EoN and faulty meters

D_M_E

Just been helping with what appears to be a faulty meter, so decided to check my own - it's electricity that's the concern, the gas meter appears to be working normally, but who can tell when that one will fail as it was installed at the same time as the electricity one.

It's one of the dreaded Liberty 100 smart meters and today it appears to be registering over 15 times our average daily usage, cannot check with all power off because the heating needs to be on - not for me but the wife - the only thing different to our normal consumption at this time of year is a 25w television on for about an extra 4 hours per day or an extra 0.1KWH per day consumption, yet the meter appears to now be registering about an extra 12KwH or so per hour.
This is electric only and readings taken directly from the meter, not the little IHD toy.
It's probably got a failing battery so I have the pleasure of looking forward to a massively inflated ginormous bill when Eon send me one, and more of the same until the current crisis is over.
Will do another check when I can safely power down the heating (gas) and shut it off then cut the mains switch on the consumer unit, but so far by my records it's registered about treble our normal usage for the past month and rising so I think the failure has been gradual but accelerated over the past week or so and expect it to steadily increase going forward.
Not the situation I want to be in, having recently gone back to EoN who now have no information on our past consumption but now have a rogue meter to deal with and no way to resolve it for most likely about six months or so.

Gerry1

Is it showing the low battery 'b' warning icon?

MWT

I'd be surprised to find that a failing battery in an electricity meter would have the same effect as in a gas meter, even if the electricity meter even has a battery...

If you have the IHD available what does it show as your current consumption?

It may not be a generally useful tool but in cases like this it can help...

brewerdave

I thought the "smart" leccy meters took their power from the incoming supply?? ie no battery.

dogshome

High consumption can be caused by failing appliances - Fridges & Freezers are common culprits

D_M_E

Gerry1 and brewerdave - you guys are right, there's no battery, my mistake.

MWT - Don't know where the IHD is, it's buried somewhere in the garage - got to sort it anyway.

dogshome - turned off the small newish freezer we have but meter still not performing as it should, got to turn it back on.
When we go off anywhere, everything is turned off except the freezer and usage when away is around half a KwH per 24 hours with only the freezer powered up.

Readings
1st April 2445
Last night about 5 p.m. 2459
Today about 9 a.m. 2625
about noon 2825
about 10 mintes ago 14-50p.m. 2624
now, 15-13p.m. just as I'm about to press the Post Comment button 2625

Note the difference between the last two readings - meter now appears to have stopped increasing and has gone into reverse, either that or it's shot round by thousands of units and no, I didn't note the wrong numbers, they were triple checked.

Our normal consumption is usually a max of 3.1KwH per 24 hours at this time of year so add on the expected increase from extra tv - it's a 32inch LED thing rated at 25w - gives about 3.2/3.3KwH per 24 hours, a lot less than being shown by the meter.

Gerry1

Please post on the Rogue Meters thread !

Might also be worth asking MSE to flag these problems up, it seems they're not isolated, nor limited to gas meters with failing batteries.

[Deleted User]

Check the meter reading  itself, not the IHD Also make doubly sure to read the meter viewing it square on, not above or below, with a torch lighting it from above  .Secure electric  digital display is the worst one I ve seen ..The decimal point on these dreadful meters from India are the cause of many mis reads..The meters themselves are meant for small businesses and have 8 digits .First 7 are used ,not the last digit separated by a hard to see decimal point..No other electric meters like this are used in the UK domestic market showing as many as 8 digits, common in business meters 

MWT

Just in case, this video has a good description of how to read the meter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFeQ_y5LRrM

allybindahouse

I did a comparison on the MSE site a couple of months ago and EON came up as the best option for me. The quote was for £28/month which at the time seemed too cheap but I didn't query or check it. The first bill has come through with a suggested (and more realistic) monthly payment of £48. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience and where the fault is? And also whether this was in fact the best deal for me at the time - too late to go back and check now but a current comparison does come up with several cheaper (but not by vast amounts) tariffs.

Gerry1

allybindahouse said:

I did a comparison on the MSE site a couple of months ago and EON came up as the best option for me. The quote was for £28/month which at the time seemed too cheap but I didn't query or check it. The first bill has come through with a suggested (and more realistic) monthly payment of £48. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience and where the fault is? And also whether this was in fact the best deal for me at the time - too late to go back and check now but a current comparison does come up with several cheaper (but not by vast amounts) tariffs.

Welcome to the forum.

It would have been better to have started a new thread because it's a different topic and it soon gets confusing working out which reply relates to which poster.  Suggest deleting it and reposting it.  Quick answer: forget monthly DD amounts, think annual costs based on actual meter readings, and recognise that the DD is just a kitty which may or not be sufficient to pay the bill when it arrives.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay