How do I know if my smart meter is faulty?
Q: We moved house last year and the new property had a smart meter, which I had never had before. Since then we have switched supplier to Shell Energy, and moved again when Shell was bought by Octopus Energy.
I have no quibbles with any of the suppliers, all of whom have been communicative — particularly with regard to the Octopus takeover — and have given us regular bills that are easy to understand, with information on their websites about the tariffs and various charges.
However, I have read many articles about the limitations of smart meters and instances where they have stopped working or given faulty readings which result in customers being over or undercharged. It seems that the problems often start where a customer has switched suppliers.
Without a standard meter to check my smart meter readings against, how can I be confident that I am being charged the correct amount?
Martyn James, consumer champion, replies
A: Energy meter problems — and smart meters in particular — are by far the most common complaint that drops into my inbox.
According to figures from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, about four million smart meters are not working properly. That’s out of 34.8 million smart meters in the UK. This tends to refer to meters not transmitting data, which is how most meters are identified as faulty. Yet on top of that, I hear from a huge number of people who are disputing the meter consumption readings on their smart meters too.
This is frustrating because smart meters were supposed to make our lives so much easier, by monitoring our energy usage more effectively and taking away the hassle of providing regular readings. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The newest smart meters appear to be much more effective. But before we tackle the common problems, here’s a bit of background.
There are two main types of smart meter. The first-generation meters — known as Smets1 — were installed in about 15.7 million properties. But because of a push by the government and industry to get smart meters fitted in every household, mistakes were made. There was a shortage of qualified and trained engineers to fit them.
Many of these smart meters were also not compatible with different energy suppliers, which meant that if you wanted to switch energy firms, you’d often need a new meter. Lots of people complained that their meter didn’t work, the screen went blank or the meter significantly overestimated energy consumption.
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Smets1 were replaced by Smets2 from about March 2019 and there are now 18.9 million installed. They are compatible with all suppliers. The data doesn’t break down definitively which meters are playing up the most, but it’s reasonable to assume that many of the problems come from the first generation. The only way to know for sure which generation of meter you have is to contact your energy supplier.
Your smart meter does not use your home wi-fi network. The “hub”, which is usually installed on top of your meter, allows your smart meter and display screen to communicate with each other. It transmits data to the network via phone or radio masts, then on to your energy supplier.
The signal can be affected by poor installation, problems with the network in your area or technical errors with the meter itself. However, if the problem is just with the sending of data, you should just be able to take manual readings while the issue is sorted out. Take a photo of the meter display too, just in case there’s a dispute further down the line.
If you are disputing the readings, you’ll need to do a few tests before your supplier sends an engineer out. Sometimes meter displays will flash “error”, “help” or other warning messages. However, if the meter seems to be working normally, you should be asked by your supplier to take a few readings over a short period, about seven days, to test it.
Make sure you exhaust all the technical tests that can be done before an engineer is sent out, otherwise it could cost you. My energy supplier has just told me that if an engineer visits, it will charge me £80 if the meter is found to be working correctly. I don’t think this is fair — part of our standing charge goes towards servicing and regular readings of our meters — so don’t be afraid to complain about this or any other unfair charges.
Do a bit of detective work too. Prices have been volatile for the past three years, so find your old bills and look at your average unit consumption for gas and electricity through the year. If your usage has increased significantly but your lifestyle hasn’t changed, you can argue that there’s a problem.
If the problem isn’t sorted out, make a formal complaint. The business has a maximum of eight weeks to rectify it. Failing that you can go to the Energy Ombudsman, which is a free and impartial service and has, like me, been inundated with complaints about wonky meters.