How do I know if my gas meter is giving me accurate readings and why is it not the same on my bill

izzyb3lla

My energy/gas company is charging me £6000 as they underestimated how much gas we're using, I have a smart meter but apparently it is offline and hasn't been sending to the gas company the readings, they never told me about this until yesterday. On my gas meter (it's still working) it says for June I used 325kwh, however on my bill it says I used 660kwh, I tried to bring this up with them but they said they used estimated meter readings and this reading isn't the one they use to calculate my bill, but how does that make sense, it said I used 325kwh so that's what I should be paying right? I gave them my meter reading and they said they we UNDERESTIMATING my usage, crazy as in December they updated my bill to be £500 which was 4500kwh of usage on my bill, crazy. I cannot dispute these bills as they said I would need meter readings, which they don't think I have (yes she said that) knowing I don't have them because they assured me by email that my meter was a smart one and that they take second to second accurate readings, lol, only to tell me now it was actually offline. I need someone to help me as I don't know much about meters, how to work out what 6255m3 would be calculated as on my bill and how they can estimate usage of 4500kwh for just one month, they said my meter reading they estimated in December was 5029m3. I have a suspicion that my meter is hooked up to someone else's flat because these numbers don't make any sense to me. Any help would be appreciated.

FreeBear

I think you are missing a decimal point somewhere in your numbers.  5029m³ is about 57,140KWh which sounds a bit excessive for a months use.

TheMilkmansDad

just to confirm - are you looking at the actual meter for reads or the IHD?

CSI_Yorkshire

izzyb3lla said:

 I have a smart meter but apparently it is offline and hasn't been sending to the gas company the readings, they never told me about this until yesterday. On my gas meter (it's still working) 

The 'smart meter' and 'gas meter' are the same thing.

Check that the meter serial number on the bill is the same as on your meter.

[Deleted User]

Just to be clear. If you are supplying your supplier with manual readings from a smart meter these must be in M3 (cubic metres) NOT kWh. The kWh reading in a gas smart meter is advisory only.

To put this into context, your present meter reading is 00020 M3. The previous meter reading was 00010 M3. You provide the supplier with the 00020 reading, and it converts the 10M3 difference to 112.2 kWh (based on an average caloric value.

If you have provided the kWh reading from the smart then 00020M3 would equate to 00224.4 and a reading of 00010M3 would show as 00112.2. 

If the supplier thinks that the kWh readings are M3, then it will convert the 00112.2 difference in the 2 readings to 1258kWh.

Edit:

Follow this smart meter reading guide:

https://octopus.energy/blog/how-to-read-your-meter/

QrizB

FreeBear said:

I think you are missing a decimal point somewhere in your numbers.  5029m³ is about 57,140KWh which sounds a bit excessive for a months use.

I think the OP is saying their meter reading in December is estimated as 05029, and their current reading is estimated as 06255?

If so, that's a total consumption in eight months of 1226 cubic metres, which is something like 13800 kWh. No mor ethna £1400-worth, rather than the £600 the OP says they've been billed.

izzyb3lla said:

Any help would be appreciated.

What is your last accurate (Actual or Smart, not Estimated) meter reading from 2022, and what dagte was that?

What does your meter read today?

Both these numbers will be in cubic metres, not in kWh. With this info we can help you work out your likely bill.

If you haven't already done so, you might want to give today's meter reading to your supplier and ask to be re-billed.

Robin9

Take great care in reading your meter - watch out for the decimal point and ignore any numbers after the decimal point.

Do you get online bills ? Look back until you find one with  the letter A or  S  or our read on it.

All else fails go back to the meter and look at the sticker / date on it

Exodi

There is so much pessimism over utility companies, my family are the same, despite not knowing the first thing about gas/electricity metering. Anytime a higher than expected bill comes in, they're straight to conspiracy theories of how the energy companies are out to fleece them. If a reading is wrong, why didn't the energy company notice? If an estimate was too low, then they should have estimated higher.

In reality, it feels like one of the most easiest bills to contest as the system is based on an a running total.

These situations only arise because of estimated readings and irregular manual reads. I know the OP said "they never told me about this (that estimate readings were being taken) until yesterday" but I'd say they could have seen this at anytime on their account/bill, it sounds like it's been the case for at least a year.

I think the first step would be to work out your actual usage, and see if you have been overcharged. It also seems as if you are mixing m3 and kwh in your post, which could cause issues.

[Deleted User]

These situations only arise because of estimated readings and irregular manual reads. I know the OP said "they never told me about this (that estimate readings were being taken) until yesterday" but I'd say they could have seen this at anytime on their account/bill, it sounds like it's been the case for at least a year.

I have never understood why consumers will pay £3000 a year to an energy supplier and then never check the detail on their bills. Suppliers only have to obtain a meter reading once every 12 months.