British Gas Bill Estimated even with Smart Meter?

[Deleted User]

Pat38493 said:

[Deleted User] said:

SMETS1 meters do exist. The Data Communications Company has updated these over 10 Million of these meters with a firmware update which gives them connectivity to the National smart meter network.

Have you checked the peak and offpeak times set by your supplier?

Yes - it's midnight to 5am on the tariff details.  Also I have observed that on some days (but randomly not on others), the IHD does indeed charge my 12p per KWh during those hours.

I know that SMETS1 meters exist - what I meant is that it's not registered so I cannot get any data from the app on the phone.  Also - Octopus told me that they can't use it when I sent them a photo.

What results do you get from this link:

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Pat38493

pochase said:

Are you sure that the registers for night and day are not mixed up? What did you use in day rates in the same period?

The IHD is a toy, nothing more and has nothing to do with the meter readings for billing.

I don't think so - I do understand that the IHD is not used directly for the billing.  

The registers are not mixed up as far as I can see because the main register has been counting up since I moved onto that tariff.  The other register started at 1595 when I switched tariffs (probably due to having used the "free weekend day" offer that they had some years back)

According to BG, 

Period 4th March to 11th March -
Peak usage 327
off peak usage 31
% off peak 8.6

Period 6th September to 3rd March
there are multiple readings on the bill because I switched to the EV tariff on 1st December, but the percent of off peak units over the total period was 22% and the % of off peak units since 1st December was 31%.

However the other issue I can see when looking at the bills is that some of the readings on the off peak register are showing "estimated".  This may partially explain the discrepancy in the 7 day bill because the opening reading for the off peak register says "estimated"

For example for the period 13th Jan to 3rd March - as far as I can see they have estimated the reading on the off peak register (even though I supposedly have a smart meter).

So could it actually be that they are not getting readings from my meter even though it's set to "every 30 minutes" on the web site?

The only data on the bill shows readings not every 30 minutes but every few weeks or even longer, and some of the readings shows "estimated" on both registers.

Pat38493

[Deleted User] said:

What results do you get from this link:

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

It says it's working in smart mode.

As mentioned above - it may be a bit more complicated because I just realised the first bill that I got a week before had estimated meter readings for some periods for both peak and off peak usage, including the last reading on the bill.  The latest one claims that it's based on smart meter readings taken on 11th March.

What I don't get is, if my meter is a smart meter working in smart mode, why would they ever be using estimated readings?

If that citizens advice site says my meter is in smart mode, does that mean I can now switch to Octopus?  When I sent Octopus a photo of my smart meter on Twitter in September last year they told me that my meter is not yet compatible and I needed to wait.

Perhaps my meter has ben upgraded now do you think?  What is the name of the app on the smartphone where you can download your meter data?  I will try that again as I tried it last September and it said my meter is not registered.

[Deleted User]

Pat38493 said:

pochase said:

Are you sure that the registers for night and day are not mixed up? What did you use in day rates in the same period?

The IHD is a toy, nothing more and has nothing to do with the meter readings for billing.

I don't think so - I do understand that the IHD is not used directly for the billing.  

The registers are not mixed up as far as I can see because the main register has been counting up since I moved onto that tariff.  The other register started at 1595 when I switched tariffs (probably due to having used the "free weekend day" offer that they had some years back)

According to BG, 

Period 4th March to 11th March -
Peak usage 327
off peak usage 31
% off peak 8.6

Period 6th September to 3rd March
there are multiple readings on the bill because I switched to the EV tariff on 1st December, but the percent of off peak units over the total period was 22% and the % of off peak units since 1st December was 31%.

However the other issue I can see when looking at the bills is that some of the readings on the off peak register are showing "estimated".  This may partially explain the discrepancy in the 7 day bill because the opening reading for the off peak register says "estimated"

For example for the period 13th Jan to 3rd March - as far as I can see they have estimated the reading on the off peak register (even though I supposedly have a smart meter).

