Can smart meters be faulty and show too much usage?!

If the meter can’t connect to the WAN, readings won’t be getting back to the supplier automatically. With your smart meter being dumb, you should have been submitting regular readings manually - have you? If you haven’t, how do you expect OVO to know how much electricity and/or gas you’re using? You’re probably seeing estimates, based on some fanciful ‘typical’ annual usage figures. You will only see realistic costs if you submit meter readings regularly - at least once a month on the first day of your billing period.

A PS to the above: 33kWh a month is exceptionally low usage, so this must be an unconventional situation. If you’re running an ordinary set of electrical appliances - a fridge, perhaps a freezer, a washing machine (not to mention a tumble dryer), an electric kettle, a toaster, some lights - you’d soon exceed 33kWh a month even if there’s no hot water on tap and no hot meals. If there’s any question of a faulty meter, I’d suggest it was the old one you’ve had exchanged - it may have been under-recording your usage.

Hi Firedog and thanks for your replies. 
 

I have submitted a reading to OVO since getting the smart meter and it was on the basis of this that I realised that I had used 172 kWh over two months, hence my ‘average 86 kWh per month’ comment.  
 

In fact, I always submit readings - pre and post smart meter - so my bills are not based on estimates.  

Interesting to note that 33 kWh would suggest exceptionally low usage as - looking back over a couple of years, (and in two houses) this has been an average. 

Many thanks 
 

Right, thanks - that doesn’t help at all! If your usage has been of the order of 33kWh/month over two years and two different meters, then I suppose we have to accept the fact and rule out the possibility that the replaced meter was faulty. I’d just point out that Ofgem does some fairly comprehensive analysis of household energy use in GB, producing ‘Typical Domestic Consumption Values’ (TDCV). I have to assume that you have something other than electricity for space heating, hot water and cooking. The typical gas-powered household consumes between 1800kWh and 4100kWh/year, where 1800 is the lower quartile and 4100 the upper quartile. That means that only 25% of households use less than 150kWh/month. I’m not sure where 400kWh/year fits on the global chart, but it must be very near the bottom.

I’m inclined to think that your 172kWh over two months isn’t at all unreasonable and doesn’t suggest any sort of meter imprecision. It’s a great pity your meter isn’t transmitting data to OVO, because the data available from it would go a long way to explaining what you’re seeing. 

It is a very low usage, but I’m reckoning that it’s just about possible.
We need more information about Cate’s setup.

In certain circumstances you could be doing quite a bit for only 33 kWh a month.

33 kWh a month would be roughly 1kWh a day, or an average constant load of 42 Watts.

That would be just above my own 30-35 Watt background load consisting of:
Wired smoke/fire/CO alarms, plugged in landline phone and IHD, timer on the gas boiler, (the pump on the boiler when running), broadband router and constantly plugged in laptop, and the fridge-freezer switching on and off.

(That laptop is on and in use all day, I even stream TV shows and films on it in the evening)

If you add some low wattage lightbulb use for a couple of hours each night the 42 Watts average load is not impossible.

Of course there would have to be no other usage, ie. no electrical appliances, cooking on gas, heating from gas/oil/logs.
However that is not so unusual in some villages.

Or maybe an unoccupied property? or a weekend property?

Mayber there could be some solar panels involved?

​@Cate123 it might be the case that you haven’t been taking the manual reads from the correct screen on the meter. If you could send a picture of your meter we’ll be able to tell you exactly how to get the reads, just to make sure that the correct screen is being read.

Hi and thanks for your helpful replies.  

I’ve been away for a few days and, as I was travelling by train, I spent a lot of time gazing out of the window and thinking about my electricity usage before and since I had the smart meter fitted.  I know how to live!

Anyway, I’m relieved to say - could do without any hassle - that I feel the smart meter is correct.  

I live alone in a two bedroomed, 200 year old cottage.  I had the ECO4 grant work done earlier in the year and so now have a large water heater, alongside an air source heat pump, solar panels and internal wall insulation.  I know that this system works most effectively when it is on constantly, but I’ve had the system off since it was installed and have just put the hot water on 3 / 4 times a week.  

Of course, to get hot water in this system, it means heating an entire cylinder - very different from gas heating with a combi boiler.  

So, I think my energy consumption has increased because of this.  In addition, my daughter and grandchildren came to stay in August - necessitating the hot water being put on every day, for the many showers needed.  Each time, the water is heating up from cold - again, I’m thinking, using a lot of energy. 

Thank you, Ben_OVO, for suggesting that I upload a photo to ensure that I’m reading it correctly.  I’ve taken a photo but am struggling to put it on this page!

Cate

​@Cate123 I’ve read that heating the whole tank from cold is the most efficient method as far as the heat pump is concerned so should use the least amount of electricity.

What temperature is the hot water set to? Generally you should aim to heat it to around 45 to 50 degrees C. How long a tank load lasts will depend on the size of the tank and the amount you use of course. Are you heating it on a regular schedule?

Thanks for helping here ​@juliamc! We’re lucky to have you for these sorts of queries - my knowledge of heat pumps is very limited having never had one personally.

​@Cate123 what sort of set up did you have before the heat pump etc was installed? It stands to reason that you may be using more energy now but if you let us know what sort of kit was there previously we could give you a better idea 😁. 

With attaching photos, you can either copy and paste the photo in to the ‘write a reply’ box, or attach it by clicking this symbol: 

You could also just let me know the Brand of meter you have, it’ll say on the front.

If you’ve got solar panels have you signed up for the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG)? If you sign up to this with OVO we can pay you back for any excess energy you export back to the grid. Your smart meter will display the export reading for this. You can find SEG info, and the application form, on our website here: https://www.ovoenergy.com/seg.

