Metric vs imperial

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Why can we not enjoy the Sainsburys Eon 24month Smooth Renew v6 Tariff, which would save me £420 pa.

esmoost1

I have just had a new smart gas meter installed by British Gas. The engineer told me that although the meter he replaced was an old generation smart meter, the serial number on the database had not been changed from the previous imperial meter. So, I’ve been submitting readings from a metric meter and British Gas have believed they were from an imperial meter. 

Can anyone advise please as to whether I am likely to have been overcharged. Thank you for any advice.

Robin9

esmoost1 said:

I have just had a new smart gas meter installed by British Gas. The engineer told me that although the meter he replaced was an old generation smart meter, the serial number on the database had not been changed from the previous imperial meter. So, I’ve been submitting readings from a metric meter and British Gas have believed they were from an imperial meter. 

Can anyone advise please as to whether I am likely to have been overcharged. Thank you for any advice.

When was the meter changed ?

Give the systems time to catch up with one another. It will all come out in the wash. Be patient.

What does your online system say about the meter?

jbuchanangb

It is not as easy as that. It seems that @esmoost1 meter was changed a long time ago from an imperial meter to a SMETS1 smart meter, and recently to a SMETS2 smart meter. The question is about the billing after the first change, not the recent one. @esmoost1 do you have access to your gas bills from the time of the first meter change? You need to see what has been happening. Perhaps they have been ignoring your submitted readings and been billing you on estimates ever since the first meter change. Do you have the record card left by the person who made the first meter change? They should have written down the reading on the meter when they took it out, and the (probably 0000) reading on the new one when it went in.

Either way it looks as though a rebilling exercise will be needed.

FreeBear

If your meter is showing as imperial on the database, then you will be overcharged by 2.83 times.

Smart meters measure in cubic metres. That can be confirmed by looking at the meter itself. Take a photo of the meter, send it to BG, and demand that they rebill you from the date the meter was fitted. Make it a formal complaint, and then you can go to the ombudsman after 8 weeks if BG drag their feet.

To check if you have been overcharged, look at the section on the gas bill where it says how the meter reading was converted from units to kWh. You are looking for the magic number of 2.83.

Scot_39

OP cannot take a photo of the old meter reading - but knows it was smets1.

And the OP is only taking the meter fitters words that error on database means he was being misbilled.

They may well have / should have updated it on the billing system - but not the database - remember BG themselves probably do not directly maintain that third party database (that based on SP told me they would request the change - not do it themselves - implying a third party - when parents meter went smart).

They certainly should have updated the meter serial number on the bills - and so maybe the volumetric scaling in billing conversion to kWh along with it.

If you were being billed in error - have you got the most recent bill spanning the meter change - the presence or absence of the 2.83 might be obvious.

So OP needs to go back to bills - it not already verified - being wrongly billed - or query with BG (good luck with that)  - if not.

See for instance gas unit to kWh conversion factors

https://www.valdaenergy.com/help-and-faqs/how-do-i-convert-gas-units-to-kwh

But as I say meter numbers on bills and meter numbers / types on national database vs actual tariffs - can get out of alignment - but billing operates correctly.  But it might trip you up on moving a supplier - as many with old dual meter RTS or E7 metering have found ghost second meters still registered - and those with E7 metering moved to billing at single rate - have found it reverts to meter tpye E7 etc - but only on switch.

FreeBear

Scot_39 said: They may well have / should have updated it on the billing system - but not the database - remember BG themselves probably do not directly maintain that third party database (that based on SP told me they would request the change - not do it themselves - implying a third party - when parents meter went smart).

The third party would be the Data Communications Company (or DCC) - It doesn't take long to get the meter details updated. OFTM managed to do it within a matter of days with my meter, where as Toto the Clowns couldn't manage it in the months before they went bust. All BG needs to do is press "send" to submit the request, and it takes very little time to process at the other end.

Scot_39

FreeBear said:

Scot_39 said: They may well have / should have updated it on the billing system - but not the database - remember BG themselves probably do not directly maintain that third party database (that based on SP told me they would request the change - not do it themselves - implying a third party - when parents meter went smart).

The third party would be the Data Communications Company (or DCC) - It doesn't take long to get the meter details updated. OFTM managed to do it within a matter of days with my meter, where as Toto the Clowns couldn't manage it in the months before they went bust. All BG needs to do is press "send" to submit the request, and it takes very little time to process at the other end.

Was it the DCC before smart meters - because iirc it - or something similar did exist before the smart  roll out ?