Problems with new smart meter fitted April 2022

Raythebrave

Firstly I would like to state that I have been a customer of EDF for a long time ( since 2017) and have never been in a situation where my usage has been in question and then find myself with a massive bill... I have usually been in credit and had money refunded to me.
As EDF are aware I have a serious medical condition and also suffer with crippling anxiety, All of which has been made worse by this whole situation. I have had to see my GP about this as the stress of this has taken a toll on my mental health.
Since 2020 we have been actively reducing our outgoings as our income dropped by a significant amount.

All of our problems seem to have started after we had a new smart meter installed in April 2022.. Prior to this we had no issues with our bills, we never had to question our comsumption either as everything was working correctly and our bills were either less or about the same as previous periods.


I have added up the consumption for the annual billing period to show:

30th June 2020 - 29th June 2021  = 3523 KWh 

30th June 2021 - 29th June 2022  = 2621 KWh

after new meter addded in April 2022:

30th June 2022 - 29th June 2023 = 13316 KWh!!!!  thats nearly 10000 KWh increase!

The reason we had to have a new meter installed was because the previous one had stopped sending readings remotely.  The new smart meter has never sent readings to EDF either. I note that EDF have said that I could provide my own readings whilst they work on a fix as this is a known issue affecting lots of people. This is all well and good for someone able to easily access their meter box, I use an electric wheelchair and it isn't exactly an easy task to obtain the gas readings as the box in on the floor outside my property.
The bill generated July 2022 showed that we were more than £418 in credit, the useage seemed ok at this point too.

The bill generated on 2nd December 2022 showed that we were still £222 in credit and although I thought the cost looked a bit higher I assumed this was because we had changed tariff in the summer.. Because we were still in credit by so much I left this amount on our account as I was expecting a price change in April 2023 when the new price cap was due to be announced... I thought it better to remain in credit rather than find myself owing money.  The meter reading for 2nd December was 303.

I submitted a meter reading on 31st March to EDF and I remember seeing the confirmation screen saying that it had been submitted.... EDF are claiming that they did not get this reading.... I can only assume that like most energy suppliers on 31st of March their systems crashed as everyone was submitting readings due to price cap change on 1st April.

I now refer to the bill dated 25th April 2023 and this showed that we owed £549.04.  I contacted EDF on the 27th April to discuss the gas useage billed as the consumption differed substantially from the same period the year before.

Every time I rang to speak to someone I was being put on hold only to then be 'cut off' and finding myself having to call back again and re explain everything to someone else.
EDF have a meter reading on 25th April of 972....  an increase of 591 units.
EDF have an estimated read for 31st March as 894.

I now refer to the comment by EDF saying that they can see that there has been an increase in my gas useage over the last year ( since new meter was installed) that there has been a substantial reduction in our electric useage... They are trying to suggest that I have significantly reduced my electric use and compensated this with higher gas use???? We have no electric heating in our property at all, and the only other gas appliance is a hob which is only used a couple of times in a week...

Our electric useage has gone down significantly due to the fact we no longer use the tumble dryer, our tropical fish tank is also gone, the dishwasher is no longer being used and we use the oven a lot less too as we have an air fryer to cook meals as this is cheaper.  We aren't using any gas for cooking apart from the hob which is used a couple of times a week for 10mins at a time.  

I now refer to EDF comparing the gas reads with what they are saying are seasonal changes....I see only 1 winter period with the other 4 being summer readings, If they compare the winter period of 13th december 2021 - 11th april 2022 We used 105 units in 119 days which is 0.8 units per day..... Compare this to the 2nd december 2022 - 25th April that EDF are using as an example equating to an average of 4.6 units a day..... almost 5 times as much!
I note where EDF say that our useage of electricity is less with the new electric smart meter,  They are saying that the majority of our winter use previously was with our electric versus the winter useage of gas.  This comparision is flawed as we are using less electric from not using high use appliances, not because of a new meter.   It is also not right to suggest we are using less electric and substituting it with gas..... we have never had electric heating and our gas heating has not been used any more than previous years although the new 'smart' meter seems to suggest otherwise.
From looking at the bills/meter readings it looks like there was some issue from October 2022 as this is where the reading seem to have shot up from.. I think it is entirely possible that the meter developed a fault sometime after october and perhaps when the price change happened in April 2023 that a software update happened and resolved the fault?
I can't think of any other reason as to why all of a sudden having lived in this house since 2009 and never had such high comsumption levels ( since new meter fitted) There has to be something wrong somewhere.
The final concern regarding the gas smart meter not remotely communicating, EDF have said that they can't fix the issue and are saying for me to simply sne d readings to them... 'simply' is not a word I can relate to as the box is on the floor outside and as I use an electric wheelchair is is not a ximple task at all to obtain said readings..... perhaps if I was able to see the useage on my IHD as i do my electric I may have been able to see sooner that there was a problem arising.  I have had to use my emergency savings to cover the bill as didn't want to be in a postion where my direct debit was hinked to include the outstanding amount.   This whole experience I have had with EDF recently has caused many sleepless nights with worry and my anxiety levels are through the roof.
I have been a loyal customer since 2017 and never had an issue with my bills until now... I am on the priority services register as a vulnerable customer and feel that I should have been treated a lot better and with more support especially when I have a valid concern.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Are you on the Priority Services Register?