I’ve also included some handy Forum articles below 👇

Thanks ​@juliamc and ​@Ben_OVO for your helpful replies.

It’s so interesting, ​@juliamc, that it’s most efficient to heat the hot water cylinder from cold.  Well, interesting and frustrating because I thought I’d found the answer to my initial query, ie. is my smart meter faulty / why am I suddenly using so many more kWh / day.  

The cylinder is set to switch off when the water is around 50 degrees C.  I live here alone and currently switch it on three times a week - as soon as it’s up to temperature, I switch it off.  Then, use the hot water until it runs out.

The reason I thought this approach would be inefficient is that I’ve got the impression that the whole heat pump system works at an ambient temperature.  You have the system on all the time as, once it has heated up (this is the hot water and the central heating) it maintains a steady temperature.  This is different from a gas central heating system, where you might have the heating on for three hours in the evening and the radiators are almost too hot to touch and the hot water is created when you turn the tap on (ie. no large water cylinder).  By the way, I know that you’ll know all this, I’m slightly typing it out for my own benefit!  

So, going back a step - heating a whole tank of water up from cold seemed to me to use a lot of energy in comparison to keeping it at a constant temperature of 50 degrees C.  You might then ask why I took this approach - well, in my mind, heating the cylinder up from cold three times a week and then switching off seemed more efficient than keeping it on full time….

Having said all of this, I haven’t gone through a winter yet with this system and, indeed, haven’t even had the heating on at all, so that’s something to look forward to!  

Going back several steps, I bought this 200 year old cottage last year.  There was a remarkably ancient and inefficient Rayburn here which, in theory, provided heat in the living room (where it was) hot water and heat for three radiators.  In reality, it had very much had its day and I was relieved when the scrapman collected it.  So last winter, there was no heating - I survived with a heated throw and wearing many, many layers - yes, really!  I did washing up using a kettle of hot water and went swimming at the local leisure centre three times a week where I could have a hot shower.  

So obviously, my kWh usage has gone up dramatically since the system was installed because suddenly, I could have a shower at home, have hot water on tap, etc., etc.  

Since I noticed such a dramatic increase in the use of kWh, I’ve monitored the meter carefully in order to understand how the increase has happened.  I’ve come to these conclusions - when the system was first installed, I barely heated the water as I continued to swim and shower in the local town three times a week and continued to wash up using a kettle of hot water.  As a result, my usage stayed the same.  Then, I did an about turn and did start using it three times weekly (which I’m continuing to do) - and my daughter with small children came to stay (think lots of hot showers, washing machine and tumble drier cycles, etc.) - and my usage dramatically increased.  

I have signed up for the SEG payments.  As there isn’t enough WAN in the village where I live, my smart meter is in dumb mode.  Because I have to give manual readings, I get the very lowest payment of - I think 3 or 4p per kWh...  This is the same with all energy suppliers.  

I’ve finally managed to paste in a photo of the meter (it didn’t want to accept a .heic image - who knows why!

Many thanks again for your help and interest.

Cate

Hi ​@Cate123 I’ve a load of questions !

Can you tell me a bit more about your heat pump ? Some photos of the outdoor unit, pipework into the house, hot water tank and the controller would be great. When you say you’re switching it on and off for the hot water, how are you doing that ? Are you using the heating yet ? Heating your water will be the biggest load on the heat pump.

Julia

Hi ​@juliamc  and thanks for your email.

I’m attaching some photos…

I switch the hot water cylinder on and off on the control panel on the cylinder itself - can be seen in photo.

I’ve not used the heating yet - tbh, the setting up of the system by the company was really traumatic - I had to get heating engineers out for multiple problems the most dramatic one of which was when the thermostat on the hot water didn’t appear to be working;  I was away for the night, came in the following morning to find steam shooting out of various outlets across the room….

So, I will have to sort myself out and switch it on at some point, but not yet….

I’ve not looked at Samsung hps until now but I’ve just watched a YouTube video showing how to look at the COP (coefficient of performance) of the system. It is always useful to know how it’s running. The video is  https://youtu.be/rdOkQc1qKIM?si=gfaC4smElrZWh3yX  and it shows how to view weekly energy consumption and weekly energy generation. Divide generation by consumption to get the COP.

Their figures are 56.1 kWh /17.4 kWh = 3.22 (COP doesn’t have units as it’s a ratio).

If you’re a data nerd (like me) you could keep a spreadsheet of this info over the coming weeks particularly as we’re getting into the heating season.

I’d be very interested to know what your COP is !!

Hi ​@Abby_OVO and thanks for your message.

I was one of those to experience a meter running backwards!  Initially - like most people, I’m sure - I couldn’t quite believe it!

I do now have a smart meter - an Ovo colleague kindly told me that I Could have one but that it would be in dumb mode.  This means that I have to give Ovo manual readings every quarter.

Many thanks

Cate

Hi ​@juliamc and thanks for your message.

Am I sad if I say that I found your attached video really interesting?!  I’ll certainly be saving it and looking at it again.  

I’m also interested in calculating the COP.  Initially, I was thinking that this would only be worthwhile once I’m using the system for heating, but I’m now wondering if it would also be interesting / worthwhile at the moment, when I’m still just switching the system on periodically to heat a tank of water? 

Many thanks, Cate

Hi Cate

It’s a slippery slope !! You start with one interesting video and before you know it you’re hooked !

Yes - definitely keep a note of the COP for hot water, it’s a good way to see how your system is performing as the weather changes, and if you make alterations in the way you run it.

I don’t know if you can get separate figures for hot water and heating, once you start using that.

Julia