Smart meter accuracy

darrude

Just got a quote for energy switch based on last 12 months usage, and nearly feel of my seat, and now just received a final bill from my current supplier with is shocking.

We moved into this house in 2016 in the first 12 months usage was:
GAS: 11,300KWH
Elect: 5950KWH.

our usage for past 12 months:
GAS: 32,850 KWH
Elec: 8760 KWH

2 adults 2 kids, with Playstations, no electric heating over than oven.  

in terms of changes inside the house what I think would cause increase:
children older so slightly more washing / showering / cooking.
both work from home Covid (gas heating on longer + work computers)
CCTV and alarm installed

changes causing a decrease.

outside decorative lighting removed.
all security lights changed to PIR and LED
New insulated hot water tank.
71 50 halogen down lights swapped to 5w led.
Open fireplace swapped to coal stove, thermostat for central heating moved into living room so fire on turns heating off (also using it throughout winter).
Cause of damp in house repaired, no longer requiring use of de humidifiers (had 2 high power ones until 12 months ago).

We don't have patio heaters / hot tubs etc.

One thing I have found looking at old bills, when the smart meters were installed is when usage shot up, literally the month after on the bills the estimated annual consumption doubled for both, before that I was quite fastidious with readings so trust the previous estimates to be reasonably accurate (stopped thinking I don't have to know with a smart meter). 

I bought a 'clamp on style' energy monitor and it is generally reading 50% of the electric (only had for 3 days), and puts us back to national average consumption, which is roughly where I'd expect to be (all appliances are reasonably modern and I always buy the energy efficient models).

Without sounding like a daily mail reader, could it really be that both the electric and gas smart meters could suddenly read double what they should be (yes I've checked I'm reading them correctly)?

comeandgo

Have you been sending in readings?  You mention you do read the meters but say “ estimated annual consumption “.

niktheguru

It does seem like rather a large jump. Of course readings will be higher due to covid and working from home like you said but you've also made energy saving steps too so a bit odd to see triple the gas usage, though we have had a particularly cold winter this year.

If your energy monitor is much less than your actual readings it may well be worth getting in touch with the energy company and asking for check meters to be installed. there is a charge for this. What is the make and model of your current meters?

It will be worth while doing a sanity check of your meters, with everything off and then just running a kettle and seeing how much energy that uses (i'm sure @gerry1 will be along shortly to give you the details)

Good luck, and let us know the outcome.

[Deleted User]

It would seem that the increase in gas is the main issue. Look back at your old bills. Was the old gas meter recording usage in cubic feet by any chance? Your new meter will be recording usage is cubic meters. You need to check that the correct volume to kWh conversion formula is being used.

Gerry1

Photos of meter readings, please together will bills (redact personal info including the S and meter numbers).

Make sure you are submitting gas readings in m3, not kWh.Your electricity usage is very high.

Make sure you are not using any immersion heaters, instantaneous electric showers. electric towel rails etc.

darrude

comeandgo said:

Have you been sending in readings?  You mention you do read the meters but say “ estimated annual consumption “.

Yes, I switched suppliers, and they couldn't read the meter using the smarts, so it's a smart dumb meter now.  The estimated annual consumption is what was stated on my bill when it was read using the smarts.  I assume they looks at the monthly usage and estimate the annual usage?

darrude

niktheguru said:

It does seem like rather a large jump. Of course readings will be higher due to covid and working from home like you said but you've also made energy saving steps too so a bit odd to see triple the gas usage, though we have had a particularly cold winter this year.

If your energy monitor is much less than your actual readings it may well be worth getting in touch with the energy company and asking for check meters to be installed. there is a charge for this. What is the make and model of your current meters?

It will be worth while doing a sanity check of your meters, with everything off and then just running a kettle and seeing how much energy that uses (i'm sure @gerry1 will be along shortly to give you the details)

Good luck, and let us know the outcome.

Oh, that's a good shout I also bought a smart plug monitor to test appliance use as part of working out why so high.  I'll power everything off other than the garage ring main and boil a few kettles worth of water tonight.  I did do a creep test, and there was no creep at all on the electrical meter.  I was only focused on elec this morning, until I went through old bills and noticed the gas had also ramped up.

The electric meter is a Liberty 100, and Gas Liberty EG4v11.

darrude

[Deleted User] said:

It would seem that the increase in gas is the main issue. Look back at your old bills. Was the old gas meter recording usage in cubic feet by any chance? Your new meter will be recording usage is cubic meters. You need to check that the correct volume to kWh conversion formula is being used.

thanks for this, I will have to look into that, something I've certainly not considered, or even thought about.  I'll be honest, I've only really focused on the electric until I went through old bills.

MWT

darrude said:

[Deleted User] said:

It would seem that the increase in gas is the main issue. Look back at your old bills. Was the old gas meter recording usage in cubic feet by any chance? Your new meter will be recording usage is cubic meters. You need to check that the correct volume to kWh conversion formula is being used.

thanks for this, I will have to look into that, something I've certainly not considered, or even thought about.  I'll be honest, I've only really focused on the electric until I went through old bills.

Very likely that this is the cause, when they get the metres and feet mixed up it results in multiplying the amount used by 2.83, if we divide your 32,850 by 2.83 we get 11.607.. that looks a lot more like your original usage...

darrude

Gerry1 said:

Photos of meter readings, please together will bills (redact personal info including the S and meter numbers).

Make sure you are submitting gas readings in m3, not kWh.Your electricity usage is very high.

Make sure you are not using any immersion heaters, instantaneous electric showers. electric towel rails etc.

I will collate everything, with dates, and post, thanks for helping.  But I can confirm we don't have immersion heaters (well we do, but not even wired up as the plumber that installed the new tank couldn't do it and I completely forgot I still need to call an electrician until just now!), We don't have anything that heats using electricity other than the oven and wife's hair dryer (dishwasher / washer / dryer I guess you could add).

There is one thing I omitted on purpose, my wife recently switched to an EV, but the values posted above are actually from before we had the EV, so recent images will be showing an even higher electrical usage.  However the electricity use of the car is monitored and known (538KWH since purchase), and we are really lucky, we have a free to use public charger (at least until October) just down the road from us, so we don't often charge at home anyway, which reminds me that's another job to install the charger when the sparky comes!

niktheguru

lol, i was going to ask have you acquired an EV, but thought that would be too obvious a question to ask!!

Just look at your latest bill regarding the smart meter. Are the values in m3 then converted to kwh. It should be easy to check that very quickly. If they have added a imperial conversion then it will be a quick win for you.