[CubeConn]

Has anyone else had a Smart Meter fitted and found their gas usage has gone up but they still have the same setup in the house?

I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my monthly Gas and Electricity usage for a couple of years, so I know my usage fairly well (sad I know, but lucky in this instance).

I had a Smart Meter fitted 2pm 4th Jan and checking the last 14.5 days (to 11pm on the 18th) my average daily usage has been 89kWh (total 1293kWh)

Looking at comparable periods in 2023 and 2022.

Dec 2022 average daily usage was 68kWh (Monthly total 2120kWh)
Jan 2023 average daily usage was 61kWh (Monthly total 1898kWh)
Dec 2023 average daily usage was 64kWh (Monthly total 1987kWh)

Looking at the first 3.5 days of January 2024 before the Smart Meter was fitted, I used 189kWh or roughly 54KWh per day.

We haven't changed any way we do things like times or temp. etc, they are all the same. I would expect Dec average to be higher as we turn it up for Christmas when my Mum stays here! Dec 2022 had a really cold week in it as well. I'm Norwich way, although it is a little colder now, we haven't had any snow where we are, and it's been consistently high each day since the fitment date.

I can't see how we are suddenly using near on 50% more Gas since 4th Jan then we did in Dec 2022, Jan 2023 or Dec 2023, which should be comparable months.

Called EON as either the old Gas Meter was under reading or the new one is over reading but call center guy tried to fob me off but unfortunately I was more technical than him, so waiting on a checkup and email response next week.

My only other thought is if the Smart Meter is interfering with the wireless Honeywell thermostat which is either stopping it from turning the heating off or possibly turning it on when it shouldn't.
We have the thermostat at 19C already and wishing I hadn't of finally swapped to the Smart Meter as it's going to cost £100's more then the old meter for the same setup.

So I was just wondering if anyone else has seen the same issue (possibly no-one else as anal as me at keeping a monthly log of usage though!)

Note: Electricity is coming out as expected from my usage history (I'm fairly consistent with that at around 300-330kWh per month).

[retrotecchie]

@CubeConn

The smart meter will not be interfering with the thermostat. I can promise that.

If you haven't changed any timings or settings, the problem may be weather related rather than a meter issue. The first few days of January this year and most of December 23 were very mild indeed. If the outdoor temperatures were in double digits as they were in Wales, then you either wouldn't have needed much heating, or the warmer outdoor temperatures wouldn't have let your house lose heat energy at the same rate as it would if it were colder outdoors. If it's colder outside, you need more heat energy to reach and maintain the set heating temperature.

The other question is, does your boiler have a 'comfort' setting? This maintains a bit of 'preheat' on the boiler so it doesn't take so long to warm up to temperature. If it's colder, your boiler may be firing up periodically outside of the set times as part of that preheat process. Turning off any comfort setting will prevent that happening. It will take a little longer to come up to temperature when required but won't be burning gas at night to maintain a minimum temperature. Some newer boilers installed in an unheated garage or similar will often have an anti-frost setting to prevent the beast freezing up if it gets too cold, so if that's the case, it may be firing periodically overnight as part of that function. That is a function of the boiler electronics and an inbuilt frost stat, rather than any external user controls.

I have oil fired central heating which I haven't needed to use throughout most of December as it was plenty warm enough to not need heating other than a couple of hours of my log burner. Last winter, turning off the 'comfort' setting reduced my oil use by around 40% even through two weeks of sub-zero temperatures. And that's with the boiler mounted outside the house in a corner of the garden.

You're not the only anal one round here. Many of us, even without smart meters, track our energy usage to the nth degree using spreadsheets and several folk have noticed and commented on a significant uptick in this January's gas usage compared to December or the same period last year.

[Mailman]

@CubeConn

Your usage in January has gone up some 44% compared to 2023 that you attribute to the smart meters. It is a coincidence nothing more than that.

My daily gas usage went comfortably higher from about 07/01/24 and am using circa 25% (per day) higher since then compared to January 2023 or even early January 2024. The difference is that my spreadsheets also record another factor - the weather which has been nithering in The North. December where I live was relatively mild compared to 2022 and this was reflected in my kWh usage between the 2 years.

However I expect my daily kWh usage to come down next week if we have the anticipated spell of mild weather.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

Many of us, even without smart meters, track our energy usage to the nth degree using spreadsheets and several folk have noticed and commented on a significant uptick in this January's gas usage compared to December or the same period last year.

What you state is exactly what I have experienced Dec 23 into Jan 24. Fingers crossed that milder weather comes to us all.

[retrotecchie]

@Mailman

👍

I'm just glad I upgraded my biomass installation from 3.2kW to 9.0kW. The last few days have really been a bit parky but I still haven't needed to run the central heating other than for half an hour from 0700 to 0730. Its saving me a fair bit of oil and even though it's less than 60% of the cost of heating with gas, every little helps. Biomass warms you twice. Once when you fettle it and once when you burn it 👐🔥.

[wizzo227]

I'd be very cautious looking at small timeperiods like 14 days because gas consumption for heating should be very weather dependent.

Originally Posted by CubeConn

I can't see how we are suddenly using near on 50% more Gas since 4th Jan then we did in Dec 2022, Jan 2023 or Dec 2023, which should be comparable months.

Also for hot water you could be seeing random statistical variations unless you always have exactly 2 baths of standard fill every week, or comparably regular usage.

I watch my plain old gas meter enough to know that I'm using 0.0 to 0.4 kWh/day in midsummer and 1 to 30 kWh/day in winter dependent on weather. Last year was anomalous in that it never got Really cold, so perhaps you should look back further in your notes at what to expect from other years. The last few days have just about managed to freeze here in southern england, so may have been substantially colder than 2023. Global warming is moving so fast now that anything more than five years old is not quite right to estimate your average use from without a correction for every year being, on average, slightly warmer than five years before.

[meldrewreborn]

@CubeConn

I posted a few days back that this January was on track to have the third highest consumption in the past 17 years!

You need a lot more evidence before you can point fingers at mater accuracy. Even if there is a difference between you old and new meter accuracy it might be that the old meter was under recording.

you should find that consumption per day drops now as the cold snap has ended and much milder (but windier & wetter) replaces it. But don’t apologise for keeping track of you energy consumption in a spreadsheet. Most of the regular posters here do the same. One that is spreadsheet phobic actually has the highest consumption levels, but he’s doing his best nonetheless!🤪🤪

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

... One that is spreadsheet phobic actually has the highest consumption levels, but he’s doing his best nonetheless!🤪🤪

My ears are burning 🤨😜

[retrotecchie]

@JoeSoap

You won't need to put the heating on then!

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

You won't need to put the heating on then!

I wondered why they were gathered around me with outstretched arms showing me their palms 🤔