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datx

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  1. Hi Jonnie, may be able to shed a little light on this for you as ive . have a little experience with the industry. It sounds like your old meter was replaced due to its age (what the industry calls a "statutory change") this isnt decided by your supplier but the actual meter owner as they have the last say in what happens to the meter. in most cases your supplier will not know about this until the Meter Operator who replaces the meters informs them of the change (usually after this has been done) Under the existing licensing conditions all energy providers have to have processes in place to prove the accuracy of any recording device if this is requested by a customer. There is usually a charge for these tests (between £70 to £100 dependant on supplier) which you will have to pay, and this has been backed up by the industry regulators, as its you who doesn't think the meter is recording correctly not your supplier, but this will be refunded to you if the meter is found to be recording incorrectly and immediate action should be taken to resolve this for you. This test will involve either a known set load being fed through the meter to ensure the meter reads the right amount of current going through it, or another calibrated ("check") meter will be installed alongside your own and left for a set period of time. the amount of electricity recorded on the "check" meter should be the approximately same as your meter. There is a tolerance limit accepted by the industry and regulators which states that if a meter is running 3.5% slow to 2.5% fast it will be deemed to be recording correctly. Most suppliers (and all of the so called big 5, Powergen, Npower, British Gas, Southern Electric and Scottish and Southern) do operate standard "billing tolerance" tests. In these tests if your billing exceeds the pre set limits set by your supplier based on your previous billing your account will be forwarded to one of their specialist teams to look into and you will be contacted. im sure you will agree it would be logistically impossible for all suppliers to regularly check all meters in the UK regularly for accuracy (if memory serves i think Powergen alone supply over 9 million and Npower a further 8.3 million and thats just 2 of the biggest) However in your case this will not help as your meter has already been removed. the certificate of calibration you talked about would have been issued by ofgen and would have been issued at the date of manufacture of the meter (which as you state will be 16 years old so not of much use to you if they did send it) even then the certificate would be with the meter owners (known in the industry as the meter operators or MOPS) not your supply company so they would struggle to get hold of it, so this isnt just a case of "they cant be bothered". You are not correct with the assumption that all meters are disposed of after removal. The some meters removed due to age are re-conditioned and used again. so even if your meter was traced and tested now it may have been re calibrated and installed in another property, again not great for you or your previous supplier as this wouldn't prove anything either way. Also all meters have to be tested and pass the ofgen accuracy test before they are used so its not really right to suggest that digital meters are more accurate as these have just as much chance of recording incorrectly as any other. You can ask your supplier to change your meter at any time but if there is no evidence that the meter is recording incorrectly you can expect to pay a charge for this as again you are requesting it not the supplier, also as its up to the meter owners what kind of meter you get not your supplier and (this does vary region by region) you are not guaranteed to get a digital meter At the end of the day the dispute is, you say the meter was not running correctly and your previous supplier says it was, there is no way to check this now which anyone at energywatch should be able to tell you. As untasteful as this may seem the only way to resolve this without legal action on either side would be to negotiate the amount you are to pay to settle the debt. i can see what your saying that you have seen a big drop in consumption and your bills after the new meter was installed and you say the meter defiantly has to be incorrect but your old supplier could likewise say that there may have been something being used at the time that has since been removed and this could account for the drop in usage. i know that isn't the case but you see my point (without going back in time it will be impossible to prove either point satisfactorily) so like i say your best bet would be to put these points to your supplier and see what they say. sorry if this has turned out a bit long and hope it helps
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