is it true that there is a plus or minus c3% tolerance in usage measurement by smart meters?

dharm999

Saw a headline in the Daily Mail, article is behind their paywall.  Headline suggests smart meters don't necessarily measure usage accurately, and there is a tolerance of plus or minus 3%, is that right, or have the Mail got their facts wrong?  Is this tolerance any worse or better than the existing non smart meters?  I am getting smart meters installed in a couple of weeks time, but am concerned by the article, but I could be worrying about nothing

Chrysalis

I think there has been an accepted tolerance for meters for decades, this isnt unique to smart meters, I remember reading about it when I was trying to get my old meter tested.

MP1995

I thought it was 10% for mechanical meters and 3% for smart meters.

Probably read that in a similarly well respected news outlet.

booneruk

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-13289335/British-Gas-installed-smart-meter-gone-wrong-locked-key.html

This article? Ha, you can just disable Javascript in your browser and see the whole thing.

So it's a guy whose smart meter has gone 'dumb' - he's taking manual readings and submitting those. He has no real reason to suspect the readings are inaccurate, but he does. (I wonder if he thought meter readings he read from his old traditional meter were similarly inaccurate?).

Octopus wrote back: ‘The meter may be inaccurate, and we can perform an accuracy test. However, across the industry 87 pc of meters tested are found to be accurate.’

It added: ‘There is a cost for this test of £80-£192, which will be added to your account if the meter is found to be accurate. An accurate meter operates within a tolerance of +3 pc and -3.5 pc of actual usage.’

So, nothing specific about smart meters, more the charge to test a meter's tolerance is operating within expected range. Anyone who wanted their meter, smart, dumb-smart or traditional tested for accuracy would have to accept this charge if it turned out it was accurate.

TheElectricCow

There is an amount of truth to the headline, but it conceals more than it gives away.

According to:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a803d4940f0b6230269257a/Electricity_Determination_Report_2003-2014.pdf

The permitted tolerance levels for electricity meters are +2.5% to -3.5%. There is no distinction between smart and non-smart meters for this tolerance, but chances are a brand new freshly certified (smart)meter from the factory is more likely to be recording accurately than one that has been in use operating continuously for many years already.

The number of meters tested and found to be operating outside these tolerances is very low so for most people this wouldn’t be cause for concern - and even from that small proportion of inaccurate meters there’s plenty chance for the meter to be under recording as over recording on usage.

dharm999

booneruk said:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-13289335/British-Gas-installed-smart-meter-gone-wrong-locked-key.html

This article? Ha, you can just disable Javascript in your browser and see the whole thing.

So it's a guy whose smart meter has gone 'dumb' - he's taking manual readings and submitting those. He has no real reason to suspect the readings are inaccurate, but he does. (I wonder if he thought meter readings he read from his old traditional meter were similarly inaccurate?).

Octopus wrote back: ‘The meter may be inaccurate, and we can perform an accuracy test. However, across the industry 87 pc of meters tested are found to be accurate.’

It added: ‘There is a cost for this test of £80-£192, which will be added to your account if the meter is found to be accurate. An accurate meter operates within a tolerance of +3 pc and -3.5 pc of actual usage.’

So, nothing specific about smart meters, more the charge to test a meter's tolerance is operating within expected range. Anyone who wanted their meter, smart, dumb-smart or traditional tested for accuracy would have to accept this charge if it turned out it was accurate.

It’s this article

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mailplus/article-13315187/How-millions-overcharged-smart-meters.html

booneruk

dharm999 said:

It’s this article

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mailplus/article-13315187/How-millions-overcharged-smart-meters.html

Oh wow, now that's true to form for the DM. I didn't have to get past the first three lines to decide the article exists only to whip up hysteria. How they get away with that I don't know.

wrf12345

I think the guy who installed the smart meter said there was plus or minus 3 percent on all meters, so potentially 6 percent when you swap either way, luckily mine went down a bit rather than up. I had the water meter replaced by the provider because my readings were too low and that did not change, I always flush the toilet with water from butts and shower once a day rather than bath, which doubtless confused their system as definitely not the average for a three bed house.

Netexporter

How they get away with that I don't know.

They put a vaguely truthful version of the story in the second or third paragraph from the end. This keeps them on the right side of the regulator but their readers are usually asleep before they get that far.

Spoonie_Turtle

Netexporter said:

How they get away with that I don't know.

They put a vaguely truthful version of the story in the second or third paragraph from the end. This keeps them on the right side of the regulator but their readers are usually asleep before they get that far.

Clause 1 of the Editors' Code is accuracy, so if they're misleading most of the way through and enough people complain, you never know …
https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/

JohnSwift10

After I got a smart meter fitted in 2016 my average weekly electricity was 3 kWh less than when I had an old mechanical meter, as for the gas I don't know because the old meter was 100 cuft and the new smart meter was metric but the gas usage seemed the same in kWh.