No way to monitor my usage as British Gas will not help!

kathy43

We used to be with British Gas and they installed a smart monitor. When we moved to a PFP energy who said our smart monitor would not work with their system so we had to go back to giving meter readings.  As PFP went bust last year, our account was transferred to British Gas, the monitor would not work, we told British Gas this and they said its out of its 12 month warranty and they wont send another one. We asked if we could buy one and they said no but we could use their Iphone APP called my energy live.  We downloaded the app whilst on the phone to the BG agent but the app does not work either!  It says 'BG service is unavailable please try later'. The agent said they know it doesn't work and they are working on it. Its been like this for several weeks!!  How ridiculous that British Gas will not replace their own broken equipment and tell customers to use an app that does not work! .... Has this app ever worked?    British Gas is unwilling to help us monitor our usage at a time when we are all struggling with the energy crisis yet they are making record profits!  

Farway

Why can't you just read the meter or is it in an awkward place?

FreeBear

The IHD does not rely on any "system" your energy provider has in place. It communicates directly with the smart meter. If the IHD is faulty, and BG refuse to replace it (even although it is their property), you can purchase your own (e.g. Glow from Hildebrand). But expect BG to refuse to authorise pairing either through ignorance of the process or just plain incompetence. Lodging a formal complaint with the Energy Ombudsman and/or the BEIS.

Swipe

FreeBear said:

you can purchase your own (e.g. Glow from Hildebrand). But expect BG to refuse to authorise pairing either through ignorance of the process or just plain incompetence. 

What's the point of wasting £70 then if that's the case?

molerat

I have closely monitored my usage for many years and I don't have smart meters.  I do have one of the old clamp on meters which gives me an indication of the electricity I am using. I don't need another bit of future WEEE clogging up my house.

JohnSwift10

I get my energy consumption reads from n3rgy data - accessing smart energy data

kathy43

Just reading the meter outside does not tell me what each individual item is using, for example I like to use my electric blanket when i sitting in the evening but id like to know how much its costing me and with a smart meter in your home, you can see easily what things are costing.  At the moment its a bit like going to the supermarket, doing a shop with no prices on anything.
At the moment im frightened to switch anything on.

k_man

Even a smart meter, or more accurately the IHD (In Home Display), can show real-time usage, but not by device,  without turning individual items on and off.

This doesn't work as well with items with thermostats, that aren't using power constantly (fridges, heaters, electric blankets)

An extension to your supermarket analogy, would be the IHD is like shopping in a supermarket, and only seeing the total basket cost, updated only every 30s, while someone is taking some outs in and out.

A better option for individual items is a plug in energy monitor.
E.g Tapo P110 (also a smart plug)*

*Mentioned as on sake at Amazon currently. Important P110 has energy monitoring, P100 doesnt

k_man

Forgot to add, doesn't help for gas usage though.

Ultrasonic

kathy43 said:

Just reading the meter outside does not tell me what each individual item is using, for example I like to use my electric blanket when i sitting in the evening but id like to know how much its costing me and with a smart meter in your home, you can see easily what things are costing.  At the moment its a bit like going to the supermarket, doing a shop with no prices on anything.
At the moment im frightened to switch anything on.

The paperwork that came with your electric blanket may give you some information to go on, if you still have it? Generally though electric blankets are cheap to run, and much cheaper than heating the whole room.

To give some sort of idea, if say your electric blanket used an average of 100W then the cost at the current price cap would be about 3 p per hour. I can't definitely say this will be correct for you but based on a quick Google I think it will be in the right ballpark.

wild666

FreeBear said:

The IHD does not rely on any "system" your energy provider has in place. It communicates directly with the smart meter. If the IHD is faulty, and BG refuse to replace it (even although it is their property), you can purchase your own (e.g. Glow from Hildebrand). But expect BG to refuse to authorise pairing either through ignorance of the process or just plain incompetence. Lodging a formal complaint with the Energy Ombudsman and/or the BEIS.

Another system you can use is an ivie Bud it costs £49.99 plus P&P and the good thing about it is if you move home the bud goes with you you just unpair it from that meter and if your new home has a smart meter but no IHD you just pair it up with that meter or request a smart meter if the home doesn't have smart meters and one can be fitted.