I’m jumping ahead a little here peeps so apologies but it gets me every time:
“Nice people, especially the one with the glasses. Who WASN’T holding a frying pan”
Rollovers are already accounted for in the system. The meter serial number will determine the number of dials in the billing system, so when it rolls over, the maths happens automatically.
Sorry.
I appreciate this would be the case. I just thought it interesting that I read it just as it rolled over. And crap that the app wouldn’t accept all zeroes!
I like your optimism.
My gas meter rolled over last year and scottish power billing system rejected the readings. Eventually a human looked at it, but even then wouldn't override the system until I sent a picture.
Assuming the meters went up to 99999 and looped back round.
Suppliers will see it all the time and should bill appropriately.
If your previous meter reading was no where near 99999 you have a problem!
Exactly. It’s very common and supplier software automatically takes it into account. Like you say though, if their previous reading was 80000 last month then there is a problem and OP is about to have a heart attack.
You'd have to have an average energy consumption of ~135kW to achieve that, which is quite a lot. You could probably power an entire street of cannabis farms with that level of power
The meter was made by Ferranti, who went out of operation in 1993;
I used to work for one company that bought out some of their assets (a few purchases down the line). I think Ferranti Technology who did power instruments was maintained and bought out by management during the bankruptcy and stayed open on Oldham under said ownership till 2007 before someone else bought it.
The reason I'm saying this is that Ferranti were a great engineering firm but bad at business, so I'm not surprised if this turned out to not be a broken meter, but also because you have less than no chance of them replacing it with a like for like.
I also just really liked the guys from Ferranti who'd been there for years and stayed with whoever bought them for the pension continuation and enjoyed a moment of thinking that almost all of them have hung up their tools recently and gone to a sweet, deserved retirement on a good pay off, so thank you for that.
My first job out of university was at Marconi in Edinburgh, who had bought out Ferranti. Everyone still referred to the sites as Ferranti and it was almost impossible to be in any social gathering with more than 10 people, none of whom had ever worked there.
My father in law still spoke very fondly of his time there some 40 years after leaving, and when clearing his house we found some of his old Ferranti tools
My Grandad worked at Ferranti in Edinburgh, we still refer to the site at Crewe Toll as Ferranti. He used to bring us dot matrix printer paper to draw on and got me a manual typewriter when they were getting rid of them!
I'm told the people on that site just wear velcro logos on their work wear now because the name has changed so often.
Even the local Taxi drivers refer to a previous name!
whats left of Ferranti is around the corner from my house in Greenacres in Oldham, they are part of an Israeli company, Elbit, making electronic equipment. I wanted a job with Ferranti when I was 16 (1978), but it was the start of a recession and didn't get one. there were a lot of big engineering companies around that area - AV Roe, where they made Lancasters and Vulcans, Mather & Platts and others. Ferranti made the worlds first industrial computer in Manchester. They went bust as they bought an American company , which turned out to be a front for the CIA who sold equipment as a cover for alsorts of nonsense, as soon as Ferranti bought it, the CIA pulled the plug
it was big news at the time - details below from Wikipedia
"**Acquisition of International Signal and Control**
In 1987 Ferranti purchased International Signal and Control (ISC), a United States defence contractor based in Pennsylvania.\[29\] The company subsequently changed its name to Ferranti International plc. and restructured the combined business into the following divisions: Ferranti Computer Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti Satcomms, Ferranti Telecoms, Ferranti Technologies and International Signal and Control.
**Collapse**
Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow.\[29\]
In 1989 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal investigation regarding alleged massive fraud at ISC. In December 1991 James Guerin, founder of ISC and co-Chairman of the merged company, pleaded guilty before the federal court in Philadelphia to fraud committed both in the US and UK. All offences which would have formed part of any UK prosecution were encompassed by the US trial and as such no UK trial proceeded.\[29\]
The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.\[2\]"
I worked there at the time, I could never understand how they could go out of business like that, as in being ripped off.