Raythebrave

Gerry1 said:

Welcome to the forum.

Are you on the Priority Services Register?

Yes I am on the prority service register

Spoonie_Turtle

For readability, this is the first post:

"Firstly I would like to state that I have been a customer of EDF for a long time ( since 2017) and have never been in a situation where my usage has been in question and then find myself with a massive bill... I have usually been in credit and had money refunded to me.

As EDF are aware I have a serious medical condition and also suffer with crippling anxiety, All of which has been made worse by this whole situation. I have had to see my GP about this as the stress of this has taken a toll on my mental health.

Since 2020 we have been actively reducing our outgoings as our income dropped by a significant amount.

All of our problems seem to have started after we had a new smart meter installed in April 2022.. Prior to this we had no issues with our bills, we never had to question our comsumption either as everything was working correctly and our bills were either less or about the same as previous periods.

I have added up the consumption for the annual billing period to show:

30th June 2020 - 29th June 2021  = 3523 KWh 

30th June 2021 - 29th June 2022  = 2621 KWh

after new meter addded in April 2022:

30th June 2022 - 29th June 2023 = 13316 KWh!!!!  thats nearly 10000 KWh increase!

The reason we had to have a new meter installed was because the previous one had stopped sending readings remotely.  The new smart meter has never sent readings to EDF either. I note that EDF have said that I could provide my own readings whilst they work on a fix as this is a known issue affecting lots of people. This is all well and good for someone able to easily access their meter box, I use an electric wheelchair and it isn't exactly an easy task to obtain the gas readings as the box in on the floor outside my property.

The bill generated July 2022 showed that we were more than £418 in credit, the useage seemed ok at this point too.

The bill generated on 2nd December 2022 showed that we were still £222 in credit and although I thought the cost looked a bit higher I assumed this was because we had changed tariff in the summer.. Because we were still in credit by so much I left this amount on our account as I was expecting a price change in April 2023 when the new price cap was due to be announced... I thought it better to remain in credit rather than find myself owing money.  The meter reading for 2nd December was 303.

I submitted a meter reading on 31st March to EDF and I remember seeing the confirmation screen saying that it had been submitted.... EDF are claiming that they did not get this reading.... I can only assume that like most energy suppliers on 31st of March their systems crashed as everyone was submitting readings due to price cap change on 1st April.

I now refer to the bill dated 25th April 2023 and this showed that we owed £549.04.  I contacted EDF on the 27th April to discuss the gas useage billed as the consumption differed substantially from the same period the year before.

Every time I rang to speak to someone I was being put on hold only to then be 'cut off' and finding myself having to call back again and re explain everything to someone else.

EDF have a meter reading on 25th April of 972....  an increase of 591 units.

EDF have an estimated read for 31st March as 894.

I now refer to the comment by EDF saying that they can see that there has been an increase in my gas useage over the last year ( since new meter was installed) that there has been a substantial reduction in our electric useage... They are trying to suggest that I have significantly reduced my electric use and compensated this with higher gas use???? We have no electric heating in our property at all, and the only other gas appliance is a hob which is only used a couple of times in a week...

Our electric useage has gone down significantly due to the fact we no longer use the tumble dryer, our tropical fish tank is also gone, the dishwasher is no longer being used and we use the oven a lot less too as we have an air fryer to cook meals as this is cheaper.  We aren't using any gas for cooking apart from the hob which is used a couple of times a week for 10mins at a time.  

I now refer to EDF comparing the gas reads with what they are saying are seasonal changes....I see only 1 winter period with the other 4 being summer readings, If they compare the winter period of 13th december 2021 - 11th april 2022 We used 105 units in 119 days which is 0.8 units per day..... Compare this to the 2nd december 2022 - 25th April that EDF are using as an example equating to an average of 4.6 units a day..... almost 5 times as much!

