Octopus Tracker

Slinky

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise,

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

@masonic: I seem to remember that there is a box that appears with a selection of recent dates that allows you to stipulate when the billing period should end. That's my interpretation.

If you mean selecting the date for the meter reading, yes I used that. This can be quite helpful in case of missing data as you can submit a reading for several days in the past and therefore force a bill before the missing period to avoid losing the benefit of any load shifting you've been doing.

 ETA, I knew I'd read something on here regarding this, looks like I need to work out what my meter would have read at the start of yesterday, submit a read, then submit another read say end of today to chop out yesterday's missing data and hopefully have clean data going forward.

masonic

Slinky said:

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise

Will averaging work in your favour or against you?

Slinky

masonic said:

Slinky said:

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise

Will averaging work in your favour or against you?

I haven't been monitoring our usage to that degree of detail. Rather than risk it averaging up for the rest of the month, I'd prefer to force an accurate bill. It's gas that's missing rather than electric so there's less load shifting involved.

northernstar007

nice gas price tomorrow north east 4.08, and a cold day weather forcast

masonic

Slinky said:

masonic said:

Slinky said:

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise

Will averaging work in your favour or against you?

I haven't been monitoring our usage to that degree of detail. Rather than risk it averaging up for the rest of the month, I'd prefer to force an accurate bill. It's gas that's missing rather than electric so there's less load shifting involved.

You can force an accurate bill for the period prior to yesterday if you submit a reading for the beginning of yesterday and the reading generates a bill. Then the missing data will be pushed into the next billing period. Though the gas price has been so stable over the past month, kicking the can down the road might not be the best option.

Telegraph_Sam

I'm smart with electric but manual with gas, both Tracker, negligible load shifting.  I ask myself what it is that alerts you that there have been some missing readings. I just plough on in blissful ignorance of any outages. If there is one is it more an issue for the big users, and for the small fry like me not worth bothering about for all the difference it makes?

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

I'm smart with electric but manual with gas, both Tracker, negligible load shifting.  I ask myself what it is that alerts you that there have been some missing readings. I just plough on in blissful ignorance of any outages. If there is one is it more an issue for the big users, and for the small fry like me not worth bothering about for all the difference it makes?

It's an app in the case of Slinky, but it's been mentioned a few times that you can check for missing data via the Guy Lipman site if you don't have a smartphone or tablet.

Telegraph_Sam

Tks for the reminder. I must check out the Lipman site - but would probably not do so as a regular routine unless I had reason to suspect there was a leak.

Slinky

masonic said:

Slinky said:

masonic said:

Slinky said:

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise

Will averaging work in your favour or against you?

I haven't been monitoring our usage to that degree of detail. Rather than risk it averaging up for the rest of the month, I'd prefer to force an accurate bill. It's gas that's missing rather than electric so there's less load shifting involved.

You can force an accurate bill for the period prior to yesterday if you submit a reading for the beginning of yesterday and the reading generates a bill. Then the missing data will be pushed into the next billing period. Though the gas price has been so stable over the past month, kicking the can down the road might not be the best option.

But if I force an accurate bill as at the start of yesterday, then send another reading tomorrow, it'll issue another bill for 2 days won't it? Then I'm back running with good data again unless the same thing happens.  My billing cycle is to the first of the month normally.

masonic

Slinky said:

masonic said:

Slinky said:

masonic said:

Slinky said:

I've just spotted on Octoaid  that there are 3 missing half hours on yesterday's gas data. Would it be worth me sending a reading as I guess they will average the whole month otherwise

Will averaging work in your favour or against you?

I haven't been monitoring our usage to that degree of detail. Rather than risk it averaging up for the rest of the month, I'd prefer to force an accurate bill. It's gas that's missing rather than electric so there's less load shifting involved.

You can force an accurate bill for the period prior to yesterday if you submit a reading for the beginning of yesterday and the reading generates a bill. Then the missing data will be pushed into the next billing period. Though the gas price has been so stable over the past month, kicking the can down the road might not be the best option.

But if I force an accurate bill as at the start of yesterday, then send another reading tomorrow, it'll issue another bill for 2 days won't it? Then I'm back running with good data again unless the same thing happens.  My billing cycle is to the first of the month normally.

My experience is that it won't issue two bills in quick succession like that, but who knows, the billing system seems to work differently for different people. Personally, I'd wait until there is a meaningful difference in price before taking action. That's when averaging might make more than a few pence difference.