Smart Meter lost connection to server and cost me £1,294

MWT

Jonesyjak said:

 The IHD shows we're using around £25 per week on gas and electricity. Based on 4,248kWh over 5 months, that's 849 kWh per month and a whopping 10,195kWh per year!

If you tap the monetary amount on the screen you should be able to change it to kWh, that is a better way to track the use as the tariff rates used by the IHD are not always the same as the ones being used to bill you by your supplier.

If you want to tell us what the kWh for the week to date is now that would be useful.

Also you should be able to change the display to show the usage right now in kW, that would also help.

The 'Usage now' figure is momentary and will change a lot, but it is a good display to leave it on so you can see what is being used at the moment and hopefully spot any unexplained peaks which will help you track down problems...

Jonesyjak

Here is the metre. The IHD stopped showing electricity usage in March 2021. I contacted UW and they sent an engineer to reestablish the connection. When I called in December, I was told that they had incorrectly put it down as a metre exchange and reset the metre to 1 and that was the issue. They have since told me that the metre was reset to 1 but sometimes they do that 

Jonesyjak

MWT said:

Jonesyjak said:

 The IHD shows we're using around £25 per week on gas and electricity. Based on 4,248kWh over 5 months, that's 849 kWh per month and a whopping 10,195kWh per year!

If you tap the monetary amount on the screen you should be able to change it to kWh, that is a better way to track the use as the tariff rates used by the IHD are not always the same as the ones being used to bill you by your supplier.

If you want to tell us what the kWh for the week to date is now that would be useful.

Also you should be able to change the display to show the usage right now in kW, that would also help.

The 'Usage now' figure is momentary and will change a lot, but it is a good display to leave it on so you can see what is being used at the moment and hopefully spot any unexplained peaks which will help you track down problems...

It says that we used 347 kWh last month, have used 149kWh so far this month and 78.86kWh last week

QrizB

That model of meter isn't one that is known to have problems, sorry.

It's currently reading 06583, so you've used 6583kWh since it was fitted.

If you can find some meter readings from earlier in the year it would help us a lot. They should be printed on your bills and might be accessible from UW's website.

MWT

Jonesyjak said:

MWT said:

Jonesyjak said:

 The IHD shows we're using around £25 per week on gas and electricity. Based on 4,248kWh over 5 months, that's 849 kWh per month and a whopping 10,195kWh per year!

If you tap the monetary amount on the screen you should be able to change it to kWh, that is a better way to track the use as the tariff rates used by the IHD are not always the same as the ones being used to bill you by your supplier.

If you want to tell us what the kWh for the week to date is now that would be useful.

Also you should be able to change the display to show the usage right now in kW, that would also help.

The 'Usage now' figure is momentary and will change a lot, but it is a good display to leave it on so you can see what is being used at the moment and hopefully spot any unexplained peaks which will help you track down problems...

It says that we used 347 kWh last month, have used 149kWh so far this month and 78.86kWh last week

That is great, looks like you are using around 10-11kWh a day, which casts a large degree of suspicion on that very high usage that they have billed you for.

Jonesyjak said:

Here is the metre. The IHD stopped showing electricity usage in March 2021. I contacted UW and they sent an engineer to reestablish the connection. When I called in December, I was told that they had incorrectly put it down as a metre exchange and reset the metre to 1 and that was the issue. They have since told me that the metre was reset to 1 but sometimes they do that 

This is probably where the incorrect usage charge has originated, so now we need to get to the meter readings on the bills...

Can you also note the meter serial number which should be shown on the bills and see if that changes...

bagand96

Jonesyjak said:

Here is the metre. The IHD stopped showing electricity usage in March 2021. I contacted UW and they sent an engineer to reestablish the connection. When I called in December, I was told that they had incorrectly put it down as a metre exchange and reset the metre to 1 and that was the issue. They have since told me that the metre was reset to 1 but sometimes they do that 

Anyone else think this bit sounds a little suspect?  Are UW billing you as if the meter was reset to 1? 

QrizB

bagand96 said:

Jonesyjak said:

Here is the metre. The IHD stopped showing electricity usage in March 2021. I contacted UW and they sent an engineer to reestablish the connection. When I called in December, I was told that they had incorrectly put it down as a metre exchange and reset the metre to 1 and that was the issue. They have since told me that the metre was reset to 1 but sometimes they do that 

Anyone else think this bit sounds a little suspect?  Are UW billing you as if the meter was reset to 1? 

Yes but we need to see the bills to be sure.

Jonesyjak

I can only find bills up to April and I cant login to the app or website as it's telling me the date of birth doesn't match what is on their system. I will call them tomorrow (closed on Sunday) and get usage for May to July when the metre dropped off and the estimates from July to November. Is there anything else I should request? 

The info I have to hand is: 
Jan 2021 smart metre - start: 1916 end: 2369 charged: 453

Feb 21 smart metre - start 2369 end: 2979 charged: 602

Apr 21 estimated - start: 3385 end 3666 charged: 181
Customer's: start: 3666 end: 3898 charged: 230

Nov 21 estimated - start: 2846 end: 6086 charged: 3240

wild666

Jonesyjak said:

In July 2021, our smart meter lost connection to the Utility Warehouse server. We were unaware. Our bills were lower from July that we put down to the summer months. It reconnected in November 2021 and we received a bill for £813 in December, with £719 for electricity alone. Despite assurances from UW in December that the bill was 100% incorrect, we've now been told that it is right - there were no readings from the meter from July to November, our bills were estimates and between that time, we used 4,248kWh of electricity. According to Ofgem, the average household (based on 4.5 people) uses 2,900 throughout the whole year. We are 2 adults and a child. Looking at what we paid between July and November plus the £813, we have paid almost £3,000, an average of over £250 per month. During the warmest, lightest months of the year. The staff tell me that that's what the numbers say and that's the end of it and don't seem to be willing to apply common sense. The biggest electricity guzzler is the tumble dryer that's used around 5 times a week. I work from home for a housing association, using a laptop and monitor (meaning I'm not running  pottery wheel 24 hours a day or running a laundrette service from home). There's no way we have used that much electricity but I seem to have hit a block in getting UW to do anything. I don't know what else to do

Download some free office software and start taking daily readings if you can, take the readings from the meter not the IHD. Only put the washer on when you have a full load and then the dryer usage might be less, some people wash clothes when there is only a few items and pop them in the dryer for longer than the time they take to dry wasting electric on dry clothes. 

If you have a smart meter try getting 30 minute readings from your provider unless the meter was installed by a previous supplier and they cannot access that facility on the meter, then the daily usage will not be full kWh but part of a kWh i.e. 3.65 kWh per day. 
I wash clothing and bedding once per week and on that day my usage increases from 4 kWh per day to around 8 kWh for that day 

MWT

Jonesyjak said:

Apr 21 estimated - start: 3385 end 3666 charged: 181
Customer's: start: 3666 end: 3898 charged: 230

Nov 21 estimated - start: 2846 end: 6086 charged: 3240

That would seem like most of your problem right there...

Take your end of April reading and subtract from the current reading and you'll get an average of around 10.5kWh a day which is consistent with your current usage and only a little lower than your usage in April last year.

They have used an estimate start reading in Nov '21 which is lower than your end Feb '21 reading.

So what you should be hoping to find is that the meter number on your bills up to April is the same as the meter number on your most recent bills, you should be able to see that fairly easily...