Is my smart meter monitor showing the true cost of my energy consumption?

desthemoaner

Perhaps this is a daft question, but here goes.

 Are the energy costs shown on my smart meter monitor net of the £66 per month energy assistance being given to us by the government? Or is that running total the actual cost of what I'm using, with the £66 being applied to those figures prior to the bill being made up? 

EssexHebridean

I would imagine it's the costs, rather than what you will see on your bill. I'd also say be aware that the IHD (what you refer to as the "smart meter monitor" *may* not have your up to date tariff unit costs on it - they don't always update immediately and sometimes not even  at all. usually the IHD is best used for a "snapshot" of how much energy is being used at any given time (ie in kWh) rather than an "actual factual" of how much that energy is costing you. 

dunstonh

Are the energy costs shown on my smart meter monitor net of the £66 per month energy assistance being given to us by the government? 

I doubt it as your energy cost hasn't changed because of the £66.   The smart meter shows what energy you have used and uses the unit price to display the cost.  

In house displays are of more use when you switch them to show the kWh use rather than the monetary figure.  It is a more meaningful way of measuring your energy and identifying heavy use gadgets or issues.  It also helps identify trends, which isnt as easy when using the monetary figure.

BooJewels

To add to what @EssexHebridean has said, which is also my understanding of how smart meters and IHDs work - i.e not to be relied upon - I would strongly urge you to develop the habit of reading your actual meters at a set interval - say the last day of the month - and working out your own anticipated energy costs.

If you take a meter reading and deduct the previous meter reading from it, that will give your usage for the last month - so using your personal tariff, you can then work out how much your bill would be for that month.  You also need to calculate your standing charge[s] and maybe do some calculations if you have gas - as that is measured by volume, but charged by kWh, so it's a bit more complicated than electricity.  If you want some help with the sums, we can give you more details.  I think what many of us do is set up a spreadsheet with the appropriate formulas in and just enter the variables, to get to a bill amount.

This gives you an idea of what you're using and what it will cost you, but also acts as a plausibility check on your billing - so when it arrives, you'll already know about what it should be.  It's a good habit to form and will serve you well in the event of a dispute, meter issue or the like.

[Deleted User]

The IHD should display the correct cost provided the supplier has sent the correct tariff information to your meter. You can check this on the IHD or on the actual meters. The £66 rebate will not be taken into account as it doesn’t change the tariff that you are on.

I say ‘should’ as my IHD has never added the daily standing charge to my daily gas cost. I suspect that this is because there is an issue with the gas proxy meter in my comms hub ( the clever bit that does the kWh gas conversion).

I use the BRIGHT App to see my daily costs - again to be accurate this requires the setting of accurate tariff information in the actual meters.

desthemoaner

Many thanks, all. We built up a fairly large credit balance in the summer months and I confess to having been rather lax in keeping an eye on our consumption in actual energy terms, but instead paying occasional regard to the "cost per" displays, which can clearly be misleading. If our next bill is substantial, it might well persuade me to take more notice of the kWh figures than I do at present.