Faulty smart or traditional meters: Blank display, inaccurate, broken, noisy meters - DIY tutorial series

Click “Meter Readings” on the side menu, and then under Gas click ‘View readings history’

You should get a Page for the Gas meter readings in m3 similar to this one:
 

Thanks..

Hi, not sure which meter you mean (FIT for Solar?)

If you post a picture, someone might be able to help

Thanks 

meter is Elster A100c 

It sounds as if either there is no power to the unit or the display is faulty.

Here is the user guide

You could check if the red impulse led is flashing when there is generation 

No red light that for sure no power 

Thanks. The kWh figures in your earlier table seem to include both electricity and gas, which makes it a bit difficult to check the conversion from m³ to kWh. That’s not so important, though, because the meter readings are the real guide to how much gas you’re using. Your average daily usage since 2 April has been 8.6 m³, which seems like a lot. The very first figures for 1-2 April are a bit suspect (a daily usage of only 0.3 m³), so we’ll ignore them for now.

​@Nukecad will as a long-term gas user be better placed than I to advise what you should be looking for, because those consumption figures look alarmingly high to me. It’s notable that your usage was particularly high over Easter; compare the figure for Good Friday 18th (10.8 m³) with the following Friday 25th (2.6 m³).  

Hey ​@imcal007 

Sorry to hear about this, I wonder if you’d be able to share the meter readings from maybe January/February time to compare those to the ones since the boiler was upgraded, has it been a recent change in the bill amount?

The following topic may also be helpful:

Let us know how you get on.

Hey ​@briancameron 

Do you know if there are/have been any power outages in your area? You can check here if there have been any reports from UK Power Network.

If it’s not a power cut, it sounds like there might be an issue with the meter. If so, you’d need to get in touch with the Support Team so they can look to get that fixed.

Do keep us updated with how you get on here.

Jan

Gas
Meter readings
3 Jan    Actual 1170.298
2 Feb    Actual 1170.737
Total energy use    4.872 kWh
Charges
Energy use charge
4.87 kWh at 6.31p
£0.31
Standing charge
31 days at 34.58p per day
£10.72
Total cost (before VAT)    £11.03

Feb

Gas Meter readings
3 Feb    Actual 1170.737
2 Mar    Actual 1179.418
Total energy use    96.573 kWh
Charges
Energy use charge
96.57 kWh at 6.31p
£6.09
Standing charge
28 days at 34.58p per day
£9.68
Total cost (before VAT)    £15.77
 

--

Gas

Meter readings

Charges

Looking at those gas meter readings and putting them into a spreadsheet is interesting.

From those readings (if correct) then you have had what I would consider a pretty high gas usage throughout the month, but tapering down to what I would consider more normal (for someone using a lot of gas heating that is) in the last few days.

The up and down variation throughout the month shows generally a higher usage at weekends (especially Easter weekend with it’s two bank kolidays).

However I just can’t see that amount of usage for hot water only, maybe if the gas cantra heating was on high 24/7 in a very poorly insulated flat you might get that high.

Your readings from before April are more what would be expected from hot water only.

Have you checked your meter itself for its current reading?
I know that those you posted say ‘Smart’ but are they or are they estimates?
Does that one for the 27th match roughly what the meter itself says today?

That fact that these hign meter readings appear to have started at the begining of April makes me suspect that it’s an administartive error/issue somewhere, caused by the financial year end and the Ofgem tariff changes at the start of April.

Maybe even someone entered a wrong number somewhere and created a ‘crossed meter’ situation at the start of April?
But estimated readings (with an inflated FAC) seems more likely to me.
Which brings another question, if you look on the ‘Plan’ page of your account the what does it show as your “Future Annual consumption” for gas?
 

The other thing you need to consider is if there may be a gas leak.
However it would be an odd kind of leak that has apparently cured itself in the past few days.

Just to check - Can you smell gas anywhere in the flat, or anywhere near the flat?

