Faulty Meter

camsadge

When I moved in, in June, and took my initial meter reading my gas meter was showing 0. The meters were newly installed in January this year (Smart Meters) and when I gave my meter readings I was told maybe they didn't use gas from January till June. I have a gas boiler which powers the heating and hot water so I kept an eye on it and it did start increasing I was only living here for 2 weeks then I went away with work. While being away I switched energy supplier. Since being back, only 1 week, I have checked and my meter reading hasn't changed despite having heating on and using hot water.

Before contacting my energy supplier I would like to check what back billing rights the energy company will have as if they use average consumption for normal use since July till now this will be a lot higher than actual use as I've only been living in the property for a week during this time. How would they calculate future use until a new meter is fitted?

Also from reading online it says the energy company will take the meter away to test and if they don't find a fault I will then be charged for this. Is this still the case where I think the meter is undercharging not over charging.

Robin9

Make and model of meter please and a photo showing the display.

camsadge

Attached is a picture I'm not sure what the make and model is. 

Robin9

Do contact your supplier  it may be that they are getting the readings OK .

I understand that engineers can extract the stored info.

and yes you've used energy  - expect to pay.

camsadge

I'm willing to pay for my usage as I've only been using it for less than a week I was more worried about them using an estimated figure for the whole time I've been with them since July and no one has been living in the property. 

I can look at my energy usage online with them and the gas reading has always shown 0.

I will call them and see what they say. 

tim_p

Don’t forget you’ll owe the daily standing charge from when you took possession. Not huge in the great scheme of things but a charge nonetheless. 

Gerry1

Silly question: did you press button B ?

camsadge

Gerry1 said:

Silly question: did you press button B ?

Yes I did try pressing B it just came up with the same reading?

[Deleted User]

I have the same gas meter model as shown in your photo and I have had issues over the past 18 months when the meter has failed to record gas used, but it has still passed meter readings to the DCC and my supplier. I was told that this is a known problem with a small cohort of these meters. My meter has again stopped - after 8 months of working normally -  and it has also disconnected itself from my IHD (Gas Supply Disconnected); however, gas is still flowing. All comms hub LED lights are normal. As I also have an issue with the E470 electricity meter (reactive loads when linked to a battery), my supplier has decided to replace both my meters next week with SMETS2 meters from Kaifa. We will no doubt have a conversation about estimated charges.

Gerry1

It's double or quits time !  You could hedge your bets by doing nothing, turning the central heating up to Torrid, crossing your fingers and relying on the back billing rules.  The catch might just be that the meter was still recording and storing the readings correctly but the display was failing to update.  The correct reading could then be extracted from the optical port.  You wouldn't get an estimated bill but you'd have to pay for what you'd used.

The energy companies can certainly be unreasonable.  I noticed that the electricity meter of a very elderly relative of mine was still showing the same value as the previous reading because it had stopped spinning.  She had been in hospital for quite a while and her usage was very low.  I suspected they would insist on using an estimated figure, so i just plugged in an oil filled radiator and left it on permanently to give background heat (she gas a gas Aga).  I was very glad I had done so, because they insisted on using the previous year's figures.

I considered my action fully justified because they had been quite unreasonable; I'd argue that only the standing charges should have been payable because they couldn't provide evidence of any usage.  If they choose to cut costs by virtually scrapping meter readings then they must accept the risk that old meters get stuck.

camsadge

I decided to ring rather than hoping for it not to be working and was working there end which they said it was. My reading was 18 which I'm not sure how correct this usage would be from 5 days usage my boiler has been on for about 12 hours according to my nest thermostat. I was told that my meter should start showing again correctly as I would like to actually be able to monitor my usage to check how much I use but this still hasn't started working again.