New Meter but still 2 MPANS

jozza800

I seem to have an odd situation regarding power supplies/meter readings that is affecting both my elderly mother and disabled brother in two separate houses.

So, my mother was initially signed up with E.On, but was getting crazily high bills each month. So I managed to get her switched over to Octopus on a better tariff easily enough and everything seemed to be going ok.

However, just before Easter her meter stopped worked, it hadn’t moved round at all over the month. So we contacted Octopus and it was agreed that we get a new smart meter installed.

Engineer came out and replaced the old meter for the new shiny smart meter. Everything seemed to be working again, the meter was taking the readings and Octopus were getting the readings.

The meter, my mother had initially had, had 4 readouts and was what I believe is known as ‘related’ or ‘complex’ meter with 2 MPAN points. One for general house electricity and one for the immersion water heater. The current smart meter only has 2 readings.

The problem we have is that we are not getting a bill from Octopus and the account is still showing the 2nd MPAN meter and still requesting a meter reading.

Octopus are looking into it…

For a non-sparky/electrician, would any of you be able answer a few questions so I can get my head round how to resolve this.

1) The engineer replaced the old meter with the smart meter with what I assume is the same wire? It appears it was a like for like replacement.

2) Assuming that this is the case, does that mean if my mother was to use the immersion boiler (she never does btw) then the new smart meter would record this usage?

3) And then assuming that is correct, to correct the whole situation, would it be a case of a ‘logical disconnection’ of the awkward MPAN?

4) And Octopus should handle this?

My brother is in the same boat with E.On. He had a 4 reading ‘related’ meter and had it replaced for a new 2 reading meter (this one isn’t a smart meter though). He too has an immersion boiler that is never used. He hasn’t had a bill since he had the new meter put in and I am willing to bet it is exactly the same issue as my mother’s!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am at the end of my tether with all of this!

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Legacy metering arrangements with more than one MPAN are a right mare's nest. What sort of tariff does your mother have with Octopus? It might be Economy 7 (E7) in which case yes, her immersion heater (and anything else that's connected to the off-peak circuit) should still work during seven cheap-rate hours each night.

A photo of the new smart meter and the associated wiering might help, but as you're new to the forum I'm not sure if you're allowed to post photos yet.

Robin9

A general question  - would all suppliers have a Complex Metering Section ? 

jozza800

QrizB said:

Welcome to the forum.

Legacy metering arrangements with more than one MPAN are a right mare's nest. What sort of tariff does your mother have with Octopus? It might be Economy 7 (E7) in which case yes, her immersion heater (and anything else that's connected to the off-peak circuit) should still work during seven cheap-rate hours each night.

A photo of the new smart meter and the associated wiering might help, but as you're new to the forum I'm not sure if you're allowed to post photos yet.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it has been a pain for both her and my younger brother (and for me, cos i'm the one trying to sort it out! ).

She is on Economy 7.

I will try and get some pictures.

This is where I fall down, as i'm not particularly 'handy'. But my assumption is that there would have been two cables running into the old related meter box? And the meter reads one for general elec and one for the immersion boiler (and possibly the stotage heaters) giving 4 readings 

I'm fairly sure that the engineer swapped the meter out in the same way. But now the new meter just combines the readings into 2?

When the weather cools a little, I have asked my mothe to run the boiler and the heaters for a bit to see if the new smart meter picks up usage.


I (Octopus) will still have to figure out what to do with the remaining MPAN.