Broken 'smart' meter being charged 100% day rate

RedTreeGold

I've just discovered that my smart meter (old version) has been sending incorrect reading for the last 12 months to my energy supplier. For 12 months the night rate reading has not increased at all and all my energy appears to be recorded as 100% day rate (I'm on economy 7). Speaking to EDF they have to fit a new meter as the one I currently have is not working as it should, but this could apparently take months, and once that's resolved then they sort out any billing issues. 

Quick calculations looking at the previous years data, my day energy consumption has more than doubled. I am preparing for a fight to get any money back as I am clearly being charged more than three times the price for my energy consumption within my 7 hours of economy 7. 

I am worried as I am nearing the end of my tariff and wanting to switch to a new supplier, but with this looming over me I can't switch to a new tariff with a broken smart meter, can I? Conscious the price cap will rise in October, and need this sorted by then!

Any tips for getting a new smart meter fitted ASAP and getting money back from EDF for over charging me. I do have the logs from my EV charger that list how many KW I've sent to the car which I think will be useful. What do I do, advice please!

MattMattMattUK

RedTreeGold said:

I've just discovered that my smart meter (old version) has been sending incorrect reading for the last 12 months to my energy supplier. For 12 months the night rate reading has not increased at all and all my energy appears to be recorded as 100% day rate (I'm on economy 7). Speaking to EDF they have to fit a new meter as the one I currently have is not working as it should, but this could apparently take months, and once that's resolved then they sort out any billing issues. 

Quick calculations looking at the previous years data, my day energy consumption has more than doubled. I am preparing for a fight to get any money back as I am clearly being charged more than three times the price for my energy consumption within my 7 hours of economy 7. 

Why are you "preparing for a fight"?

The standard in these situations is that they take the overall usage over the period and apply either the previous split for that customer, if there is a year or more of previous data, or an industry standard split if not. 

RedTreeGold said:

I am worried as I am nearing the end of my tariff and wanting to switch to a new supplier, but with this looming over me I can't switch to a new tariff with a broken smart meter, can I? Conscious the price cap will rise in October, and need this sorted by then!

Have you identified a supplier with a better split for you? In general EDF seem to offer the best E7 tariffs in most of the country, so I not really see that changing supplier would benefit you in this circumstance. In general I would recommend Octopus, but EDFs E7 tariffs can be considerably cheaper than other suppliers. The price cap will rise in October, but any tariffs on offer now will already have priced those changes in, any fix you get now is unlikely to make any appreciable difference to your costs over winter. You are correct that you cannot switch with a broken meter, but there is unlikely to be any benefit to switching either. 

RedTreeGold said:

Any tips for getting a new smart meter fitted ASAP

You just have to wait, there is both a shortage of meters and installers depending on where you are in the country, nothing you can do will change that timeframe. 

RedTreeGold said:

and getting money back from EDF for over charging me. I do have the logs from my EV charger that list how many KW I've sent to the car which I think will be useful.

Once the new meter is installed they will make an estimate of your peak and off-peak usage over the period where the old meter was not functioning correctly, if you disagree with their split at that point then there is a process to follow.

RedTreeGold said:

What do I do, advice please!

You wait for the new meter to be installed and the process to take it's course. 

Reed_Richards

RedTreeGold said:

I've just discovered that my smart meter (old version) has been sending incorrect reading for the last 12 months to my energy supplier. For 12 months the night rate reading has not increased at all and all my energy appears to be recorded as 100% day rate (I'm on economy 7).  

Presumably "just" because you haven't been reading your statements for the last 12 months?  So although you are cross with your supplier, you yourself must share some of the blame.  

RedTreeGold

@Reed_Richards , that's fair, I accept some blame, lesson learnt never trust that a meter is accurate ever.

I've had a fair few problems with EDF so want to switch away to another supplier, and a dedicated EV tariff. @MattMattMattUK I cannot find an economy 7 tariff on EDF's website at all, just EV tariffs.

Octopus is who I want to switch to. That is frustrating to hear that there is a shortage of meters and installers as this is preventing me from switching and a looming predicted 9% increase in the price cap. So I have to accept that this will take months to get resolved, switch to an EDF EV tariff which is worse that Octopus and not get an accurate bill, with them just guessing how much night energy I am using. Seems less that ideal.

BarelySentientAI

It shouldn't prevent you from switching.

MattMattMattUK

RedTreeGold said:

@Reed_Richards , that's fair, I accept some blame, lesson learnt never trust that a meter is accurate ever.

I've had a fair few problems with EDF so want to switch away to another supplier, and a dedicated EV tariff. @ MattMattMattUK I cannot find an economy 7 tariff on EDF's website at all, just EV tariffs.

The existing E7 is on their rate table, they have not published the October capped rates yet as the cap has not been officially announced.

RedTreeGold said:

Octopus is who I want to switch to. That is frustrating to hear that there is a shortage of meters and installers as this is preventing me from switching and a looming predicted 9% increase in the price cap. So I have to accept that this will take months to get resolved, switch to an EDF EV tariff which is worse that Octopus and not get an accurate bill, with them just guessing how much night energy I am using. Seems less that ideal.

Make sure when you do switch you use a referral code from a friend, you will both get a £50 credit on your energy bill for doing so. Switching will not help you avoid the increase. Any tariffs on offer now already account for the increase in their pricing, the supplier have priced it into their costs. To use one of the EV tariffs you require a fully functioning smart meter regardless of which supplier you are with. They are not "just guessing" how much night energy you are using, they will use your previous years patterns, but in reality the fact that both you and they missed the issue for a year is not great. 

BarelySentientAI said:

It shouldn't prevent you from switching.

In theory they can still move, but from people who have posted on here it never seems to go well to move in the middle of a meter fault/billing issue. The fact that it will likely take the same amount of time to get a new meter regardless of which supplier they are with would mean that I would strongly lean in favour of staying put until the issue is resolved, especially as there is not benefit to be had from switching at this point in time. 

Swipe

This is why people need to pay more attention to their meter readings on their bills. Take monthly readings and keep a spreadsheet. This could have been picked up in a matter of days or weeks.