Smart Meter Confusion

Grumpy_chap

Hi everyone,
In September we had our gas and electric meters changed to smart meters.  The smart meters are not easy to read but I do so manually for the purpose of tracking consumptions.  

Electricity is easy to track because the units displayed are the proper units of energy.

Gas is less easy, but I was simply tracking the number of units measured on the meter (ft3) because I think that allowed me to meet the purpose.  More ft3 is more gas and less ft3 is less gas - the units are irrelevant as the units are the consistent and it saves me the faff of the maths to get to actual kWh to track more or less gas used.

What I can't understand is that the new gas meter is in m3 but I seem to be using the same amount of units.

Electricity:
October 2020 = 319 kWh
November 2020 = 332 kWh
October 2022 = 299 kWh
November 2022 = 301 kWh
October 2023 = 620 kWh
November 2023 = 520 kWh
(2021 readings are missing and 2023 is higher because of EV)

Gas:
October 2020 = 59 ft3
November 2020 = 82 ft3
October 2022 = 28 ft3
November 2022 = 58 ft3
October 2023 = 53 m3
November 2023 = 232 m3

I know a m3 is a lot bigger than ft3 so I was expecting the volumes to be much lower as displayed.  There is something I am getting wrong here.

For reference, I have attached photos of the old and new meters and my readings from those are:
Old electric meter = 54,005 kWh
New electric meter = 1,478 kWh
Old gas meter = 2,155 ft3
New gas meter = 314 m3

Please show me where I am being a bit dim in reading these and my current understanding that gas use has shot through the roof...

Netexporter

The imperial meter is measuring HUNDREDS of cubic feet.

TheElectricCow

This gov.uk link should provide some clarity -  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation

It’s to do with the numbers in red, your meter reading for the supplier is in hundreds of cubic feet. So while the meter reading would have been 2,155 the actual volume of gas used would have been 215,540.1ft3

Reed_Richards

TheElectricCow said:

 the actual volume of gas used would have been 215,540.1ft3

Except that the final zero is painted on, so whilst the reading is  215,540.1 ft3, the actual volume of gas used could be anywhere between 215,540.1 and 215,549.1 .

Grumpy_chap

Thank you all.
So, the 2,155 with two red digits is not 2,155.40 ft3 (as I was reading it) but is 215,540 ft3
That means November 2022 (58 ft3) is actually 5,800 ft3 equals 164 m3
November 2023, 232m3 is similar order of magnitude.  Maybe the weather was colder this November than last.
It seems to make sense now.

MultiFuelBurner

Grumpy_chap said:

Thank you both.
So, the 2,155 with two red digits is not 2,155.40 ft3 (as I was reading it) but is 215,540 ft3
That means November 2022 (58 ft3) is actually 5,800 ft3 equals 164 m3
November 2023, 232m3 is similar order of magnitude.  Maybe the weather was colder this November than last.
It seems to make sense now.

November was definitely colder than last year.

QrizB

100 cubic feet is 2.83 cubic metres, so a unit on your old meter is little bit less than 3x as much gas as a unit on your new one.

Grumpy_chap

OK, so this makes no sense to me at all.
I have received my first statement / bill since the change to smart meter in September.  This is the bill to 31st January.  For both gas and electricity, there is a bold heading "this bill is based on an estimate" and the readings used in calculating the bill are all estimated readings.
I was under the impression that a big advantage of smart meters was that estimated readings would be a thing of the past.

bob2302

Grumpy_chap said:

OK, so this makes no sense to me at all.
I have received my first statement / bill since the change to smart meter in September.  This is the bill to 31st January.  For both gas and electricity, there is a bold heading "this bill is based on an estimate" and the readings used in calculating the bill are all estimated readings.
I was under the impression that a big advantage of smart meters was that estimated readings would be a thing of the past.

When that happened to me it was due to a botched installation - usually it's due to a weak signal.

Grumpy_chap

The thing is, I have been manually submitting readings to the 1st of every month regardless.
Does make me feel the whole smart meter thing is pointless.

I have been trying to leave EDF to get Octopus, but EDF keep blocking the transfer because of bill debit balance and availability of meter readings.  If I can get away from EDF, I may consider a ToU tariff now that I have an EV but, presumably the fact EDF are simply making up readings would mean that won't be possible in any case.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Grumpy_chap said:

The thing is, I have been manually submitting readings to the 1st of every month regardless.
Does make me feel the whole smart meter thing is pointless.

I have been trying to leave EDF to get Octopus, but EDF keep blocking the transfer because of bill debit balance and availability of meter readings.  If I can get away from EDF, I may consider a ToU tariff now that I have an EV but, presumably the fact EDF are simply making up readings would mean that won't be possible in any case.

Raise a complaint if they are blocking you leaving and force the leave.