Smart meters not communicating and massive increase in energy usage

Gra76

Afternoon all. Wondering if you might have any ideas on this...

I was originally with Bulb, and had smart meters installed probably 18 or so months ago now. All was good until earlier this year when I noticed the HUD unit was no longer working properly and had gone into a constant reboot cycle. I contacted Bulb and they told me there was no problem, they could still communicate with the smart meters and get the readings they needed to bill me correctly. They told me that if I was bothered about having the HUD working then they'd need to reset it, but I figured as they had told me they could see what they needed to via the smart meters that the only benefit was that I'd be able to see my usage too. I decided not to bother filling in the reset paperwork at the time.

I was ported over to Octopus 3 months ago and on downloading their app could see that no readings were being logged. I recently contacted them to ask if they could read my meters and the answer was...no...they couldn't. I've been conversing back and forwards with them in the last week or two and they said I could enter a manual reading. Which I did.

On checking my app today I was mildly surprised to find what can only be described as an exponential increase in my supposed energy usage.

These are all actual readings from last year rather than estimated, all were taken on the 21st of each month from the smart meters that were installed by E.On and relate to the electricity only.

Jan 22 - 92 units

Feb 22 - 122 units

Mar 22 - 82 units

Apr 22 - 101 units

May 22 - 86 units

Jun 22 - 105 units

Jul 22 - 114 units

Aug 22 - 133 units

Sept 22 - 161 units

Oct 22 - 159 units

Nov 22 - 110 units

Dec 22 - 78 units

Then this year so far:

Jan 23 - 56 units

Feb 23 - 266 units (this seems high to me)

Mar 23 - 420 units (this seems very high to me)

The meters gave no readings at all from that point according to the app.

I submitted a manual reading a few days ago and on having a quick look at the app, it suggests I've used up a further 3,941 units in 3 months. This can't possibly be right. That averages out at more units used per month over the last 3 months than my entire unit usage for the full year previous.

Any thoughts on what might be going on? I'm at a bit of a loss...

Gra76

Oddly I may have found the answer by doing some digging myself... the app doesn't give all the info. I logged into my account online and it tells a slightly different story.

On the app it gives the meter readings that I listed above.

When I log onto the account on my laptop and look at the meter readings it tells me a different story, one I'm still slightly confused by.

When I log in on my laptop my smart meters have been sending over a single reading which has been slowly increasing as you would expect it to, starting at zero when my meters were installed, and then going up as you'd expect every month, until 3 months after they were installed, when a 2nd reading, starting at zero was being sent alongside the original reading, if that makes sense. I can't make head or tail of the 2nd reading or why it's being sent, but that reading is the one on the app which I've listed above. It doesn't follow the pattern of my first reading though so assume it relates to something completely different.

Provided that the meter readings are the first reading that is being sent and not the 2nd then there's no issue and looking at the predicted readings that Octopus have been using for the last 3 months then my manual reading is about in line with those, so no problem there. I wonder what there is a 2nd reading for? I'm sure it's very obvious but I've no idea what it is or why it would be sent, and why would it even be listed in the app as my meter readings?

[Deleted User]

Gra76 said:

Oddly I may have found the answer by doing some digging myself... the app doesn't give all the info. I logged into my account online and it tells a slightly different story.

On the app it gives the meter readings that I listed above.

When I log onto the account on my laptop and look at the meter readings it tells me a different story, one I'm still slightly confused by.

When I log in on my laptop my smart meters have been sending over a single reading which has been slowly increasing as you would expect it to, starting at zero when my meters were installed, and then going up as you'd expect every month, until 3 months after they were installed, when a 2nd reading, starting at zero was being sent alongside the original reading, if that makes sense. I can't make head or tail of the 2nd reading or why it's being sent, but that reading is the one on the app which I've listed above. It doesn't follow the pattern of my first reading though so assume it relates to something completely different.

Provided that the meter readings are the first reading that is being sent and not the 2nd then there's no issue and looking at the predicted readings that Octopus have been using for the last 3 months then my manual reading is about in line with those, so no problem there. I wonder what there is a 2nd reading for? I'm sure it's very obvious but I've no idea what it is or why it would be sent, and why would it even be listed in the app as my meter readings?

Smart meters have 4 index registers. You will have to ask Octopus for an explanation:

smart.help@octopus.energy

Gra76

I'm going to call and ask...but I think I've worked it out myself...

I switched to an off peak EV charging tarriff with Bulb quite some time before I was ported to Octopus, not 100% sure on the date, but it may well have been around the time the 2nd meter reading started, which would explain a lot. The 1st reading is my usual electricity usage, and the 2nd reading is my off peak EV charging hours. Still need to work out how I get the 2nd figure across to them but I'll work it out.

QrizB

Gra76 said:

I switched to an off peak EV charging tarriff with Bulb quite some time before I was ported to Octopus, not 100% sure on the date, but it may well have been around the time the 2nd meter reading started, which would explain a lot. The 1st reading is my usual electricity usage, and the 2nd reading is my off peak EV charging hours.

That makes perfect sense. Bulb have probably changed your smart meter from single-rate metering to dual-rate, bringing a second register into service to record energy consumption during the second time period.

You should be able to press button(s) on your smart meter and persuade it to show you the two separate registers plus the grand total.

Do you still have a dual-rate tariff with Octopus?