Meter Readings vs. Smart Meter Discrepancy - British Gas. Am I Being Diddled?

Joppydee

Hi all,

I write this having barely any hair left to pull out. I am at my wits' end trying to source the reason for my insane energy bill. 



723kWh is nuts... I don't own a tumble dryer, hot-tub, electric shower etc. - I do work from home but even that consistent draw from my laptop and monitors is totalling maybe 100kWh for the month, tops. 

We have a traditional boiler and hot water tank. We do have an immersion as a backup but it's switched off and isn't using any power. 

The thing that is confusing me is that the official meter readings stated on the bill are actually CORRECT! I have been keeping tabs on the meter itself under the stairs and the number it spits out to the smart meter and therefore my bill is accurate, but I just cannot account for this at all. The smart meter itself actually shows a much lower figure of around 400kWh for the month which would obviously be much more affordable. (Image below vs the bill usage total is 723kWh vs. 434kWh).



The British Gas usage tab on my app is down, so I have spoken to British Gas on the phone and they can't see my usage data either and have "raised a ticket" so I expect to hear back from them in the coming days. 

Has anyone experienced this before? Could there something pulling a large amount of power that isn't connected to the mains sockets for the smart meter to pick up on and is by-passing the estimates / usage? 

We moved in January so all the electrics were already in place of course. I have bought some of those usage monitor plugs to attach to a few items around the house just to sanity check, the 20 year old American style fridge freezer for example... but I don't think even that would drain as much power as I am being charged for. 

Any help is massively appreciated. 

Thanks,
Josh

JGB1955

The 'meter under the stairs' IS the smart meter.  Your photo shows the In House Display unit.

Robin9

Yes that American Style FF could well be the sole problem

EssexHebridean

What was your reason for giving the manual reading mentioned? * And did that definitely tally with the readings the smart meter - NOT the IHD (the pretty box with the fancy display) - was giving?

* edit - was that your opening reading on moving in?

further edit - do you by any chance have any of those nice little recessed ceiling spotlights? If so - double check that they all have LED bulbs fitted. We had a poster here a while ago who had a little array of about half a dozen of them in his home office - switched on all day, and cheerfully using 50w traditional GU10 lamps...

pochase

When did you move in January?

It looks like you are either on paying by receipt of bill or variable direct debit?

The old FF might be the culprit for a big part of the bill

A 20-year-old refrigerator could use 1,700 kWh of electricity every year, compared with about 450 kWh for a similarly sized new ENERGY STAR model.

That might be 150KWh per month just for it. What does the plug in monitor show?

molerat

Who actually gave them that meter reading on 27th Jan ?  I suspect you are paying for the previous occupier's electric, the IHD is likely correct on the month use. Not a lot you can do unless you can provide evidence of the meter read on that day.

Joppydee

Wow thanks so much for the quick responses everyone. 

@JGB1955 - Sure. Sorry, yes the monthly usage reported on the meter itself differs from the HDI aka the fancy white display screen! Thanks

@Robin9 - You reckon? I'll get a plug-in monitor on that as soon as they arrive later today. Thanks

@EssexHebridean - Yes, the "traditional" meter reading under the stairs are spot on with what British Gas are claiming they are in the first screenshot, they are being sent to them hourly I believe so are correct from their side. We don't have spotlights and the first thing I done when moving in was change all the bulbs to LED! Thanks

@pochase - We have the double fuel bill so "Energy" rather than Electricity and Gas as separate bills. I am notorious for being tighter than two coats of paint with the heating so when I saw our first bill I fell off my chair on 6 monthly estimated direct debit so I changed it to monthly billed direct debit pay for what you use etc. - when the bill came over even higher than the previous bill (because of the electric being so high) it spurred me to delve deeper. I can't believe the fridge could make that much of a difference. That's great to know. I'll get the plug-in monitor on there ASAP. Thanks

I will report back if anyone is interested but I really appreciate all the replies everyone. 

Thanks all. 

pochase

You are not saying if the meter read in Janiary was done by yourself or by the former occupier?

You are high high electrcity user looking at the IHD. Between 450 and 500KWh per month.

Was the house empty before you moved in? The IHD does not know that the owner changed and that a manual reading was given, the 348KWh is what the IHD measured for Janaury, the whole month, no matter who was paying for it. 

[Deleted User]

The thing that is confusing me is that the official meter readings stated on the bill are actually CORRECT!

You have your answer. In House Displays have very little utility in my view. There are apps such as BRIGHT that give consumers much better visibility of usage and cost.

Joppydee

@molerat - We provided the meter reading as soon as we moved in. 

@pochase - Yes, we done the reading when we moved in. I did request some previous bills which the previous tenant had paper copies of and they allowed us to make notes. Their electricity usage for for Dec '22 was 507 kWh. 

@[Deleted User] - Thanks for the feed back. British Gas' usage app going down amongst the current climate sums them up to be honest. It's been a nightmare trying to pin-point spend with no information from them whatsoever. I am looking to move supplier as soon as April hits and we get confirmation of the new rates etc. 

Joppydee

An update for you all - I have used the plug-in monitor overnight on the FF and over a 12 hour period, it used 0.862 kWh. *2 to get 24hr, *7 to get weekly and *4.4 to get monthly total, this comes in at about 50 kWh per month, while that is still a reasonable amount, it's nowhere near the overwhelming total I am still seeing. 

I am really struggling to see why the meter is ticking up so fast and why the IHD is showing the usage that it is. The IHD shows usage of about 18 kWh per day and this is backed up by the meter's number as well. Over the course of a month, this is almost double the usage I can account for. What am I missing?

I have accounted for everything I can think of. Working from home, the heated clothes horse, lights, the FF, the fish tank, the washing machine and more such as kettle, oven etc. All these to my calculations come to a total of no more than 300 kWh per month. It's not like these items are on all the time, I have attached a photo of the IHD showing the hourly split and it seems as though despite the obvious increase in the evenings (washing machine, dishwasher, oven etc.) the base line of usage is still very high in the off-hours especially while we're asleep which indicates to me there is a constant somewhere driving my usage up.