E7 day and night rates switched around!

roosaaliiee

I am on an E7 tariff with Octopus. I have storage heaters but only use one on a very low setting right now, and heat the home with the woodburner, which also heats the water.

I found out that my night usage is charged at the day tariff (was 29p, now 47p or so) and the day usage at the night tariff (20p). My day usage in kwh is about 1/3 higher than my night usage, but according to Octopus it's the other way round! So I guess I'm paying a lot less than I should.

My question: what would you all on here do?? Just leave it as it is? What if Octopus finds out?
Thanks

MattMattMattUK

roosaaliiee said:

I am on an E7 tariff with Octopus. I have storage heaters but only use one on a very low setting right now, and heat the home with the woodburner, which also heats the water.

I found out that my night usage is charged at the day tariff (was 29p, now 47p or so) and the day usage at the night tariff (20p). My day usage in kwh is about 1/3 higher than my night usage, but according to Octopus it's the other way round! So I guess I'm paying a lot less than I should.

My question: what would you all on here do?? Just leave it as it is? What if Octopus finds out?
Thanks

Have you recently had a new meter installed, or moved from another provider over to Octopus?

roosaaliiee

MattMattMattUK said:

Have you recently had a new meter installed, or moved from another provider over to Octopus?

The smart meter was installed last year, 2  months after I moved here.

Fred2712

I would be tempted to do nothing, if they find out & amend I believe the back billing code could apply.
They would then only be able to charge you the extra amount for one previous year.

Swipe

If your figures are correct I'd keep schtum. If you hadn't noticed, you'd be none the wiser.  However, it might be right, as you'd be surprised how many units a storage heater will use, even on low. Can you post the details of your storage heater and what settings the input and output are set to? You can confirm by checking your meter to see which register is incrementing during the daytime.

SAC2334

roosaaliiee said:

I am on an E7 tariff with Octopus. I have storage heaters but only use one on a very low setting right now, and heat the home with the woodburner, which also heats the water.

I found out that my night usage is charged at the day tariff (was 29p, now 47p or so) and the day usage at the night tariff (20p). My day usage in kwh is about 1/3 higher than my night usage, but according to Octopus it's the other way round! So I guess I'm paying a lot less than I should.

My question: what would you all on here do?? Just leave it as it is? What if Octopus finds out?
Thanks

Are you sure that its you who have got it wrong not Octopus ?
 
In my experience of reading meters for years for EDF and many others ( retired now ) , people on Eco 7 usually use more electricity on the night register than the day on average through the year.
Transposed day/night was extremely common in my area soley due to how G4S configured the night register on digital meters where most meter readers used R 1 for night when it was R2 most of the time.

I would think a smart meter gets it correct because it knows the time night rate starts so they won t transpose it . 
I could be wrong because I retired just before Eco 7 were being useed on smart meters. 

I used to make a lot of reports into British Gas of obvioulsly transposed day/night. One customer got a large catch up bill because of my accurate night and day readings but he complained and BG scrubbed itand switched the readings back . He did not have night storage neither as many in my area are on Eco 7 without night storage heaters.Transposed he was getting his day reads charged at night rate .
I always found that Eco 7 night storage users spotted the transposed billing immediately and soon got on the phone to the supplier when their night rates got day time billing .
 . It makes you wonder if the suppliers are bothered. We all knew that meter readers were imputting the readings transposed but Management were not concerned saying its up to the supplier to switch them round 

As  Swipe says , see which register is advancing in daytime or night .Night storage uses lose out when they are transposed normally if they use more kwhs at night than day 

victor2

I wouldn't expect a smart meter to transpose the readings, as SAC2334 says. Maybe they were transposed before you had the smart meter and are correct now?

Simple enough to verify though, just check which reading increases during the day. What you then do with that information is your choice.

roosaaliiee

SAC2334 said:

roosaaliiee said:

I am on an E7 tariff with Octopus. I have storage heaters but only use one on a very low setting right now, and heat the home with the woodburner, which also heats the water.

I found out that my night usage is charged at the day tariff (was 29p, now 47p or so) and the day usage at the night tariff (20p). My day usage in kwh is about 1/3 higher than my night usage, but according to Octopus it's the other way round! So I guess I'm paying a lot less than I should.

My question: what would you all on here do?? Just leave it as it is? What if Octopus finds out?
Thanks

Are you sure that its you who have got it wrong not Octopus ?
 
In my experience of reading meters for years for EDF and many others ( retired now ) , people on Eco 7 usually use more electricity on the night register than the day on average through the year.
Transposed day/night was extremely common in my area soley due to how G4S configured the night register on digital meters where most meter readers used R 1 for night when it was R2 most of the time.

