Have had Smart meter for some time now and not switched on to read , however in the last couple of months have been reading it and am confused by my readings and the monthly staetment . For instance my average reading each day is £7 and yet my statement shows £284 for the month. Also looking at their usage page I used £10 a day on electric only. I am with Bulb/Octupus. So the daily figures shown on the Smart , are they the actual amount to pay or is another amount added to it ?.
Smart meters again
- Thread starter Robert_374373903
- Start date
I thought the whole point of smart meters was that they automatically adjusted the tariff every time it changes - mine does!
It does with my Bulb / Octopus account. As soon as Midnight comes, it automatically shows the daily charge within 10 minutes past .
Being able to see how much your energy you were using and costing you in real time was one of the main consumer benefits touted to encourage people to have a smart meter fitted. This flexibility has to be driven by the supplier being able to communicate with the meter to be able to take readings, and to relay the tariff information for the unit to be able to display the cost. This actually allows different suppliers to display different information on the home unit.
This diversity, means it will make more sense for you to contact your supplier about the information your unit is displaying, and what it means.
Annoyingly before being forced to move to BGAS we had a huge credit of over £500 and in their infinite wisdom BGAS decided that my DD should be £120! In addition BGAS kept refunding back to my account the £66 paid by the government. Lower DD, refund of money and in and all my credit was used by in about 4 months.
We have a Smart meter and the most we should be paying a month on DD should be £200 at current rates based on annual consumption, but BGAS in their infinite wisdom have decided that £275 is more appropriate! Guess I will be cancelling the DD until they sort it out!
I will be so glad when we are able to change suppliers even if we pay slightly more!
We have a Smart meter and the most we should be paying a month on DD should be £200 at current rates based on annual consumption, but BGAS in their infinite wisdom have decided that £275 is more appropriate! Guess I will be cancelling the DD until they sort it out!
I will be so glad when we are able to change suppliers even if we pay slightly more!
£200 pm to BG seems a lot given you have an air source heat pump. Is that fir cooker and a gas fire?
It depends on the size of your house and the usage that you have.
My younger brother has a three bedroom small house and a three year old heat pump and he starts his heating at 6 am. And runs's it all day until 9pm he was shocked, when he used in February £474 but bulb only asked for a DD of £175. Electricity only no gas.
I appreciate that but specifically Buckman has previously posted about his air source heat pump, so £200 pm on gas seemed quite a lot even for cooker if gas and a gas fire. Just curious.
Your post is confusing. If you used £10 on electricity only, how can your average be £7 per day.
We are with Octopus, and at first the readout screen was confusing. To add to the confusion YouTube videos show different advice. I think this is because there are different versions of the reader.
Have a look at the booklet that would have come with it, there is a link to the octopus page with fuller advice.
The reader takes up to two weeks to fully connect (I think). But mine was OK after 2 days. So as you have only just started using it, perhaps you need to wait.
My daily consumption varies from £7 to £12.5 (cold day with washing to get dry). Our average is about £8.5. I am happy with this as they think an average house will be about £2,500 which is £7.7 per day. So I guess I am on schedule to get below that. I set a budget for around £7. So it shows we are over budget. But as it is winter it is to be expected.
For more info. why not download the Octopus app which integrates with your account and meter to give up to date info.
John
They have a robot chat room which it said they had no idea what I was asking for
I have a wife like that after a Saturday afternoon down the pub.
Our Smart meter remote tells e All the information, hourly usage daily usage, gas and electricity, weekly and monthly. Tariff etc, I can set it to give me a warning when I exceed the weekly usage for gas and electricity.
I have found it really useful this winter, probably save me over £500 as I would have just wound up the heating, rather than monitored it.
Turned heat to low upstairs as the heat will rise up and we don't use three of the bedrooms.
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The smart meters do take some effort to learn and I agree they can help save money. As I have set a budget based on projected yearly usage. At this time it keeps telling me I am exceeding the budget. But as it is winter, that has to be expected.
I don’t expect to save as much as you as I was already fairly savvy. But every penny helps.
John
I have told friend to double check their usage costs, as they were saying that they were paying £ XXX direct debits, but when I convinced them to actually check their usage it was much higher.
I will be raising my DD to £300 a. Month as a safeguard towards the rising cost of fuel , but will monitor the cost obviously, I will rather be just in credit.
I will be raising my DD to £300 a. Month as a safeguard towards the rising cost of fuel , but will monitor the cost obviously, I will rather be just in credit.
I am a £280 in credit with a £167 DD, but I suspect this will need to be £210 shortly.
John
Remember this month we will be the last month of the Government's £67 grant. I shall have to turn off the heating in the Fox hound Kennels.🫱😨
Hehe, I can have the table top Fondu going, best I check the Smoke detector in the dining room.
We do not have gas to our property. The gas fire is a stand alone unit and only used occasionally. Heating is turned down to 17C between 9am and 4pm and between 10pm and 6am.
I am well aware that a trick by suppliers to keep you hooked to them is for you to be in debt to them as not many people can afford to change suppliers and then to pay off the old debt and also the new DD with their new supplier.
A check shows that in the past year we have used approximately 700 less KWH units probably because washing machine, tumble drier and fridge were upgraded to the new Eco models. Also a lot of our food is now cooked using air fryer and microwave. Even with a DD of £200 at the current rate we would still be in credit!
The point is that even with a Smart meter, the supplier can still make up a fictional figure for your DD and many people would not be any wiser! All a Smart meter does is create unemployment as meter readers are no longer required so to the advatage of the supplier! Many years ago a meter read charge was approximately £45 a visit which was why a domestic meter was only read once every 2 years.
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