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

Jonesyjak

June 21 bill

MWT

Jonesyjak said:

They didn't send other months despite asking. I thought we'd cracked it at one point - if they were billing as if the meter had been reset to 1 when it hadn't, that would have taken us from 3,734kWh in March to 6,086kWh in Nov, an average of 9kWh per day. Which makes sense when you look at the average daily use over winter as 10.5kWh per day. However, the time they have billed over is coming out at 23kWh per day. The call ended with them saying they'd check if the meter was set to 1 during the power cycle and would call me back.

I'd still say that the meter was not reset to zero, your current usage is under half what it would have to be if the meter really had been reset.

Jonesyjak

MWT

I'd still say that the meter was not reset to zero, your current usage is under half what it would have to be if the meter really had been reset.

What does your IHD show as the year to date use?

Exactly my thinking but not so sure looking at the June bill...

MWT

Ignore my YTD question, but does your IHD have a 'History' option?

If so take a look at the monthly numbers and list them for last year by month...

razord

The only suspicious thing about that bill is the 692 in 12 days from 19th to 31st of March 2021 - but given those are automatic smart meter reads, it would be weird for them to them be wrong.

I guess if it was a very cold end of March, and you had electric heating on 24/7 for those 12 days, it's potentially viable... but I think the biggest issue is they appear to have evidence that they're correct, and you can't prove otherwise.

Jonesyjak

Used kWh:

Jan 21: 601
Feb 524
Mar 417
Apr 391
May 304
Jun 219
Jul 230
Aug 207
Sept 243
Oct 289
Nov 286
Dec 347
Jan 22 to date 162

Jonesyjak

razord said:

The only suspicious thing about that bill is the 692 in 12 days from 19th to 31st of March 2021 - but given those are automatic smart meter reads, it would be weird for them to them be wrong.

I guess if it was a very cold end of March, and you had electric heating on 24/7 for those 12 days, it's potentially viable... but I think the biggest issue is they appear to have evidence that they're correct, and you can't prove otherwise.

We have gas heating not electric (unless we overdoing it with cups of tea!) 

QrizB

Jonesyjak said:

MWT:

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...

An update (of sorts):
They did a power cycle on 19.03.21 and reset the meter to 1

Who is telling you this?

A power cycle will not reset a meter to zero (or 1) else it would happen whenever there's a power cut. Chancers would be pulling the DNO fuse every month just before their monthly reading and claiming to have used no power.

@Verdigris you used to read these things, is the OP being spun a line here?

theoretica

Jonesyjak said:

Used kWh:

Jan 21: 601
Feb 524
Mar 417
Apr 391
May 304
Jun 219
Jul 230
Aug 207
Sept 243
Oct 289
Nov 286
Dec 347
Jan 22 to date 162

If that is the smart meter history it looks *very* useful to support that your use has been roughly constant and no extra 3000kWh anywhere! And goes back before March...

QrizB

theoretica said:

Jonesyjak said:

Used kWh:

Jan 21: 601
Feb 524
Mar 417
Apr 391
May 304
Jun 219
Jul 230
Aug 207
Sept 243
Oct 289
Nov 286
Dec 347
Jan 22 to date 162

If that is the smart meter history it looks *very* useful to support that your use has been roughly constant and no extra 3000kWh anywhere! And goes back before March...

Agreed, I think the OP should take a photo of that screen in case they need it later!