I would think a smart meter gets it correct because it knows the time night rate starts so they won t transpose it . 
I could be wrong because I retired just before Eco 7 were being used on smart meters. 

As  Swipe says , see which register is advancing in daytime or night .Night storage uses lose out when they are transposed normally if they use more kwhs at night than day 

Swipe said:

If your figures are correct I'd keep schtum. If you hadn't noticed, you'd be none the wiser.  However, it might be right, as you'd be surprised how many units a storage heater will use, even on low. Can you post the details of your storage heater and what settings the input and output are set to? You can confirm by checking your meter to see which register is incrementing during the daytime.

no, I checked which register was advancing during the day, and it's the one that octopus thinks is the night rate...

Swipe

roosaaliiee said:

SAC2334 said:

roosaaliiee said:

I am on an E7 tariff with Octopus. I have storage heaters but only use one on a very low setting right now, and heat the home with the woodburner, which also heats the water.

I found out that my night usage is charged at the day tariff (was 29p, now 47p or so) and the day usage at the night tariff (20p). My day usage in kwh is about 1/3 higher than my night usage, but according to Octopus it's the other way round! So I guess I'm paying a lot less than I should.

My question: what would you all on here do?? Just leave it as it is? What if Octopus finds out?
Thanks

Are you sure that its you who have got it wrong not Octopus ?
 
In my experience of reading meters for years for EDF and many others ( retired now ) , people on Eco 7 usually use more electricity on the night register than the day on average through the year.
Transposed day/night was extremely common in my area soley due to how G4S configured the night register on digital meters where most meter readers used R 1 for night when it was R2 most of the time.

I would think a smart meter gets it correct because it knows the time night rate starts so they won t transpose it . 
I could be wrong because I retired just before Eco 7 were being used on smart meters. 

As  Swipe says , see which register is advancing in daytime or night .Night storage uses lose out when they are transposed normally if they use more kwhs at night than day 

Swipe said:

If your figures are correct I'd keep schtum. If you hadn't noticed, you'd be none the wiser.  However, it might be right, as you'd be surprised how many units a storage heater will use, even on low. Can you post the details of your storage heater and what settings the input and output are set to? You can confirm by checking your meter to see which register is incrementing during the daytime.

no, I checked which register was advancing during the day, and it's the one that octopus thinks is the night rate...

OK in that case, if you are quids in, I'd definitely keep quiet about it.

Scot_39

You say day around a third more - so thats 4/7 vs 3/7 - around a 57 % day / 43% night split.

If billed correctly - av unit cost = .57*47p+.43*20p=35.4p

If reversed - av unit cost  = .57*20p+.43*57p = 31.6p.

It wouldn't take too much a shift to move that balance. 

Do you have splits for the whole of last winter - or just last couple of months ? As if night rate goes higher in cold months - that difference could easily invert.

(My annual E10 not E7 is around 70-75% off peak (in cold snaps - over 90% - in summer lower) so I would want it fixed - but that is also without the log burner for heating main space/water)

I guess your average person wouldn't be able to check anyway - so you could just play dumb. 

Personally - I think as it's a new meter installed by the company - and their error - they are more culpable than you are for any past errors.

But their may be something in the contract saying you have to notify them if meter misbehaving.

If your the sort to worry a lot - ask yourself is the cost of fixing worth the peace of mind ?

70sbudgie

I have E7 on a smart meter and I recently discovered that my smart meter was has been programmed incorrectly. (I believe this is what happened, I am still sorting the issue). I was starting to suspect something was wrong from my bills, and was starting to pull together data to find out what before approaching Octopus. So I downloaded my smart meter readings for as far back as I could go (2 years). This covered the start of the issue and is why I now believe my meter was incorrectly programmed when I changed onto E7 (when my export was set up).

I hadn't identified the issue when the routine meter reader submitted a reading to Octopus that resulted in back billing of over £700 and a bill that was stopped by the Octopus computers for being odd. The back billing was based on estimated readings and didn't take into account that the weird readings started at the same time as I started generating my own electricity. (The estimated readings are based on no generation and my previous ration of day to night use).

Anyway, based on my experience, I would suggest sorting out a misbehaving smart meter sooner rather than later and in the meantime make sure you have downloaded all your smart meter readings. You can do this through your Octopus dashboard.

Be aware that the smart meter readings will only give you data to support your argument if you don't agree with Octopus. Octopus bill E7 based on the meter readings, not the consumption from the smart readings.