Smart Meter

What have the electric / gas company been billing me against?

It will be the actual meter reading, as sent by your meter, at the end of the charging period, minus the figure at the start. Just as it was when readings were sent manually or read by the meter readers. The costs shown on the display are a guide, I don’t think the intention is that you add them up. Ours also shows a monthly figure that seems accurate.

I had similar issues years ago, I contacted the customer support, I finally got an answer weeks later & after numerous further requests for info. Apparently the figures were correct, what was not correct was the fact I was in credit not debit. They were increasing my monthly debit but not making the connection with the mistake. Eventually I got my overcharge back. I will no longer entertain BG as a fuel supplier. Put your questions to them(energy supplier) JM, keep at em use ofgem once you’ve exhausted their grievance procedure👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks, Rocky. I'm keeping detailed figures for the next three weeks as minimum and may continue through March when I can see what the monthly numbers are showing as well as the days and weeks. After that, if not before, I'll be on to EDF for an explanation.

SteveL. The figures are vastly different between the days and week's figures. The daily usage for combined gas and electric is between about £3.00 and £3.75. The figure shown for the 'week' after 5 days is only £11.00. If the 5 daily figures are added together it should be £16.87 or thereabouts. The displayed kWh figures are even more unbelievable, out, by my calculation, by about 250 kWh. The worrying part is that these apparent 'errors' are not consistent. Something is wrong. If I had the display set to show just the weekly usage I could easily be led into a false sense of security - or are the weekly figures the correct ones.?

It comes down to, what is the point of having a display showing incorrect figures? Pointless in my opinion.

John

I don't think I would have opted for the Hive system  as a stand alone purchase. However as we were changing to a Combi boiler and relocating it to a different position, the Hive system made perfect sense and has proved invaluable during the nearly three years we have had it. You have got to have some sort of control system so why not Hive and it has the advantage that I have access to my heating where ever I am.

I don't quite recognise the situation you mention in your first paragraph. Whenever we have returned to a cold house it has always taken it hours to get up to temperature, and I like to think we have a reasonably well insulated house. With our new system we increase the thermostat temperature when we leave the site and the house is nice and warm when we get back, couldn't be easier. I can also keep an eye on the house temperature whilst we are away and can adjust the schedule and temperature as required. 

On your point about accuracy. As far as the actual meters are concerned how would we know unless we either got very low or high bills which were out of line with the historical information we have from our old bills? I can't see there would be a difference between the new and old meters? As technology develops you would hope the newer meters would be spot on. The internal display is something different. As Steve says its really more of a means of identifying when energy usage changes and what appliances are on at the time causing that change. Some will be interested in that and others not. I sometimes wonder at what point the daily standing charge is added, even if it is to the daily usage?

David

We are in Luddite mode here. Our brand new, bluetoothed controlled, all singing, all dancing boiler developed a fault yesterday. We have hot water, but no central heating😡 Checked most things we could out, but no obvious problems, not airlocked, water circulating, etc.. So we think either it’s something in boiler, or signal unit is at fault. Engineer coming out tomorrow. Meantime, we ramped up the stove on tick over overnight, got the little oil filled heater out of MH for bedroom, and are fine. House overall is a liveable 17c, that’s just stove keeping things warm. Toasty in room with stove. Tech is wonderful, when it works. But when it don’t, give me Luddite for reliability🤣 And, think of the gas savings🤗

TDA

What sort of boiler is it? If its a Combi boiler my first suspicion would be whether there was enough pressure in the system? On our previous boiler it had a live feed, via a header tank, in the loft from the mains. The Combi is a sealed system but does need topping up from time to time. Hope you get it sorted PDQ.

David

Thanks DK. The pressure system was our first port of call, as it does, very occasionally, need a top up. It’s known here as “F1” as that’s the code that comes up, so topping up was first thing we did. It’s all a bit strange to be honest, as the thermostat display has the boiler ignited, and yes, it does ignite, but the central heating isn’t getting warm. So, is it the pump inside the boiler, we just don’t know. Reluctant to play with it beyond checking the obvious, as it has a ten year warranty on it, so we shall just let the engineer do his stuff.

It’s proven to be an interesting dilemma though, as the house is actually no colder with the stove lit, then when we use the central heating. Normally we don’t light the stove until we sit down in evening. But with doors closed to rooms we are not actually using today, and putting little oil filled radiator in bedroom for a couple of hours before bed, and leaving it on low overnight, with stove on tick over overnight, the house is fine without any other heating. So, it’s made us think a bit🤔 Use stove more, use CH a lot less. We are fortunate to have lots of clean burn wood available, and don’t mind budgeting for smokeless through year. So we know exactly what our heating costs, as it’s paid up front, or foraged for free. Admittedly, there is a bit of work involved in wood prep, but that keeps us fit and we both enjoy the novelty. Would be different of course if it was something we couldn’t do.

Getting back on track, think i'll stay as I am for the time being. Without a Smart Meter.

Smart move 😉