Gas Meter Still Increasing Whilst Gas Isolated (Siemens/Landis+Gyr E6S)

Zandoni

Gerry1 said:

It may well be temperature dependent, rather like trying to start a car with a failing battery on a cold day.

Wait until there's a frost early in the morning, or bung some gel freezer blocks in the meter cupboard !

Temperature certainly can affect the meters, in the early days of production we introduced temperature cycling. The companies had to freeze and warm capped meters over a one or two day period, any that incremented above zero were rejected.

Zandoni

samn9 said:

Octopus have agreed to send it for the meter test so I look forward to that. They've also asked for the video.

They suggested that based on the % overreading measured in the independent test, they would adjust previous bills. This wouldn't be appropriate for my meter because it overreads even with nothing running through it, there's no fixed linear error.

Today my meter has started behaving itself, it did not budge since this morning (with the valve closed). I'm worried it will play nice when they get it in the lab as well. I will just have to try and collect more video.

Tape a note on the meter addressed to the meter examiner, explain that the self incrementing is intermittent and ask that its observed over a longer period of time.

samn9

A massive jump overnight of nearly £20 worth of gas, so I do wonder if temperature plays a big part. 

BellaBlondykeTheThird

samn9 said:

A massive jump overnight of nearly £20 worth of gas, so I do wonder if temperature plays a big part. 

280+ kWh? Are you sure?

samn9

I'm certain - my reading last night was 14102.680 , this morning it's 14126.579, an increase of 23.899 m3 = 268 kwh

That would be 10 hours of the boiler going full blast in my flat, over a ~12 hour period between measurements.

MeteredOut

samn9 said:

Octopus have agreed to send it for the meter test so I look forward to that. They've also asked for the video.

They suggested that based on the % overreading measured in the independent test, they would adjust previous bills. This wouldn't be appropriate for my meter because it overreads even with nothing running through it, there's no fixed linear error.

Today my meter has started behaving itself, it did not budge since this morning (with the valve closed). I'm worried it will play nice when they get it in the lab as well. I will just have to try and collect more video.

Good news on Octopus agreeing to the test - it took over a year (and the Ombudsman's involvement) to get EDF to that point.

Your issue sounds similar to mine - the meter works Ok for periods of time, but then incremented erroneously other times. I suspect you'll get the same result as mine - too broken to even measure - in which case Octopus will not be able to apply a straight % and will have to measure future use and then pro-rate backwards.

I also had the worry the meter would behave itself in the lab (it had started working ok again for the few weeks before it was removed) - but they do test it for a period of time (eg days/weeks).

MeteredOut

Gerry1 said:

It may well be temperature dependent, rather like trying to start a car with a failing battery on a cold day.

Wait until there's a frost early in the morning, or bung some gel freezer blocks in the meter cupboard !

I found no correlation between the issue I had and ambient temperature. Indeed, I first saw the issue in the middle of summer, but replicated it during the cold winter months. 

samn9

An update:

I have gathered additional video of the meter incrementing with the isolation valve closed. 1 hour worth of footage showing this happening, over 1m3 increase. 

Today I found error code 'b' for the first time. The meter seems to be getting worse and worse.

I am finding email responses from Octopus quite slow, so phoned them up again and they've booked an appointment to install a smart meter for 8 April. They are not clear on whether the meter will be sent away for testing so I am pushing for confirmation. I also want them to sort out the bill ASAP, as I used to have a £500 credit on my account and wanted that returned.

Zandoni

samn9 said:

An update:

I have gathered additional video of the meter incrementing with the isolation valve closed. 1 hour worth of footage showing this happening, over 1m3 increase. 

Today I found error code 'b' for the first time. The meter seems to be getting worse and worse.

I am finding email responses from Octopus quite slow, so phoned them up again and they've booked an appointment to install a smart meter for 8 April. They are not clear on whether the meter will be sent away for testing so I am pushing for confirmation. I also want them to sort out the bill ASAP, as I used to have a £500 credit on my account and wanted that returned.

Do not let them change your meters without a 100% guarantee that it's being sent for testing, if the meter disappears so does your case.

Gerry1

samn9 said:

Today I found error code 'b' for the first time. The meter seems to be getting worse and worse.

If smart meters were any good they'd phone home the moment the low battery code appeared so that the battery or meter could be replaced long before any problem occurred.