Inaccurate Electricity Meter - Powergen

[triandy]

hi all,

i had my meter changed a few years back , i was paying by monthly direct debit. last winter my provider wanted to put my monthly payment up from £60 a month to £146 based on estimates, my meter had not been read in 2 years as i worked long hours and the meter reader obviously did not. so i said no and went on to quarterly payments. i got a bill of £1400 to catch up which i thought was crazy but it matched my meter readings.

i just got a bill in for £360 for the last quarter, i was averaging 23 kw use per 24 hours according to the readings. i bought a cheap plug in power monitor and went round the house checking every possible thing that might be using anything and the most i can work out is almost half of what they recon.

does anyone know for certain how accurate these monitors are ? and is it possible to build a fairly accurate resistive load as described by john in an earlier thread?

i think plant hire shops would do well if they had something like that they could rent out! i certainly would rent one.

all the best to you all

andy

[mattlamb]

Triandy - is the latest bill for £360.00 based on an estimated reading?. If so, it is probably far too high because it will in all likelihood have been based upon the previous large catch-up bill for £1400.00 in some way. If it is, you don't just accept an estimated reading. Are you able to read the meter yourself and phone or email it in to Powergen? If not, contact Powergen and ask them to come out and read the meter if you don't know anyone who can read it on your behalf. Most meters are reallyeasy to read when you know how so you could ask for help on this forum in reading it if necessary.

 

I cannot stress the importance of obtaining correct readings. I imagine most of your problems have been caused by under-estimates on your electric bill. You must keep an eye on youur bills and not just pay them regardless.

Meter-readers normally leave a card when they try to obtain access to read a meter. This will be either to say they are calling back at a certain time or alternatively ask you to contact your supplier with the reading. It would appear therefore that you have not done anything in response to these cards. It is not just a matter of meter-readers working hours when you are at home, it is also your responsibility to make sure your bills are correct.

[triandy]

hi matt,

no the £360 was from a reading. an i did fill in a few cards but stll had estimates?

i dont think i got many bills through while on direct debit, obviously every 3 months now as on quarterly.

regards Andy

[iiiii]

I have been involved in resolving meter disputes for many years. The majority of disputes i have to deal with could easily have been defused with in the first instance by good communication and training of the call centre advisors, alas it seems this will never happen partly due to a high turn over of staff. Another problem is the sheer volume of transient customers any given utility company is handling on a monthly basis, meter faults as yet undiscovered are inevitably inherited, any future resolution can then involve multiple suppliers arguing over responsibility but this is moving away from the central issue.

In my experience the vast majority of meters are operating well within their parameters so be assured that your meter is serving you faithfully not as some of the scaremongering i have read here would have you believe. The old style mechanical meters relatively speaking were and are the most reliable type of meter, they have upto a 29 year recertification life compared to the 9 year life span of the cheap mass produced digital meters. If you suspect your meter is recording incorrectly there are a few things you can do yourself before involving the supplier (1) take readings off your meter every 24 hours, the average usage is very approximately 14 units, (100 units = 1kw) Often a faulty appliance is a villian of the peace and it is a process of elimination tracking it down. A mechanical meter has a flywheel which gives you a visual indication of your current usage, (the pulsing red light on a digital meter is the equivalant guide) switch a kettle on and you will be able to see your meter reacting to it, if your meter is flashing away and you are not aware of anything that could be causing it then start tripping off the switches on your fuse box one at a time until one of them causes your meter to calm down and providing your fuse box is labeled up properly you have now isolated the usage to a specific area such as kitchen ring main (plug sockets) A hint here, i often find emersion heaters looking guilty, DONT leave them running 24/7 unlike large inefficient boilers of old where the advice was exactly this. If you have been leaving it permanantly on check the temp of your water, if it is scalding hot then your thermastat may have burnt ould resulting in your emersion constantly heating the water and costing you the equivelent of a small country's gdp. SWITCH IT OFF REGARDLESS, it only needs to be on 30 mins before you need it. With the advent of smart meters, optimistically all these issues should disappear over night and there is equivelent kit available such as onzo from SSE which clamps onto your existing meter and mimics a smart meter, it is freely available and will inform you of your usage in pounds and pence instead of a KW counter. Hope this was useful.

