Quantum Gas Meter Hell

Cumfy_2

I had one of these Quantum meters fitted by scottish power to pay off a debt.. because I was in debt with my gas account, however I was the same price in credit on my leccy account, and when I asked them to transfer the balance the told me that thy couldn't do it, so they'd have to fit one of these meters..
Once the meter was fitted I noticed that I was already in the emergency credit, without using any gas, so I called them up and asked what all this was about.. while on the phone I asked if it was possible to clear off the debt by using the credit from my leccy account and the girl said yes, not probs.. ????? i then went on a rant saying so I really didn;t have to have the meter fitted.. and so on

recently I have noticed that the pricing on this meter is getting to the stage where I am finding it difficult to afford to use the gas.. using up to a pound a day. and only using 3 or 4 units..

Recently I have designed a spreadsheet to calculate the amount of gas I use and how much it should cost me, using the tariffs set out by Scottish power. and I'm getting some interesting results..

Yesterday for example my meter read £4.31 credit and 134.426 units today it reads 3.15 and 136.836 units.. so in those 24 hours I've used 2.41 units and thats costed me 1.15.. the best bit about it is.. I should have only used..20p which would include the standing charge.. I am aware that on one day the machine takes the weeks worth of standing charges of in one go, so that would be 77p (roughly)

I't confusing me an scottish gas reckons it's all fine, although I'm not convinced,

Any thoughts or Ideas would be gratefully recieved

Thanks
Chris

p.s. the idea of the spreadsheet and storing this info is to take it forward if i find there are discrepancies that can't be accounted for..

SwanJon

Cumfy wrote: »

I had one of these Quantum meters fitted by scottish gas to pay off a debt....., using the tariffs set out by Scottish power...an scottish gas reckons it's all fine,

Just make sure you have the right company & tariff.
You can find the price the meter is using on screens 9 & 10, and somewhere else aroud there you'll find a tariff Wid (width) which shows you how much you use each day at price on screen 9 before you get to screen 10's price.

debrag

SwanJon wrote: »

Firstly, don't ever press the black button. It was set up to help you budget, but what it actually does is stop the gas when you still have credit. (help you budget see?)
If you press and hold the red button until it beeps, the screen will change.
You should be looking at screen 00 - Last purchase*. Press the red button again and it will change to 01 - Last for debt.
Press the red button again to go to 02, etc
Get the information from these screens, and it may be able to help you work out what is going on
00 - Last Purchase
01 - Last for debt
02 - Last for EC
03 - Last for Gas (03+02+01 should add up to 00)
24 (you will need to put your card in when you get this far)
25 - Min weekly payment for debt
26 - Max weekly payment for debt
27 - outstanding balance

* I've not seen one exactly like this, so there is a chance the first screen will be 27. The screens show the same thing, just a different order.

what does 24 stand for?

Cumfy_2

SwanJon wrote: »

Just make sure you have the right company & tariff.
You can find the price the meter is using on screens 9 & 10, and somewhere else aroud there you'll find a tariff Wid (width) which shows you how much you use each day at price on screen 9 before you get to screen 10's price.

thanks for the reply.. I have changed my typo.. to scottish power, they supply me with both gas and electricity..

I will check screens 9 and 10, to see what they say..

9 says nothing.. 0.00
10: 3.844 (which is the tarrif I thought i was using)

so i'm using 3 units per day (av)

so. 3.844x3=11.532p + standing charge..= much less than the £1.36 i paid for yesterdays 2.84 units of gas I used..




the maths still don't make sense..

dramaqueen1973

vespasean wrote: »

Hello,

We have just had a Quantum Gas Card meter fitted. I think it's taking about 20p on the pound for the repayment of debt. Even considering this, we seem to be putting a lot of money on the card.

It was installed on wednesday lunchtime with £10 emergency credit and by friday evening it was used up. In addition to this, the meter appears to have been made so unfathomable that it may as well be in Chinese.

I have added a picture of the offending meter in the hope that somebody here will be able to give me a clue. The meter has three displays when you press the black button - EmCr used / Budget / and Owed

Any help with reading this meter would be very well appreciated.

thankyou, vespasean

I too have this and its costing a fortune, but the only way I could do it and pay back debt!

xx

Cumfy_2

it sucks..

SwanJon

Sorry debrag, missed your reply.
Screen 24 will be a percentage - this is the most the meter will take from any payment when it is put onto the meter for debt/eC etc

Cumfy - the meter will charge you in kWh, but the readings are in cubic metres (checks picture).
one cubic metre is about 11.5 kWh*, so 3 would be about 34 kWh
34*3.844=130.696p = £1.31.
Sounds a bit more like it.
Sorry I didn't pick up the kWh/unit difference in your first post.

*calculation involves 3 factors, one of which is variable. You should be able to find these on the meter too - one will be 1.02264 (volume correction factor), and the variable one will be about 40 (calorific value). The other is 3.6 and I'm not sure if thats on the meter.
(units(m3)*1.02264*calorific value)/3.6 = kWh

ultramol

The Krays used guns, BG uses quantam meter's. God bless Mrs Thatchers children, she would be most proud...

cat66_2

i am new to this and realised i am not the only one in despair with the prepayment meter,i am with southern electric and although the meter looks different to the one in the picture i feel there is something badly wrong with the way it works,i have also read somewhere that others seem to think the cost has changed in the last couple of weeks and so do i it seems to be taking double what it was taking,when i first spoke to southern electric they did tell me it had been taking 70% of all my payments and that it had happened right across the board and they would be putting it right,i do have debt meant to be at a rate £6 per week but i feel it is taking the debt and 70% and like others are saying they are very hard to work out,i have put around £30 in since weds and i just know this is not right,is any one with this company and having problems as i am totally desperate with this,i have only briefly read this forum and felt i needed to post this also as a warning to anyone else do not switch to prepayment

mabbo

I'm having a Quantum Gas Meter installed this month nov, 2011 ive been trying to do some research.One thing i'm worried about is the meter being tamperd with as it's outside, Will the meter shut down? or give me a error code, if so could i reset it myself i don't really won't to wait for my supplier as it's a 4hour window for them to arrive, Any comments would be very grateful