If I have a smart meter do I need to send in meter readings?

[LackofEnergyforthis]

I thought they automatically received them?

Im being pestered constantly to send in meter readings for an accurate bill? Do I need to ?

They should be sent automatically, but if you are being pestered for readings then contact them and advise them as it sounds like they aren't receiving them?

You shouldn't do unless your meter is an older one and your has changed since the meter was installed and the new supplier can't connect to it.

If you have an online account check that you are allowing the company to take readings. Are your recent bills estimates?

They should send someone to read your meters occasionally.

Probably worth supplying them a reading as a one off and contact the supplier to ask why they are asking for readings.

No change in supplier , recent bills not estimated. I’ll try to contact them and ask.

I had this as my gas meter isn’t connecting so the ‘smart’ meter is effectively dumb. An absolute waste of time and money for them upgrading the meter, which tbh I didn’t even want but my older one was prepayment and not accepting the payment card so had to be replaced.

Yeah my smart meter stopped connecting.

i just did the readings and put them in the app

My last bill was estimated despite having a smart meter. Turns out the WiFi needed to send the readings dropped so the company didn't receive them. Apparently the best way is to have the readings sent every 30 minutes to avoid it dropping at the main time. Funny how it dropped 30 days in a row during those critical minutes 🙄

Edit - when I called up they could see the problem, they could view the readings and they reissued the bill. I didn't have to reset anything or give them the readings. I suspect they just wanted me to go on every 30 minutes instead of twice a day. I refused as nobody needs to monitor me that closely!

The very fact your bills are not estimated suggests the meter is reporting as it should.

When you say "pestered", how, precisely?

I've been on smart meters for years with absolutely no issues, yet when I log into my account there are still notices saying "send us your readings for accurate bills". This is obviously just there as a catch-all for customers who are still to transition to smart tech, and it simply doesn't apply in my case.

My smart meter doesn’t so I still need to send meter readings. If it is fairly new then you should complain it’s not working.

You were misinformed. Assuming there is a sufficiently strong signal, all smart meters (except those installed in 'dumb' mode) transmit, to the smart meter network, a full set of readings every day (48 readings per meter, collected at 30 minute intervals). Your energy supplier is given whatever level of access to the data that you have authorised, i.e. none, daily or 30 minute readings. For the best, i.e. cheapest tariffs, you need to authorise the latter.

Where did you read that please? I've never heard of this smart meter network as I've always understood the data went directly to my chosen energy supplier (providing the signal didn't drop).

No, that would never work. There is a separate organisation which operates the infrastructure, called the DCC.

https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/