[LittleGoomba]

Our bill increased when we got a smart meter, despite having tripled the R value of insulation in our attic at about the same time. I just finished the following test after getting nowhere with our Utility Company. I wonder how this will turn out when they get hold of this! Note that I would have dropped this issue if I had come up with numbers within 5% despite the meter being advertised as 'Exceeding Class 0.2'.

 

Testing Sensus Flexnet Meter #

September 8, 2010

Procedure: monitor Sensus meter for KWH rollover. Upon rollover, record total KWH value, put known load under observation for one ‘Sensus’ KWH. Record power consumption observed with external equipment. Ideally, all measuring devices will transition to 1KWH within a few Watt Hours.

 

Tools –

Hair Dryer rated at 1875W.

Kill A Watt EZ

Fluke 87V DVM

Fluke i400 AC Current Clamp

 

The hair dryer is rated at 1875W. This was tested using both the Kill A Watt and Fluke DVM to have an actual power consumption of 1350w to 1380W during a 30 second observation. Both measurement tools confirmed to within 5W.

 

Start of Test –

The Fluke DVM and AC Current Clamp was positioned on the AC Main Line so Total Household Current could be observed.

Several high power household utilities were turned on to expedite the rollover of the Sensus Meter. Observed current was 62A. This was done to provide a distinct 1KWH unit to stop the test. The meter transitioned from 18966 to 18967KWH, upon which, within less than half a second, the main breaker to the house was thrown off. At this point, household current dropped to 0.13A observed with the Fluke DVM and Current Clamp. (Note that the current clamp is rated to +- 1A)

 

Preliminary calculations using the lower OBSERVED wattage of the hair dryer (1350W) indicate this would be a 44 minute test.

 

An Extension cord was run from the nearest electrical outlet to the Sensus Utility Meter. The Kill A Watt was plugged into the Meter, and the Hair Dryer plugged into the Kill A Watt. And turned on. Note that at this point the main breaker is still off, so no power is being consumed. All three meters confirmed this.

 

All Branch Breakers were then turned off and the main breaker turned back on. The Fluke DVM measured currents less than 0.15A, attributable to tolerance error of the Current Clamp.

 

At 12:56PM, breaker 14 (Garage) was turned on. The Fluke Meter observed 12.63A and the Kill A Watt observed 12.5A. The Kill A Watt was then set to display KWH consumed.

 

At 1:34PM the Sensus Meter incremented to 18968. The Hair Dryer was turned off and the following measurements were observed:

Kill A Watt measures 0.86KWH consumed

Kill A Watt measures present Current Consumption 0.0A

Fluke Meter measures household Current Consumption 0.13A. The AC Current Coil was removed from the AC Mains line and continued to read 0.13A in open air.

 

Sources of Error – The Fluke Meter was only recorded at the start and conclusion of the test. It is possible that the load of the Hair Dryer may have changed as it increased in temperature during the 38 minutes of running at high power. However, since the Fluke and Kill A Watt had near identical measurements at those instances, the Kill A Watt measurements can be assumed accurate.

 

Conclusion – Although Georgia Power claims their meter had been tested in March, this test shows that although these meters claim to exceed Class 0.2, this meter (#1764935) does not. Strong evidence points to this meter billing roughly 1.17 times the rate it would if it was correctly calibrated.

[hazelww]

I am so glad to see this thread. I also have requested a meter reading check but the gas company refuses to do so and there seems to be nothing I can do about it. I have no choice beyond this particular company. You all seem to be talking about solutions in UK. I don't know what the solutions are in USA. Utility companies have us over a barrel and they know it. We can't do without their product. So, we have to pay them whatever they say we owe. Ah well, some day things will even out. Chin up!