Faulty Meters? Help!

Louevs83

Hi!

There is quite a lot of story to this, so I'll try to keep this post as brief as possible in the hopes that someone can offer advice - we don't know what to do next...

Our energy provider switched to British Gas in November 2021 after Utility Point went into administration. We received our first combined G&E bill on Christmas Day, which was 4 times our usual monthly bill; this was queried with BG and they agreed that the unit readings were exceptionally high so they sent an engineer to examine the meters, and they replaced the gas meter in mid Jan 2022.

BG continued to send bills based on incorrect unit usage, and despite our continual attempts to contact BG to raise this issue, nothing was done. The bills just kept coming. We lodged a complaint via BG's own process which dragged on for months; still nothing was done to try to rectify or resolve the fact that BG were charging us for gas and electricity that we were not using. They purely focussed on the fact that the bills were correct based on the meter readings, whereas our point was that the meter readings must be erroneous as our actual usage was not at that level. Eventually, we left BG and switched to OVO in April 2022.

As our complaint to BG failed, we complained to the Ombudsman regarding BG's errors and the horrendous customer service we received; the Ombudsman took the same view of meter readings as BG and ignored our continual and consistent statements that there was a fault somewhere in the system that was registering more units than we were actually using. No one believes that we have an issue.

All this was before the energy price hikes, and we were landed with a substantial bill for energy that we hadn't used, which we have had to borrow money to pay last month because our mortgage is due for renewal and BG had put us as in arrears on our credit file.

We are now experiencing the same issues with OVO - we have the OVO app which shows usage and we also have the Hive system which tallies our usage (fitted when we had a new boiler just under a year ago). Both of these are showing that we are using energy when we are not, i.e. the OVO app states that today we used the gas from 4:30am to 7:45am - the heating and hot water are both turned off; 

- our house is freezing because we don't have the gas heating on at all
- we have limited ourselves to showering every other day to save heating the water
- we boil the kettle for water to wash dishes
- we haven't used the dishwasher or tumble dryer for months
- every appliance (apart from fridge-freezers) are turned off at the switch when not in use, and have been for over 6 months. All our appliances are electric, gas is only used for hot water and heating

Yet we are receiving energy bills of around £500 a month, the next is predicted to be near £700!! We have no idea how to cut back any further on our usage, but it is so infuriating when time after time, no one is listening to us when we say there has to be some kind of fault somewhere. We aren't trying to dodge paying our bills, but we can't pay for energy we are not using - this is completely unsustainable for us financially. The stress we've been under for over 12 months is huge, and with the cost of living crisis it just gets worse.

OVO have asked us to carry out a creep test (turning off all fuses), which we are going to do this weekend. We just feel that we are going around in circles time after time, but all the while having to pay extortionate bills for energy that we simply aren't using.

Any advice or help would be really appreciated, thanks.

MattMattMattUK

Louevs83 said:

Hi!

There is quite a lot of story to this, so I'll try to keep this post as brief as possible in the hopes that someone can offer advice - we don't know what to do next...

Our energy provider switched to British Gas in November 2021 after Utility Point went into administration. We received our first combined G&E bill on Christmas Day, which was 4 times our usual monthly bill; this was queried with BG and they agreed that the unit readings were exceptionally high so they sent an engineer to examine the meters, and they replaced the gas meter in mid Jan 2022.

BG continued to send bills based on incorrect unit usage, and despite our continual attempts to contact BG to raise this issue, nothing was done. The bills just kept coming. We lodged a complaint via BG's own process which dragged on for months; still nothing was done to try to rectify or resolve the fact that BG were charging us for gas and electricity that we were not using. They purely focussed on the fact that the bills were correct based on the meter readings, whereas our point was that the meter readings must be erroneous as our actual usage was not at that level. Eventually, we left BG and switched to OVO in April 2022.

As our complaint to BG failed, we complained to the Ombudsman regarding BG's errors and the horrendous customer service we received; the Ombudsman took the same view of meter readings as BG and ignored our continual and consistent statements that there was a fault somewhere in the system that was registering more units than we were actually using. No one believes that we have an issue.

All this was before the energy price hikes, and we were landed with a substantial bill for energy that we hadn't used, which we have had to borrow money to pay last month because our mortgage is due for renewal and BG had put us as in arrears on our credit file.

We are now experiencing the same issues with OVO - we have the OVO app which shows usage and we also have the Hive system which tallies our usage (fitted when we had a new boiler just under a year ago). Both of these are showing that we are using energy when we are not, i.e. the OVO app states that today we used the gas from 4:30am to 7:45am - the heating and hot water are both turned off; 

- our house is freezing because we don't have the gas heating on at all
- we have limited ourselves to showering every other day to save heating the water
- we boil the kettle for water to wash dishes
- we haven't used the dishwasher or tumble dryer for months
- every appliance (apart from fridge-freezers) are turned off at the switch when not in use, and have been for over 6 months. All our appliances are electric, gas is only used for hot water and heating

Yet we are receiving energy bills of around £500 a month, the next is predicted to be near £700!! We have no idea how to cut back any further on our usage, but it is so infuriating when time after time, no one is listening to us when we say there has to be some kind of fault somewhere. We aren't trying to dodge paying our bills, but we can't pay for energy we are not using - this is completely unsustainable for us financially. The stress we've been under for over 12 months is huge, and with the cost of living crisis it just gets worse.

OVO have asked us to carry out a creep test (turning off all fuses), which we are going to do this weekend. We just feel that we are going around in circles time after time, but all the while having to pay extortionate bills for energy that we simply aren't using.

Any advice or help would be really appreciated, thanks.

