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

Raxiel

[Deleted User] said:

Raxiel said:

Joppydee said:

..

@Raxiel - Wow, that sounds like a nice problem to have lol. There is no secret under floor heating but I appreciate that suggestion. I have this morning switched to a 30-min regular meter reading submission, so I will have a look at the live reading figure as you suggest and knock off one option from the consumer unit as I really don't think a discrepancy of almost 300kWh is a secret plug anywhere anymore. I am convinced it's something hardwired! 

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate your help on solving this.

30 minute readings are good for identifying trends, so that's a good idea, although by live I mean instantaneous readings on the IHD itself, typically updated every 5 seconds, although I don't know if every IHD does this.

Mine looks like this https://i.imgur.com/2hyWfiY.jpg (ignore the fact it's negative, that's because we were exporting at the time)

Note it's reading in (k)W not (k)Wh

Every IHD updates in the same way. Electricity updates every 10 seconds (instant power kW and usage kWh). Gas updates usage kWh every 30 minutes. Each comms hub can up to 4 IHD/CADs paired to it.

I would have assumed as much, although my brief search for the instructions related to the particular display in OP's picture don't seem to give any actual instructions on how to actually display that particular information, fixating instead on £/day and £/week etc. rather than just what button does what so I felt the need to be non-committal.

[Deleted User]

Raxiel said:

[Deleted User] said:

Raxiel said:

Joppydee said:

..

@Raxiel - Wow, that sounds like a nice problem to have lol. There is no secret under floor heating but I appreciate that suggestion. I have this morning switched to a 30-min regular meter reading submission, so I will have a look at the live reading figure as you suggest and knock off one option from the consumer unit as I really don't think a discrepancy of almost 300kWh is a secret plug anywhere anymore. I am convinced it's something hardwired! 

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate your help on solving this.

30 minute readings are good for identifying trends, so that's a good idea, although by live I mean instantaneous readings on the IHD itself, typically updated every 5 seconds, although I don't know if every IHD does this.

Mine looks like this https://i.imgur.com/2hyWfiY.jpg (ignore the fact it's negative, that's because we were exporting at the time)

Note it's reading in (k)W not (k)Wh

Every IHD updates in the same way. Electricity updates every 10 seconds (instant power kW and usage kWh). Gas updates usage kWh every 30 minutes. Each comms hub can up to 4 IHD/CADs paired to it.

I would have assumed as much, although my brief search for the instructions related to the particular display in OP's picture don't seem to give any actual instructions on how to actually display that particular information, fixating instead on £/day and £/week etc. rather than just what button does what so I felt the need to be non-committal.

Fair enough. There will be a user guide somewhere on t’internet.

 Part of the rationale for IHDs was to ‘frighten’ consumers into turning things off: this, in turn, would allow suppliers to claim that smart meters save consumers’ money. I suspect that behavioural scientists had a key role in IHD design.

Joppydee

Hi Everyone,

With your help, it looks like we've finally solved the leak!! 

So as suggested, we ensured the "live usage" was active on the IHD (it was and still is) - so I had my other half stand by the IHD and yell the current wattage number at me whilst I turned breakers off one by one from the consumer unit(s) until we noticed a significant drop in power usage.

It turns out we have a faulty socket/appliance in the form of the heated clothes horse whereby even when the heated clothes horse is NOT heating the clothes (aka pro-actively flicked to "go"), it was still pulling the full 300W by just being plugged in.... the worst part is that we currently have my mum staying with us for a few months and she brought along her heated clothes horse too, so guess what? 600W being pulled inadvertently for most of the time unless we had unplugged/switched off the horses at the socket for 3 months!!! No f'ing wonder my bills are so high.

It seems like a crazy oversight I know, but why on earth would the heaters be pulling the total maximum wattage without actually being on heat mode? After using the plug-in monitor, we found that flicking it to heat mode didn't affect the power draw at all from it's initial 300W, it's like there is just no door to stop the full power output from taking liberties and just cracking on regardless. 

We have changed the sockets we are using for the heaters and we have a sparky mate of mine coming round to check out the double socket in question to ensure that all is kosher (I don't think it is). Our solution in the meantime is move the clothes horses to a different socket and ensure that when we don't need them heating clothes to unplug them from the mains altogether. 

This has resulted in a dramatic drop in usage. For example yesterday morning we had used 6 kWh by 9am due to the heaters being plugged in overnight (despite not actually heating any clothes). Today at 9am it was 2 kWh. 

As far as I am concerned, problem solved. Thank you all so much for your suggestions. Amazing community on here. Also as recommended by this forum, we're buying a new fridge to keep the costs down ahead of any temperature rises as our FF is averaging 600kWh over the year (based on current draw in last 24hrs) but temperatures are of course very low, when Spring actually kicks in it'll be working harder and using way more leccy when the time comes to be fighting the elements. 

Thanks again everyone. 

Josh

Mstty

What was the make and model of this vampire clothes horse(s)?

Raxiel

Good to hear you found a solution. They must have been pretty toasty.

Joppydee

They’re the 3 tier version from Lakeland. 

If you buy, beware! 

New bill came in for last month £100 less. 

Thanks all. 
Josh 

Chrysalis

--edit--

I should have read thread, see its been resolved.

MWT

Joppydee said:

It turns out we have a faulty socket/appliance in the form of the heated clothes horse whereby even when the heated clothes horse is NOT heating the clothes (aka pro-actively flicked to "go"), it was still pulling the full 300W by just being plugged in....

Something somewhere was getting warm though, can't pull 300W and just do nothing...