Octopus Energy Economy 7 and Smart meter issue (2)

Tractorbob33

In response to QrizB's comments:

On the contrary, having input the appropriate parameters into the MSE search engine, Avro came back as offering the best deal for a dual-rate tariff.  I overlooked nothing.  It might be said that this whole debacle arose from the use of the MSE search facility, but I don't suppose anyone wants to hear that!   

Octopus is just taking my DD payment and basing billing on estimated Rate 01 readings, as far as I can tell.  This is an area I'm looking more closely at, at the moment, but I do have one or to other things to deal with, so it'll be an 'as and when' activity.

Tractorbob33

Correction of the above ... Octopus is taking Rate 01 readings from the meter, it seems.  

QrizB

Tractorbob33 said:

On the contrary, having input the appropriate parameters into the MSE search engine, Avro came back as offering the best deal for a dual-rate tariff.  I overlooked nothing.

A dual-rate tariff where both rates are the same is better known as a single-rate tariff.

Tractorbob33 said:

It might be said that this whole debacle arose from the use of the MSE search facility, but I don't suppose anyone wants to hear that! 

Other comparison sites make this clearer; the CAB one used to show "N/A" for the night rate when you clicked through.

Tractorbob33 said:

Correction of the above ... Octopus is taking Rate 01 readings from the meter, it seems. 

Has R02 increased at all while you've been with Octopus?

victor2

Tractorbob33 said:

In response to QrizB's comments:

On the contrary, having input the appropriate parameters into the MSE search engine, Avro came back as offering the best deal for a dual-rate tariff.  I overlooked nothing.  It might be said that this whole debacle arose from the use of the MSE search facility, but I don't suppose anyone wants to hear that!   

Octopus is just taking my DD payment and basing billing on estimated Rate 01 readings, as far as I can tell.  This is an area I'm looking more closely at, at the moment, but I do have one or to other things to deal with, so it'll be an 'as and when' activity.

But it wasn't a "dual-rate tariff", it was a single rate, as you acknowledged when you said you realised day and night rates were the same.

You must then know your split between day and night usage, as the comparison would have required that to show what tariffs were available and most competitive. What is that split?

You presumably also appreciated that running appliances at night made no difference whatsoever to your electricity cost on a single rate tariff, but if that was a habit you wanted to keep, then fair enough. Depending on your split of day/night usage, it may or may not be worth you going back to an E7 tariff.

THe MSE Cheap Energy club was not the "best", but by no means the "worst" for comparisons. It has/had become such a complex issue that it was difficult to identify any one site that covered all circumstances. That is why you'll see on here that hardened switchers used multiple sites to determine who to switch to each time, and even then went to the extra trouble to calculate and compare the proposed rates and cost from the supplier to the figure from the comparison site(s).

Tractorbob33 said:

Correction of the above ... Octopus is taking Rate 01 readings from the meter, it seems.  

That seems really odd. If they know your meter is smart, they must also be getting multiple readings from it as an E7 meter.

Have you confirmed on your statements what type of readings they are? It will state beside each meter reading if it is Estimated, Customer or Smart (I'm guessing at the Smart bit because I've only seen Estimated and Customer so far).

Look at your first bill, which would have had the final Avro readings on it as well as the Octopus ones. How do they compare to actual readings now and the readings used by Octopus on your latest statement?

As and when you get time, that seems to be the next step for you to determine where things should be right now and what you should expect Octopus to do to sort it out.

QrizB

victor2 said:

That seems really odd. If they know your meter is smart, they must also be getting multiple readings from it as an E7 meter.

This is why I've asked the OP to read their meters. We don't yet know whether there are multiple readings to get.

It's quite possible to configure a smart meter to only increment one register.

Tractorbob33

QrizB "A dual-rate tariff where both rates are the same is better known as a single-rate tariff."  This is obviously wrong and perhaps a little patronising.  If a quote shows two rates (even if they are the same) this is a dual rate tariff.  It is a dual rate tariff for a dual rate meter (which is what I have).  I am aware, of course, that currently there is no advantage to using my appliances overnight, but if/when I change to another supplier, it may be that each rate will be different, so I want to get the confusion over the meter type sorted out now; AND I want to be sure I am being charged for, and am paying for, all the energy I am using.  That is the debate I am having with Octopus and I really don't see the point in having it on here as well.

So, thanks for all your comments and advice, folks, but this has snowballed well beyond my initial query, which was answered early on.  I really don't want to be going out to read meters and so on for this forum, in addition to the many and several hoops I have been asked to jump through by Octopus. So thanks again, but I'll leave it there.