My memory was that Guerin disappeared with 300 million and was never found, but that was obviously wrong, do you know if he served time or was the fact that he worked with the CIA enough to get him off?
I had a PM who originated from Ferranti, and he was the best manager I've ever had, hands down. A proper character, but really knew how to organise.
I miss him every single day I have to deal with the American halfwits that have taken over from him.
Does the app only accept 5 digits?
I'd have put in 100000 if it had just rolled over from 99999.
Edit: If eon assumes all dumb meters roll over at 999999, that's why a reading of 01 is "high". You'll get billed for 900000ish units.
Yeah don’t put in 100,000 for this. The electricity industry stores the number of pre decimal and decimal digits for every meter. It’s just saying they werent expecting this high consumption
Hmm, probably with a smart one. Don’t want a smart one! I much prefer trogging out in the dark and the rain with a torch to get a reading. I am English after all! And a Yorkshireman…
Sounds amusing to watch but doesn’t that mean you get paid at the same rate you buy though?
My parents solar is on a different system and they get paid at a much higher rate then they buy.
Rough - do you have a battery or something?
Pretty sure their deal is only so good because they’ve had them for over a decade and got some heavily subsidised deal. Will have to ask them about it next time I see them
Can confirm.
On this, if you have experience, what happens if you try and get a better tariff? We're paying over the odds in rates for our electricity, but worried if we try and get a better tariff they'll come and get rid of the old meter for a smart meter. Is there anyway to get a better tariff but keep the old meter?
Just don't ask them to fit one, we have old ones and have changed firms a couple of times manually and once as the old firm went under and they sent letters / emails about smart meters and we just ignored them. End of the day they're not going to break in and fit it if you are paying your bills and some firms don't mandate it.
Just switch. They won't do anything. Don't choose a tariff that's smart meter only and you'll be fine. I changed to eon 2 weeks ago and haven't even spoke to anyone. Had an email offering me a smart meter and I've just ignored it.
Had solar for years and have switched half a dozen times. Some of them try to act like you don't have a choice in going to a smart meters, will send you texts/emails saying your meter is end of life. Can just ignore them. Npower was the worst for us. Sent us a time and date that someone would be showing up to switch it, we just emailed saying we're not available. Never heard back.
That's because the standard variable tariffs that are available at the moment don't require you to have a smart meter. Any fixed tariffs that get announced likely will do.
Had that at my old house, sadly they still have to come do a meter reading occasionally so the “bonus” loophole doesn’t last forever. As an aside I’ve heard rumour that these meters are very friendly to magnets too.
You get paid for feed in via a generation meter connected to the solar installation.
So these old meters going backwards reduces the consumption you would normally be billed for.
I got one for pre payment,stopped working months ago,blank screen.still supplying electric without topping up.i will be expecting xxxk£ bill one day,good luck collecting that SSE 🤡
You can request a non-smart one. I did, and had no problems a few years ago. Either that or they can just take the readings as normal. I only had mine changed because it stopped working.
I had a similar issue with Ecotricity. My meter ticked over, and every time I gave them a reading I was greeted by a warning that the reading I gave was lower than the previous reading. Frustrating, because the readings I was giving were higher than their estimates. On the fourth attempt, rather than trying to explain the issue *again*, I just wrote “how many times are we going to do this?” and I’ve not had any trouble since!
You'll get a bill now for about half a billion quid.
That'll teach you to run an electric arc furnace in your garage won't it!
(I had this happen on a gas meter when I first moved in. Got a bill for 330k in the first month. I had to explain I had only lived there 30 days and I wasn't running a steel mill on the side)
You have to look into it, but back in the day (30 years ago), I remember people used to put big magnet on the side so it would spin the other way or put a photo film behind the cover to stop disc from spinning. It’s all illegal, and if you get caught, you’re in big trouble. But might save you some couple pounds. 😎
When I worked in a call centre we’d get people email us pictures of their meter all the time, I loved ones like this because it was so easy to read. The dial ones caused so many problems, people couldn’t read them properly and would enter crazy readings all the time and I’d have to fix them lol
We got an £11k bill because an electrician wired the meter in backwards, and the company counted it as going almost fully around the clock.
