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New smart meter……huge shock.

(59 Posts)
Sago Fri 08-Jul-22 10:17:10

We reluctantly had a smart meter fitted yesterday, I was curious to know what had been used overnight so clicked on this morning to see we had spent, it was £3.59 on electricity and £64689.0 on gas, this is somewhat a shock as we haven’t been aware of using any gas since the meter was fitted!

StarDreamer Fri 08-Jul-22 12:58:19

The meter here has got some sort of liquid crystal reflective display, so I am not sure whether it could be photographed.

biglouis Sat 09-Jul-22 00:14:04

Eon are constantly on at me to get a smart meter. Ive recently had the consumer unit upgraded as it failed the EICR. Im thinking of asking the same electrician if he can do the smart meters as I was impressed with his politeness and professionalism.

Oldnproud Sat 09-Jul-22 08:28:13

It is possible that your display unit was loaded with incorrect tariff information, Sago

I've been trying to think of what 'error' within the display unit (not the actual meter) might result in the reading you got.
What is your daily standing charge for gas?
It's a wild shot, but it occurred to me that perhaps the decimal point is wrong, and the figure should perhaps read 64.689 pence, which could, conceivably, equate to two days' standing charge, or even one day's if standing charges have rocketed even more than I thought,

I am probably way out in my thinking, but that's the way my mind works - when I am faced with a problem like that, I always try to think of possible explanations before I contact someone. Surprisingly often, it helps me to spot any bull** that they might then try to fob me off with.

Anyway, good luck with sorting this out, if you haven't already done so. smile

Esspee Sat 09-Jul-22 08:31:22

biglouis

Eon are constantly on at me to get a smart meter. Ive recently had the consumer unit upgraded as it failed the EICR. Im thinking of asking the same electrician if he can do the smart meters as I was impressed with his politeness and professionalism.

Eon don’t charge to put in a smart meter. Just make an appointment.

Esspee Sat 09-Jul-22 08:38:38

I love our smart meter.
I now understand that cutting the grass uses far less energy than I thought and that boiling a kettle full of water to add to e.g. potatoes, rice or pasta costs four times as much as using the gas. It also confirmed that ironing is ridiculously expensive, as is my microwave which I didn’t expect.
Since having the display unit next to me in the living room I have adjusted my use and have saved a lot of money.

Georgesgran Sat 09-Jul-22 08:42:34

I resisted having a smart meter for a long time, then agreed to one during Covid. Installation wasn’t easy, but that’s another story. It’s in the garage as that’s nearest to the outside meters and I give it the occasional glance. Must say, I’m tickled pink that with the heating off, I rarely get up to £2.50 a day for both fuels.

Shinamae Sat 09-Jul-22 08:54:00

Had one a few years ago,not at all impressed with it so asked them to come and take away the “thick”meter and put in a regular one which they did. I am with octopus now and they have never pressured me to have a smart meter. I send my meter readings in monthly.. I am careful and use what i use and a device telling me what I am spending is not necessary for me..

Mollygo Sat 09-Jul-22 08:54:24

We don’t have a smart meter since our 7 figure ‘usage’! So we send in three quarterly readings and have one yearly reading by a meter reader.

Septimia Sat 09-Jul-22 09:06:44

I finally gave in and had a smart meter fitted, albeit that I'm sceptical about it and mobile signals in this area are still unreliable.

The man who came to fit it gave minimal information about how the small screen works, but was concerned to check that the central heating was OK. As it was turned off for the summer (we have a solar hot water panel backed up by an immersion heater for hot water) I turned down his offer of trying the central heating. We had to re-set the timer on it and have had it running since.

We've had one bill - less usage than last year apparently - and I'm just waiting to see whether the thing is worthwhile long term.

H1954 Sat 09-Jul-22 09:15:08

We have been with EDF for a while. They kept hounding us to have a smart meter installed but initially we weren't bothered. Eventually, we gave in and agreed. Arrangements were made and the day and time set, the installation guy turned up, looked at our existing meter ( seemingly they position something just below it ) and said " there's not enough room, you will have to get your meter relocated!
This was to be at our expense and we refused.
EDF constantly bombard us with requests to get a smart meter installed, we explain why we can't but they don't get the message.
Our existing meter in tucked neatly away with the consumer unit and there is nowhere else for it to go.
Also, we don't need a smart meter to remind us to turn off lights, to put a jumper on before turning up the heating when it's cold, to close doors to keep the heat in!

