Smart Meter HELP

Reed_Richards

The heating system is called "Elnur Gabron" "RDW WiFi Programmable Eco Fluid Radiators".

You have direct electrical heating. That's the most expensive form of heating you can get so you rely on good insulation to stop your heating bills becoming too massive. I presume your "Villavent" is a system to give you ventilation with heat recovery. If the heat recovery feature stopped working or you took to opening windows in winter that would increase your heating bills. But if nothing has changed except the electricity meter then it's hard to tell if the old meter was faulty or if the new one is (despite the crude check performed by the visiting engineer).

Edit: Sorry, I missed a page of replies when writing this so my comments are a bit redundant, having been made by others in the preceding hours.

Matt99Islands

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973969#Comment_81973969

Hello! Apologises, I should have indicated earlier. Utility Warehouse, swapped us to a different tariff without our consent when they installed the meter. Please see the graph below showing when this happened. They are / have reimbursed us for the issue they caused. It is now back on one tariff.

Secondly, you are correct, we swapped our the old storage heaters that did not work for the radiators we currently have. However, we have had them for nearly 4 years at this point, going back to the; nothing has changed in the house, other than the smart meter.

Matt99Islands

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973990#Comment_81973990

Thats what is making our heads spin. We havent changed anything, so either the previous meter was incorrect (and the energy company didnt notice) (Which seems bonkers if they under measures by 130% for 10 + years.) Or the current meter is faulty.

Do you know if the test that was completed is "industry standard"? Please.

Matt99Islands

Just an example of the usage of one of the radiators today. They're all within 0.1 kWh of each other.

WiserMiser

Presumably you were on an E7 tariff with the old meter but sensibly billed at single rate until the end of 2025 when it was changed to a smart meter?

If you had an E7 meter your S number will make you Profile Category 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_Point_Administration_Number

Most suppliers will set the smart meter to E7 because that's what they think you want; the existing single rate setting gets 'lost in translation' so to speak.

Most comparison sites make the same assumption and quote for E7 because they look up your meter details from your property address.

The rough and ready metrology light is useful in detecting a faulty meter that's clocking up with no electricity flowing, or one that's supplying next door instead of you (hence my question about it being inside your property, as opposed to an external meter cupboard). But it's only a ball park figure, a sanity test.

You can have the meter taken away and rigorously tested in a laboratory. But think twice, very few are found to be faulty and you'll be charged c.£125 if it's within tolerance.

Just do all the tests that have been explained. A new heating system will almost certainly be the answer, it's just not sensible to stick with the most expensive system possible.

Edit: spelling

Scot_39

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973952#Comment_81973952

After you get to the bottom of the phantom load / use issue - that has seen your day use spike - on that bill - you might want to revisit your time of use and load balance.

The high day use on that Feb bill (does your heater app allow you to see what each heater might have been pulling back in Feb as part of that 1000kWh day / 400 kWh night (its likely the heaters would have been drawing power on night rate after 6am GMT - so part of both readings).

But honestly I am not convinced running 5 panel radiators a day to heat a decent sized bungalow to 19.5 - wouldnt consume a fairly large maount of power - and Fed 1462/28 = 50kWh a day - although a lot - is not beyond belief. 5 of the mid size panels would use 5-6kWh per hour - you have them active for 8 hours - but not necessarily always drawing power for the full period (like most I suspect will be cycling on their own thermostat limits)

If not your UW app or on line portal may allow you - or perhaps an independent app like Bright - might allow you to download / look at historic half hourly use - to see if your use aligns with your 5 "active" radiators activating at say 6am and 5pm on cold winter days.

You were using 413 / (413+1049) = 28% of total energy off peak on that Feb bill - normally just too low to justfy being on E7 - not terrible - but not I suspect enough to make E7 cheaper than single rate.

And as such your average rate is (413*8.05+1049*36.20)/(413+1049) = 28.25p/kWh

Its not terrible - but its probably just a little higher than the single rate for your region.

But now you have a smart meter —- perhaps time to look if a smart TOU tariff - rather than legacy E7 style - might be a better fit for next winter / heating use.

And its likely given your live 247 panel heating - used predominatly in day time - the timing you might well be better moving to TOU tariff - like Octopus Cosy variable , EOn Next Smart Saver (a 12m fix iirc), EDF Free Phase or similar - and run the heaters in the low / off peak periods.

But you'd probably have to change your heating times - possibly even cooking times etc - to avoid their peak rate - typically 4-7pm - so you might say split your current 5pm -11pm to say 2-4pm and 7pm-11pm if take the timings of peak on Cosy.

The trick is to use most of your power in the "super cheap" times - for Octopus Cosy - see timings here -

https://octopus.energy/smart/cosy-octopus/

Because at the moment - your likely running your panels at the expensive 36p day rate. Possibly including the end of your morning period 6-8am during GMT / winter months.

Have a look at those TOU tariffs - and get a quote for your region - and see if you think you can a) minimise use during their super peak - say 4-7pm - and adjust your heating use - to the cheaper periods.

There all a little different time and rate wise.

Scot_39

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81974019#Comment_81974019

Looks like you might well still be registered with a Profile class 2 MPAN / supply code - but were being billed single rate - probably by choice since removing the NSH etc - but has reverted to type on meter swap.

Taking the Feb bill - it hasn't been a complete disaster - but it is a recurring problem we see with others too - on meter changes in some cases - but also common on supplier switching.

So something to be aware of for future.

It is possible with a decent supplier - to get that changed - I am not sure if UW will do it - or timescales.

It's kind of disappearing as some new smart meters are reportedly getting a half hourly smart profile class allocated - 0 - not old 1,2 (certainly in business, but iirc also domestic).

Your meter type has been changed physically to a 4 port - it no longer supports an off peak feed - which I guess was redundant when replaced NSH - assuming those were fed from a restricted - say only live 7 hrs a day - feed.

QrizB

Just do all the tests that have been explained.

Agreed. A bit of methodical investigation using the IHD should solve the mystery of where all the power is going.

Something, somewhere is getting hot. Possibly something that was switched off at the consumer unit prior to the meter replacement.

Have you got a garage, shed or summerhouse with an electricity supply? Any chance there's been a heater running in there unnoticed?

Reed_Richards

Do you know if the test that was completed is "industry standard"? Please.

By no means, it was a crude test because the engineer would not know exactly how much power your oven was drawing. You can do better tests yourself, as others have suggested. AFAIK the power drawn by an immersion heater is standard at 3 kW. If you switched it off until the water from the hot taps got quite cool then switched every circuit off then just the immersion heater on you could see if your IHD (running on its internal battery) indicated a power draw of 3 kW and that your meter reading was increasing by one unit every 20 minutes. But you need the water in your tank to start cool so it doesn't reach the set temperature whilst you are running the test.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81974154#Comment_81974154

By no means, it was a crude test because the engineer would not know exactly how much power your oven was drawing.

It would only take a few seconds to Google the main oven power rating based on make/model…