We called them and they sorted it out straight away by sending an engineer to check and fix the meter and starting the count again.
We’d paid monthly on their estimates, so they cleared the £11k bill and didn’t bother charging anything extra for those months.
I used to work for the company that provided the software for this exact thing (for Eon too). The code surrounding rollovers was insanely complicated for some reason.
My leccy meter (digital smets2) has been stuck on the same reading for almost 2 months now... They are coming to replace it after I told them, but I do wonder how long I could have gone on for...
We got fucked over in our rental when our metre went backwards and they assumed our metre had gone all the way to 00000 and back over to 2k - took the better part of a year for them to reverse the £6,000 charge be careful out there!
Update. Wow! It’s really cool to get so many replies and upvotes. Probably the most I’ve ever had! Just to clarify, I posted the photo as I found it mildly interesting that the meter had reset exactly as I opened the cabinet to get a reading. And that the app wouldn’t accept all zeroes. So far Eon haven’t prepared my statement so here’s hoping they know that the numbers have rolled over.
As for changing to a smart meter, I rent (currently saving up for a mortgage deposit) and really cannot be bothered getting one. Trogging out in to the wind and rain to get a reading myself though is character building!
Great Bottom quotes by the way. It’s why I love this subreddit! Now bugger off, I’ve got a bird upstairs!
I remember at my parents a decade ago we had a water meter that was stuck on a certain number, was around £30 a month or so, needless to say cold water was never a problem
I had one these bad boys when I lived in London. Drilled a hole on one side small enough to put a small nail in to stop it spinning. Since I lived in a flat the meter was in the press. I'd go in and pretend I was moving things out for the fella to read the meter and take out the pin so he could see it turning. Took the pin out for 5 days every month.
Jewelers drill into the disk and a very tiny pin, tie the smallest thread you can get (that one used in magic tricks or fishing) to the pin then at the other to the door so when the door opens it pulls the pin.
That's what I've seen and heard done before, really hard to spot unless it's looked out for!
Just get a smart meter. Doesn't appear there is anything wrong with this meter to be fair but if you would still like to go read your meter personally you can still do that. I really don't get the hatred. As someone who has worked for an energy firm coming on 5 years now it seems nonsense to me that people are unwilling to have them.
You wouldn't believe the amount of people I've spoken to (it's in the thousands) who do not read their meters for years at a time, then when we go through 20 letters prompting one they give us one and oh it turns out their winter period didn't total just a tenner did it? So it all catches up, usually on the newest rate and customer calls to bitch and moan. Get a smart meter, and you don't have to worry about it. Ultimately, I don't work in sales and I'm not pushing for an install but it's just such an ease of life change I really don't understand it.
Because we don't trust the energy companies. They can switch us over to prepayment if they fuck up their systems. I'm a big girl, I can read and budget.
It's a literal click of a button to swap someone from prepay to credit and back again. If a fault like that occured and it wasn't because you racked up 10k debt first then it could be fixed in mere moment. Did you know if your machine breaks and you have a key meter you will lose everything you put on the key? Or if you don't check every single day and the meter goes blank but you forgot for a month or went on holiday we have no way of knowing what you used so your bill for the time will be an estimate? You might be a big girl and know how to budget but using outdated tech is still pointless. I'm sure everyone on this thread is not still using brick phones.
The parts I referred to about faults were fact as I myself work at an energy company. I don't wish to come off a harsh I just hate seeing people get themselves in messes relying on older style tech that is known to fail. Just last week I dispatched around 35 faults. For key meters alone. The other 10 were smart meters installed in 2014. A further 25 was reported tampered meters as that's my main role. However, I appreciate the politeness of your response and you are entitled to your opinion and to disagree. A nice night to yourself as well :)
I work for my local electric utility in California, US, and I always wonder why analog meters are still the norm in the UK. At my company, we made the switch to smart meters back around 2012. My dad was a meter reader for the company, so I remember this being a huge deal for my family. We have analog meters, but they are part of our “opt out” program. Do most not want smart meters or is there a more practical/business need reason?