I note where EDF say that our useage of electricity is less with the new electric smart meter,  They are saying that the majority of our winter use previously was with our electric versus the winter useage of gas.  This comparision is flawed as we are using less electric from not using high use appliances, not because of a new meter.   It is also not right to suggest we are using less electric and substituting it with gas..... we have never had electric heating and our gas heating has not been used any more than previous years although the new 'smart' meter seems to suggest otherwise.

From looking at the bills/meter readings it looks like there was some issue from October 2022 as this is where the reading seem to have shot up from.. I think it is entirely possible that the meter developed a fault sometime after october and perhaps when the price change happened in April 2023 that a software update happened and resolved the fault?

I can't think of any other reason as to why all of a sudden having lived in this house since 2009 and never had such high comsumption levels ( since new meter fitted) There has to be something wrong somewhere.

The final concern regarding the gas smart meter not remotely communicating, EDF have said that they can't fix the issue and are saying for me to simply sne d readings to them... 'simply' is not a word I can relate to as the box is on the floor outside and as I use an electric wheelchair is is not a ximple task at all to obtain said readings..... perhaps if I was able to see the useage on my IHD as i do my electric I may have been able to see sooner that there was a problem arising.  I have had to use my emergency savings to cover the bill as didn't want to be in a postion where my direct debit was hinked to include the outstanding amount.   This whole experience I have had with EDF recently has caused many sleepless nights with worry and my anxiety levels are through the roof.

I have been a loyal customer since 2017 and never had an issue with my bills until now... I am on the priority services register as a vulnerable customer and feel that I should have been treated a lot better and with more support especially when I have a valid concern."

Spoonie_Turtle

Someone fairly recently had a long thread trying to solve the mystery of suddenly high gas bills - it turned out to be a leak, behind the gas fire going up out of the chimney.  Nobody smelled it, the only clue was sudden increased usage.  I don't know what trade a person has to be in to come and check for gas leaks, but I think it's worth trying to get someone even if just to role that possibility out.

I did wonder if maybe they were doing a conversion wrong, inexplicably charging you as if you had an imperial meter not metric, but if the increase is reflected in the actual units used then that's not the case.

Are you able to give us a more detailed history of readings?

If you have a mobile device you can download an app like Bright and see your actual usage history for the past 13 months, not relying on the few readings EDF have.

Raythebrave

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Someone fairly recently had a long thread trying to solve the mystery of suddenly high gas bills - it turned out to be a leak, behind the gas fire going up out of the chimney.  Nobody smelled it, the only clue was sudden increased usage.  I don't know what trade a person has to be in to come and check for gas leaks, but I think it's worth trying to get someone even if just to role that possibility out.

I did wonder if maybe they were doing a conversion wrong, inexplicably charging you as if you had an imperial meter not metric, but if the increase is reflected in the actual units used then that's not the case.

Are you able to give us a more detailed history of readings?

If you have a mobile device you can download an app like Bright and see your actual usage history for the past 13 months, not relying on the few readings EDF have.

We have a landlord gas safety check done every 12 months with the last one being done in october 2022.. Could the meter/boiler be leaking gas only when the heating is on?  The meter appears to be working correctly atm which makes me wonder if EDF have done a hard reset/update on the meter... I'll downlaod the app and see if I can upload those readings.

[Deleted User]

Raythebrave said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Someone fairly recently had a long thread trying to solve the mystery of suddenly high gas bills - it turned out to be a leak, behind the gas fire going up out of the chimney.  Nobody smelled it, the only clue was sudden increased usage.  I don't know what trade a person has to be in to come and check for gas leaks, but I think it's worth trying to get someone even if just to role that possibility out.

I did wonder if maybe they were doing a conversion wrong, inexplicably charging you as if you had an imperial meter not metric, but if the increase is reflected in the actual units used then that's not the case.

Are you able to give us a more detailed history of readings?

If you have a mobile device you can download an app like Bright and see your actual usage history for the past 13 months, not relying on the few readings EDF have.

We have a landlord gas safety check done every 12 months with the last one being done in october 2022.. Could the meter/boiler be leaking gas only when the heating is on?  The meter appears to be working correctly atm which makes me wonder if EDF have done a hard reset/update on the meter... I'll downlaod the app and see if I can upload those readings.

Suppliers do not hard reset smart meters. Meter manufacturers are responsible for building and certifying firmware updates which suppliers then send out to meters in tranches. The DCC is responsible for all communications hubs: it can, at the request of a supplier, carryout a remote reset. Third-party apps such as BRIGHT do not recover meter index readings: they only have access to 30 minute usage data. Your meters store import data for 13 months.

There was an issue with some L & G gas meters a couple of years ago when the meter stopped recording usage from October to February. I believe that this was put down to a firmware bug. I would be surprised if it was still happening.