Weird issue with smart meter

Butagirl

I am with EdF and have a Smart meter with an in-home display. This display can show me how much I have spent each day so far and also how much I have spent each billing period.

I noticed on day 1 of a billing period that there was a discrepancy between the two readings, with the billing period total showing 44p less than the daily total. I thought it might have been the standing charge not included (it was, and my standing charge is 38p), or that one figure included VAT and the other didn't (that didn't compute either). I couldn't work it out, so kept track over the next few days.

Each day, the sum of the individual daily costs differed from the billing period cost by exactly 44p. Does anyone have the slightest idea what's going on here? Hopefully someone's come across this before because I am scratching my head!

manetti

I too am with EDF with an in-home display. I started to notice discrepancies between the historic values shown on the display and the amount recorded on my account - the live usage appears correct and the value at the very end of the day is what gets recorded for my bills, but if I use the in-home display to look at previous usage, the figures don't align.

I gave up on trying to find a solution; there are lots of reports to suggest that energy providers offer very little in the way of support for these devices. I now just use the EDF app to view historic usage.

[Deleted User]

You need to check the actual tariff information that your supplier has sent to the ESME and the GSME (the two meters). You should be able to confirm the daily standing charge and the unit price. The IHD uses these tariffs to calculate your costs. Gas costs will be incorrect as the gas proxy meter situated in the communications hub uses a fixed calorific value to convert volume to kWh. Actual gas billing uses an average actual calorific value truncated to one decimal point.

FWiW, I have a WNC communications hub that in 3 years has never added the daily standing charge to my daily cost. The DCC is responsible for these hubs and they are not minded to change it as information is getting through to the supplier. The communications hub also establishes the Home Area Network that your IHD connects to.

The DCC is responsible for the network and communications hubs, and individual meter and device manufacturers are responsible for building; certifying and updating their meters and devices. When things go awry, there is not much that suppliers can do other than pester other parties. 

Butagirl

The tariff information matches what we are billed and the instantaneous costs all match the tariff. Regardless, it cannot possibly be a tariff issue because the discrepancy is the same on Day 10 as it is on Day 1. A tariff issue would cause the discrepancy to grow every day.

PinkPanda_3

Could it be a minor timing issue? I am with edf too. My gas smart meter installed jan 22 and never connected to their account or the ihd. My electricity meter stopped connecting to account on April 1st and ihd still works for electricity, but daily/weekly/annual costs seemed off.  On further monitoring I found the ihd resets the day at 3pm and the month on 6th/7th. I have no idea when the year was reset but as a high electricity user I know for sure I have used far more than what the  ihd is showing for the year. 

Butagirl

Funnily enough, I happened to look at my display at 00:05 this morning. It showed a daily cost of just over 38p (my standing charge), so I'm pretty sure the timings are okay. Also I'm on Economy 7 and the switchover times are all spot-on (we made sure of that early on!).

The only scenario that makes any sort of sense to me is that the standing charge is being applied at the end of the day rather than the beginning for the billing cycle total (even though the discrepancy is 44p rather than 38p). However, there's no way I can check this until Day 1 of the billing period comes around again.

Butagirl

Actually, thinking about it, Pink_Panda may be right. If the billing period started at, say, 1am it would cause this sort of discrepancy. It would also mean that it would have the appearance of the standing charge being added at the end of each day.

I’ll monitor it when the billing period changes and see what happens. Thanks, all.

[Deleted User]

Butagirl said:

Funnily enough, I happened to look at my display at 00:05 this morning. It showed a daily cost of just over 38p (my standing charge), so I'm pretty sure the timings are okay. Also I'm on Economy 7 and the switchover times are all spot-on (we made sure of that early on!).

The only scenario that makes any sort of sense to me is that the standing charge is being applied at the end of the day rather than the beginning for the billing cycle total (even though the discrepancy is 44p rather than 38p). However, there's no way I can check this until Day 1 of the billing period comes around again.

According to the smart energy team at Octopus, some meters do add the daily standing charge at the end of the day rather than at the beginning. There appears to be nothing in the SMETS2 standard to require meter manufacturers to add the charge at the start of the day. 

truie19

I've just contacted EDF who spent the first 10 minutes telling me how wonderful my account was because I was £1000 in credit. Yeah wonderful you have all my money !! "whats your secret" he says "you take all my money out my account " I say, nothing to do with me, you've upped my direct debit !!!!! When he finally let me explain that my monthly gas amount on my IHD unit was completely different to the monthly gas amount shown in my app I was told to turn it off for 24 hours. Just kept going round in circles and did not seem to understand why I would be upset that I've been sat looking at my display for the past 8 months but now find on checking my app that I have spent in most months double the amount. I thought I was saving energy, but no I'm not. My display for January 22 states £157 electricity and £69.51 gas but my app states £158 electricity and £123 Gas. Had I known this I would have turned my heating down !!!!!!!! So annoying yet EDF say it's fine because I am £1000 in credit. Seems to me my IHD thinks I'm paying my for my gas at my fixed rate that finished in December. They manage to update my direct debit quick enough so that they have £1000 of my money in their bank account when it should be in mine yet they cannot update the system that is supposed to help us save energy. Rubbish !!!!!!!!!!

[Deleted User]

truie19 said:

Seems to me my IHD thinks I'm paying my for my gas at my fixed rate that finished in December. They manage to update my direct debit quick enough so that they have £1000 of my money in their bank account when it should be in mine yet they cannot update the system that is supposed to help us save energy. Rubbish !!!!!!!!!!

The IHD does not not have physic powers AND most importantly it does not have any role to play in how your bills are raised. 

For the IHD display, tariff information is taken directly from the meters (known as the ESME and the GSME). The supplier is responsible for updating tariff information in the ESME and GSME: some suppliers are better at doing this than others. 

There are various ways of checking your bills. Are the readings used on your bills annotated with an ‘S’?

The part of your post that is confusing me is your reference to your fixed rate. If the IHD is showing the fixed rate tariff and you are now on a much more expensive tariff, then the costs on your IHD will be lower than those shown on your bills.

FreeBear

truie19 said: I thought I was saving energy, but no I'm not. My display for January 22 states £157 electricity and £69.51 gas but my app states £158 electricity and £123 Gas.

Looking at my IHD, it says I've spent £314 on electricity in the last year and £19.26 on gas - The tariff data hasn't been updated since Solarplicity installed the meters... I now never look at the ££, and just concentrate on the KWh numbers. These tell me I've used 2200KWh electricity and 4500KWh of gas over the last year - Down from 2500KWh & 8000KWh from the previous year.