Rogue Smart meters

dogshome

There a lot of posts reporting failed Smart meters and even worse those that rack up use when there is none, and this problem extends to non-smart Digital meters.

Analogue meters were much more reliable, but expensive to manufacture so the industry embraced cheaper to make Digital meters with open arms. -                                                 The problem is: How cheap is cheap.

When purchasing meters, the prime decision the networks make is "How Much", which causes the makers to pare things down to a minimum and we see the same makes and models coming up on complaint threads, timer after time

It wouldn't be so bad if it were not for our suppliers, who appear to take a universal line in that, "It can't be the meter, the readings are correct, PAY THE BILL" and " OK, we'll check the meter and that will be £120 please"

If you have, or have had, a problem meter, please give a short explanation of what went wrong, and  the Meter Maker and Model Number

Hopefully this will build up a library of the rogues, till we get the point that where customers accepting a Digital meter can refuse a particular meter, which will then trigger action from the energy suppliers

Matthaus73

I had a Landis & gyr 310p gas meter.
Was massively over reading some days (upto 48m3) then registering nothing the next ,also went up when gas mains was off.
Energy company told me this was all normal and just doubled my direct debit payments.
Had to go to Ombudsman to get things sorted. 

elementary

I had a Landis + Gyr Libra 310P gas meter. Before it was removed it registered an equivalent rate of over 150m3/day with the gas isolated and over 200m3/day with it on. These flow rates are higher than the Qmax of the meter.

It was still going up after being removed by the engineer and has been taken away for independent testing.

Update:
The meter test has been completed and the meter certified defective.

dogshome

Landis + Gyr Libra 310P certainly in the frame, as this was the one involved in a problem my neighbor had.

However, there are than a few meter manufacturers - PLEASE KEEP POSTING

debtdragon

Hi I am having lots of problems with my Electricity Smart Meter from Ovo.  It is a Secure Liberty 100 (see pic below).  The first one they installed worked fine for about a year and then completely failed with the screen blank and no response to any buttons.  The Gas Smart Meter continued to work, but since it communicates through the Electricity Meter, no readings were getting through to Ovo.  Strangely, Ovo did not flag this up and I did not notice that they were using estimated meter readings for a number of months.
Eventually, Ovo replaced the meter, but they can't get the new one to communicate blaming poor local mobile signal and thick walls!  They can't explain why the first one worked fine for a year.  Anyway, I was resigned to just taking manual readings again.
But I have now noticed that the meter seems to be over-reading and my recorded electricity consumption for the 7 months since the replacement meter was installed is 7318 kWh which equates to 12545 kWh per year.  According to Ovo's website an average UK detached house consumes 4153 kWh per year, so I am apparently using 3 times the national average!  We are just a regular family, 2 adults, 2 kids, with normal domestic appliances, we don't use electric heaters or tumble driers.
I am very worried I am going to get stung with a massive electricity bill.  Ovo have been contacted, I will report back with developments.

Robin9

debtdragon - what was the consumption as recorded by the original meter ?   You can use this as an argument with OVO.

debtdragon

Robin9 said:

debtdragon - what was the consumption as recorded by the original meter ?   You can use this as an argument with OVO.

Our average monthly consumption with the previous meter was 434 kWh per month. Average consumption since installation of the new meter is 1045 kWh per month, that’s 2.4 times our historic rate of consumption!

Just received a short fob-off email from Ovo 4 days after my initial complaint, I have replied with the above details and insisted on a rapid resolution.  Their website says meter reading disputes can take up to 12 weeks to resolve!  Hopefully this will be quicker than that.  I'll keep you posted...

HornetSaver

Landis + Gyr Libra 310P root cause of my misery as well. And will be the root cause of British Gas's if they fail to immediately pull their fingers out with an appointment next Tuesday.

MWT

My Landis+Gyr G470 is still doing the occasional unexplained spike, but not enough to affect the bill meaningfully. Ignore the 'kWh' reference, it is wrong, the readings are m3 ...

The meter is glitching, just not enough to need intervention at this point.

Talldave

Is there enough Libra 310P evidence to get Watchdog interested?

debtdragon

Hi all, as promised, an update on my complaint with Ovo... 
Firstly, I have to say the Ovo customer service guys I have dealt with have been pretty good.  My advice would be don't bother emailing, use the phone number and talk to a human.  Following the first call 7 days ago Ovo changed my Smart Meter readings from monthly to every 30 minutes (they need your permission to do this apparently). This seems to have overcome the issues of weak communications signals as even if some of the readings fail to send to Ovo, at least some of them successfully transmit.
Also, for the last 7 days I have been taking my own daily meter readings; 7 days later I have established that my consumption rate is within normal range for us of about 14 kWh per 24 hrs (420 per month) and Ovo have confirmed this from their readings.
I then told him that when the replacement meter was installed how do we know that it was starting at zero kWh as the engineer did not show me the reading at the time and ask me to verify.  Ovo chap said they would have taken a photo during the commissioning of the meter and he put me on hold to check with the meter installation company.  A few minutes later he returned and it seems that the meter was not properly commissioned and no photo was taken!  He admitted at this stage, after discussion with his supervisor, that the meter was actually about 2 years old at the time of installation and based on all the evidence it is likely the meter had a residual reading on it and was not in fact zero.
My case has now been referred to Ovo Billing for a revised bill based on my average historic consumption.
I will keep you posted.
The lesson here...  Always take a photo of your meter reading if they install a new meter.