British Gas admits its smart meter customers have been unable to track their energy usage

NannaH

I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre.

I’ve worked it out that 1 unit = £1.15, at the current price cap,   which saves the faff of the conversion rates.  

[Deleted User]

NannaH said:

I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre.

I’ve worked it out that 1 unit = £1.15, at the current price cap,   which saves the faff of the conversion rates.  

1 unit on your meter is either a cubic meter (more modern, and all smart meters) or 100 cubic feet (older imperial meters).

You said a metric meter, so that can only be cubic meters. 

brock_the_badger

NannaH said:

I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre.

I’ve worked it out that 1 unit = £1.15, at the current price cap,   which saves the faff of the conversion rates.  

Totally logical and fairly accurate . I get it if others do not !

Ange_D

A few days after switching to a smart meter in October the app/site would only show me energy usage up to June. 

Now I get the “something’s gone wrong” message and can see no energy usage at all (even historical)

I can access gas usage through loop and bright but neither can access electricity (likely due to firmware in the meter)

Even though it does seem to be sending readings and the IHD works I greatly regret switching. 

[Deleted User]

brock_the_badger said:

NannaH said:

I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre.

I’ve worked it out that 1 unit = £1.15, at the current price cap,   which saves the faff of the conversion rates.  

Totally logical and fairly accurate . I get it if others do not !

Then please enlighten us, because it makes absolutely no sense the way it is explained at the moment.

brock_the_badger

Deleted_User said:

brock_the_badger said:

NannaH said:

I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre.

I’ve worked it out that 1 unit = £1.15, at the current price cap,   which saves the faff of the conversion rates.  

Totally logical and fairly accurate . I get it if others do not !

Then please enlighten us, because it makes absolutely no sense the way it is explained at the moment.

1 metric Unit = 11.3kw approximately x 10p per kw = £1.30p . Allowing for regional variations on price per kw £1.15 is near enough for a rough calculation . Not everyone is an energy expert so give a bit of rope !

Is that enlightening enough for you !

[Deleted User]

"A metric unit is £1.16, which equates to 3.5kwh."

"I’m talking about the units I read on my meter,  not a cubic metre."

So actually they are talking about a cubic meter, which as you rightly point out is somewhere near 11kWh and not the 3.5kWh claimed.

Yes, a cubic meter is something like £1.20 - but the poster had said twice that they were not talking about 11kWh or about a cubic meter - hence the confusion.  At a guess, they were converting pounds into kWh using the electricity unit price but it's not really clear.

NannaH

I’ve just used a simplified way of working out my daily cost.
I used 7 units last weekend , going by my gas meter readings. Actual meter not smart meter,  it is a metric meter but the actual numbers are not kwh, that’s why you have to use the conversion factors. 
I converted it by the usual formula then extrapolated that to work out that 1 unit = £1.16 ish, which equates to roughly 3.5kwh.
It’s not difficult. 🤷

[Deleted User]

NannaH said:

I’ve just used a simplified way of working out my daily cost.
I used 7 units last weekend , going by my gas meter readings. Actual meter not smart meter,  it is a metric meter but the actual numbers are not kwh, that’s why you have to use the conversion factors. 
I converted it by the usual formula then extrapolated that to work out that 1 unit = £1.16 ish, which equates to roughly 3.5kwh.
It’s not difficult. 🤷

That's the bit that is confusing people.

Your actual meter is measuring m3, despite what you mentioned before.

1 unit on a metric gas meter (1m3) is about £1.16, sure.

Your gas price will be about 10.5p per kWh though - so that would make it about 11kWh, not 3.5kWh.

EssexHebridean

NannaH said:

I’ve just used a simplified way of working out my daily cost.
I used 7 units last weekend , going by my gas meter readings. Actual meter not smart meter,  it is a metric meter but the actual numbers are not kwh, that’s why you have to use the conversion factors. 
I converted it by the usual formula then extrapolated that to work out that 1 unit = £1.16 ish, which equates to roughly 3.5kwh.
It’s not difficult. 🤷

Allowing that the current unit price of gas under the EPG is around 10.34p per kWh - if this was correct it would suggest that you were paying a lot more than your (roughly correct) £1.15 per kWh. It's not your "per m3" calculation that's causing the problem - it's the extrapolation to kWh being incorrect - people are picking up on it because that could cause confusion to others who don't understand how the conversion works. 

A simple way of doing it is to multiple your meter's m3 reading x 11. 1 m3 = (roughly) 11kWh.