Smart meter-inaccurate buts it's our fault

Elsoulleon

I spoke to Scottish power today about my latest bill being over £2, I set my smart meter budget at £2.50 and have been under or just over by penny, upon getting my latest bill and my average day use from about £2.50 £3 has gone to £4i know the price of energy has gone up etc, but if I set a budget on a so called smart meter that takes the same readings as the outside meter that my budget should be what I set on the meter and not £2 or so out, upon calling them they worryingly stated their nowhere near accurate, and that the budget option dose not factor in any standing day charge etc in to the budget we set on the screen, now I would assume the fact they offer a budget option would imply they work out and calculate daily rates and charges already as it's supposed to be a real time representation of your energy usage (directly quoted from Scottish power website) this isn't told to us when we have it installed or when we set a budget no warning or notification of this, but it's my fault as a paying customer that I didn't factor it in in the first place for this so called smart meter, I calls energy ombudsman they said they can handle if it don't work and readings are wrong but Miss information or failure to notify customers upon setting a budget that, it's not a true representation of your bill or usage, now if I or others customer had know this on point of install I wouldn't be moaning or know my rights as they have sold us on this smart meter but still have us doing all the running around and doing there work for them please tell me I not the only one who thinks there responsibility lies in the misinformation and lack of foresight in implementing this smart meter system 

Robin9

Lost me in a wall of text  - can you break you problem down by paragraphs and sentences please.

MWT

Wrong title on thread, the smart meter accuracy is not in doubt, the usefulness of the budget feature on the IHD is in question as it is not including the standing charge...

Alnat1

I was with Scottish Power up until April and the IHD did show the standing charge. When it 'woke up' at 6am each day the standing charge was already there with a few p added for the fuel used from midnight to 6am.

They didn't manage to get it updated from 1st April to show the new charges, the old rates were still there when I left on the 20th.

Scottish Power never did manage to get a price showing for the gas at all, although the IHD did show daily units used.

[Deleted User]

My guess is that the communications hub is a WNC1. For the past 3 years, the gas proxy meter built into my WNC1 has failed to add the daily standing charge for gas. Suppliers are not interested as communications hubs sit within the DCC area of responsibility,  and the fault does not impact supplier billing.

Pete99

They're not selling you money, they're selling you kWh's of energy, the only relevant figures are the meter readings of kWh's used, read the meter at some time in the day the read it again at the same time the next day, that's how much you've used in a day.

comeandgo

I think you will have to work out how many units a day you can afford and use that for your budget.  Nowhere do the electric companies guarantee that what shows on monetary terms is accurate.

Elsoulleon

All the above comments and reply are great however I wrote that mass wall of text straight from getting of a call with ofgem then energy ombudsman which both stated they know there is a massive issue with the smart meters accuracy and implementation but can't do anything about it, I autistic so write the post as it came into my head.
I not complaining about paying my bill just the fact I that I wasnt told I had to manually work out the budget based upon my standing day charge etc which isn't stated anywhere that's needed and i think someone mentioned it the monitor notifies of shows the charge being added somewhere.

I'm more concerned that we're using the budget service option within the appliance offered and be told its in real time and accurate on the websites etc and it shows our energy consumption in pounds and pence direct quote from Scottish power, but this isn't the case at all.

So as stated I was told my daily average was £2 or my budgeted £2.50 that was set on the smart meter, upon then finding out the meter budget option does not factor in the standing charge direct quote from scottish power rep,which lead me to saying well if there is no notification or message that states I have to manually account for this me and others aren't going to know and the budget option is thus useless unless told prior. 

pochase

What exactly do you think the budget option should do?

It will show you if you are using more than you want think you should use and make you aware of it. It will not switch off your energy and stop you from using energy.

If you know that around 50p standing charge is missing, just add the 50p and you know what you are using, or even better decrease you budget by the 50p, and it will show you if you are within the real budget or not.

BobT36

Yeah, it's not a "billing" device, the standing charges are that, "standing charges", they're for billing, not usage. 

Clearly the display & budget option shows your "usage". Just set it xp lower than your average usage + standing charge. 

[Deleted User]

Elsoulleon said:

All the above comments and reply are great however I wrote that mass wall of text straight from getting of a call with ofgem then energy ombudsman which both stated they know there is a massive issue with the smart meters accuracy and implementation but can't do anything about it, I autistic so write the post as it came into my head.
I not complaining about paying my bill just the fact I that I wasnt told I had to manually work out the budget based upon my standing day charge etc which isn't stated anywhere that's needed and i think someone mentioned it the monitor notifies of shows the charge being added somewhere.

I'm more concerned that we're using the budget service option within the appliance offered and be told its in real time and accurate on the websites etc and it shows our energy consumption in pounds and pence direct quote from Scottish power, but this isn't the case at all.

So as stated I was told my daily average was £2 or my budgeted £2.50 that was set on the smart meter, upon then finding out the meter budget option does not factor in the standing charge direct quote from scottish power rep,which lead me to saying well if there is no notification or message that states I have to manually account for this me and others aren't going to know and the budget option is thus useless unless told prior. 

I would be interested to know why Ofgem believes that there are problems with smart meter accuracy? Smart meters are just National Certificated meters that record usage: the smart bit is the transmission of that data to suppliers. If meter accuracy was an issue there would be a National outcry. Yes, there may be some issues but I am not aware of any major concerns about meter accuracy. 

Having said that, you may be getting confused about the device in your home which is NOT a smart meter. It is just an In House Display which takes data from the communications hub. Clearly, if the tariff data is wrong then so will be costs shown on the IHD. The usage data on the IHD should be correct save for the fact that the gas proxy meter built into the communications hub uses a fixed calorific value for volume to kWh conversion.