Octopus energy, their cumulative meter total on your account doesn't match smart actual meter

Veteransaver

victor2 said:

Can you establish which register Octopus are reading to bill you, and what you are actually reading to get the 8000 figure?

What was their reading a year ago?

Again, this is part of the problem, apart from the very first bill when I changed supplier, the invoices do not show the actual meter reading, they just show the total units used from the smart meter reading.
It's only when the manual reading is submitted that the bill then shows these smart meter readings.
It seems that they are missing a huge chunk of a reading or a second rate from the total 3506 figure, yet they are billing me correctly, or were up until the latest bill.
For example in August to September looking at the app, their meter reading went up by 144 units, yet the usage on the csv download was 404 units for that period., and I was billed in line with that.

Veteransaver

Reed_Richards said:

Veteransaver said:

I'm posting this as I've discovered this on 2 separate accounts now.....

Two separate accounts?  How did that come about?  Is it possible that either you or Octopus are confusing the two accounts?

No, one is my mum's account, similar/same issue in that her account suddenly lost one of the E7 rates so it no longer shows on her bill. I was able to identify it as the discrepancy between the meter and Octopus's "Meter" is the exact amount of one of the E7 rates that dropped off.

Veteransaver

BarelySentientAI said:

Veteransaver said:

BarelySentientAI said:

The first thing you should do is check that the serial number of the meter written on the bill matches the one on the actual meter.

The second thing you should do is check whether you are reading the right register from the meter.  It's possible that you are looking at the sum of all registers but they are reading only one.  Can you show us where you are getting the 8500 reading from?

You need to also stop thinking about "cumulative meter readings".  That's just going to add confusion.  They are just meter readings.  That bill is saying that the reading on your meter is 3506.9 - not that some maths has worked out the number or anything else.  They've probably ignored your manual reading because the smart meter is telling them a different actual reading. 

Yes, the serial number etc checks out. The 8500 meter reading is off the meter itself. It's single rate and is the total import figure. The meter has never been dual rate
That's the point, the bill is saying my meter reading is 3506.9, when it isn't. How could it be, when I use c4000kWh (and have been billed for) a year and it was put in nearly 2 years ago?
The 8500 figure is correct.

If it's a smart meter, then it doesn't matter whether it is single rate or dual rate, it has more than one register (probably four).

It would be unusual, but not impossible, that they have switched which register is being used.

Can you look back at the previous smart readings for the whole two years?  At some point is there a big step change or reset to zero? 

Right, I can see on the app monthly smart meter readings. They are generally only going up by about 150 units a month, against usage of 300-400 units a month which is what is being billed. So looks like there is a hidden "register"
But the point is why are Octopus only reading and showing 1 register rather than the the total?
I've just actually downloaded my usage since I joined them in August 2022 and it totals 8292kWh. There was c200 odd kWh with previous supplier so the c8500 actual meter reading is correct.

BarelySentientAI

Veteransaver said:

victor2 said:

Can you establish which register Octopus are reading to bill you, and what you are actually reading to get the 8000 figure?

What was their reading a year ago?

Again, this is part of the problem, apart from the very first bill when I changed supplier, the invoices do not show the actual meter reading, they just show the total units used from the smart meter reading.
It's only when the manual reading is submitted that the bill then shows these smart meter readings.
It seems that they are missing a huge chunk of a reading or a second rate from the total 3506 figure, yet they are billing me correctly, or were up until the latest bill.
For example in August to September looking at the app, their meter reading went up by 144 units, yet the usage on the csv download was 404 units for that period., and I was billed in line with that.

You're confusing everyone again.  Every bill shows meter readings.  It's a requirement.

You seem to have a smart meter that is connected to the system.  The bills, therefore, do show an actual meter reading.  They show the actual reading that Octopus are taking from your smart meter.

On the bill you showed an extract from, there was an actual (smart) reading of 3079.8 at the start and an actual (smart) reading of 3506.9 at the end.  A difference of 427.1 between the two actual readings.  You were billed for 427.1 units, exactly matching the difference between the actual readings.

Can you show some earlier bills that apparently don't contain any meter readings?

Veteransaver said:

Reed_Richards said:

Veteransaver said:

I'm posting this as I've discovered this on 2 separate accounts now.....