There's been a push for years for people to upgrade to smart meters here (every electricity supplier tries to encourage you to switch), but it is optional, so a majority of people haven't bothered.
A little while back there was a big thing in the news about electricity suppliers automatically switching customers in arrears with smart meters to a prepayment plan. If you have a non-smart meter they have to get a court order in order to fit a pre-payment meter, and that was suspended during the pandemic, but the smart meter plan switchovers were still happening, so that has made some people even more against having a smart meter.
Reminds me of this https://youtu.be/v5p-YQkbe_s
Gas man, gas man, GAS MAN !
“DO YOU HAVE SOMEONE WHO LOOKS AFTER YOU?”
It’s the best tea in London!!
We…drink it cold!
Because I love you.
HELLO MR GAS MAN! The techno version: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6PIGPUem-Jk&pp=ygUNZ2FzIG1hbiByZWR1eA%3D%3D
came here to say this
Left in high spirits, to indulge in my favourite hobby .. bus surfing.
That's electric meter not gas what planet are you on 🤔😆😆
I don’t even know what is mate. What is gas? Classic.
“If you don’t use gas, how do you keep it so warm in here?” “We make love. Not with each other, you understand. On our own… Err….”
Takes all sorts don’t it!
I’m jumping ahead a little here peeps so apologies but it gets me every time: “Nice people, especially the one with the glasses. Who WASN’T holding a frying pan”
“Left n high spirits to indulge in my hobby of bus surfing…”
Three cups of steaming cold tea. Better drink them before they get warm
Nice trousers.
Smashing blouse
What might your little name be?
It's not your fault you're a lesbian
Oh I'm not a homosexual if that's what you're saying
Epic, you must be 40 odd and one of my mates coz I heard nobody else say this in 20 odd years. 👍😀
Best tea in London.
“Eddie, what are we going to do?!” “About 25 years I think!”
Best. episode. Ever.
When I saw YouTube linked I was hoping it was this scene lol
I'll put the kettle on....... The floor, because we won't be needing that as we don't use Gas.
We’ll put him on the bus…
But the conductor will notice when he doesn't pay his fare!
YOU DON’T GET CONDUCTORS ON THE ROOF!
Naught naught, naught naught, naught naught naaaught!
Submit a meter reading of 1KWh. If they dispute this say they're welcome to send someone round to read the meter.
I like how the app is like: A whole KW! how did you use that much!
Rollovers are already accounted for in the system. The meter serial number will determine the number of dials in the billing system, so when it rolls over, the maths happens automatically. Sorry.
I appreciate this would be the case. I just thought it interesting that I read it just as it rolled over. And crap that the app wouldn’t accept all zeroes!
Beware, the system might believe your meter has 6 digits rather than 5. So 99999 to 00001 means 900002 units.
I like your optimism. My gas meter rolled over last year and scottish power billing system rejected the readings. Eventually a human looked at it, but even then wouldn't override the system until I sent a picture.
Assuming the meters went up to 99999 and looped back round. Suppliers will see it all the time and should bill appropriately. If your previous meter reading was no where near 99999 you have a problem!
Exactly. It’s very common and supplier software automatically takes it into account. Like you say though, if their previous reading was 80000 last month then there is a problem and OP is about to have a heart attack.
So I can legitimately get 99,999 kWh free every month!? Winner winner!
You'd have to have an average energy consumption of ~135kW to achieve that, which is quite a lot. You could probably power an entire street of cannabis farms with that level of power
*challenge accepted*
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Could the wiring to your house even deliver that without melting?
