Adding a Smart Gas Meter

[Stinsy]

The £80 a year (I guess) you’re paying as a standing charge buys you 1600kWh of cheap-rate electric. Which would give you 4800kWh of heat (at a CoP of 3) from a HP.

Now I've been forced to join British Gas its £95 standing charge, up from £55 with PFP Energy.

So that is 5700kWh of heat from a heat pump just from the standing charge of your gas connection...

[Adokforme]

The £80 a year (I guess) you’re paying as a standing charge buys you 1600kWh of cheap-rate electric. Which would give you 4800kWh of heat (at a CoP of 3) from a HP.

Now I've been forced to join British Gas its £95 standing charge, up from £55 with PFP Energy.

So that is 5700kWh of heat from a heat pump just from the standing charge of your gas connection...

I somehow suspect British Gas may not be the most co-operative utility either when it comes to terminating their particular supply.
I found Octopus very helpful when I broached the subject, prior to joining them!

[nowty]

Seems like Octopus are one of the only companies who are happy with the removal of a gas connection and currently don't charge anything for it. Other websites seems to suggest £200 to £300 cost to remove a gas connection.

https://octopus.energy/blog/disconnecti ... as-supply/

[Adokforme]

Seems like Octopus are one of the only companies who are happy with the removal of a gas connection and currently don't charge anything for it. Other websites seems to suggest £200 to £300 cost to remove a gas connection.

https://octopus.energy/blog/disconnecti ... as-supply/

Thanks for finding and posting that Nowty, I hadn't appreciated it was actually a policy of theirs. So, sooner rather than later perhaps for gas meter removal!

[nowty]

In anticipation for my gas meter to be changed to a Smart one tomorrow, I decided to service my gas boiler today because I had to use a bit of gas to get the reading up to near (but not quite) the next "therm" so hopefully the gas I used today will be free.

I had an email from British Gas asking me to download their APP and have my WiFi code ready for the remote monitor.

Yep, since PFP Energy went bust 10th Sept, that's the correct reading,

[Joeboy]

Nice.

[nowty]

Stayed in all day and just had a text from British Gas to say they don't have an engineer available.

But booked again for next week and £30 compensation for not turning up, well at least that's 4 months standing charge taken care off.

Not much headroom to the next "therm" meter reading, I'll have to maximise my induction hob use for the next week.

[nowty]

To avoid a £1.60 charge for gas (to the next unit), I've only got about 4.5 cubic feet of gas left for 3 days (about 1.5kWh) until the smart meter (second attempt) is installed. Although if they don't turn up again, that's another £30 credit.

That induction hob might just get me there, but I'd prefer they don't turn up again.

[nowty]

The gas man came and fitted my gas smart meter this afternoon, he simply scanned the bar code of my SMETS2 comms hub to set it up. Great guy, very knowledgeable, very practical and no jobs worth. He noted two things not strictly to code but he said he could clearly see were no safety issues. We had a great chat, he said he was supposed to give me a lecture on saving energy but in my case he said he was not going to insult me, but if customer services call you about my visit, please tell them I did the lecture.

He found it difficult to believe my radiators were hot running from a heat pump sourced from an underground river and powered from a battery bank charged up overnight. I even showed him the ripple wind turbine pics and he just shook his head.

He told me when solar panels started to be fitted, he had to visit several properties with a warrant and a police officer in tow because of suspicious readings but most of the time it was because of property's had solar panels fitted and the meter was running backwards or the RED light (reverse detection) was on when a meter reader noted it.

I only had 2 cubic feet of gas left before the next therm unit incremented on the old meter and it was squeaky bum time when he insisted on turning everything gas wise on to check my installation. The gas boiler and all gas hobb burners full on.

But the final reading on the old meter still came in at 0748.
But after purging all the air out after fitting the new meter by running all my gas hobb burners again, my start reading is,



So I gained 98 cubic feet of free gas on the old meter but lost 0.32 cubic metres of gas on the new one. But that's still a net gain of roughly 28 kWh.

[Joeboy]

Glad to read that you have a great result. Well chuffed for you.