[thebenjames]

For some reason the display on my gas meter is not working.. and as E.on haven't received a reading for the last 36 days, I am assuming this is why. Any suggestions/advice? Should I submit an estimated reading?

My gas meter is a Landis + Gyr G370

[Han_EONNext]

Hey there @thebenjames 👋

Oh no! It seems as though the screen has gone blank 😢, not to worry though! One of our energy specialists can book you in to get that screen fixed 🙌.

If you prefer to give us a call then our number is 0808 501 5699, more of an email guy? Gotcha, send your account details and a photo to hi@eonnext.com. Or if you are social media savvy then pop your account details and what's happened in a message to our agents over on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and they wlll get you booked in!

Our energy specialists 🤝 gas meter appointment.

I hope this helps you out!

Hannah 🌍

[theunknowntech]

How on earth the batteries in these things are dying after just six years is completely beyond me. You're probably at least the 10th person this year that has asked me for help with this exact issue.

I'll ask @Han_EONNext to help you arrange for a replacement. Please don't attempt to submit any meter reading related to this gas meter in the meantime as it may cause further damage to your account.

[meldrewreborn]

@thebenjames

Its because the claims made for the longevity of the internal batteries are considerably overstated. Its the same for smoke detectors with a claimed 10 year life. They don't last that long and so the companies selling them make excess profits. However I complain and get endless free replacements!

[theunknowntech]

Smart gas meters are supposed to have at least a 15 year battery life though, which is intended to outlast the 10 year service life of the meter so that it's got spare capacity.

In this case, either the valve has flipped open and closed a million times, there's been an excessively high number of firmware updates or something about the meter itself has caused it to have a higher battery drain than intended. I can't test for that unfortunately and there's no way you can either without illegally tampering with the meter. then again, it's an L+G G370 so I probably shouldn't be too surprised...

[thebenjames]

I’ve got an engineer coming out on the 25th to diagnose/fix/replace the unit.

It’s very peculiar because smart readings were submitted automatically on 23/01 (6745) and 23/02 (6820) as normal, but between then and 23/03 it seemingly decided to just give up. The electricity meter is still sending smart readings as expected, it’s just the gas meter that’s packed up. An energy specialist added an estimated reading for 23/03 (6880) but my concern is what it might read when it’s fixed? My habits haven’t changed so the gas used is no different, but if the unit has broken what happens if it comes back on and says something ungodly like 8000? Surely I wouldn’t be liable?

[meldrewreborn]

@thebenjames

I think its better to wait and see what happens rather than speculate. Its easier to deal with facts than hypotheticals.

[theunknowntech]

If your gas meter tries to submit a stupidly impossible reading like that, it would fail validation and be rejected by the system automatically. There's usually around a 200% tolerance around what the expected readings should be and anything within that will be accepted. But if it's something like 600% beyond that, it'll get thrown out on the basis that it's unlikely.

And that's especially true if the submitted meter reading is literally impossible to have achieved based on your supply capacity. If you have a U6 gas supply for example, it'd be totally impossible to use 5,000,000 units in the space of a week and any meter that tries to submit such a reading is almost certainly either faulty or there's a huge gas leak.

[thebenjames]

Thank you both, appreciate your responses. I’m religious in checking my readings and payments every month to ensure they’ve gone through and they’re correct, so this fault has just left me feeling very anxious.

I know all logic would dictate I’m probably being overly pessimistic in thinking when it’s fixed I’ll be lumbered with a huge bill due to an obscure/incorrect reading.. I think I was just curious as to what recourse I’d have to be like “this isn’t my fault, I’m not paying that”

[thebenjames]

So they’re now trying to back charge me £70 for what they estimate my gas usage was during the month my meter was broken (it was fixed at the end of April). Are they allowed to do that? I barely had the heating on during that time because I was concerned over charges, and showered at the gym.. so I wonder if I could reasonably dispute it?