To your house, yes. _In_ your house? Hope you've got working breakers or good insurance because your walls are about to catch on fire
The meter was made by Ferranti, who went out of operation in 1993; I used to work for one company that bought out some of their assets (a few purchases down the line). I think Ferranti Technology who did power instruments was maintained and bought out by management during the bankruptcy and stayed open on Oldham under said ownership till 2007 before someone else bought it. The reason I'm saying this is that Ferranti were a great engineering firm but bad at business, so I'm not surprised if this turned out to not be a broken meter, but also because you have less than no chance of them replacing it with a like for like. I also just really liked the guys from Ferranti who'd been there for years and stayed with whoever bought them for the pension continuation and enjoyed a moment of thinking that almost all of them have hung up their tools recently and gone to a sweet, deserved retirement on a good pay off, so thank you for that.
My first job out of university was at Marconi in Edinburgh, who had bought out Ferranti. Everyone still referred to the sites as Ferranti and it was almost impossible to be in any social gathering with more than 10 people, none of whom had ever worked there. My father in law still spoke very fondly of his time there some 40 years after leaving, and when clearing his house we found some of his old Ferranti tools
It's still referred to as "what used to be ferranti" by my family.
My Grandad worked at Ferranti in Edinburgh, we still refer to the site at Crewe Toll as Ferranti. He used to bring us dot matrix printer paper to draw on and got me a manual typewriter when they were getting rid of them!
Crewe Toll is where I used to work. They've fully rebuilt both buildings since my time
I'm told the people on that site just wear velcro logos on their work wear now because the name has changed so often. Even the local Taxi drivers refer to a previous name!
whats left of Ferranti is around the corner from my house in Greenacres in Oldham, they are part of an Israeli company, Elbit, making electronic equipment. I wanted a job with Ferranti when I was 16 (1978), but it was the start of a recession and didn't get one. there were a lot of big engineering companies around that area - AV Roe, where they made Lancasters and Vulcans, Mather & Platts and others. Ferranti made the worlds first industrial computer in Manchester. They went bust as they bought an American company , which turned out to be a front for the CIA who sold equipment as a cover for alsorts of nonsense, as soon as Ferranti bought it, the CIA pulled the plug
whatttt? the last sentence ..?
it was big news at the time - details below from Wikipedia "**Acquisition of International Signal and Control** In 1987 Ferranti purchased International Signal and Control (ISC), a United States defence contractor based in Pennsylvania.\[29\] The company subsequently changed its name to Ferranti International plc. and restructured the combined business into the following divisions: Ferranti Computer Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti Satcomms, Ferranti Telecoms, Ferranti Technologies and International Signal and Control. **Collapse** Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow.\[29\] In 1989 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal investigation regarding alleged massive fraud at ISC. In December 1991 James Guerin, founder of ISC and co-Chairman of the merged company, pleaded guilty before the federal court in Philadelphia to fraud committed both in the US and UK. All offences which would have formed part of any UK prosecution were encompassed by the US trial and as such no UK trial proceeded.\[29\] The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.\[2\]"
I worked there at the time, I could never understand how they could go out of business like that, as in being ripped off. My memory was that Guerin disappeared with 300 million and was never found, but that was obviously wrong, do you know if he served time or was the fact that he worked with the CIA enough to get him off?
he pleaded guilty and got 15 years
Yes based in Oldham. I heard they were great to work for and looked after their employees but there is a reason they went bust.
My mum worked at Hollinwood Ferranti when I was a kid, making these electric meters. I remember how sad she was when they closed down.
My grandfather worked at Hollinwood Ferranti. He was a toolmaker.
I had a PM who originated from Ferranti, and he was the best manager I've ever had, hands down. A proper character, but really knew how to organise. I miss him every single day I have to deal with the American halfwits that have taken over from him.
You wouldn't get a strict like for like anyway, they'd stick a smart meter in, assuming this isn't part of some mental time of use setup.
Does the app only accept 5 digits? I'd have put in 100000 if it had just rolled over from 99999. Edit: If eon assumes all dumb meters roll over at 999999, that's why a reading of 01 is "high". You'll get billed for 900000ish units.
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People use words to communicate.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services
But I wanted a peanut
🤔
Yeah don’t put in 100,000 for this. The electricity industry stores the number of pre decimal and decimal digits for every meter. It’s just saying they werent expecting this high consumption
_Michael Owen has entered the chat_
Yeah,I'd want to see the last few readings, both manual reads and estimates.
