Elec smart meter reading far too low - only just realised

Platedropper

Longtime MSE user here but new to the forum - thank you for any help! Have a slightly unusual problem in that it seems our meter has been reading too low.

We moved house last year from a flat with a traditional meter to a house with a smart meter for both gas and electricity. I've always read the meter monthly and diligently submitted the readings, and used to be on top of it even to the point of keeping my own spreadsheet to track what we were using and spending.

When we moved house that got lost in the whirlwind and, with everything else going on and not a second to myself, I reckoned that that the smart meter would be sending the readings through monthly and we just paid the DD as requested and thought it was all ticking along fine.

Now I'm starting to look at it properly and have found that the electricity meter is recording just 1kWh a day. This is borne out by the bills we've had (once I actually looked at them properly rather than just noting the CR/DR amounts) and by my daily checks over the past week since I realised. That's obviously far too low, esp as we used to use about 3000kWh annually even at the old smaller place. So I'll need to contact the supplier and get the meter checked, and presumably replaced.

I understand that I can be backbilled for up to 12mths but I'm wondering whether anyone has any insight into how the electricity company (Bulb) will estimate our actual usage for this period in these circumstances? The meter has been sending the readings to them accurately, it's just clearly not recording usage correctly in the first place. Will they base it on an estimate for the kind of property, or will they use our usage at the previous place, or a national average? If they estimate it at a higher level than seems realistic, can we negotiate? I'm dreading now getting a huge bill and wish I'd had time to check the usage before now - but I naively thought that being a smart meter it would all be fine. I didn't realise there was any chance it could not be recording properly, and too low at that!

I suspect it's been like it for a while - we did change supplier when we moved but I found an estimate from the previous supplier when we moved in saying they thought our annual usage would be 631kWh so if that's based on the previous owners' usage it looks like it's been too low for a while. 

Huge thanks for any information/insights that anyone can offer - I'd like to educate myself and have a better idea going into this whole process what the outcome is likely to be. Has anyone been in a similar situation, and how was it resolved? Any thoughts on any/all of it much appreciated! Thank you.

PennineAcute

If the meter is ready for the meter maker in the sky, then the meter should be swapped out for a working meter and your usage over the next couple of months will be averaged out to make a new bill.  If this happens, do all you can do minimise your usage.  Backbilling should also come into play with this.

In theory, you could play dumb and enjoy your very cheap electricity.  You were not to know the meter is not working correctly.

Alnat1

Maybe you've moved into a very economical house 

Reed_Richards

Solar panels?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

are you talking about the actual smart meter or the wee gadget?

As you've changed supplier meter may not be sending readings but will still be recording.

"they thought our annual usage would be 631kWh", that's very low, less than 2 units a day.

Alnat1

The energy company might simply assume you have solar panels and are using the energy from them and not needing the grid.

It's unlikely they will suddenly investigate or send a huge bill unless you raise this with them.

SAC2334

I have no faith at all that any energy supplier would deem 1 khw a day abnormal usage .
They really are pretty stupid as they could see that you have normal gas usage alongside the low electric useage to see that there is a fault in the smart meter

This could  just be a normal property left unoccupied with say a few 3 watt led s coming on for a few hours as a burglar deterrent .

As an ex meter reader I only found a couple of tampered smart meters and I d like to know the make and model of that meter .

 Its a rare event any digital meter doing that not just a smart meter

I m not saying your meter has been cleverly tampered but can you look at the lower cover above where the 4 cables enter . Is the security seal present and intact ( sometimes they super glue them back together at the join ) and does the screw which holds the cover down  look pristine with absolutely no signs of wear ? 

Its just a very odd thing for any meter to do adding on just 1 kwh a day 

Platedropper

SAC2334 said:

I have no faith at all that any energy supplier would deem 1 khw a day abnormal usage .
They really are pretty stupid as they could see that you have normal gas usage alongside the low electric useage to see that there is a fault in the smart meter

This could  just be a normal property left unoccupied with say a few 3 watt led s coming on for a few hours as a burglar deterrent .