A bit of an asside but - That “only use gas for hot water” does raise a question:
You say that you don’t heat by gas, so why have a combi-boiler installed?
Combi-boilers are meant to run both Central Heating and instant hot water, if you only want hot water than a cheaper gas water heater would do that job.
I realise that you may be in a rental and so which type to fit may have been your landlords choice.

The reason a combi was installed … upto 2020 i was a carer for parents and nan, in 2020 i lost 6 family members (plus several other people i was close to) and a friend killed himself, the boiler broke down i came down one morning and water was pouring out of the boiler, so i managed to get it switched off water and electric to it etc , since then i just didnt have the money to get it fixed, end of dec i managed to get back into work but due to a debt/morgage getting to work costs etc i didnt have the funds… last year i lost 1 more family member and a m8 suicide within a day of each other, for some reason i couldnt see the point, lost my job due to trying to kill myself, mental illness kicked in, just wanted to be dead, being a diabetic with other issues i couldnt see any future, then a charity got intouch, she came out, helped me with the hoarding which had started to take over my life, noticied how cold it was in the house, told her couldnt afford a new heater etc, relied on electric portable heater and electric blanket , a big thick jumper kind of thing etc, within 2-3 days she phoned me and said the charity would replace the boiler which they did back begin of feb.

Gas leak just been checked its ok - however still used gas yesterday and last night despite it been turned off yesterday morning

For yesterday

After midday

It is sounding more and more as if at the start of April your gas meter has (somehow) been “crossed” with someone else's meter.

See here for more about crossed meters and what to do if you suspect it has happened to you:

Yesterday usage despite gas been turned off

Before midday

After midday

Hey ​@imcal007 

Have you been able to check if the meter serial number is correct, and there hasn’t been a meter mishap? If you’d be able to take a photo and check in with the Support Team, it’ll be good to have them check if the meter clocking usage is the correct one on the account as Nukecad has mentioned. 

If you’ve had someone out to check that there’s no gas leak, it sounds likely that the meter details may be incorrect. 

Nukecad also linked to a really helpful topic on the Forum, I’ve also included a couple of others that may be useful:

Let us know how you get on.

Thankyou for the reply, i have just been speaking to ovo, meter is the right one, i have somebody coming out on friday, hopefully to sort the issue because i am not getting any peach in my mind at the moment, its just there playing on my mind all of the time. And thanks for the links i will read them.

Hey ​@imcal007 

I’m glad to hear they’re coming out on Friday to take a look, hopefully they’ll be able to sort the issue and you’ll be able to have some peace of mind again.

Do pop back and let us know how that goes on Friday.🙂

Thanks will do, used 9.00+ of gas last night, despite it being off at the gas tap.

Hey ​@imcal007 

Hopefully the appointment will bring some answers to what’s going on.

Is the gas turned off at the Emergency Control Valve? Was that instructed by the Gas Transportation Company (GTC)? This should be the only time the valve is closed, when instructed by them to do so. There’s some more information on this on this GTC page.

Ok meter changed, the meter was still charging for usage despite no gas going through it, tests were done and in 15mins he said it is faulty and needs changing, the guy said in all of the years going to meters he has never seen anything like it before.

Quick update: gas tap left on since meter changed, no gas used yesterday at all...

It’s a very strange meter that can give varying half hourly (and daily) usage readings when no gas is flowing at all.

I would expect any such  ‘non-flow reading’ fault at the meter to show a constant usage not a varying one.

I do note that throughout this thread we have only talked about what numbers your account was showing, we never asked what the actual physical reading was showing on the meter.
(Apart from that link to the crossed meter article).
If the physical reading on the meter wasn’t changing but the (not estimated) readings on the account were then that would be an obvious crossed meter

I’m wondering if somehow another meter was being recognised over the WAN as being yours?
So yours was no longer being asked for readings at all.
Also meaning that someone else was sat somewhere wondering why they were not being billed for the gas they were using.
In other words a crossed meter situation as we had started to think.

Fitting and reconnecting a new meter to the WAN would cure that for you.
(TBH reconnecting the old meter to the WAN should also have done it, but replacing it was the best way to rule it out altogether).

The main thing is that the new meter is working correctly for you.