Reply With QuoteIf her last few readings were estimates maybe they were way too low?
There are wise and experienced heads on the forum. Can a digital electricity meter show false readings?
My mother lives alone in a two bedroom flat. She has an electricity supply, no gas.
Looking at her meter history, a mixture of readings and estimates, up to the end of Q3 2021, I reckon her power consumption was around 6 + 10 = 16 kWh/day.
I did a Q4 reading for her and entered in on to the EON website. The readings mean that during Q4 her consumption rocketed to 41 + 66 = 107 kWh/day.
This is impossible. Perhaps you know something about power supplies or have experienced a similar problem.
My questions are:
1. What can conceivably go wrong with an electricity meter where the symptom is an enormous increase?
2. What could conceivably, suddenly draw power at that rate in a domestic environment? Wiring up the housing block lifts to my mum's supply!
I have reported it to EON, but.....
Thanks for any tips.
If her last few readings were estimates maybe they were way too low?
What kind of heaters is she using and how many
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You say she has no gas and so I presume the heating is electric; this could account for it.
This is probably the answer. I have tenants that didn't give an actual reading for almost a year and they were all estimated (during lockdown). Once the energy company came to take a real reading it was like 1,200kwh off! They certainly didn't like the bill, but it made sense. this sounds like it could be a similar case.Originally Posted by Kingstepper
Thanks:
1. Manual readings April, May, June, September, so a pretty accurate starting point mid September. October was an estimate.
2. She does have electric heating and doesn't like it too hot.
3. The increase from Q3 to Q4 was not something like 1000 - 2000 kWh it was 10000 kWh, multiples of the same period in preceding years.
The reading for the last Q doubles the total for the preceding two years which includes plenty of manual readings.
Last edited by BillyCasper; 29th December 2021 at 12:54.
Is it a smart meter?
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
No, apparently others have had them in the block and reported they don't work.
The figures seem excessive whichever way you look at them. Looking at just my electricity for a month (no heating) it is about 7kwH per day and I’m running various pumps/UV filters etc for a fishpond with that. Unless she is running multiple 2kw heaters or having an immersion heater on 24/7 I can’t see how you get through so much electricity. Having said that, I’d say the chance of an electricity meter misreporting is minimal?
Is she cryptomining perchance?
If not, presumably with 2 readings, one is Economy 7 or similar so she could well be using storage heaters though both readings have increased substantially.
Last edited by Kingstepper; 29th December 2021 at 14:32.
Isn’t it one of the indicators of industrial scale weed growing? 88, but I wouldn’t put it past her.
The issue is, her apparent usage pattern has not changed this year, from last year or the year before that. Anyway, it looks like EON want to visit.
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Last edited by BillyCasper; 29th December 2021 at 18:18.
EON are terrible to deal with. Keep records of who you deal with and when. Have the meter reading to hand before you call them.
Only other thing I can think of is the meter outside the flat? Could it be accessed and tampered with to steal electricity downstream of it?
That was my first thought is the meter outside the flat? As it’s open to tampering.
As a few others have mentioned may be tampering, may be worth walking around the outside and seeing if anything looks out of place or extra wires bodged in etc.
Otherwise maybe see what the reading is next month and if it is back to normal maybe could have been an odd smart meter adjustment and might want to dispute. If similar then maybe something is off or maybe she actually has something using that much energy
Just noticed my incredibly excessive use of 'maybe' to highlight my cluelessness
Maybe turn everything off for 1/2 hr see what happens
To answer the OP's question: from personal experience yes they can show false readings, either higher or lower than the correct usage.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
We returned from a week's holiday abroad yesterday. My wife was idly checking the electric and gas usage on the app this morning and for 3 of the seven days we were away, we used more electricity than on a working day when we are all at home with laptops, lights, cooking and the kettle going. Very strange.
Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves
We (Dutch) can log in on a special website to check one's power use hour-by-hour. Provided you have a 'smart meter'. It's very useful. I found out that the under-floor-heating pump was working 24/7 and now with a timer, it's much better.
Thanks for your time replying.
The meter is inside the flat. I actually managed to speak to EON and they have logged a work request to check the meter.
They agreed that consumption was abnormal and said it would take an Olympic size heated swimming pool and half a dozen jacuzzis in her flat to use that amount of power in such a short period.
They have put the latest meter reading on hold and will use estimates for billing until resolved, otherwise she could have been hit for a huge bill this quarter and thereafter.
Going to see her tomorrow, so will check her flat for evidence of bitcoin mining or Breaking Bad narco production.