Do a meter creep test, do a meter sanity test, make sure you are being billed for the meters in your property (do the meter numbers on the physical meter match the numbers on your bills). It probably does not help that you switched suppliers and that money may be very difficult to recover now. Does your meter show the same readings as on your bill?

Is it just gas that you have an issue with or electricity as well? If it is just gas then you can turn the gas off using using red handle next to the meter and see what your usage is over several days of it being off (eg. it should be zero). Finally you can ask for the meter to be taken away and checked, it costs £200 but based on what you have said and depending on what you get back from the above tests it may be the way to go.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

You need to be far more factual: unfortunately, saying that your bills are too high and that you can't afford it won't cut the mustard.  You need firm evidence, not feelings or emotion because the Ombudsman doesn't investigate, they just look at the evidence given to them.  Your energy company will submit factual evidence from skilled professionals, so your input has to be in the same league.  Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh or unsympathetic, but that's how it is so you have to learn the rules and play by them to get anywhere.

Now for the practicalities.  Stop thinking in ££, focus on kWh usage.  Stop bothering with apps and IHD readings because they can be inaccurate.  You need to go by what the meters on the wall say.  Take readings daily for the time being.

Are any readings estimated?  Make sure that all readings are Smart, Customer or Meter Reader.

Start by doing the Meter Sanity Test.  Meters can be faulty but this is relatively rare, especially as one has been replaced.  Administrative errors (paying for someone else's usage, confusion between metric and imperial gas meters) are much more common.

[Deleted User]

Firstly check your gas meter and your gas statement and confirm that you are being billed for the correct gas units. Gas meters can record usage in both cubic feet or cubic meters and the kWh conversion is different.

You have the right to ask your supplier for an independent test of your gas meter. This will be at cost to you unless the laboratory confirms that there is a meter error.

Modern gas boilers do have anti-frost protection built in so it is possible for a boiler to come on when there is no heating demand programmed.

I confess that I am confused when you refer to ‘fuses’. I think that you mean appliances. How much are you actually paying per month for gas and electricity in charges NOT DD monthly payments? This will give us a clue as to whether it is a gas or electricity usage issue.

ProDave

How do you KNOW your meters are erroneous?  Just thinking "gosh that is a bit high" is not enough.

You need to test them, turn EVERYTHING off then run a know load like a plug in convector heater for a known time and see how much the meter increases by.  Or part of the dispute process would be for the supplier to install a check meter.

[Deleted User]

ProDave said:

How do you KNOW your meters are erroneous?  Just thinking "gosh that is a bit high" is not enough.

You need to test them, turn EVERYTHING off then run a know load like a plug in convector heater for a known time and see how much the meter increases by.  Or part of the dispute process would be for the supplier to install a check meter.

From the Office of Product Safety and Standards Website:

’ Investigating disputes

During 2019, we appointed meter examiners to conduct independent testing of 1,209 gas meters and 269 electricity meters in circumstances where a customer was concerned that their meter was inaccurate and had been unable to resolve their concerns with their supplier. These meters represented a very small proportion of all meters in service – less than 1 in 34,000.

The independent tests of gas meters identified that 90.5% of the meters that could be tested were accurate. Of the gas meters that failed the accuracy tests, 3.7% were found to be metering less gas than was being used – resulting in undercharging of the customer – and 5.8% were metering more gas than was being used, resulting in overcharging of the customer. Gas meters subjected to independent testing are not returned to use following the testing.

The independent tests of electricity meters identified that 92.9% of the meters where consumers sought a determination were accurate. 5.6% were found to be metering more electricity than was being used, resulting in overcharging of the customer and 1.5% were found to be metering less electricity than was being used – resulting in undercharging of the customer.

These results differ from those identified by independent testing under the IST procedure and it is worth noting that the IST testing of a random sample of in service meters – which identified no failures in 2019/20 – is more representative of the overall accuracy of meters in use in Great Britain than these meter accuracy tests which are undertaken for a relatively small number of meters where there are specific customer concerns about inaccuracy.’

It follows that the chances of it being a faulty meter/s is statistically very small.

Spoonie_Turtle

We has another poster recently convinced their meters must be faulty as it was recording gas usage when there was no heating or hot water on - turned out something had messed up the scheduling and it was merrily heating the house as they were on holiday, and overnight when they thought it should have been off too.

So the best test right now is to completely turn off the gas and see if it registers any usage.  Then if it doesn't, check the other things mentioned in the thread.

pochase

You are mentioning that the gas meter was already replaced in January 2022 because you felt that it is was broken. Are you saying that the new meter is also broken? Plus there is also an electrcic meter that is broken?

If you look at the statistics @dolor just posted a broken meter is already very unlikely, two broken meters would be almost impossible.

You are not giving enough data here. What was the electricity usage the last 12 months, what was the gas usage. 

What is the conversion from gas units to KWh? Is thee somewhere a 2.82/2.83 in the calculation?

I don't know if the Ombudsman will see that there was already a decision in favour of your old supplier, it would decrease you chances if this is the case.

brianposter

I would start by looking at the OVO app because you believe that shows a concrete error. Check first that your facts are correct using a time when you can look at the meter reading for a few hours and, if the app does not show usage correctly, pester OVO until you get an explanation.

EssexHebridean

Are the readings on your bills shown as “Smart” (S) “actual” (A) or “estimated” (E)?

Have you checked the readings from the actual meter to make sure they marry up with the bills? (Not via the IHD - the physical meter).

have you checked that the meter number shown on your bill ties up with the number on your meter?

brianposter

In relation to the OVO app, I seem to remember that the data were 1 day out (on a different app) when we were investigating a problem with the meter.