British Gas Meter Reading

ChrisW1989

Just looking for abit of advice for mum. She's With BG and never missed a payment, and account was always in credit until not long ago, I'm just wondering if this would affect mums bills, it's a meter reading from 30/9/22, which starts with a zero, this then shows huge usage towards the next readings, I sent this to BG twitter and they said this wouldn't . Would anyone be able to confirm. (This happened on both Gas and Electricity) 30/9/22

MeteredOut

Those readings were from 18 months ago. Surely you now have the bills to determine if it caused an issue?

People would have to know how BG's billing works to answer your question, and whether your mum was on monthly, quarterly or 6 monthly billing. ie. does their billing system take the end reading minus start reading of the billing period to work out the usage, or does it take the cumulative total of the differences between the individual readings.

badmemory

Without the amount that was actually billed no-one can really help.  But if those figures were used as posted the bills would not just be large but over £5k.  It looks like someone may have been miss reading the meters as in reading 80000 instead of 8000.0 but we need more info.

bob2302

I don't recall what prices were back then, but it would have been a 5 figure bill for that month, if she had been charged for that amount of electricity.

Qyburn

I can see why you're concerned, on that screen print they've treated the meter as "going round the clock" as if the 088631 reading was actually 108863. However I'm wondering if it's just that web page.

Can you look out actual bills for that period just for reassurance? 

Scot_39

ChrisW1989 said:

Just looking for abit of advice for mum. She's With BG and never missed a payment, and account was always in credit until not long ago, I'm just wondering if this would affect mums bills, it's a meter reading from 30/9/22, which starts with a zero, this then shows huge usage towards the next readings, I sent this to BG twitter and they said this wouldn't . Would anyone be able to confirm. (This happened on both Gas and Electricity) 30/9/22

Yes that's a potential problem. 

But could just be a Web display issue.  As note the initial usage on 14/1/22  - also pretty unrealistic - was that when moved to new accounting.

Hopefully in reality your mum was billed off the estimated 88231 on15/10 vs the 86899 on 7/7.  They do on occasions have checks that work and catch bad readings.

But it certainly does need checking.

As BG have on that basis assumed the meter has wrapped around through zero.  So 8863-86899+100,000= 21964

And then stepped up again 79638kWh usage when reverted to 88231..

So used over 100,000 kWh of gas over the two usage figures as displayed.


It could be an online display issue- the erroneous readings ignored as unrealistic by billing - but it certainly needs resolving.

As at current rates that would be generate a bill of over £6000 maybe more in 2022.  Surely quite noticeable if had.

BooJewels

I think this is a quirk of BG's current billing silliness - it doesn't seem to be able to cope with meter readings that are out of numerical sequence.  I had a similar situation 18 months ago with my elderly aunt's account that I was manging as her Attorney.  I noticed when the bill came that it was based on Estimated readings, despite her having smart meters.  She had been a high user for gas especially, but her having been in hospital for a while, the usage dropped tangibly. 

So I submitted actual meter readings, but because they were lower (only by 41kWh for the electricity) than their estimates they assumed the electricity meter had gone around the clock and showed a usage for 5 days (between the E and A readings) for electricity of 99959kWh - with prices at the time, that would have been over £30K!  Thankfully, a phone call sorted that one out - the girl I spoke to got it instantly and we had a laugh about it and she re-issued a corrected bill to replace the estimated ones and I submitted my own readings going forwards.

That meter reading anomaly still actually shows on the account, which I can still see with mine, even though she's since passed away and the house been sold.  We never were billed for the £30k thankfully, but she could see it on her system.  So it would appear it still shows on your Mum's record, but I think you'd know if it had been billed - as it would be somewhere north of £20k.  For those mentioning a £5k to £6k error - this is electricity, not gas, so significantly more than that. 

The sequence of readings appears to have returned to the right number of digits subsequently, with more normal levels of usage, so I think BG did ultimately disregard the erroneous reading - hence the next one being an estimate - more in line with normal use.  It looks like whoever submitted the reading on 30/9 didn't put in the last digit, so the system added a 0 at the start to get to 5 digits.  Looks like there might have been a similar error just below where your screen grab starts, as the usage in January is also stupidly high too - after another estimated reading.

Whoever submits the meter readings needs to be very careful in entering it correctly and getting all 5 digits entered - better to have a zero at the end than the beginning, if it can't be seen easily or something.

Scot_39

Sorry - yes assumed gas as B Gas and the OP also said happened on both gas and electric.

Yes SR electricity went up as high as c34p regional average under EPG last winter IIRC - so yes upwards of £30000 if billed

Many meters are positioned awkwardly - up high (celing for electric) or down low (floor level for gas) in my elderly mum's case - she had AMD so failing eyesight and arthritis - and so with both meters struggled to read. 

And the digits arent always clear from an angle - an actual meter reader - yes people on PSR were and do still I assume get them regularly - got the thousands digit out by 1 on her m3 gas - reading the digit moving into line - prematurely before the 100 digit had itself wrapped - sadly that was close enough not to fail on their billing system.  So nearly £600 error iirc.

But a quick phone call then 2 photos -  2 weeks apart (they offered a repeat reader visit) needed as was overriding an accepted by vetting / professional reading - had it sorted for good - and meanwhile they cancelled the erroneous bill - so no payment or debt issues.

My older sis struggles too - she used mobile on a selfie stick in end - to get a clearer picture - before went smart.  I still take manual readings from it when visit her just in case.

BooJewels

I know what you mean @Scott_39 - my gas meter is slightly below floor level in a little cupboard set into my deep stone walls.  I have to use a lamp (see below) and take a photo on my phone to see mine, I can't read it visually at all.  I've set up a system that allows me to get nice clear photos, so I'm happy enough for now. 

My Dad also transposed a 1 and 9 in the second and third digits of his gas meter when emailing his meter reads which led to a bill of many hundreds of pounds, but I managed to get that sorted with emailed photos etc. - that was where I took over managing his too (I had his LPA).  His electricity meter was even harder to read, deep in the back of a cupboard under the stairs - I'd take several photos before I could read all the digits clearly, as they were either too dark to distinguish or the light I used created a reflection.

I now have a little diffuse / frosty LED/USB bulb that I stick in a power bank to work like a torch and that's better than the harsher light of a torch - no reflections.