Octopus meters and billing

SAjackie1

Anyone else had a situation with Octopus where they put a new meter in, then in the next bill after the new meter, they include an updated bill for the month prior to the new meter. And the update is from £44 (which matched the OctoAid and Octopus apps near enough), to the new figure, for the month of August (ie summer) of £700. Used at night. In summer. 

This made me look more closely at previous bills where the billed amount generally matched what the apps said (within a few pounds, so nothing to worry about). Looking more closely, there is an earlier bill that said the night usage for that month was £1900, but in the daytime, it was -£1853, leaving me a bill of £47. I don’t have night storage so I have the same day/night tariff rather than an economy setting. But I have no idea why they think I used almost £2000 of electricity at night in July, but then miraculously gave almost £2000 back during the day.

Anyone any clue on what was going on? The old meter was Eon, the new meter Octopus. The change out day was first week Sept after which August bill was jacked up. And now my monthly debit charge has been jacked up massively. 

The only bill to be updated was the August one which had showed as normal (no weird day/night readings), but was then updated to show £700 at night.

Re usage, 1 person, 2 bed, 8 minute showers x1 per day, no drier, washing machine 40 degrees (non negotiable, I don’t do cold washes); don’t use the oven; stove cook maybe 3 times a week; laptop and monitor on during the day /10 hours maybe longer. TV in the evening, no heating on during those months; out of the flat for some days; small fridge; small freezer; charge phone, headphones, toothbrush and Dyson vacuum. And have a siesta alarm clock. Turned hot water cylinder (electric) off entirely as it takes so long to get hot water to the taps I’ve got bored and either used cold or boiled the kettle. Lighting mostly LEDs, and a rubbish fan in the bathroom; and a doorbell ringer. That is it. The alarm clock and fridge /freezer are the only things running at night, except I do shower late, so the 8 minute (electric) shower would hit nighttime period. How does that equal £700? At night: an 8 minute shower and an alarm clock and a couple of whiteware appliances, use £700 worth of electricity in August. But, in September don’t. And in June don’t, but in July use £1900, with the tv, laptop and washing machine feeding £1800 back into the grid during the day.

EssexHebridean

Can you translate your £ figures into what is shown in kWh please - as talking in "money" when you are also looking at energy use is of limited use. 

Are the bills all on actual figures or are they estimated? 
If actual, do the figures they have billed on match the readings from the meters? 

Edit - does the billing definitely show the same rate for peak & off peak? And does that rate match with your current tariff? This "feels" a bit like the sort of thing that can happen when rates are transposed on E7. 

Qyburn

Sounds like when the meter was replaced, they got an "actual" reading from the old meter, and recalculated an earlier bill which had been based on estimates.

What differences do you see between the old and the new bill?

SAjackie1

The bill of £47 was worked out on 9223.9kW at night (at 20p) and -9097kW at 20p during the day. I have no clue why the meter thinks my laptop, fridge, freezer and washing machine fed 9097 kW back out during the day rather than consuming energy. That was one month prior to a change in meter. I didn’t notice the weird stuff at the time because the total was right (it was ball park enough to what the App said) so I didn’t check how they’d worked it out,

Re actuals versus estimated, I’ve been in the flat for 5 months,, a reading was taken when I moved in, and again when I switched from Eon to Octopus beginning of June. (Octopus swapped the meter out beginning of September. The bills aren’t estimated; smart readings are taken every 30 minutes, and have been ever since I switched to Octopus in June. I can see that on 2 Apps. They didn’t update the most recent month with an actual reading and replace an estimate. They went back to a previous, old bill (August) and updated it for that month and that month only, from £40 odd in total to £700 just at night. The rate is the same day and night, 22p or something. And this time, instead of showing a negative number during the day, they just put in what I actually did use during the day. The sept bill is in the high £40s, so reverting to showing normal usage.

Re putting in the electric units, I get your meaning and where you are going, but seriously, a meter that says I used £1900 at night, but then credited back £1800 in the day makes no sense, regardless of the unit, whether it is kW, buckets or handfuls. I don’t have any solar or similar, so I can’t generate electricity.

I contacted Octopus today, and the guy on the phone took one look, saw the smart meter reading on the 8th August, looked at the bill for that month and said: that is impossible. It is impossible for you to have used that in a month. 

They’ve reverted it back to what it was and issued a further updated bill showing £40 odd for August and £70 odd in credit.

Which I am happy with. And, I can understand a hiccup when a meter is swapped out. 

What I don’t understand is the thing I accidentally discovered in the earlier bill, before the meter was swapped out. It stated on that bill that I had used 9000 odd kW I at night for that month, and had created 9000 odd kW during the day. I don’t think the usual economy 7 / actual versus estimated cover this one. 

It is resolved, but the cause remains a mystery.

Scot_39

You may need to look at the absolute readings - not just the differences in the readings from bill to bill you are billed against.

With a caveat - very strange things can happen if you let a company bill you off of estimated readings for a long time - and then you can get massive corrections (it shouldnt but in past - sometimes this can run years - and get unexpected large bills when an actual reading finally used - sometimes in £100s or £1000s).

But in your second post you say this was over just months - and all based on measurements.

So if assuming the bills around the 2 anomalies - were all using measured - manual or smart readings - not estimated - my only other guess for the discrepency (the £47 bill +/- c9000kWh ) is the possibility there was some sort of register order switch for some reason - and that may have been repeated when meter removed and final readings submitted.

Not all meters use the same peak / off-peak register order - and some suppliers will default to an assumed order - based on their preferred models - smart or otherwise - and so it's not that uncommon to find issues with them being swapped around - more so when change supplier - rather than with a supplier long term.

If you have access - can you compare the day and night registers - the absolutes - before and after that +/- 9000 billing episode - and again for the final bill on the old meter.

EssexHebridean

This does sound as though it is as simple as an admin error between the recording and billing of the two readings somewhere along the line - hopefully now fixed! 

For others reading in the future - the sort of situation faced by the OP shows why it is good practise to check not only the total on your bill, but also that the readings marry up to what they should be. Even with smart meters - a sanity check to ensure that readings are correct quarterly is sensible, as is an eye over each bill that comes in to be sure that the smart readings are being used. The sort of situation that the OP here has had to sort out could have been altogether more challenging several months further down the line! 

SAjackie1

I think the post about the register order switch might be onto something. I don’t quite understand the reference, but assume it is about how different meters are calibrated differently for night readings, and the calibration grinds together when switching meters out. 

The one thing I got wrong in the narrative in the original post/s is that the £1900/£1800 thing happened in August. It is the same bill that all the nutty stuff happened with, not a July/August consecutive deal. The meter got switched out first week of September, then I got the August bill with the £1900/1800 schtick (which I didn’t notice). Then, that August bill was updated to £700 at night. The relevance of my mistaking the August bill as July is that all the crazy things happened in the month before the meter was changed, so it must have been the meter, likely the difference in calibration. So, while I don’t understand the register discussion, it sounds like that is probably what happened.

Octopus got my bill updated within 10 minutes of phoning, no arguing. He did say that they would check the job card (?) from the engineer, and that resolved it.

 What would be good next time they send me a £700 bill, is that they don’t do it at 16:57, where their phone lines close at 17:00.