So could it actually be that they are not getting readings from my meter even though it's set to "every 30 minutes" on the web site?

The only data on the bill shows readings not every 30 minutes but every few weeks or even longer, and some of the readings shows "estimated" on both registers.

Again, I think that you are failing to understand how smart meters work. For those of us on a 30 minute smart meter profile, the supplier carries out a data pull once every 24 hours (usually early morning when the DCC network isn’t quite so busy). This data pull retrieves up to 4 index readings per meter and an XML file containing the 30 minute usage data to cover the previous day.

It is possible that there are connectivity issues between your comms hub and the network.

As your meter is connected to the DCC Network, I suggest that you download the free App BRIGHT. The App will show the tariff that you are on and 30 minute usage in kWh. The data can also be changed to show cost per 30 minute period.

Hildebrand, the owner of BRIGHT, pulls data from your smart meters using similar secure software to that used by your supplier. If there is a data loss in BRIGHT, then you have a comms hub connectivity problem.

[Deleted User]

Yes, you can switch and your meter will remain smart. Octopus bills once per month for smart meter accounts. It has an excellent App and website with daily information on usage etc.

Pat38493

[Deleted User] said:

Again, I think that you are failing to understand how smart meters work. For those of us on a 30 minute smart meter profile, the supplier carries out a data pull once every 24 hours (usually early morning when the DCC network isn’t quite so busy). This data pull retrieves up to 4 index readings per meter and an XML file containing the 30 minute usage data to cover the previous day.

It is possible that there are connectivity issues between your comms hub and the network.

As your meter is connected to the DCC Network, I suggest that you download the free App BRIGHT. The App will show the tariff that you are on and 30 minute usage in kWh. The data can also be changed to show cost per 30 minute period.

Hildebrand, the owner of BRIGHT, pulls data from your smart meters using similar secure software to that used by your supplier. If there is a data loss in BRIGHT, then you have a comms hub connectivity problem.

OK - I have installed the BRIGHT application and this time I was able to register.  When I tried to do that last September it said my meter was not registered with the service.  I guess my meter must have been upgraded some time between last September and now.

So the problem could either be that the meter has a connectivity issue generally, or (more likely in my experience) British Gas have not been updating things or collecting the data properly.  I suppose it could also be that my meter was only just upgraded in the last few days - they did lock my account about a week ago for a few days and I saw a message that "we have detected some issues with your account or meter and we may need to get in touch about it" or something along those lines - never heard form them though.  This also coincided with when the industrial dryers were removed from the house so I assumed it was because they had detected a sudden big reduction in consumption.

Pat38493

I might have spoke too soon about the Bright data.

I was able to successfully register for the application and it seems to be showingall the technical information for my meters in the settings.  However, there is no data coming through - it still has the message that my data will start to appear within 24 hours but it's been 48 hours now since I installed it.

nobby1963

I’ve just registered with Loop and first impressions are good.
I only found out about them & Bright on here and went for Loop over Bright based on App Store reviews.
Time will tell.

Mstty

nobby1963 said:

I’ve just registered with Loop and first impressions are good.
I only found out about them & Bright on here and went for Loop over Bright based on App Store reviews.
Time will tell.

Loop is a bit glitchy and sometimes needs closing and restarting on android devices. It is however updated with usage quicker than Bright. Bright looks the nicer of the two products.

We have both

Pat38493

Mstty said:

nobby1963 said:

I’ve just registered with Loop and first impressions are good.
I only found out about them & Bright on here and went for Loop over Bright based on App Store reviews.
Time will tell.

Loop is a bit glitchy and sometimes needs closing and restarting on android devices. It is however updated with usage quicker than Bright. Bright looks the nicer of the two products.

We have both

So maybe it's "normal" then then on BRIGHT I don't see any data yet 48 hours after setting it up?  The message on the screen says it can take "up to 24 hours".

I'm also curious what is the business model of these apps?  I'm not clear why they are doing this for free as it appears they are part of a commercial company rather than some kind of community freeware project.