Faulty meter ?

akhinn · Sep 2, 2021

Hi,

I recently bought a house with only electricity and no gas. The provider is British Gas.

The thing is that the 6th digit in the meter is going up every second regardless of any appliance on or off.
It went from 153623 to 155054 in about 14 minutes.

( The details on the meter : Telemeter Series K , Tariff Domestic E7 )

Would that be a faulty meter or is this expected with that kind of meters ?

Many thanks in advance

Mikegh · Sep 2, 2021

Not familiar with that meter

The first thing to do is turn off the main isolator and see if.the meter stops

littlespark · Sep 2, 2021

All you can do is report it to BG.

is the 6th digit the red one? Would that be measuring 1/10th a unit?

As above, turn off the board, not just individual circuits.
It says E7, so have you got off peak heating? There will be a board for that too. Possibly an immersion water heater you maybe don’t realise is still on.

James · Sep 2, 2021

A picture of the meter would be helpful. Also a pic showing the whole area including any boxes with wires going to them

pc1966 · Sep 2, 2021

If you switch off the whole house at the main isolator and the meter keeps going it is probably a faulty meter.

However, it is far more likely that you have an unknown load draining power. That could be heating / immersion heater / etc that is supposed to take power but should be off (as mentioned above), or it might be a wiring fault dumping power in to the earth but not enough to blow a fuse, etc.

As above, a picture can show folks here a lot more than you might imagine so that is a good starting point. Depending on the type of board some tests / potential faults are easier to safely identify by a home owner, but it may be a case for getting an electrician in to fully check it out.

Avo Mk8 · Sep 2, 2021

Those readings suggest a usage of 143kWh in 14 minutes!. That's impossible.

Is the meter definitely displaying energy usage rather than something else?

Edit: was the time 15:36 when you took the first reading and 15:50 when you took the second ?

James · Sep 2, 2021

Unless you have one of these in the garden

I think that the readings are incorrect by a factor of 100, could a decimal point be missing from them?

Avo Mk8 · Sep 2, 2021

James said:
I think that the readings are incorrect by a factor of 100, could a decimal point be missing from them?

Aren't they commonly five digits, and you 'ignore' the sixth 1/10 digit.

Apparently there's a blue button to press to cycle through the readings (assuming this is the meter in question) How to read your electricity meter - https://www.energylinx.co.uk/horstmannmeter.htm

Apparently you are supposed to ignore the red button.

pc1966 · Sep 2, 2021

James said:
I think that the readings are incorrect by a factor of 100, could a decimal point be missing from them?

Even by 100 that is still about 27A going astray!

A crazy meter is looking like one possibility, or somene has a pot farm secretly fed from it!

akhinn · Sep 3, 2021

James said:
A picture of the meter would be helpful. Also a pic showing the whole area including any boxes with wires going to them

Sure , just attached.

Many thanks

7029 dave · Sep 3, 2021

You only give the first 5 digits, anything after the decimal point you omit.

However from your OP the readings are way to high (in 14 minutes)
Contact your supplier may need meter exchange

akhinn · Sep 3, 2021

Avo Mk8 said:
y five digits, and you 'ignore' the sixth 1/10 digit.

Avo Mk8 said:
Those readings suggest a usage of 143kWh in 14 minutes!. That's impossible.

Is the meter definitely displaying energy usage rather than something else?

Edit: was the time 15:36 when you took the first reading and 15:50 when you took the second ?

Ahh , that should be it yes. I wasn`t aware of the display modes. Sorry for taking time , and thanks as I was really puzzled...