Smart meter faulty reading (electric only)

[Deleted User]

T1 and T2 readings are your peak and Offpeak. Download the BRIGHT app and once set up it should show you the tariff that has been set in your electricity meter along with your usage.

Gerry1

Assuming it's a semi as the OP implies, if it's owner occupied and there's no gas in the area then the realistic options are probably oil or High Heat Retention NSHs (e.g. Dimplex Quantum) on E7.  LPG or a heatpump are possibilities but probably too much hassle / expense.

If the OP rents then the only realistic option is to move, preferably to a property with GCH, or at least HHR NSHs.

Not good news but sadly that's the way it seems to be.

amschneider67

Thanks everyone for all your help. So i've done a few tests. I've turned off my electricity completely for an hour and the meter stayed the same, so it looks like it's working fine. The other tests that I've done is checking if my day rate and night rate got mixed up either by the engineer programing my smart meter or when octopus made the bill. So I've checked my meter just after the heating turned on as programed during my night tariff, and only the day tariff reading was affected. So to check my theory that the two got mixed up I tried putting my heating on during the day tariff, and according to my theory the night tariff reading would go up. But it wasn't the case, the day reading only went up. 

Which means that my day and night tariff times changed and they told me !!!!!!. I asked octopus first when I moved in the house what were my times, with my old meter. And on the day I changed it to the smart one, both octopus and the engineer who changed the meter told me it wouldn't affect my times. But it did. So there's that. So I will have to contact them and see what's going on with that. Cause there's no way I'm paying £700 for a mistake that they made by not informing me of new times, especially after I asked them.

To answer to a few questions. Yes my heating is controlled by a program that I can change. I programmed to go according to the night rate. I will try the other theory and stay up late until 0h30 to check on my meter readings and see if that went up too or not. 

Thank you for the suggestion, I've downloaded the bright app it will take 24 hours to get set up though. Although I know how to save energy and save money on my heating. It's just much more difficult when Octopus is !!!!!! around with my tariffs.

And last question, yes I own the house I don't rent. And the area is mostly only electric, all my neighbourhood.

I know that wet electric is quite expensive, I knew that when I bought the house. But to be fair, even gas is expensive now. AT least wet electric is more efficient that normal electric, cause I don't need the heating for that long to get a warm house. But there's expensive and expensive. £150 a month was manageable, but that new bill is £250 a month. So that makes a difference.

I will post tomorrow the model number or a picture of the meter, if that helps. 

QrizB

Thanks for the update.

amschneider67 said:

To answer to a few questions. Yes my heating is controlled by a program that I can change. I programmed to go according to the night rate. I will try the other theory and stay up late until 0h30 to check on my meter readings and see if that went up too or not. 

Thank you for the suggestion, I've downloaded the bright app it will take 24 hours to get set up though. Although I know how to save energy and save money on my heating. It's just much more difficult when Octopus is !!!!!! around with my tariffs.

These two, in conjunction, should let you and us work out what's going on.

Bright says it can take 24h but when I installed it it took quite a lot less; six or eight, I think. Definitely the same day.

Gerry1

amschneider67 said:

And last question, yes I own the house I don't rent. And the area is mostly only electric, all my neighbourhood.

I know that wet electric is quite expensive, I knew that when I bought the house. But to be fair, even gas is expensive now. AT least wet electric is more efficient that normal electric, cause I don't need the heating for that long to get a warm house. But there's expensive and expensive. £150 a month was manageable, but that new bill is £250 a month. So that makes a difference.

I'm afraid it's far, far worse than that.

Electric heating is normally limited to flats because it's so expensive, even before the energy crisis.  Relatively few houses use electricity for heating, and then it's usually NSHs.  A wet electric system was hideously expensive way back when, it's now cripplingly expensive on the SVT, it'll be far worse in a month's time and come October it simply doesn't bear thinking about.  Yes gas is expensive, but electricity is still about four times as expensive.  Not scaremongering, sadly that's the reality.  How many of your neighbours have wet electric CH?

Wet electric isn't more efficient than other forms of electric heating.  1kWh of electricity = 1kWh of heat is the rule whatever apparatus you're using.  The only exception is that HHR fan assisted NSHs are cheaper to run than the old plain Box of Bricks ones because if correctly programmed they won't be leaking heat unnecessarily through the night (and throughout the day when you're not there).

Realistically, you need to use the summer to install a new system before the October price cap and the next Beasts From The East do their worst.  Least disruptive would be HHR NSHs, but still expensive to run, and not attractive if you want to sell up.  Probably better to go for oil because you can use the existing radiators.

A heat pump might be an option, but probably means getting bigger radiators and some quite significant capital expenditure.  Might not suit your lifestyle either, if you want to have only background heating during the day when you're at work and then have it going it at full blast for a short period so that it's toasty when you open the front door: it seems that heat pumps are better suited to maintaining relatively constant temperatures rather than coasting and suddenly being ramped up.  Read some of @matelodave's excellent posts to get the idea.

Petriix

Now is the time for investing in energy efficiency. Solar, batteries, heat pumps (I'd recommend looking at multi split aircon units that run in reverse to heat at a COP of ~ 4) and good insulation. I'd be ripping out that heating system ASAP.

QrizB

OK let's cut the OP a bit of slack. He says he's happy with his wet electric heating system so long as he can program it to only run on E7 cheap-rate periods, and from his lifestyle it sounds like he spends a lot of the time out of his house so perhaps that works for him.

We know nothing of his wider personal financial situation or how long he expects to stay in the property.

