Octopus want 80.00 to check 'their' smart meter?

debitcardmayhem

meggsz said:

Yes could well have been. Its showing itself to me I feel for sure as they have now gone and daily readings are pretty much the same as when I had them running... I just don't see why I have to risk 80.00 and then you've only got their word for it tooif they say its fine. Well they defiine fine as being up to 3.5% over...

Why not share the monthly readings you can access with us , and what percentage do you think it is out by.

Reed_Richards

hubb said:

 surprise surprise there has been some controversy in the media about their inaccuracy in Northern England, No thank you! 

I don't know what media you have been reading but I think it's in the media that the inaccuracy lies, or in your reporting of it @hubb.  There's a box that fits on top of your smart meter that does the communications.  In the north of England and Scotland you get a different box to the one in the south because it uses a different method of communication.  But the actual meter underneath the box is just the same so no more or less accurate wherever you are.

EssexHebridean

hubb said:

They try their best bless them to get me to have a smart meter but I keep sidestepping. I have had stick on these forums until mse closed the thread as it didn't follow the narrative. And surprise surprise there has been some controversy in the media about their inaccuracy in Northern England, No thank you! 

Btw - has anyone every won anything on spin the wheel after giving readings ? It's a swizz. 

Yep - I get Octopoints every time - and 4 spins a month now as two meters and two spins each. There have been threads on here previously as well where plenty of folk have won more than that. No "swizz", just a game of chance. 

I suspect the "stick" previously for stuff you may have said about smart meters was more likely to be because it was in itself inaccurate or untrue - that may not be your fault, you are right in that a lot is said in the media about them, a lot of that is scaremongering or simply not correct, but unfortunately as we see repeatedly on here, a lot of folk think that because something is said in the media, it must be true!  On here, we do try to ensure that we debunk and refute things that simply aren't true, and where appropriate give the correct information, as that is one way of ensuring that the conspiracy theorists don't get it all their own way! 

bagand96

Any device that measures anything will only be able to be manufactured to a certain accuracy (tolerance). Be it electric, gas, water, weight, speed, height etc. Generally increased accuracy will cost more.

The industry regulators have decided that for domestic electrical meters up to 2.5% over and 3.5% under is acceptable. 

This has nothing to do with smart meters it applies to all meters. Any meter can be accurate or inaccurate, any meter can develop a fault.

You'll only be charged £80 if the meter is found to be accurate, that's to cover their costs for replacing the meter and having it tested unnecessarily.

As @Gerry1 pointed out, there's easy tests you can do at home free of charge to give an idea of meter accuracy. Running a known load and counting the blips on the meter being the best. 

brianposter

One advantage of smart meters is that one can investigate in detail what has happened.

Surely the OP can get the half-hourly figures for electricity consumption at the time when the tanks were switched off and analyse precisely what happened at that time ?

Gerry1

hubb said:
Btw - has anyone every won anything on spin the wheel after giving readings ? It's a swizz. 

Not a swizz, I won £1.

Petriix

The great thing about smart meters is they record data which can be used to easily see if there's a fault or unexpected usage. You can (and should) download the data from Octopus and present it here along with details about the date you removed the fish tanks. We'll be able to tell you instantly whether there's an issue or not. No need for a call out unless the data shows something fishy. 

theoretica

Are you in a house or a flat?  In some flats there is the potential that the meter you think is yours is actually someone else's and you have both been paying the wrong bills.  Is your meter unquestionably yours?

Looking up some numbers online and running some calculations, I estimate removing 10 tropical fishtanks might reduce power usage by no more than 10kWh a day - call it 2500-2000kWh over a year.  Depending on your overall high usage this could seem like hardly changing, or not!

Ectophile

meggsz said:

I think its disgusting. If you have say Sky tv and they want x amount to send and engineer you can chose not to have Sky tv. They have forced these smart meters on us, they supply them, they control them and we have no choice but to have them, we cant just 'opt out or cancel' our electricity supply. £80? Feels like I'm being mugged to be chanrged to check 'their' meter...lol Shocking! 

Of course you can cancel your electric supply.  Contact your supplier and ask them to disconnect you.

MeteredOut

Ectophile said:

meggsz said:

I think its disgusting. If you have say Sky tv and they want x amount to send and engineer you can chose not to have Sky tv. They have forced these smart meters on us, they supply them, they control them and we have no choice but to have them, we cant just 'opt out or cancel' our electricity supply. £80? Feels like I'm being mugged to be chanrged to check 'their' meter...lol Shocking! 

Of course you can cancel your electric supply.  Contact your supplier and ask them to disconnect you.

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True, but don't tell them OP that they'll most likely still have to pay the standing charge whilst the meter is in place, or be asked to to pay to have it removed

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