British Gas Smart Meters (not so smart)

With the rolling out of "Smart" meters by British Gas (BG), has anyone else had the "known problem" (Which surprisingly isn't pointed out before you sign up for said fiasco)

At this point I must point out that it is Pay as you go, but probably irrelevant.

When on dual fuel meters the GAS meter (remember this is British GAS) does not report your usage, pricing or indeed any USER information via the energy monitor to the USER.

Of course it conveys the information the BG.

After asking before and during installation wether there were any "issues" I may encounter, I was assured there were none, unless I have Solar Panels(which I don't).

After installation, when I called to complain about said problem, I was informed that it is a "known problem"

Why wasn't I made aware of this? (You are now)

The whole reason I agreed to the fitting of this system is because I was told I would not have to interact with the meters anymore (pay as you go remember)

So I wouldn't have to reach 6.5 feet (to the already very high meter) to see if the gas was going to run out.

Nope, Now I have to reach 7.5 feet because the new meter is smaller and thus higher and just as Dumb as the old one.

The missus is only 5'4" so if I'm not around it's almost impossible for her to check the meter.

After several calls to complain about a system which simply DOES NOT WORK, we have had no help other than "if you need to check usage, then look at the meter"

So if you have this system fitted, PLEASE make sure it is working correctly before letting the engineer leave, because he told us "it'll probably take an hour or so before it updates the meter" by which time he was long gone.

Is there space for them to move the meter lower? I should think they have a requirement to fit a PAYG meter somewhere easily accessible.

We have on of their older meters not on PAYG and I admit that there too, its primarily about electricity consumption. It constantly shows the real-time electricity usage but gas only shows the daily consumption and comparison graphs, which are pretty useless.

Also the costs shown on the smartmeter are useless, as that is the unit cost only and there is a ton of tax and other charges added on to the actual bill.

Is there space for them to move the meter lower? I should think they have a requirement to fit a PAYG meter somewhere easily accessible.

 

We have on of their older meters not on PAYG and I admit that there too, its primarily about electricity consumption. It constantly shows the real-time electricity usage but gas only shows the daily consumption and comparison graphs, which are pretty useless.

 

Also the costs shown on the smartmeter are useless, as that is the unit cost only and there is a ton of tax and other charges added on to the actual bill.

The problem (as far as we are concerned) isn't the location of the meter, it is the fact that the "smart meter"monitoring DOES NOT WORK nor do they seem to want to do anything about it.

Obviously on PAYG you need to be able to keep an eye on how much credit you have, especially in cold weather.

The whole reason we agreed to having the system (they asked us, we didn't ask them) was so we could easily keep an eye on usage & credit left.

Neither of which work.

All we want is for the system to do what they stated it would do, and indeed it SHOULD do, afterall we are being charged on a daily basis for "rental" of their equipment, so it should do what they say it should do.

BG are bad news and should be avoided like the plague.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/domestic-consumers/making-enquiry-or-complaint

Advice in that link in how to escalate complaint

I had smart meters in my previous house, the gas one went faulty and was giving readings of £400 a month, despite the property being largely empty. For some reason this kept knocking off the gas supply too. I could reinstate it by pressing some buttons on the meter in the cellar. Every time it went off though, the boiler switched off due to low pressure.

I reported the fault at the beginning of September. It was not fixed until the beginning of December. Fortunately I wasn't spending much time at the property so didn't need the heating, and the weather wasn't cold enough to cause frozen pipes.

We had a smart meter fitted a couple of weeks ago by another company. The engineer mentioned that British Gas have a real problem on their hands with the ones the've fitted.

I have a friend who is having a smart metre fitted, I looked online to find they are trailing smart metres in 2015, but more should be fitted by 2016.

They are meant to be really good, in that they can show how much each appliance is costing to run.

I have a friend who is having a smart metre fitted, I looked online to find they are trailing smart metres in 2015, but more should be fitted by 2016.

They are meant to be really good, in that they can show how much each appliance is costing to run.

The ones I have seen dont show what each each appliance is using and I cant see how it can unless each appliance has its own monitor.

From what I can gather its a bit of a gimmick and the only real benefit is for the energy companies. I dont want one as I am quite capable of managing my energy intake.