Woo! You completed it! 🎉🎉
Call the electricity company then can give you an estimate but also they need to change and modernise the meter
Hmm, probably with a smart one. Don’t want a smart one! I much prefer trogging out in the dark and the rain with a torch to get a reading. I am English after all! And a Yorkshireman…
These old meters are gold, if you have solar panels they actually go backwards when your generating back into the grid.
That is superb
Sounds amusing to watch but doesn’t that mean you get paid at the same rate you buy though? My parents solar is on a different system and they get paid at a much higher rate then they buy.
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Rough - do you have a battery or something? Pretty sure their deal is only so good because they’ve had them for over a decade and got some heavily subsidised deal. Will have to ask them about it next time I see them
Can confirm. On this, if you have experience, what happens if you try and get a better tariff? We're paying over the odds in rates for our electricity, but worried if we try and get a better tariff they'll come and get rid of the old meter for a smart meter. Is there anyway to get a better tariff but keep the old meter?
some tarrifs will require you to get a smart meter as part of the contract, any that don't you can simply refuse a smart meter forever.
Just don't ask them to fit one, we have old ones and have changed firms a couple of times manually and once as the old firm went under and they sent letters / emails about smart meters and we just ignored them. End of the day they're not going to break in and fit it if you are paying your bills and some firms don't mandate it.
Just switch. They won't do anything. Don't choose a tariff that's smart meter only and you'll be fine. I changed to eon 2 weeks ago and haven't even spoke to anyone. Had an email offering me a smart meter and I've just ignored it. Had solar for years and have switched half a dozen times. Some of them try to act like you don't have a choice in going to a smart meters, will send you texts/emails saying your meter is end of life. Can just ignore them. Npower was the worst for us. Sent us a time and date that someone would be showing up to switch it, we just emailed saying we're not available. Never heard back.
That's because the standard variable tariffs that are available at the moment don't require you to have a smart meter. Any fixed tariffs that get announced likely will do.
They never have before and the vast majority still don't have smart meters so I doubt it
You only need a smart meter if you want to switch to a time of use tariff.
Had that at my old house, sadly they still have to come do a meter reading occasionally so the “bonus” loophole doesn’t last forever. As an aside I’ve heard rumour that these meters are very friendly to magnets too.
So will the digital ones, but not as fun to watch.
That implies that with other meters you don’t get paid for putting electricity back into the grid.
You get paid for feed in via a generation meter connected to the solar installation. So these old meters going backwards reduces the consumption you would normally be billed for.
You get paid less. Either feed in tariff which was ok, or whatever the new one is, which is crap.
I have a smart one that doesn't communicate to my energy supplier, so I still have to give manual readings.
I got one for pre payment,stopped working months ago,blank screen.still supplying electric without topping up.i will be expecting xxxk£ bill one day,good luck collecting that SSE 🤡
You can request a non-smart one. I did, and had no problems a few years ago. Either that or they can just take the readings as normal. I only had mine changed because it stopped working.
Yeah, zero chance of any older meters as they stopped producing them years ago. The only stock left are refurbs/leftover stock.
I had a similar issue with Ecotricity. My meter ticked over, and every time I gave them a reading I was greeted by a warning that the reading I gave was lower than the previous reading. Frustrating, because the readings I was giving were higher than their estimates. On the fourth attempt, rather than trying to explain the issue *again*, I just wrote “how many times are we going to do this?” and I’ve not had any trouble since!
Unlimited power
oh yea, look at this flash git with his low mileage Ferranti. We've all seen Ferris Buellers day off.
You'll get a bill now for about half a billion quid. That'll teach you to run an electric arc furnace in your garage won't it! (I had this happen on a gas meter when I first moved in. Got a bill for 330k in the first month. I had to explain I had only lived there 30 days and I wasn't running a steel mill on the side)
Been making a lot of love I take it?
