Can smart meters be wrong?

[TheFrogsRolex]

I recently sold my parents house and i'm very surprised at the final energy bill. Its a small 2 bedroomed property and was empty for 9 months. We didn't do any repair work on the house at all so no electricity used there. We spent I would say a week in total clearing it out and cleaning it, and mowed the lawn a few times. I used the washer maybe six times washing things to go to charity. The heating was left low on thermostat over the winter, one light was left on permanently and a freezer, nothing else. The bill for 9 months was just under £900. I pay £100 a month for my energy at home (which is definately correct, not estimated readings) 3 bedroomed house with a family of three and we've been in a lot over the last year for obvious reasons with DD being off school and DS jobseeking after leaving University. How on earth can it be possible to use that much energy in an empty house?

Ours was, when I called they said it was something to do with poor internet signal - who knows - but we are now back doing meter readings

Is your parents house older? If you left the thermostat on what you consider to be low but the house isn't a modern one, then yes, that sounds completely possible.

What temperature did you set it at? Remember we had cold damp April and May. And June. Was it set on 8 degrees or 16?

Would have been 16. It is an older house but they never had any trouble keeping it warm that I knew of, not particularly draughty or anything, the heating system isn't extremely old. I'm sure my mum would have mentioned it to me if her bills seemed high.

is the heating electric..??...thats expensive to run...check how many KwH used ...average cost is about 18p a unit and gas is about 4p.

Gas heating, set at 16. Not on a timer as far as I know. I set my own heating exactly the same and had to turn it higher and give it a quick blast most nights over the winter so mine was on almost constantly too. My house is much bigger and it has basically come to the same amount I pay. I'm baffled, when you think of the amount of appliances we have going here every day, tvs, computers, washer, dryer, oven, microwave, fridge, freezer, kettle, printer, chargers, iron, hairdryers, lamps blah blah. How can a bill for an empty house be anywhere near?

16 is high for an empty house. Should have been set to 9.5ish just to stop the pipes freezing (looked after several empty properties- including my Mums when she died). There will also be a monthly standing charge for both gas and electric. You can also the company to check if the meters are faulty but they usually charge £80’ish for this- if they are found to be faulty they will refund the charge.

16 is warmer than i heat my house with people living in it! That’s your cost.

Agree with op’s. We had a very cold winter, and I think the heating, with the temp and timer, would have been on constantly. Especially considering an empty house would take more to warm up as it doesn’t have bodies in there, or other stuff going on, so will be colder than your average occupied home.

Empty houses can use as much as occupied ones. It all depends upon what is on and for how long. Immersion heater? Underfloor heating? Even on a low heat, storage heaters will cost a reasonable amount.

As it’s a smart meter lots of readings will have been submitted so get hold of them and look whether the use fluctuates as that is a sign of a working meter. Usually when a smart meter stops working, the screen goes blank or it says 88888 or similar. It can still work without transmitting the readings to the supplier though.