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Keep us posted!!
Surely she can pay the big bill using her crypto gains?
Seriously though, very odd, will be interesting to hear the outcome of this one.
Will do, but technician visit has only been logged and is likely to be scheduled for February.
Last edited by BillyCasper; 29th December 2021 at 19:31.
I have sent you a PM.
We had a problem with our meter (EON) and they replaced it with a Smart meter ( I asked them not to). We got a massive bill as the reading was the difference between the final estimate for the old meter and a guesstimate from the smart meter. The smart meter will not work in dense buildings.
It took 18months to get them to fix it, including emails to the CEO. I got £75 compensation ( given to charity as I don’t want anything to do with them).
A year later, When I was with Octopus I was still getting threatening letters from EON even though the CEO had apologised.
Octopus then said under the switching rules they need to apply the reading given by EON. Yes, you guessed it this is from the smart meter I didn’t have again.
What is the definition of a dense building I wonder? I live in a block of eight apartments, is that considered to be dense?
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Is it possible new neighbours are doing just that and have drilled into a wall to tap into her cables?
Imagine it will vary in each situation but likely smart meters in close proximity will interfere with each other.
I currently have a similar issue but water related. Seven Trent said they’d replaced my meter with a current one (it was only 3 months old) and gave me a new reading and bill which was ridiculous.
I checked and the original meter was still in situ and the reading 4% of theirs. They refused to accept photographic evidence and effectively called me a liar.
I wait their engineers visit.
I’m in an apartment block. The meter is situated inside a concrete closet in the middle of the building and is 20 metres away from the inside of thr apartment.
The metre cannot see the stupid little device that it transmits to, a phone doesn’t get a signal and the metre readers can’t see it unless they open the closet and stand next to it.
I’m advised there are essentially two generations of smart meters, own is proprietary and the other you can switch supplier.
The engineers are from an outsourced company paid by visit. They may say they called and you were out so pin down the visit time.
Take photos of the agents badge and their visit notes.
Some SLAs result in an ‘agent’ visiting to confirm if an engineer is required. Make sure it’s an engineer that can make repairs if a booking is made.
How old is the meter? It is rare for an electric meter to be far off in accuracy. Do you have the old bills from same period last year as this would give a better comparison than the previous month. Switch everything off for an hour and see if there’s any movement. Remember things like TVs on standby have some usage.
I hate to admit, but feel compelled to admit it, wrong entries on the EON site. Abject humiliation and shame.
Schoolboy error, it’s not the first time I’ve read her meter, I was in a bit of a rush after dropping her off after Christmas.
At least we caught it before she was billed or the contractor turned up to check the meter.
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I had a slightly better result, no apologies but Severn Trent accepted they hadn’t changed my meter and that my readings were correct. Mind you, they tried to make me feel grateful that they were refunding £240.
Last edited by MonkeyBoy; 15th January 2022 at 17:59.
I’ve got a smart meter and the thing tells me I’m using about 500kw per week which seems crazy, though the “using now” figures are always reasonable. There’s two of us in a small terrace so not sure what’s going on!
Does anyone know any ways of getting a more detailed historic listing so you can actually see when this energy is being used etc?
do you have an IHD showing real time usage? I had a smart meter installed last year, the IHD has never worked & EDF are unable to do anything about it - my usage is also statospheric.....its a complete nightmare!
I have one of these. So it gives you now, so far today, this week and you can see past days and weeks total, but it’d be useful to find out when I’m apparently attempting nuclear fission in the middle of the night.
Just looking at my online account usage, they reckon last week was more like 57.2 so maybe there’s a decimal point missing
Isn’t £26 more like 130 kWh and 568kWh more like £115?I have one of these. So it gives you now, so far today, this week and you can see past days and weeks total, but it’d be useful to find out when I’m apparently attempting nuclear fission in the middle of the night.
Just looking at my online account usage, they reckon last week was more like 57.2 so maybe there’s a decimal point missing
Don’t take any notice of me, I can’t even read a meter properly.
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Mine just does nothing, sometimes I may get a glimpse of gas and electricity usage before it then loses connection & just sits there trying to connect.I have one of these. So it gives you now, so far today, this week and you can see past days and weeks total, but it’d be useful to find out when I’m apparently attempting nuclear fission in the middle of the night.
Just looking at my online account usage, they reckon last week was more like 57.2 so maybe there’s a decimal point missing
British Gas are coming out next month for the 3rd time to replace it.
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