Smart meter - opening reading

genericn17

I had a new smart meter installed in July. Should I have expected the opening reading for this to be 0?

The reason I ask if that I'm having a dispute with Bulb over the bill for the first couple of months, where they claim I've used £50 more than my inhome display says. They keep saying that I shouldn't trust the inhome display and the meter will be right. The meter readings seems to be *slightly* different in terms of khw used, but roughly similar to the inhome display. Certainly not £50 off.

Looking at my statement - it lists opening readings for the smart meter as 99908 for the day rate and 99960 for the night rate. The next reading is from 3 days later, which is 14 for the day rate and 7 for the night rate.

It lists this opening reading as being submitted by the customer - but I never submitted it. It bears no resemblance to my old meter readings either, just seems like a totally random number. The next meter reading as listed as smart meter readings.

Just wondering if I should have expected my opening readings to be 0, and this random opening reading could be where the discrepancy is coming from?

MWT

Yes, the opening readings should normally be 0 on a new electricity meter, but it is at least possible that the opening readings were not zero.

It is not unusual to see a gas meter start around 99998 or so as they allow for some gas to be used purging the system, then it ticks over to 0.

Bulb are correct in so far as you cannot depend on the monetary amounts shown on the IHD to be correct, as the tariffs are not always updated regularly, but this does not affect your bill as it is only the usage information that is collected from the meter and used for billing, not the tariff information.

How much electricity were you using a day back in July? ... is the 14 / 7 reading you saw plausible for 3 days use in the summer for you?

Robin9

Perfectly normal.

New smarts have reading of less than zero to allow for commisioning.

Does your bill show the old meter readings?

[Deleted User]

Ignore the ‘in home’ display for billing purposes as it can take some weeks for the meters to go live.

For billing purposes, suppliers should use 00000 as the smart meter start reading. The installer will normally confirm these readings when the meters are installed through the set up App. They will also provide the supplier with closing readings for the meters that they remove. 

genericn17

I had previous sent pictures of the kwh used from the inhome display as well as the money used.

Then I had a play with my smart meter itself and managed to find the actual kwh used for the two billing periods in question - roughly similar to the inhome display. Bulb say I used over 100kwh more than this.

I sent them the pictures of the actual meter, and asked them to explain the difference.  They sent the same reply again saying I can't rely on my inhome display. I pointed out that I'd sent pictures of the actual meter and so far have had no response. Pretty frustrated with them to be honest!

brewerdave

Those do seem crazy amounts of usage for the first three days ie day rate 106kwh and night rate 43 kwh especially in the Summer - have Bulb actually used those reads for the statement ?
 Did the meter fitter leave a card with the old meters final read on and the start read on the smart meters?

genericn17

MWT said:

How much electricity were you using a day back in July? ... is the 14 / 7 reading you saw plausible for 3 days use in the summer for you?

Yes there's daily readings for a while after this and those numbers seems roughly correct

genericn17

This is the card left by the installer - I assume the bottom part is the new meter?

(They had also got the closing meter reading wrong and over charged me to the tune of £60 - I managed to get them to sort that but they are digging their heals in on the smart meter)

[Deleted User]

Yes, that bottom part should be the new meter - you could always check the serial number to be sure.

You should send that photo to your supplier if you haven’t already.

genericn17

I already did, but I will do again!

molerat

genericn17 said:

I already did, but I will do again!

Send it attached to a letter / e-mail headed big and bold FORMAL COMPLAINT, they usually pay attention to those.