Octopus Tracker

Telegraph_Sam

That was going to be my question. A bit like the FIT system.  It looks like the onus is on the consumer to maintain regular export  checks not least at invoicing time  which I assume will be the same as for normal  "import" consumption. Keeps you on your toes ..

Largs

Does anyone on this tariff know why my usage per day on the app is different to my usage that shows on the bill?  It's only 1 or 2 units each day but it's annoying me. 

2 months ago the bills showed my usage as 3 units (give or take) every day for the whole month.  I knew this was wrong as I was on holiday for 2 of they weeks.  When I asked why she said this is what my meter sent them but that could not be true as when away I use 1 unit each day.  I then complained and they gave me £50 and moved me to flexible Octopus as I was objecting to being "averaged"

In the end they didn't put me on flexible I was moved to another version of tracker, April 2024 v1 which was more expensive than the previous version.

This difference between bill and app is still happening and seems to be a recent phenomenon.  Defeats the point of cheaper days as you don't know what they will bill you come end of month.

masonic

Largs said:

Does anyone on this tariff know why my usage per day on the app is different to my usage that shows on the bill?  It's only 1 or 2 units each day but it's annoying me. 
2 months ago the bills showed my usage as 3 units (give or take) every day for the whole month.  I knew this was wrong as I was on holiday for 2 of they weeks.  When I asked why she said this is what my meter sent them but that could not be true as when away I use 1 unit each day.  I then complained and they gave me £50 and moved me to flexible Octopus as I was objecting to being "averaged"
In the end they didn't put me on flexible I was moved to another version of tracker, April 2024 v1 which was more expensive than the previous version.
This difference between bill and app is still happening and seems to be a recent phenomenon.  Defeats the point of cheaper days as you don't know what they will bill you come end of month.

It is probably the result of your bill being averaged due to one or more of the half hour consumption values being missing at the time of billing. There are two ways of billing for the Tracker tariff. Either using the complete record of half hour data for the billing period so that your consumption is accurately apportioned, or as a backup, billing using the meter readings and apportioning the consumption using a standardised usage profile. You can work around the odd gap in your data by identifying when these have occurred and providing a meter reading for the start of the day in question and the day after. This will split up your bill into sections that can be billed accurately and individual days where the usage will be accurate from the readings either side of it. It is a bit of a faff, but the only way to get an accurate bill if your meter isn't sending the full data reliably.

MP1995

Largs said:

Does anyone on this tariff know why my usage per day on the app is different to my usage that shows on the bill?  It's only 1 or 2 units each day but it's annoying me. 

2 months ago the bills showed my usage as 3 units (give or take) every day for the whole month.  I knew this was wrong as I was on holiday for 2 of they weeks.  When I asked why she said this is what my meter sent them but that could not be true as when away I use 1 unit each day.  I then complained and they gave me £50 and moved me to flexible Octopus as I was objecting to being "averaged"

In the end they didn't put me on flexible I was moved to another version of tracker, April 2024 v1 which was more expensive than the previous version.

This difference between bill and app is still happening and seems to be a recent phenomenon.  Defeats the point of cheaper days as you don't know what they will bill you come end of month.

There is another potential that when the time zone changed to BST some users billing was messed up. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6537987/octopus-tracker-error-since-bst-time-switch#latest

Badboi

Had our smart meters fitted yesterday, gas and replaced the electric smets 1 meter too.  Just waiting on the ihd to connect. Hoping the gas will now show in use rather than averaging over the month as it has done on tracker for me

Telegraph_Sam

Alongside my smart meter I have kept the gas on non-smart, and upload the manual readings once a month. As far as I can figure it out averaging doesn't come into it. 
With Tracker electric, if I have no particular unusual load shifts I wonder if is worth all the faff contesting any instance of averaging when it could be a case of swings and roundabouts.  As opposed to deliberately targeted load shifts being overruled by averaging.

Spoonie_Turtle

Telegraph_Sam said:

Alongside my smart meter I have kept the gas on non-smart, and upload the manual readings once a month. As far as I can figure it out averaging doesn't come into it. 
With Tracker electric, if I have no particular unusual load shifts I wonder if is worth all the faff contesting any instance of averaging when it could be a case of swings and roundabouts.  As opposed to deliberately targeted load shifts being overruled by averaging.

The only way to not get 'averaging' (i.e. apportioning usage between readings according to the industry formula) with a non-smart meter would be to give readings every day.  At just gone midnight, if you want to be really accurate.

Telegraph_Sam

Re-phrase what I said:  I wonder if in the case of my non-smart gas meter it is worth the hassle of avoiding averaging by sending daily readings. 
Same applies in principle with the smart electric, in the absence of "abnormal" load shifts.

FreeBear

Telegraph_Sam said:

Re-phrase what I said:  I wonder if in the case of my non-smart gas meter it is worth the hassle of avoiding averaging by sending daily readings.

Over the last 90 days, gas has varied between 3.97p and 4.70p. Not a huge spread, and I got billed for less than a £1 (plus standing charge). During the winter months when usage is much higher, and with a bigger spread of daily rate, it may be worth submitting regular readings.

Telegraph_Sam

As I understand it, averaging can work for or against you (correct?)  Against that would have  to be weighed that taking and sending daily readings would be quite a hassle

 I suppose that just sending them in on odd occasions would be self defeating