scottish power new smart meter fault?

meishka

We had a new smart meter fitted 17 Jan. We left our property to go abroad 16 Feb, the house is now empty until we get back in May. We have a nest installed. We turned off the heating system (that's all thats on gas) .The bill produced on 16 Feb - 1 March showed £4 of gas usage and £3.95 standing charges. But we were not there and no one else is! The nest app shows no usage. I queried this on their chat line but was basically told we must have used it. We are still away. Produced a bill 2 March - 28 March, 26 days and its showing the exact same charge for usage of gas at £4 and the same number of units, 5. So in the first bill of 2 weeks or so there is this Unit rate 55.82 kWh x 7.159p £4.00 and in the second bill of 26 days there is the same. We are not there. Spoke to chat again who basically said the same thing, we have used it. Rang them up who said if I needed to get the meter checked it was £150 (returned if meter was found faulty) This is not standing charges, the £4 is usage. The electric also seems a bit high, about 60p a day usage for 2 cctv cameras, everything else is off. But I'm more concerned about the gas, how can it show usage when we are not there and its off? Its not a lot but .............

brook_heather

Do you have 30 minute readings for the gas available in your account?  This would show when the gas is being used - perhaps the boiler is firing up for frost protection?  If the gas is being used continuously then you might have a leak?

Brie

Colder in Feb so more gas used to keep the boiler ticking along to keep the pipes from freezing.  Standing charge happens no matter what.  Just a coincidence that 2 weeks in Feb had the same amount as 4 in March.  

meishka

Not sure if you can make sense of this. I understand the standing charges, I'm not disputing that. But the boiler is off

17-Feb-24	0.296	0
18-Feb-24	1.143626	11.27745
19-Feb-24	0.296	0
20-Feb-24	0.296	0
21-Feb-24	0.296	0
22-Feb-24	0.296	0
23-Feb-24	0.296	0
24-Feb-24	0.296	0
25-Feb-24	1.143626	11.27745
26-Feb-24	0.296	0
27-Feb-24	0.296	0
28-Feb-24	0.296	0
29-Feb-24	0.296	0
01-Mar-24	0.2959	0
02-Mar-24	1.143626	11.27745
03-Mar-24	1.143626	11.27745
04-Mar-24	0.296	0
05-Mar-24	0.296	0
06-Mar-24	0.296	0
07-Mar-24	0.296	0
08-Mar-24	1.143626	11.27745
09-Mar-24	0.296	0
10-Mar-24	0.296	0
11-Mar-24	0.296	0
12-Mar-24	0.296	0
13-Mar-24	0.296	0
14-Mar-24	0.296	0
15-Mar-24	0.296	0
16-Mar-24	1.143626	11.27745
17-Mar-24	0.296	0
18-Mar-24	0.296	0
19-Mar-24	0.296	0
20-Mar-24	0.296	0
21-Mar-24	0.296	0
22-Mar-24	0.296	0
23-Mar-24	1.143626	11.27745
24-Mar-24	0.296	0
25-Mar-24	0.296	0
26-Mar-24	0.296	0
27-Mar-24	0.296	0
28-Mar-24	0.296	0

brook_heather

You say the boiler is "off" - do you mean it is actually turned off at the mains or do you mean you have the heating turned "off"?  If the boiler is still on at the mains then it may still run a heating cycle for frost protection.

It would help if you can enable 30 minute readings instead of daily.

Hoenir

meishka said:

The electric also seems a bit high, about 60p a day usage for 2 cctv cameras, everything else is off.

No fridge or freezer or anything else left on standby. No one visiting the property while you are away ensuring all is ok? 

Perhaps you need to come home to investigate. As it appears to be causing great concern. Not going to be resolved remotely. 

matelodave

has your boiler got a pilot light or spark ignition. Has it got a frost protection stat which fires it up every now and again if it gets everso cold - that sort of usage wont appear on a nest app. Like wise it might run the pump every now and again unless it was physically switched off at the wall - most boilers have electronic controls nowadays which could easily use 5-10 watts of leccy.

The only way to be certain that its all shut off is to close the isolating valve on the gas meter or for leccy the main switch on your electricity consumer unit

Check what is using your leccy - have you got a fridge, freezer, stuff on standby or still plugged in - SKY box, video recorder etc. Clocks. cooker, microwave, TV etc. Even our washing machine consumes a few watts when its plugged in, same with the cooker and coffee machine.

Most stuff if it got a touch switch rather than a mechanical switch is likely to consume some power unless its physically switched off or unplugged.

If you've got cctv cameras then I guess you've also got a router plugged in as well (that how you communicate with the Hive app)

60p of leccy could be around 2kwh depending on your tariff which equates to around 80-90watts - you need to be a detective to work out what is using it but I bet you'll be surprised what stuff uses and what is still plugged in even if you think you've disconnected it all

meishka

Sorry no its not turned off at the mains. Heating is turned off. But those figures generally are saying theres an increase every 7/8 days (with the exception of 2 days together) do you think the frost protection kicked in every 7/8 days?

Chris_b2z

Another test could be to turn off the gas isolation valve that is normally located next to the meter. That should prove whether it's a problem with the meter or a leak further downstream.

brook_heather

meishka said:

Sorry no its not turned off at the mains. Heating is turned off. But those figures generally are saying theres an increase every 7/8 days (with the exception of 2 days together) do you think the frost protection kicked in every 7/8 days?

No what you are seeing in that table is the kWh equivalent of 1m3 of gas being used - your meter will only be reporting whole numbers of m3 gas so once every few days the meter reading will tick over to the next whole number and that is then reported as 1m3 (11 kWh) usage for that day.  You are probably using gas every day in varying amounts but it is only reported when there has been 1m3 of usage.  Most likely reason is frost protection on the boiler or a slow leak - you would need to run off the boiler at the mains to determine whether it is due to a leak.

My Octopus smart meter will report actual fractions of m3 for the daily gas usage (e.g. 0.457) so it is easier to see the real usage on my account.

Ectophile

If you really want to shut off the gas, use the valve with the big handle next to the meter.

But before you do that, make sure that the boiler is really off, not with the boiler turned on but with the heating turned off.  As others have said, boilers can come on from time to time for frost protection.