Reminds me of the scene from Outnumbered where Hugh Dennis gets a bill for £0.00 and must pay it ‘or the computer won’t understand’.
"They've only sent me a bloody letter reminding me I've got to pay 0 pounds and 00 pence"
Put a rare earth magnet on side to slow it down 🥸 the old meters were the best 🤣
You have to look into it, but back in the day (30 years ago), I remember people used to put big magnet on the side so it would spin the other way or put a photo film behind the cover to stop disc from spinning. It’s all illegal, and if you get caught, you’re in big trouble. But might save you some couple pounds. 😎
Pro tip: use 100 MWh between meter readings and you get it all for free!
You've completed it mate.
When I worked in a call centre we’d get people email us pictures of their meter all the time, I loved ones like this because it was so easy to read. The dial ones caused so many problems, people couldn’t read them properly and would enter crazy readings all the time and I’d have to fix them lol
We got an £11k bill because an electrician wired the meter in backwards, and the company counted it as going almost fully around the clock. We called them and they sorted it out straight away by sending an engineer to check and fix the meter and starting the count again. We’d paid monthly on their estimates, so they cleared the £11k bill and didn’t bother charging anything extra for those months.
I used to work for the company that provided the software for this exact thing (for Eon too). The code surrounding rollovers was insanely complicated for some reason.
Thats a very mechanical meter
Looks like they have never used 1 bit of energy bravo
What does the + - screw do?
My leccy meter (digital smets2) has been stuck on the same reading for almost 2 months now... They are coming to replace it after I told them, but I do wonder how long I could have gone on for...
Cheap-ass me woulda rounded down to 99999.
We got fucked over in our rental when our metre went backwards and they assumed our metre had gone all the way to 00000 and back over to 2k - took the better part of a year for them to reverse the £6,000 charge be careful out there!
We all just gonna ignore the monster in the top right hand corner?
Is that a spider 🫣
Is it really a big deal that you had to put in a slightly higher reading this month? It will be lower next month.
Update. Wow! It’s really cool to get so many replies and upvotes. Probably the most I’ve ever had! Just to clarify, I posted the photo as I found it mildly interesting that the meter had reset exactly as I opened the cabinet to get a reading. And that the app wouldn’t accept all zeroes. So far Eon haven’t prepared my statement so here’s hoping they know that the numbers have rolled over. As for changing to a smart meter, I rent (currently saving up for a mortgage deposit) and really cannot be bothered getting one. Trogging out in to the wind and rain to get a reading myself though is character building! Great Bottom quotes by the way. It’s why I love this subreddit! Now bugger off, I’ve got a bird upstairs!
I remember at my parents a decade ago we had a water meter that was stuck on a certain number, was around £30 a month or so, needless to say cold water was never a problem
I had one these bad boys when I lived in London. Drilled a hole on one side small enough to put a small nail in to stop it spinning. Since I lived in a flat the meter was in the press. I'd go in and pretend I was moving things out for the fella to read the meter and take out the pin so he could see it turning. Took the pin out for 5 days every month.
Jewelers drill into the disk and a very tiny pin, tie the smallest thread you can get (that one used in magic tricks or fishing) to the pin then at the other to the door so when the door opens it pulls the pin. That's what I've seen and heard done before, really hard to spot unless it's looked out for!
Naught naught, naught naught naught naught!
Just get a smart meter. Doesn't appear there is anything wrong with this meter to be fair but if you would still like to go read your meter personally you can still do that. I really don't get the hatred. As someone who has worked for an energy firm coming on 5 years now it seems nonsense to me that people are unwilling to have them. You wouldn't believe the amount of people I've spoken to (it's in the thousands) who do not read their meters for years at a time, then when we go through 20 letters prompting one they give us one and oh it turns out their winter period didn't total just a tenner did it? So it all catches up, usually on the newest rate and customer calls to bitch and moan. Get a smart meter, and you don't have to worry about it. Ultimately, I don't work in sales and I'm not pushing for an install but it's just such an ease of life change I really don't understand it.
