Smart meter - unit prices differ from online ones

grumbler

The meter shows 15.52p/kWh  for electricity and 2.95p/kWh for gas.

Online I see  20.89p/kWh and 4.207p/kWh correspondingly.

Hardly a surprise that the bills are higher than I expect.

My understanding is that the meter is supposed to get prices directly from the supplier. There was no any paper manual, the built-in one is pathetic. The only possible option I see is Settings >> Account pairing, but when I tap this option it says "Pair CAD to Account | waiting..." - and this 'waiting' lasts forever - until I get back to settings.

Do I contact the supplier (Outfox The Market) to resolve this? The meter readings in the bills seem to be correct, i.e. communication in that direction seems to work fine.

The meter display is like this one -

ETA: some extra information

In the 'Account' section of the meter I see

"Waiting for (CIN)" - "----"

Customer identification number (CIN) - "0000"

QrizB

Check the meters themselves. If they are also wrong you will have to contact Outfox the Market, as only your supplier can update the tariffs on your meters.

grumbler

No, like I said, the readings in the bills seem to be correct, i.e. Outfox are getting them from the meter. The only problem is with the unit prices in the smart display.

Spies

CIN missing is of no relevance by the way. 

[Deleted User]

Smart meters are not that smart when it comes to gas. The comms hub acts as a gas proxy meter and it does the volume to kWh conversion based on the volume measurement passed on to it by the gas meter. This is only used to inform the IHD and not for billing.

Actual billing requires the supplier to use the volume of gas supplied and the average calorific value of the gas during the billing period truncated to one decimal point. The gas proxy uses, through necessity, a fixed calorific value. It follows that what you are billed for in the way of gas may be slightly different from what you see on the IHD.

All suppliers SHOULD update tariff prices when they first takeover a supply and when tariffs change. However, the DCC makes a network charge for passing this information on to your meters. I suspect that some suppliers can’t be bothered to pay for these updates.

grumbler

Dolor said:

 I suspect that some suppliers can’t be bothered to pay for these updates.

This defeats the purpose of expensive smart meters, especially when it comes to gas, where my meter shows only £s, not cubic meters or feet (well, it shows them, but deep inside the menu).

For electric power consumption in real time there are very cheap clip-on power meters .

MWT

grumbler said:

This defeats the purpose of expensive smart meters, especially when it comes to gas, where my meter shows only £s, not cubic meters or feet (well, it shows them, but deep inside the menu).

Which IHD do you have?

I've seen many that default to £ but you usually just have to tap the amount shown to change the display to kWh or sometimes m3.

[Deleted User]

grumbler said:

Dolor said:

 I suspect that some suppliers can’t be bothered to pay for these updates.

This defeats the purpose of expensive smart meters, especially when it comes to gas, where my meter shows only £s, not cubic meters or feet (well, it shows them, but deep inside the menu).

For electric power consumption in real time there are very cheap clip-on power meters .

Not quite. There is a lot more to smart metering than just the IHD which most people regard as an un-necessary toy. For example, my DNO has just downloaded smart meter voltage data from a number of meters in my supply area  to prove that there is a high voltage issue that needs to be addressed. Some DNOs are now running trials using this information to allow them to make dynamic changes to voltage throughout the course of the day.

grumbler

Dolor said:

grumbler said:

Dolor said:

 I suspect that some suppliers can’t be bothered to pay for these updates.

This defeats the purpose of expensive smart meters, especially when it comes to gas, where my meter shows only £s, not cubic meters or feet (well, it shows them, but deep inside the menu).

For electric power consumption in real time there are very cheap clip-on power meters .

For example, my DNO has just downloaded smart meter voltage data from a number of meters in my supply area  to prove that there is a high voltage issue that needs to be addressed. Some DNOs are now running trials using this information to allow them to make dynamic changes to voltage throughout the course of the day.

I am no expert, but I think for this they don't need smart devices in every household.

Back to my original question, if the suppliers "can’t be bothered to pay for these updates" and can't be forced to, then the customers must be able to enter the prices manually - and my meter definitely doesn't allow this.

MWT said:

grumbler said:

This defeats the purpose of expensive smart meters, especially when it comes to gas, where my meter shows only £s, not cubic meters or feet (well, it shows them, but deep inside the menu).

Which IHD do you have?

I've seen many that default to £ but you usually just have to tap the amount shown to change the display to kWh or sometimes m3.

See the photo above - some "IHD6-CAD-PPMID", Chameleon Technology.

For electricity I can switch between kW(h) and £(/h), but not for gas.

[Deleted User]

There is no way that consumers will be allowed to enter anything directly into the smart meter system. Smart meters have built in GCHQ-level layered security. The IHD is just a device that connects to the secure HAN generated by the comms hub. The CAD element of the IHD/CAD connects via a home’s wifi. It would be possible for third parties to set up Apps etc using the CAD link which would allow consumers to enter tariff details but I doubt whether this will happen.

Hildebrand offers a free App BRIGHT which uses actual smart meter data to show usage and costs - however, like your IHD, it requires the supplier to send out updated tariff information. FWiW, I am with EDF following a SoLR switch  - even it cannot be bothered to update gas tariff information.

grumbler

Dolor said:

There is no way that consumers will be allowed to enter anything directly into the smart meter system. Smart meters have built in GCHQ-level layered security.

This hardly makes any sense. The meters send meter readings to the suppliers, not the costs. Of course, these have to be protected. There is no any potential problem with entering the prices of the units, especially if the suppliers aren't obliged to update them.