Two separate accounts?  How did that come about?  Is it possible that either you or Octopus are confusing the two accounts?

No, one is my mum's account, similar/same issue in that her account suddenly lost one of the E7 rates so it no longer shows on her bill. I was able to identify it as the discrepancy between the meter and Octopus's "Meter" is the exact amount of one of the E7 rates that dropped off.

So they were only reading one of the registers and not both.  Pretty much what I suspect is happening here - the smart reading they are showing is for only one of the registers.

Just to confirm, you are on a single rate tariff - not one of the beta smart tariffs like Agile?

victor2

Can you show a statement that doesn't include your reading, so it only shows the figures Octopus are using?

Incidentally, what tariff are you on?

56.54p per kWh seems very high.

The arithmetic is correct for whichever register they are using.

Veteransaver

BarelySentientAI said:

Veteransaver said:

victor2 said:

Can you establish which register Octopus are reading to bill you, and what you are actually reading to get the 8000 figure?

What was their reading a year ago?

Again, this is part of the problem, apart from the very first bill when I changed supplier, the invoices do not show the actual meter reading, they just show the total units used from the smart meter reading.
It's only when the manual reading is submitted that the bill then shows these smart meter readings.
It seems that they are missing a huge chunk of a reading or a second rate from the total 3506 figure, yet they are billing me correctly, or were up until the latest bill.
For example in August to September looking at the app, their meter reading went up by 144 units, yet the usage on the csv download was 404 units for that period., and I was billed in line with that.

You're confusing everyone again.  Every bill shows meter readings.  It's a requirement.

You seem to have a smart meter that is connected to the system.  The bills, therefore, do show an actual meter reading.  They show the actual reading that Octopus are taking from your smart meter.

On the bill you showed an extract from, there was an actual (smart) reading of 3079.8 at the start and an actual (smart) reading of 3506.9 at the end.  A difference of 427.1 between the two actual readings.  You were billed for 427.1 units, exactly matching the difference between the actual readings.

Can you show some earlier bills that apparently don't contain any meter readings?

Veteransaver said:

Reed_Richards said:

Veteransaver said:

I'm posting this as I've discovered this on 2 separate accounts now.....

Two separate accounts?  How did that come about?  Is it possible that either you or Octopus are confusing the two accounts?

No, one is my mum's account, similar/same issue in that her account suddenly lost one of the E7 rates so it no longer shows on her bill. I was able to identify it as the discrepancy between the meter and Octopus's "Meter" is the exact amount of one of the E7 rates that dropped off.

So they were only reading one of the registers and not both.  Pretty much what I suspect is happening here - the smart reading they are showing is for only one of the registers.

Just to confirm, you are on a single rate tariff - not one of the beta smart tariffs like Agile?

Yes, you'd think all bills should contain a start and end meter reading. But mine don't! None of them, except the very first one when I switched to Octopus. And then the latest one which I pasted earlier.
They show the units used only (taken from the smart meter)
I'm currently on Tracker. I was on Go before.

pete-20-11

Isn't that just a typo or a misreading?

8196 should be 3196

Then it makes sense, all readings start with a 3.

Okay, it could have gone all the way around back to zero, then back into the 3000s, but that would be quite a lot of gas?

Veteransaver

victor2 said:

Can you show a statement that doesn't include your reading, so it only shows the figures Octopus are using?

Incidentally, what tariff are you on?

56.54p per kWh seems very high.

The arithmetic is correct for whichever register they are using.

"56.54p per kWh seems very high" - yes, it's a horror show. It is because the manual reading has generated a huge difference which their system has then tried to average out somehow! It's a complete mess:! It's actually physically impossible for me to use 552kWh  in a single day, what with me only having a 60A main fuse!

MeteredOut

Are you on Tracker? It looks like your 8196 meter reading submission on 23rd March has caused the large kWh per-day usages to be calculated on the bill between the smart meter reading on 28th Feb (3144.4) and that date.

As above, you need to check which register on the meter you're reading, or otherwise find out why the meter reading you're seeing is different to the the smart meter reading being sent.

victor2

Have you asked Octopus (by email) to explain where those figures have come from?

I do not know how the tracker billing works, so would let someone who does offer an explanation of that.

Did large negative numbers follow the days after your manual reading in order to arrive at the total for the month?