Realistically, installing HHR storage heaters might cost £2k and save him £50/month during the heating season. Payback will take 5-8 years. And AAHP would cost more but might pay back a bit faster.

wild666

amschneider67 said:

Hello there,

Basically I started with octopus and got a contract for 24months with a fixed rate. I got a free fancy smart meter with them in november. Now, what is important to know is that I'm a saavy person and careful of my money. Since I had a Economy 10 meter I always followed the night tarif for my programed heating (wet electric) to save money. Before the smart meter I was using 75% night tarif and 25% day tarif, so it was expensive (can't do anything about it in this economy) but not too crazy. Since I had the smart meter installed they forgot to send me my bills online and after 2.5 months I asked for the bills. They made me a huge bill going from when I changed the meter in late november to early february. They charged me £700 which comes to £280 a month instead of the usual £150. The bill showed me I used 75% day tarif and 25% night tariff which is the opposite of what I was doing before. My habits didnt change, I'm living alone and work full time, and I don't go crazy on electricity neither. I don't even use my clothes dryer, just let them hang to dry naturally. I don't even cook that much since I don't eat breakfast and have coffee at work, since I eat lunch there I dont cook until the evening. On my days off I might cook twice and do a laundry weekly but that's it.

I contacted them and they said their reader is 99% accurate which is obviously wrong. I showed them the proof by looking at my smart meter device which showed me that last Friday was the most expensive day of the week with spending £8. It so happened that that day not only I was working but I went out to drink. And coming home late at night I only spend 2 hours in my house that day actually using it. 

Long story short, they told me I'm wrong and I need to do a creep test, which I will be doing shortly. I have red that smart meters can often be faulty because of energy saving lightbulbs and other devices, that semi-concealed meter boxes are not adapted for smart meters and that a semi-detached house can be an issue with smart meters as they can pick up the kw/h from next door. I don't know if that's true since I'm not electrician and that is why I'm here today. 

My question Is: has anyone experienced this and found out what the issue was? And how did you deal with it and with the energy company?

PS: I forgot to mention that i did double check with Octopus after changing the meter and they said my economy times didn't change at all.

I apologise for the long post.

Way back in 2016 BG sent me an electric bill that stated how much each appliance in the home was using. If BG can do that then ask Octopus for a bill itemising how much each appliance used on that day, I suspect that usage figures given by BG where BS and they could never say how much each household appliance used in that period of time. The other option is that your appliances are using that much since you had the smart meter installed. 

EssexHebridean

QrizB said:

OK let's cut the OP a bit of slack. He says he's happy with his wet electric heating system so long as he can program it to only run on E7 cheap-rate periods, and from his lifestyle it sounds like he spends a lot of the time out of his house so perhaps that works for him.

We know nothing of his wider personal financial situation or how long he expects to stay in the property.

Realistically, installing HHR storage heaters might cost £2k and save him £50/month during the heating season. Payback will take 5-8 years. And AAHP would cost more but might pay back a bit faster.

Rather more than £2k for a house, I suspect. Those things ain't cheap - they're good, but you pay for that good! 

amschneider67

Gerry1 said:

amschneider67 said:

And last question, yes I own the house I don't rent. And the area is mostly only electric, all my neighbourhood.

I know that wet electric is quite expensive, I knew that when I bought the house. But to be fair, even gas is expensive now. AT least wet electric is more efficient that normal electric, cause I don't need the heating for that long to get a warm house. But there's expensive and expensive. £150 a month was manageable, but that new bill is £250 a month. So that makes a difference.

I'm afraid it's far, far worse than that.

Electric heating is normally limited to flats because it's so expensive, even before the energy crisis.  Relatively few houses use electricity for heating, and then it's usually NSHs.  A wet electric system was hideously expensive way back when, it's now cripplingly expensive on the SVT, it'll be far worse in a month's time and come October it simply doesn't bear thinking about.  Yes gas is expensive, but electricity is still about four times as expensive.  Not scaremongering, sadly that's the reality.  How many of your neighbours have wet electric CH?

Wet electric isn't more efficient than other forms of electric heating.  1kWh of electricity = 1kWh of heat is the rule whatever apparatus you're using.  The only exception is that HHR fan assisted NSHs are cheaper to run than the old plain Box of Bricks ones because if correctly programmed they won't be leaking heat unnecessarily through the night (and throughout the day when you're not there).

Realistically, you need to use the summer to install a new system before the October price cap and the next Beasts From The East do their worst.  Least disruptive would be HHR NSHs, but still expensive to run, and not attractive if you want to sell up.  Probably better to go for oil because you can use the existing radiators.

A heat pump might be an option, but probably means getting bigger radiators and some quite significant capital expenditure.  Might not suit your lifestyle either, if you want to have only background heating during the day when you're at work and then have it going it at full blast for a short period so that it's toasty when you open the front door: it seems that heat pumps are better suited to maintaining relatively constant temperatures rather than coasting and suddenly being ramped up.  Read some of @matelodave's excellent posts to get the idea.

I didn't realize how bad wet electric was. I was maybe a bit naive when I believed the agency woman who told me it's a very modern and efficient heating. To answer your question, not my neighbours don't have wet electric. I have quite a few rentals around so they mostly have normal electric. 

You're entirely right about finding a new system. I was already looking into getting either a pellet boiler stove or a heat pump. I know my heating is not sustainable, but with the market as it was in the Highlands the house was a good deal and the heating was not going to stop me. I already got quotes for a heat pump and I don't need new radiators thankfully, but it is an investment. Thankfully, the scottish governemnt has a scheme in place for pushing people to get more ecofriendly heating systems and they pay part of the total cost. It will make a big difference on what I have to pay at the end.