Crazy gas recordings after new smart meter

CostaRica18

Has anyone else experienced a crazy set of readings from a newly-installed smart meter?
We have a super-efficient home: average use of 13,00Kwh in gas per year.
Immediately after Scottish Power installed a smart meter (in November 2021) the meter said we used over 10,000Kwh in 25 days. We used just over 700Kwh in the full month of October up to the date of installation. The meter is showing our annual use is now over 62,000Kwh. Nothing changed other than the meter. Scottish Power are yet to acknowledge this is obviously wrong. 
Please share any similar experiences? 

pochase

What are the readings for your meter?

Potentially the meter could eb registered as imperial (ft3) which would treble the KWh per unit.

Can you post the formula used to calculate your KWh?

CostaRica18

The 13,000kwh figure was from two actual readings by SP, so that is correct. The new meter is cubic metres. Was zero on 5 November 2021 and at 04239 on 1 August. Conversion is at approximately 11, meaning 46,600Kwh in 8 months, meaning approx 70,000Kwh annually. That is over 5 times the previous year's usage. That is just impossible. Have you encountered this issue elsewhere?

poppellerant

Are Scottish Power still billing you gas in cubic feet (ft3)? Check your bill for this, as you should now be billed in cubic metres (m3).

Krakkkers

Gas leak after fitting meter?

CostaRica18

Bills were and still are in cubic metres. Calorific value is 39.2, volume correction is 1.02 and the result is divided by 3.6 (that's approximately 11).
A leak would explain it, but how do we prove that (other than by highlighting the near-impossibility for our Worcester-Bosch combi boiler to physically burn through 400Khw of gas every day)?

brook_heather

You prove it by turing off your boiler and not using any gas appliances for a few hours and see if your meter reading changes.

CostaRica18

We did that - but only recently. Meter stopped. What I am struggling with is the immediate spike in recorded usage from the very day the new meter was installed. The second problem is the absolute amount being recorded - how can it possibly be the case that we "used" over 10,000Kwh in a period of 25 days in an EPC A-rated 4-bed home, where the 30 days prior we used an actual meter-read amount of 777Kwh?

Krakkkers

You are clearly not using that amount of gas so have you registered an official conplaint?
Has the high usage been constant ie summer and winter?

Misslayed

When I got my bill from Octopus (by email) on 15/08 I noticed there was no charge for gas, just electricity. I replied to the email pointing it out. A few hours later I got this reply:

This is because we didn't receive a reading from your smart meter. I've pulled a reading but it's quite high compared to your previous usage patterns, please could you send me a photo of your gas meter so I can check the reading?

I duly sent a photo, next day got this response:

Hello XXX

Thank you for the photo. I've looked into this and unfortunately I haven't been able to generate a gas bill for you as of yet. This is because I believe your meter was impacted by a meter firmware issue earlier this year. We have a fix for this issue, I just need to look at how it may have impacted billing on your account.

I've asked a specialist to look into it so we can solve the problem as soon as possible and I'll update you as soon as I can. 

Best wishes, 

Elle B

Octopus energy specialist

And a few days later:

Just a quick update for you. Your case is with our specialist but unfortunately they're in high demand at the moment so they have not had chance to look at your account yet. Apologies for this, I'll update you again as soon as I hear more. 

Best wishes, 

Elle B

Octopus energy specialist

My newish smart meter readings online show I used £385 worth of gas in the last month!

So it looks like it's a known issue and they are dealing with it, I've just been lucky in that I'm being kept informed. 

Perhaps Scottish Power have the same issue?

CostaRica18

We have Octopus for electricity - combined with solar and a PowerWall. They are always responsive and good.
Scottish Power are not. Do you know what meter manufacturer did your meter?
The usage per month from SP's own data: Aug 21 (402Kwh), Sept 21 (390Kwh), Oct 21 (777Kwh), [meter installed] Nov 21 (10,400Kwh), Dec 21 (7,082Kwh), Jan 22 (7,578Kwh), Feb (6,743Kwh), Mar 22 (6,811Kwh), Apr 22 (5,086Kwh), May 22 (3,720Kwh), Jun 22 (3,371Kwh), Jul 22 (2,920Kwh), Aug 22 (2,266Kwh).
Heating has been off for months, we were out of the country for three weeks in July and August, and so the gas usage is only for hot water.