Smart meter issue.

Donmack

Hello. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar issue to me. I had smart meters fitted a long time ago by British gas. I am with Shell energy ( now Octopus) and for a long time the smart meters didn't work. Eventually things got sorted and all seemed fine. My bills were always in line with what I woud expect. However last week something strange happened. On the 22nd of Feb. I received an email to say that communication with the electricity meter had been lost and could I submit a manual reading as the bill was due to be produced. When I entered my reading a message popped up asking If I was sure as this was not within the expected range. I rechecked & it was correct so I submitted the reading. When I got the bill a few days ago there has been a massive jump in my electricity consumption. Way beyond what could resonably be explained. My January bill was for 167 units and cost £85  which is about normal for me but the February bill says I used 1051 units and costs £314.54.  Even in the coldest months I have never exceeded 200 units in a month as my heating is gas so this does not make any sense. I have contacted them and they are looking into it but it would be interesting to know if anyone else has experienced anything similar and what the outcome was. I have also received another email saying comms has now been restored.  Thanks.

MultiFuelBurner

What was the reading on bills produced before you gave your manual reading. Is it a big jump and have you given the wrong reading.

born_again

Check back on last few bills were they estimated readings?

What tariff are you on?

Qyburn

Any chance you could have misread the meter? Maybe you could take a photo just now and post it up.

MWT

Donmack said:

When I entered my reading a message popped up asking If I was sure as this was not within the expected range. I rechecked & it was correct so I submitted the reading.

Odds are you have reported the wrong register on the meter, or the Total Accumulated import instead of the register they have been using.

Check the instructions online for reading your meter, and then take a look at the first two registers and the total and then look at your previous bill and work out which register they have been using...

dunstonh

 My January bill was for 167 units and cost £85  which is about normal for me but the February bill says I used 1051 units and costs £314.54. 

If it hasn't been sending reads in for a while and just been estimating, then a new read would bring it up to date.   if the estimates were too low then you would see a jump.     Ie. if the estimate was 50 units short per month for 2 years then that would account for your jump.

Look back on your bills and see when the last time an actual reading was.   
ideally, log the actual readings over a period and use those ot get an idea of your real monthly use.  Do not use estimates.

Donmack

Hello everyone and thanks for your input.  From some of the questions asked I should clarify a few things.

I am currently on the standard variable tariff and the current bill was produced after I submitted my own reading.

My first thought was that I had given the wrong reading and that would have been the easy fix, but unfortunately it was correct. I have reviewed my bills for the last year and they have all been produced with accurate readings from the smart meter. They emailed me on the 22nd of Feb to say that they had lost comms to the meter and then they emailed me on the 1st of March to say comms was restored, so at the moment I don't know exactly how many days it was down. This puts the big jump firmly in February. Whether that is evenly spread or it happened during the downtime I just don't know, but either way it is very much out of the norm.  Somebody said could I have read the wrong register. I am not sure what this means unless it is a reference to meters that have different displays such as off peak heating, in which case the answer is no.  Thanks again everyone.

Mobtr

Do you have a smart meter with a number pad? If so did you press 9 to get the reading? This is the total reading & not the one used for billing. 

If you press 6 you will get the reading the meter sends to the supplier. 

If comms has now been established then the next reading should follow on from the last reading Octo received, your own read will then be quarantined & they should send you a new bill. 

Donmack

I                                                                        

I think I have found the issue. The reading I submitted was from the right hand image because that was what I saw on the day. I have never previously pressed the green button so I didn't realise there were different displays . The left hand image is 889 units lower and if I subtract that from the 1051 units that I am being billed for I get 162 units which is what I would have expected. Thanks to everyone for their advice and particularly to those who pointed me in this direction. I will need to call them back now and hopefully get things rectified quickly.

Donmack

Images have shifted after posting   lol.