Smart Meter - £ readings

JetFlyingHigh

Recently had smart meters installed for duel fuel plus the small display unit. Can anyone confirm if the amounts displayed (for argument's sake, monthly figures) are the FULL charges for that particular week? In other words, do the pounds and pence INCLUDE the kWh used, daily standing charges and any VAT applicable to any of the charges?

QrizB

It should do, if everything is working correctly. But personally I wouldn't rely on monetary readings on an IHD.

kWh readings should be more reliable and if you know your tariff you can calculate the periodic price yourself.

wild666

I never relied on the IHD before it got damaged, I always went to the meter to see what it read for both gas and electric. 

[Deleted User]

JetFlyingHigh said:

Recently had smart meters installed for duel fuel plus the small display unit. Can anyone confirm if the amounts displayed (for argument's sake, monthly figures) are the FULL charges for that particular week? In other words, do the pounds and pence INCLUDE the kWh used, daily standing charges and any VAT applicable to any of the charges?

Two points. One, the supplier has to send the correct tariffs to the meters. Two, the comms hub uses a proxy (fixed) calorific value to calculate the number of kWhs consumed. The total consumption figure may differ from that shown on a statement with slightly different charges.

Astria

Personally I'd only ever use the IHD for an estimation of your costs, the actual cost on your bill could be higher or lower.

The IHD can crash, lose connection, not receive updates, etc, etc. By all means use it as a reference, but don't use it to budget.

JetFlyingHigh

Thanks for all replies, just really using the IHD as a reference and approximation on weekly use and just needed to know if daily standing charge and VAT were already included in the display £ values

Astria

JetFlyingHigh said:

Thanks for all replies, just really using the IHD as a reference and approximation on weekly use and just needed to know if daily standing charge and VAT were already included in the display £ values

They "should" be, but considering it requires the provider to actually set these values properly, don't depend on it.

If you want 100% accurate reads then take the readings from the meter and calculate them yourself.

[Deleted User]

JetFlyingHigh said:

Recently had smart meters installed for duel fuel plus the small display unit. Can anyone confirm if the amounts displayed (for argument's sake, monthly figures) are the FULL charges for that particular week? In other words, do the pounds and pence INCLUDE the kWh used, daily standing charges and any VAT applicable to any of the charges?

I have had a relatively positive experience re the information I am seeing on my IHD. 

Within 2 months of change of supplier (from Bulb to Eon Next) the tariff rates updated on both my meter and IHD to the tariffs I am currently on.  The readings on the IHD update every 30 mins for gas and in real time for the electricity.  The rates that I see on my IHD INCLUDE VAT.  Although I do my own reconciliation using my submitted monthly reads (the only time I go directly to the meters rather than the IHD) and monitor usage on a daily basis (via the IHD), I have not seen any major discrepancy between the £££ billed each month, what I spend/use on a daily basis in kWh/££ and what the IHD is telling me.  If I read the gas meter on the hour then both the IHD and both my meters show the same meter reads as well.  TBH though I pay way more attention to the kWh consumption figures rather than the £££.

As Dolor states the Calorific value used on the IHD is a static one which may indeed vary slightly (within a penny or two per day by my reckoning) to the one used for your monthly statement.  So for November my CV used in the actual billing was 40.3 producing a gas bill of £53.39 whereas using say 40.0 would have given a bill of £53.08 ( circa 1p difference per day for me for each 0.3 difference of CV from 40.0).   

  

matelodave

When my smart meter the standing charge was always wrong and remained so until it went dumb. It has just become smart again with EoN-Next and both the tariff and standing charge are now being displayed correctly (both including VAT).

I haven't actually done the sums to see whether its being correctly calculated.  I do my own based on kwh because kwh is the only way to compare consumption. 

wild666

Astria said:

JetFlyingHigh said:

Thanks for all replies, just really using the IHD as a reference and approximation on weekly use and just needed to know if daily standing charge and VAT were already included in the display £ values

They "should" be, but considering it requires the provider to actually set these values properly, don't depend on it.

If you want 100% accurate reads then take the readings from the meter and calculate them yourself.

That's what I do for both electric and gas. I used to submit meter readings on the day of billing, the bill always used the readings I gave at the end of the billing day, except my second bill I did a day early and they added 4.5 kWh to the reading, which was just 1 kWh out.
Since Octopus took over from Avro I have submitted readings on various dates and the account has being debited that day with the price of electric and gas used.