SMETS1 meter faulty, BG cancelled my upgrade appt and now cant submit any readings, no new appts :-(

bailey_uk

This is actually giving me anxiety as after 2 hours on live chat to BG, they have no new engineer appointments to arrange my meter upgrade.

Gas seems to be fine, but electric got a mind of its own and used to be around a reading of 25000 but now regularly goes to zero and now sat around 261.876.

Its a Landis Gyr 470.

Im really annoyed that I cannot give an accurate reading for 31st March and now that they have said to me that there are no new engineer appointments that they can give me, its really giving me anxiety of when will I ever get a working electric meter. 

Also, im struggling to work out how even the engineer will know how much elec i have used since it broke?

Has anyone else come across this issue? I think the trouble started a few months ago when an engineer came to try and update the comms box next to to the meter and a week after he has been, it all went dodgy. 

QrizB

bailey_uk said:

Has anyone else come across this issue? I think the trouble started a few months ago when an engineer came to try and update the comms box next to to the meter and a week after he has been, it all went dodgy. 

Yes, there are half-a-dozen recent threads on old L&G smart electricity meters that have spontaneously reset to zero then started counting with three decimal places.

Here are a selection:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6323396/shocking-electricity-meter-reading

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307132/faulty-electricity-meter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6302428/massive-electric-usage

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6300482/electricity-smart-meter-upgrade

Read them carefully and you'll be prepared for your inevitable discussions with BG.

Ultrasonic

I think there will be an estimate made of the energy you'll have used. I'm guessing you use gas for heating? If so your electricity use is probably reasonably constant across the year and so an accurate estimate should be straightforward.

Ectophile

There is a problem with some meters.  They try to do an over-the-air software update on the meter, but in the process it resets the reading back to zero.

bailey_uk

Ultrasonic said:

I think there will be an estimate made of the energy you'll have used. I'm guessing you use gas for heating? If so your electricity use is probably reasonably constant across the year and so an accurate estimate should be straightforward.

Yes, gas for heating. I am glad its not the gas that is the issue as an estimate on that could be very hard to do!

So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

bailey_uk

QrizB said:

bailey_uk said:

Has anyone else come across this issue? I think the trouble started a few months ago when an engineer came to try and update the comms box next to to the meter and a week after he has been, it all went dodgy. 

Yes, there are half-a-dozen recent threads on old L&G smart electricity meters that have spontaneously reset to zero then started counting with three decimal places.

Here are a selection:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6323396/shocking-electricity-meter-reading

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307132/faulty-electricity-meter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6302428/massive-electric-usage

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6300482/electricity-smart-meter-upgrade

Read them carefully and you'll be prepared for your inevitable discussions with BG.

Thanks, good to know I am not alone and yes the common denominator is the fact they have attempted to be upgraded..

Cant actually see anyone who has reported back with a newly working one?

Ultrasonic

bailey_uk said:
So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

15 kWh per day for a home with gas for heating is rather high. Maybe you have lots of people living in your home, or things like electric showers or a big fishtank that use a lot of energy though.

bailey_uk

Ultrasonic said:

bailey_uk said:
So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

15 kWh per day for a home with gas for heating is rather high. Maybe you have lots of people living in your home, or things like electric showers or a big fishtank that use a lot of energy though.

Yeh that was actually my next question, how does 15 a day sound?

Its an end terrace, built 1901, 3 floors. 2 adults, 3 kids.

All cooking is electric 

Half double glazed.

QrizB

bailey_uk said:

Ultrasonic said:

bailey_uk said:
So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

15 kWh per day for a home with gas for heating is rather high. Maybe you have lots of people living in your home, or things like electric showers or a big fishtank that use a lot of energy though.

Yeh that was actually my next question, how does 15 a day sound?

Its an end terrace, built 1901, 3 floors. 2 adults, 3 kids.
Half double glazed.

Given those details, it doesn't sound too bad to be honest.

Ultrasonic

bailey_uk said:

Ultrasonic said:

bailey_uk said:
So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

15 kWh per day for a home with gas for heating is rather high. Maybe you have lots of people living in your home, or things like electric showers or a big fishtank that use a lot of energy though.

Yeh that was actually my next question, how does 15 a day sound?

Its an end terrace, built 1901, 3 floors. 2 adults, 3 kids.

All cooking is electric 

Half double glazed.

Far more reasonable than if you'd said you lived alone in a one bedroom flat  .

I'm sure there is scope to reduce you electricity use if you really wanted to though. Do you have electric showers? Use a tumble dryer a lot? Have lots of old lightbulbs or electrical appliances?

bailey_uk

Ultrasonic said:

bailey_uk said:

Ultrasonic said:

bailey_uk said:
So Ive looked back through old readings from last 12 months and ive worked out that an average daily use is 15kwh for a day.

I have noticed that on 23rd March, BG estimated the electric reading. So I deducted my last confirmed reading back in January from that and then divided the difference by the amount of days and its come out at 14kwh so im more than happy with their method which makes me feel a lot happier!

15 kWh per day for a home with gas for heating is rather high. Maybe you have lots of people living in your home, or things like electric showers or a big fishtank that use a lot of energy though.

Yeh that was actually my next question, how does 15 a day sound?

Its an end terrace, built 1901, 3 floors. 2 adults, 3 kids.

All cooking is electric 

Half double glazed.

Far more reasonable than if you'd said you lived alone in a one bedroom flat  .

I'm sure there is scope to reduce you electricity use if you really wanted to though. Do you have electric showers? Use a tumble dryer a lot? Have lots of old lightbulbs or electrical appliances?

Shower isn't electric no.

Yes tumble dryer used most days, so I think there is scope there to make use of the better weather outside but we don't have a garden as such.

A working 'Smart' meter updating to the app every 30 minutes will help a great deal to look to where to save money! 

As a side note, Gas is average of 21,000 kWh a year...