Confusion with E7 meter

Arps

Hi All

I was hoping for some advice/guidance.

When I bought our current home in Dec 2020, the electric was supplied by EDF, I then transferred to Avro and when that company closed was moved to Octopus.

I have always supplied the one reading to the provider - IMP-1, however, I have noticed that when Octopus take a read, they always noted a lower reading. I gave them a ring about this today and after some checking (including the meter serial number), they came to the conclusion that i have an economy 7 meter and should have been providing 2 readings, a night rate and a day rate. They said it looks like none of the previous providers picked up on this, likely due to the fact that they didn't connect remotly. The meter was installed in 2017.

My question is, am I and the previous owner now liable to pay for the 24000 units of electric that is showing on the second night reading? Or is this somehow captured on and included on the day reading screen?

Also, since the previous supplier has now gone into administration and my o/s bill to them has been paid - how will this work?

Interested to hear peoples thoughts...

Thanks

Mstty

I would take a picture of the second night reading just incase and hope that Octopus do not have to share this information back to Avro. If not they will just bill you from the reading you provided them and you have lucked out.

How old is the property out of interest just incase you are back billed.

MWT

Arps said:

My question is, am I and the previous owner now liable to pay for the 24000 units of electric that is showing on the second night reading? Or is this somehow captured on and included on the day reading screen?

With most smart meters there will be a total import reading which does include both day & night, as well as the individual readings.

Often that would be something like 'Total Import' and 'R01' / 'R02' ...

Which meter make/model do you have?

Arps

Hi Both - thanks for the replies.

The meter is a 'SECURE - Liberty 100'.

We have only ever paid for the first read.

Do you know if the meter stores readings from certain dates? - at least this way we will be able to calculate what we and the previous owner owes.

MWT

The meter stores 13 months of data, but I wouldn't jump ahead to trying to figure out who owes what until Octopus let you know how this is being handled...

Have you been getting your reading by pressing the '9' button so far?

Just for a sanity check, you might want to compare the reading you get with the method you've been using up until now with the two readings you get from the correct method for E7 readings...

Also take the readings 24 hours apart and make sure that both day and night readings are going up...

You can sometimes get into a position where although the meter has been in E7 mode at some point in the past it may not be in E7 mode now, so if only one of them is increasing the meter may not now be in E7 mode and the one register that is going up is the one recording your actual use...

Arps

Hi

Yes, we have been pressing 9 for the read so far - the read today is 26312.

Using your method (pressing 6) we get a 1st read of 24158 and a 2nd read of 2154... which adds up to 26312... the read i get when i press 9.

The 26312 read is the read all utility companies have been using to calculate the bill so far... i guess there isn't a problem?

Thanks for your help with this... if i am correct a big weight off my mind!

MWT

Yes, you've been giving them the total import reading, so there isn't any large amount owed, that's great news

Now if you do the same readings tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised to find that the only one that is going up is the first reading...

This problem happens where at some point in the past the meter was in E7 mode and so did record use on both registers, but later was changed to single rate mode so it just records all use on the first register. (it can also happen if you were ever on the British Gas 'free weekends' tariff)

The supplier will use the first register reading when they read it as a smart meter, and that is lower than the total import due to the old E7 use.

So lets find out with tomorrows readings if the meter is in single-rate or E7 mode, as there is a theoretical possibility that you've actually over paid at some point in the past...