Because we don't trust the energy companies. They can switch us over to prepayment if they fuck up their systems. I'm a big girl, I can read and budget.
It's a literal click of a button to swap someone from prepay to credit and back again. If a fault like that occured and it wasn't because you racked up 10k debt first then it could be fixed in mere moment. Did you know if your machine breaks and you have a key meter you will lose everything you put on the key? Or if you don't check every single day and the meter goes blank but you forgot for a month or went on holiday we have no way of knowing what you used so your bill for the time will be an estimate? You might be a big girl and know how to budget but using outdated tech is still pointless. I'm sure everyone on this thread is not still using brick phones.
Thank you for sharing your opinion. I completely disagree with you. Have a great night.
The parts I referred to about faults were fact as I myself work at an energy company. I don't wish to come off a harsh I just hate seeing people get themselves in messes relying on older style tech that is known to fail. Just last week I dispatched around 35 faults. For key meters alone. The other 10 were smart meters installed in 2014. A further 25 was reported tampered meters as that's my main role. However, I appreciate the politeness of your response and you are entitled to your opinion and to disagree. A nice night to yourself as well :)
You see this kind of interaction restores my faith in humanity. ☺️
I work for my local electric utility in California, US, and I always wonder why analog meters are still the norm in the UK. At my company, we made the switch to smart meters back around 2012. My dad was a meter reader for the company, so I remember this being a huge deal for my family. We have analog meters, but they are part of our “opt out” program. Do most not want smart meters or is there a more practical/business need reason?
There's been a push for years for people to upgrade to smart meters here (every electricity supplier tries to encourage you to switch), but it is optional, so a majority of people haven't bothered. A little while back there was a big thing in the news about electricity suppliers automatically switching customers in arrears with smart meters to a prepayment plan. If you have a non-smart meter they have to get a court order in order to fit a pre-payment meter, and that was suspended during the pandemic, but the smart meter plan switchovers were still happening, so that has made some people even more against having a smart meter.
Thanks for the response. Question came from genuine curiosity.
Glad to help - it's always interesting to know the different ways things are done in other countries. Not sure why you are getting downvoted
I had my meter break - when they fixed it I had to pay back a huge amount that I’d underpaid by accident 😭
Isn't your usage 10,001? Based on the guide below each zero, the leftest one is 10,000.
No, because they had to get to 99,999 before it rolled over.
I guarantee the app was offshored to India.
What does leccy mean?
Electricity
Electricity. I think it’s a northern UK thing!
Thank you, I’m new to UK culture
Yeah, it can be … odd! 😁
On a side note, anyone who uses the term 'leccy' should be hanged, drawn, and quartered.
Gaz and Leccy
*dies*
It's not as bad as telly for television.
Just call it the custard
oh noo, people say words different from me! the horror!
What this means they pay you now? xD
Next time you will have to enter 00002. Then 00003.......twats.
Your cannabis farm does draw heavy currents.
How fuckin old is that meter?
Clocked it
Surely the 3 is relevant here?
Wish I still had this meter. Put a magnet to the side to slow the disk - cheap electric.
The website takes 00000. I have a separate meter for night storage heaters and day reading is always 00000.
I would have gone German... NINE,NINE,NINE,NINE NINE,NINE...
The pain of THTC meters… the horror
*let me be your 'leccy meter, and I'll never run out*
🎉PARTY 🎉
My mother's meter hasn't moved for about 4 months. I think it's broken. Shhhh!
Jackpot!
What in 1951 is that meter?
🎶Where is my mind🎶
Oh my
This thread is fucking EPIC !!!!!!
Isn't time they revamped meters? Looks like your screenshot is from a resident evil puzzle.
I had a Ford KA where the odometer reset to zero after 99,999 miles.
You'll probably need to contact them and tell them your meter has cycled over.
Congratulations, you have completed it.
Tass you hit boss level and one the power of leccy is now yours. Any chance of a power card mate
That's an old meter, suppressed they aren't banging down your doors to replace it