Random gas use spikes?

Daniel1111

My new smart meter seems to react instantly, ie, toaster went on and the electric usage on the meter went up. But the gas is still confusing me: for example, it says there was a big use of gas between midnight and 1am last night but the heating was off and nobody was up to use any hot water or the stove. There would have been no opportunities or reason for the gas to have come on, and the use it is registering is quite huge. The heating went off at 10pm so can't really be a lag either.

I'm so confused. Any thoughts on what I could look into and investigate to try to solve this little mystery?

tim_p

Maybe start by physically reading your gas meter a couple of times a day, same time each day for a week or so, you’ll soon get a handle on usage. So, take a morning reading and an evening reading and record in a spreadsheet. 

st999

It will be the standing charge.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

yup, daily standing charge kicks in just after midnight and shows a spike on you IHD.

Daniel1111

Aha! Mystery solved - thank you very much!

One other small question, this morning I noticed the gas usage stopped transmitting to the meter (it was working, then I checked again and it wasn't, and 15 min later when I left for work, it still wasn't). But the electric aspect was still going. Is it normal for it to "fall out" like that? It's the first time I have noticed that over the last few days.

matelodave

The gas meter has to rely on an inbuilt battery so in order to conserve energy it only sends a reading once every 30 minutes.
The leccy meter which derives it's power from the incoming mains supply collects the gas reading together with it's own readings(which are taken much more frequently) and transmits them to your IHD and the energy company. That's why there's a lag in the gas readings.

MWT

Daniel1111 said:

One other small question, this morning I noticed the gas usage stopped transmitting to the meter (it was working, then I checked again and it wasn't, and 15 min later when I left for work, it still wasn't). But the electric aspect was still going. Is it normal for it to "fall out" like that? It's the first time I have noticed that over the last few days.

Don't confuse the little display they give you and the smart meter.

The display (IHD) is not the meter. The IHD connects to the meter and may at times lose that connection especially if it is some distance from the meter.

Sometimes it helps to just power-off the IHD and power it back on again, but mostly just leaving it alone will restore normal service.

victor2

matelodave said:

The gas meter has to rely on an inbuilt battery so in order to conserve energy it only sends a reading once every 30 minutes.
The leccy meter which derives it's power from the incoming mains supply collects the gas reading together with it's own readings(which are taken much more frequently) and transmits them to your IHD and the energy company. That's why there's a lag in the gas readings.

The above illustrates how useless the IHD is for monitoring your gas usage at any particular point in time. If, at the 30 minute reading interval, your gas boiler is fired and heating water, that level of consumption will show on the IHD for the next 30 minutes, even if the boiler was only heating for a matter of seconds. Similarly, if the boiler comes on during the 30 minute interval, but was off at the last communication to the electric meter (and then to the IHD) , the IHD will show no gas usage. Over longer periods of time (such as daily) it is more accurate, as the IHD should show usage based on the meter readings transmitted.

Since most IHDs by default show a shot of "current usage", it is meaningless for gas, although much more accurate for electricity, as that updates the IHD about once every 10 seconds or so.

Daniel1111

Interesting. So at the end of each day, I should have an accurate reading for the gas use and cost for that day?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

if you want to be accurate, set up a spreadsheet, daily /weekly/ monthly readings of the actual meter, and keep an eye on your usage.

matelodave

Daniel1111 said:

Interesting. So at the end of each day, I should have an accurate reading for the gas use and cost for that day?

not really - it depend when the meter rolls over to the next day. If you want an accurate reading then you have to read the meter directly, not by the IHD. You cannot rely of the costs that the IHD give either - that info is not stored in the meter but downloaded from the supplier at some random time so there's obviously a delay between when the supplier gets the meter reading, processes it and then send it back to the IHD.

You may also find that things like the standing charge and any discounts dont always get included - our IHD was programmed with a fixed standing charge that was miles different from the one we were paying. Likewise the online daily info was only updated 24 hours in arrears and the actual account statement only got updated once a quarter, so in general, it was a waste of time.

As frugal says if you want accurate info, read the meters yourself, not the IHD and keep your own spreadsheet, you can then do your own sums. It's also useful info for when something goes wrong because you've got your own record