As an ex meter reader I only found a couple of tampered smart meters and I d like to know the make and model of that meter .

 Its a rare event any digital meter doing that not just a smart meter

I m not saying your meter has been cleverly tampered but can you look at the lower cover above where the 4 cables enter . Is the security seal present and intact ( sometimes they super glue them back together at the join ) and does the screw which holds the cover down  look pristine with absolutely no signs of wear ? 

Its just a very odd thing for any meter to do adding on just 1 kwh a day 

Thank you for your help. It's a Secure Liberty 100 and says Year: 2018 on the front. It hadn't occurred to me that it could be tampered with as the previous owners were professional people in the medical field so I really wouldn't think they would do something like that. It all looks OK although I've no idea what it is supposed to look like! There's a little metal tag on the screw, is that the security seal? 
Actually it must have been wrong from the start as it's reading 2642 today. There's a wee postcard above the meter that says it was installed in May 2018 so that would be 650kwh or so annually for the past four years...

Evan3020

Do you have solar panels?

Platedropper

Thanks everyone. It's the actual meter I'm looking at and it's definitely sending readings through to the supplier as the reading when I first started looking into all this was in line with the one on the end of July bill. Definitely no solar panels (I wish!)

You're all correct in suggesting that if the supplier has not noticed so far - assuming that it's been reading wrongly since it was installed in 2018 - then they may be unlikely to now and will only know if I raise it. That said, they may well realise at some point in future and I think on balance I'd rather get it sorted now and then pay what we use going forward, than suddenly be hit with a huge backbill in the future when energy bills have gone up even further and who knows what financial situation we'll be in. 

I presume the "only backbill for 12mths" thing means that the previous owners won't be hit with a huge retrospective bill themselves? I can make decisions for us but don't want to drop them in it!

Thanks for the thoughts on how they might work out the estimated past usage, that's something I'd not thought of. 

All help and ideas very much appreciated, thank you. Any more insights welcome before I bite the bullet and email the supplier

SAC2334

Platedropper said:

SAC2334 said:

I have no faith at all that any energy supplier would deem 1 khw a day abnormal usage .
They really are pretty stupid as they could see that you have normal gas usage alongside the low electric useage to see that there is a fault in the smart meter

This could  just be a normal property left unoccupied with say a few 3 watt led s coming on for a few hours as a burglar deterrent .

As an ex meter reader I only found a couple of tampered smart meters and I d like to know the make and model of that meter .

 Its a rare event any digital meter doing that not just a smart meter

I m not saying your meter has been cleverly tampered but can you look at the lower cover above where the 4 cables enter . Is the security seal present and intact ( sometimes they super glue them back together at the join ) and does the screw which holds the cover down  look pristine with absolutely no signs of wear ? 

Its just a very odd thing for any meter to do adding on just 1 kwh a day 

Thank you for your help. It's a Secure Liberty 100 and says Year: 2018 on the front. It hadn't occurred to me that it could be tampered with as the previous owners were professional people in the medical field so I really wouldn't think they would do something like that. It all looks OK although I've no idea what it is supposed to look like! There's a little metal tag on the screw, is that the security seal? 
Actually it must have been wrong from the start as it's reading 2642 today. There's a wee postcard above the meter that says it was installed in May 2018 so that would be 650kwh or so annually for the past four years...

Thanks. Yes that metal tag is a security seal. 
Looks like those medical workers have had a very cheap few years on their electric bill .

.Its prob not tampered but I personally have never heard of that extremely slow advance of any digital meter. 

 The Secure Liberty  meters are easily my most hated meter by a country mile.  Both customers and meter readers  get the reading wrong often if they have to submit readings.

My friend has a degree in Physics but she asks me to pop round to read the meter .

 One of the main reasons is because they can confuse where exactly the kwh reading is displayed as they have about 7 screens including the KVah screen which is meaningless to every domestic customer . 

2018 Secure Liberty will be a SMETS 2 meter so it will be sending its readings off automatically