Smart meter/British Gas confusion

thatoldchestnut

We're electric only and we have a Secure Liberty 100 Smart Meter, but I'm a bit confused about how it works. I've submitted (very occasional) readings to British Gas from it in the past but it got mentioned this week in the midst of all this meter reading stuff that if you have a smart meter, you don't need to submit them. I remember submitting a reading about a month ago though and it changed the amount I owed, which suggests it's not communicating our usage to British Gas. Do I need to do something specifically to make it do this?

Also, when I tried to submit a reading using the form on British Gas's website last night, it says: "Enter your electricity meter reading into the box below, including any zeros at the beginning. Don’t worry about the red numbers or anything after the decimal point." It only lets me enter a six-digit reading, however the figure the meter gives is seven digits long (not including the number after the decimal point) and has no red numbers - it's an LED display. I'm sure when I've been able to log into my account and submit a reading in the past, it's allowed me to submit all the digits.

I presume it's me doing something wrong but can anyone shed light on any of this? For obvious reasons I've not been able to get through to British Gas to actually chat about it to them over the last couple of days. Thanks!

thatoldchestnut

Just to add: I'm now able to log into my British Gas account and the option to submit a meter reading is there, and it lets me enter all seven digits. However there's no way to tell it that the reading is from 31st March, not today. Presumably if I record it that way, any reading I submit has to be from that day, not a previous time.

Love the fact the British Gas phone line is only open when I'm at work. It's a good job no one who works full time has questions about this stuff!

grumbler

I'm not sure I understand your question correctly,  but I have a smart meter and don't submit readings, although I do have this option in my account. In my bills the readings are shown as "your read", not "estimated", i.e. the supplier gets them directly from the meter, like I expect.

FreeBear

grumbler said: I'm not sure I understand your question correctly,  but I have a smart meter and don't submit readings, although I do have this option in my account. In my bills the readings are shown as "your read", not "estimated", i.e. the supplier gets them directly from the meter, like I expect.

I have a smart meter (SMETS1 I think). Have to provide my supplier with regular readings as the meter doesn't automatically send the data.
I suspect the Secure Liberty 100 meter is an older SMETS1 in dumb mode, so BG would be unable to pull readings from it. Might be worth asking them for a new meter.

thatoldchestnut

Righto, I might do that - many thanks.

I've emailed my meter reading to their customer service email address now with a photo of the meter taken on the 31st. Hoping that's sufficient but who knows, and who knows when it'll get processed. They must have so many readings to get through.