Iresa went bust, and a new company took over- Octopus energy.

They welcomed us in, and said that they will honour the DD and keep the payments the same £35 for gas, and £35 for electricity ( there's just the three of us, in a 4 bedroomed house, and we are often away most of the day ). Then they asked for a meter reading for both the gas and electricity. The gas is still on the old meter, and that was straight forward, and I read the smart meter by pressing nine, and took the 1st set of numbers off.

A few days passed, and Octopus sent us an estimated bill for 18/19.

The gas total was £470.13 a year- not bad, but we did have a brand new boiler as our old one had bitten the dust..

The electricity came to £24738.97 ... yes that's right £24738.97 per year. I nearly had a heart attack and rang Octopus.

They asked us to note down the meter readings for each day and submit them to a lady by the name od Joanna, who will sort this mess out.

But instead of getting us out of the !!!!, she said that the meter is calibrated ok, and until further notice the DD will go up to £125 per month, for now....

I tried ringing them as soon as I read the email, but they are closed now!!

What I want to know firstly is
!. how on earth do I get a console so that I can see for myself the amount of electricity used.
Failing that...
2. How do I get rid of the bloody useless smart meter?

I'm trying to sort this mess out, that Iresa started by not calibrating the meter for 9 months, and I'm trying to find out how on earth I can use so much electric!!

Help!!

Graham

I am confused. Smart meters fitted by all suppliers are UK certified as fit for purpose before they are fitted. They do nothing more than measure energy usage. The In House Display requires tariff information from the supplier to provide meaningful information but the lack of this doesn’t change what the meter records. There is no calibration involved.

I have an Elster smart meter in a new property which was never on boarded by the Deemed Supplier. I have since moved away to a new supplier, and I just read the meter when the supplier wants a reading. A simple 99p app called Meters enables me to keep a very close eye on my usage and bills.

It is possible that you have a faulty meter (or you are reading it incorrectly) but changing it before the billing problem is solved is a recipe for further confusion. Once the problem is solved, I am sure that Octopus will change the meter if you ask them nicely. Personally, I would wait until next year when SMETS 2 meters become available. I should add that Octopus is my supplier and I can vouch for the fact that they are good at resolving problems not of their making. They corrected my meter details on the two databases in 3 weeks after one of the Big 5 failed to resolve the issue in the 3 months it had from meter fitting to first occupation.

Robin9

What reading did you give Octopus ?

I have one of these Liberty Secure meters and on pressing 9 the screen displays 0001234 (decimal) 56. in this case did you give 1234 or 123456. The latter would give rise to a bill about 100 times greater than the first. The real bill might be nearer £248 than £24387

Had you been reading your meter every month ?

chippychip

Hi, I think the meter is faulty, as the readings I gave to Octopus last week were as follows

3/11- 60 units meter reading 105051
4/11- 100 units meter reading 105111
5/11- 100 units meter reading 105211
6/11- 222 units meter reading 105414
7/11-141 units meter reading 105636
8/11- 103 units meter reading 105777

My partner lived in this house for a time with her two girls and her dad before I moved in, using the old meter at the time. She showed me a bill dated 1/03/16, and they were paying £26.00 for electric and £56.00 for gas ( he had the heating on full blast all the time!)- both from British Gas.
Now just the 3 of us it'll be £120 per month for electric and £30 for gas- how does that work out?

Graham

Robin9

chippychip wrote: »

3/11- 60 units
4/11- 100 units
5/11- 218 units
6/11- 222 units
7/11-141 units
8/11- 103 units

What were the readings - you have quoted the consumption per day ?

chippychip

Robin9 wrote: »

What were the readings - you have quoted the consumption per day ?

These are the readings I made each day, The amount we used is by the date.

Graham

Robin9

chippychip wrote: »

These are the readings I made each day, The amount we used is by the date.

Graham

Sorry Graham they aren't - the reading is what is on the meter eg 0001234.56 I suspect what you are giving us is what is on the In House Display and that is daily consumption

I am trying to determine if the meter reads your are giving your supplier are in the right format. An error in reading the meter can be significant.

[Deleted User]

Robin9 wrote: »

Sorry Graham they aren't - the reading is what is on the meter eg 0001234.56 I suspect what you are giving us is what is on the In House Display and that is daily consumption

I am trying to determine if the meter reads your are giving your supplier are in the right format. An error in reading the meter can be significant.

All the Secure Liberty meters I see Robin just have one digit, not two after the quite hard to see decimal point. I can t remember seeing any with 2 digits after the point
These meters with a decimal point are all always giving up faulty readings both from the occupiers and meter readers, just because they have a not needed decimal point in the index. . Secure Liberty meters are just about the only electric meter in use with a decimal point..just another reason why they are the worst meters in the UK, but they re cheap , so all the small suppliers use them
some FIT meters have a decimal point and they too get lots of mis reads

welshmoneylover

chippychip wrote: »

Hi, I think the meter is faulty, as the readings I gave to Octopus last week were as follows

3/11- 60 units meter reading 105051
4/11- 100 units meter reading 105111
5/11- 100 units meter reading 105211
6/11- 222 units meter reading 105414
7/11-141 units meter reading 105636
8/11- 103 units meter reading 105777

My partner lived in this house for a time with her two girls and her dad before I moved in, using the old meter at the time. She showed me a bill dated 1/03/16, and they were paying £26.00 for electric and £56.00 for gas ( he had the heating on full blast all the time!)- both from British Gas.
Now just the 3 of us it'll be £120 per month for electric and £30 for gas- how does that work out?

Graham

You do realise electricity prices have jumped massively since 2016?
£35 for electricity is far too low, you may be out during the day but you will be home during weekends and evenings when your consumption increases.

Robin9

Houbara you are correct just one number after the decimal point.

Some of these modern meters are difficult to read and i think that is what is happening here.

If the reading on 3/11 is 10505 (decimal) 1
and on 8/11 is 10577 (decimal) 7


this is 72 units not 726 and more realistic for a electric in a gas heated house.

Even so 72 units in 6 days is over 4000 units a year (a little above average but the readings are from a winter period) and would cost about £600 a year.

chippychip - any chance of a photo of your meter ?