New smart meter……huge shock.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I don’t have a smart meter either stardreamer I send in my monthly readings and have even sent photos when they queried my reading
I asked for a smart meter some months back (as my eyes are poor) but the attempt of putting it in was aborted as their own service went down I got £30 back for my trouble and
they ve never suggested I have one since
So I still don’t know where my £6000 or even £600 bill comes from ???

I got a stupidly large bill once.

An economy 7 meter has three readings,

Total Units. five digits,
Day Units, five digits,
Night Units, five digits

So if it goes over 99999 for any the next unit is 00000

Access by pushing a button to move through.

Otherwise the display shows the current one.

So I do meter reading without touching the button by reading Night reading just before changeover time and day reading just after changeover time.

However, a meter reader needs to press the buttons,

So three mistakes are common.

Record the Day and Night readings the wrong way round.

Use the Total reading instead of one or other of the Day reading or Night reading.

Both of the above.

I won't get a smart meter fitted in our residential property but I did have one fitted in one of our rental properties. This is the only one I have had problems with. It won't read the gas because the meters are too far apart and when I change tariffs to benefit the tenants, it takes months for things to work again. This causes great problems as I have to split the bill for the tenants to pay us back so last year, we were very out of pocket. By the time we realised, I didn't have the heart to claim back the difference because fuel prices had skyrocketed!

I have avoided having a Smart Meter.

I have been sending in monthly readings by email.

Nobody has been to read the meter since some time before the pandemic started.

Thus far they have always accepted my reading, which is, in fact, always an honest reading.

That’s interesting Sago I recently had a bill for £6000 for gas from EON next although I ve paid by DD every month When I challenged this it was put down to £600 now I m challenging that as apart from half an hour cooking lunch time ( normally some kind of stir fry for one ) and a ten minute shower each day I have nothing else uses it

I think ours is estimated for three quarters and read on the fourth. Mr Dog reads it and checks against the bill to avoid a discrepancy like yours, Ashcombe.

It's good to know that meter readers will still exist though (even if they can't all read the meter accurately )

Our meters are still checked annually, despite us having a smart meter. I’m certain of this as my electricity DD notification was huge last month so I queried it and was told when I rang that the meter reader had misread it! ? Phew!

Because I cannot read the outside meters because of my sight problems I had a smart meter installed before Covid. It is great. I get accurate readings each month.

tanith the first generation of smart meters were not compatible if one changed companies but the present generation are fine.

We’re going to resist having one fitted as long as we can, we’re pestered often by our supplier.
Can’t remember last time we actually saw a meter reader? I assume it’s because I sometimes submit my meter readings by photo on the app??

Sago

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!

Assuming it is accessible, the first thing I would do if I were you is to read your actual smart meter. My bet is on that being correct, and that it is just the display you are using that is not working properly for some reason.

That would very my starting point.

We don't have one. Mr Dog is against them for engineering-related reasons I can't now remember, but is adamant that they don't benefit the customer and will put meter readers out of work.

I am happy not to have one for the meter readers alone. I don't know how many there are left, but I think ours is read annually, and if we all go to smart meters they would be out of a job.

We can’t get any reliable signals here. Mobiles from all providers are unreliable, aerials never worked, broadband drops out. You get the picture?
Our energy provider insisted a meter would work….hours of wasted time - it wouldn’t work.
They still send emails & texts re installing one! Just messaged again to tell them to stop.
They don’t “save” energy, they are often unreliable and saving a 2 second meter reading each month is not even worth the mention.
Inexplicably. Suppliers were set government targets for installations…that’s all they care about.

Jaxjacky

We’ve had one for a couple of years, the actual display is switched off in a cupboard. The biggest benefit is not having to manually read the meters every month and email them in. I manage the dual fuel account online so can see any huge disparities.

This is why I had one installed, Jaxjacky, and I have no regrets. Both my meters are in awkward places so I’m spared that chore and I’ve insisted on my direct debit being for the exact amount each month, rather than what the company chooses to collect to allow for higher winter usage.

Another reason not to have one.

Having a smart meter fitted was a condition of the fixed rate tariff I signed up for at the start of the fuel price rises. At first I kept looking at it, but now I ignore it, although no doubt I'll keep checking once the heating is on.

We’ve had one for a couple of years, the actual display is switched off in a cupboard. The biggest benefit is not having to manually read the meters every month and email them in. I manage the dual fuel account online so can see any huge disparities.

Yes, I tend to agree, Crazy. I read my own meters too, so do we really need a smart meter, especially as there seem to be so many problems with them?
So I will ignore this letter I think.