Shinamae Sat 09-Jul-22 09:45:04

H1954

We have been with EDF for a while. They kept hounding us to have a smart meter installed but initially we weren't bothered. Eventually, we gave in and agreed. Arrangements were made and the day and time set, the installation guy turned up, looked at our existing meter ( seemingly they position something just below it ) and said " there's not enough room, you will have to get your meter relocated!
This was to be at our expense and we refused.
EDF constantly bombard us with requests to get a smart meter installed, we explain why we can't but they don't get the message.
Our existing meter in tucked neatly away with the consumer unit and there is nowhere else for it to go.
Also, we don't need a smart meter to remind us to turn off lights, to put a jumper on before turning up the heating when it's cold, to close doors to keep the heat in!

Please don’t waste your time trying to explain,they are not interested and most of it is computer generated anyway.Just ignore..

Millie22 Sat 09-Jul-22 10:16:41

Eon have contacted us so many times about installing a smart meter. Last time they said they had made an appointment so my DH said well you can unmake it as we don't want one. We submit monthly readings to them. I follow Martin Lewis advice on smart meters.

Next month our payments are double so £160 pm. We have always been very careful with our energy usage.

henetha Sat 09-Jul-22 10:26:01

I'm so pleased to hear that ironing is ridiculously expensive, Esspee. What a good excuse for me not to do any, - unless absolutely essential. grin

Jane43 Sat 09-Jul-22 10:30:24

We have also resisted having a smart meter despite the constant emails requesting us to. We are careful with our use of both electricity and gas and don’t see how a smart meter could make a difference.

Chewbacca Sat 09-Jul-22 10:32:44

I'm so pleased to hear that ironing is ridiculously expensive.

Me too! I've still not unpacked mine from when I moved house 3 years ago, so this is an excellent excuse to leave it where it is!

henetha Sat 09-Jul-22 10:34:39

Yay! Chewbacca. A fellow ironing hater. Definitely leave the iron where it is. Mine's in a kitchen cupboard and is going to stay there.

karmalady Sat 09-Jul-22 10:42:19

my gas smart meter was installed by BG, new build and was set to send readings to BG, I quickly transferred to octopus. Octopus cannot read the gas meter via smart meter, different signals. They are going to start sending a meter reader around from the end of this month. Ridiculously situated gas meter, virtually on the soil sideways outside. I can still bob up from kneeling but they are sending a person anyway. They do take care of older people

Electric meter is sending readings ok but I have no monitor, they cannot get hold of any due to chip shortage

Oh dear re iron, I have a generator iron and it is always on when sewing

lemsip Sat 09-Jul-22 11:41:28

I would not have a smart meter...I'm with British gas and I send monthly meter readings that they request and am billed monthly and pay direct debit £46.

FlexibleFriend Sat 09-Jul-22 12:25:11

I had one installed on the 4th May this year and I'm really pleases with it. The old electricity was very noisy and I suspected it was running fast. Tried getting them to change it but no. So only was ask for a smart meter which was arranged very quickly and now my D/D has remained the same but I'm now in credit. Before I was making top up payments which are now not necessary. I'm using less than the D/D every month with a daily usage currently of £3 for Electricity and 30p for Gas. I've not cut back on anything just doing what I always have. My fixed tariff ends at the end of this month and will no doubt then get a sharp increase. Apparently the meter takes half hourly readings which I'm told is essential once I have solar panels and EV charger installed. So far so good.

Esspee Sat 09-Jul-22 14:09:01

FlexibleFriend Ensure the charger you buy is one that you can set to take the power from your solar panels only otherwise you will draw from a combination of domestic and solar which is OK if you need a faster charge but if you are happy with a slow charge most of the time then not every charger will do that.

Esspee Sat 09-Jul-22 14:13:38

The gas on an smart meter is updated half hourly. Electricity is updated in real time. Easy to see if you put the kettle on. It also tells you when you are exporting to the grid. I love having control. Knowledge is power.

Juliet27 Sat 09-Jul-22 14:18:25

We’ve had a smart meter for electricity for some time although I don’t take much notice of it. I received my 6 monthly bill this morning and it wasn’t as bad as I was fearing. My £70 pm d/d is to be increased to £97 which doesn’t seem too bad under the circumstances. ?

nexus63 Sat 09-Jul-22 14:19:01

i got a very large gas bill years ago even though i had not used the gas, it seems i was getting charged just for having a gas meter in the house, you should call the gas company and find out why.

Barmeyoldbat Sat 09-Jul-22 15:18:32

We have one and so far fingers crossed haven’t had a problem. Mr B goes around before we go to bed and unplugs nearly everything. Our over night usage for elec is below 50p and gas below a £1.

VioletSky Sat 09-Jul-22 15:39:14

Even for electricity that seems a lot overnight... we would only spend that in 24 hours and only if we had the oven on a lot and we still have a few children living at home so several tvs etc on the go