Problems with British Gas Smart Meters

160809

Anyone else noticed this problem?
In July 2023 i changed to a EV tariff to take advange of the reduced cost of overnight charging between 00:00 & 05:00.. The smart meter changed to show tariff 1 & 2 so i could easily track it. Then a couple of months later i noticed on the graph that there was high consumption from 10pm, when i checked the meter, the time was 2 hours behind? I complained and was assured it would be sorted. So i left it at that then forgot about it. I May 2024 BG changed my account number because they updated their systems apparantly. I then noticed the meter was still 2 hours behind. I have contacted BG by chat and email at least 20 times, and nobody has a clue what the problem is, so a  engineer came out in Aug 2024 and changed the meter. thought everthing would now be ok but the display has not been paired with the meter so i cant see what being used, there is no tariff info on the meter, was told it would take 24hrs, then 48hrs now they say it will take 35 days. I am still charging my car overnight and without this info on the meter it looks like i am paying full price for my car charging.
The BG contact staff are completely useless possibly reading off a script which doesnt have my problem on. I have estimated that i have been overcharged by about £80.
I am that p****d off with BG that i am now looking for a new supplier.

Keep_pedalling

Although BG have moved over their billing to the Kraken platform devised by Octopus Energy, I don’t believe they use the same method of metering that Octopus do for their EV tariffs. BG rely on taking readings from 2 registers (rather like E7), Octopus take readings every 30 mins on a single register. As far as timing is concerned Octopus get it bang on even when the clocks change. You are not alone with the timing thing although generally it is usually only an hour out.

Unfortunately BG are hopeless at sorting metering problems. I am desperate to switch my gas away from them after moving into our bungalow nearly 4 months ago, but I can’t as the meter actually fitted to it is not the one that shown against our address on the system. The address for our gas meter is given as land behind number 10, but there is another meter registered to number 10a (our house number) which is shown as being with eon next. The previous owners must have given up trying to sort this, but BG ain’t getting paid until they do although they are yet to bill me so far.

Reed_Richards

I'm on an Eon Next "NextDrive" EV tariff and they rely on the half hourly meter readings.  This means I can only keep track of my expenditure by downloading the data (from n3rgy) and working it out.  But on the plus side, so long as the time on my meter is accurate then any problems can be fixed retroactively.   

Alnat1

Keep_pedalling said:

Although BG have moved over their billing to the Kraken platform devised by Octopus Energy, I don’t believe they use the same method of metering that Octopus do for their EV tariffs. BG rely on taking readings from 2 registers (rather like E7), Octopus take readings every 30 mins on a single register. As far as timing is concerned Octopus get it bang on even when the clocks change. You are not alone with the timing thing although generally it is usually only an hour out.

Unfortunately BG are hopeless at sorting metering problems. I am desperate to switch my gas away from them after moving into our bungalow nearly 4 months ago, but I can’t as the meter actually fitted to it is not the one that shown against our address on the system. The address for our gas meter is given as land behind number 10, but there is another meter registered to number 10a (our house number) which is shown as being with eon next. The previous owners must have given up trying to sort this, but BG ain’t getting paid until they do although they are yet to bill me so far.

BG have changed to a new billing platform but it is not Kraken.

Marksfish

Very similar to my issue here.  As said above, BG use RT1 & RT2 readings for overnight, off peak usage, check this page for details on how to access as not straight forward. Octopus use the RT1 reading for all consumption, not the accumulated total shown in the first screen of the meter, it threw me totally when I changed.

Have a look on the Consumer Advice website to see if the meter is acting in smart mode.

Do you have the Hugo app? If not, try registering for n3rgy to see if they have your readings. You can use this information when arguing with British Gas over your usage. Hugo will go back to when the meter was installed I believe and you can see usage in a 30 minute bar graph in £ or Kwh. n3ergy allows you to download a csv file of usage to work your magic with if you can do spreadsheets.

Good luck

Mark

Hazzanet

Keep_pedalling said:

Although BG have moved over their billing to the Kraken platform devised by Octopus Energy, 

They actually bought their solution from ENSEK: https://ensek.com/resources/centrica-british-gas-case-study