Fuse Energy & OFTM Reviews please ⚡️

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868834#Comment_81868834

Are you sure that the calorific value is stated as 39.8 and not 38.8?

Because I think the issue with the Fuse bills is that they round various figures on the bill, but the underlying calculation is using many more decimal places.

e.g. if I look at my bill, I see the sum of the cost of electricity £xx.52 + the cost of gas £xx.14 gives a total sum of £xxx.67. But if I calculate it out fully, it is really more like

electricity = £xx.52496

gas = £xx.14391

total = £xxx.66887, so rounded up it is £xxx.67

In your case, if you take the difference of your 2 meter readings you get 120.911.

Use that figure, and do a reverse calculation and you come up with a calorific value of 38.80933.

I know suppliers often use 3dp meter readings when you have a smart meter. I do not know how many dp Fuse use for the calorific value. (but it is not truncated to 1dp as per Ofgem guidelines)

It might be worth you checking what the official calorific value should be for your supply region & billing period.

Find gas data | National Gas Transmission Data Portal

The average for billing purposes should be truncated to 1dp as @molerat has correctly indicated earlier in this thread, and whilst the bill now only shows the calorific value to 1dp (I think rounded, rather than truncated), I do believe the underlying calculation is still being carried out using more than 1dp.

Also, check your previous bills to see if the supplier is using the fractional meter readings that I suggest they are.

Having said that, I do not have a smart meter, so the supplier should be using whole meter number readings for me, which they do, Yet when they subtract the opening read from the closing read, they often come up with a fraction. (always in my favour) I've not got to the bottom of that yet.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868574#Comment_81868574

Can I ask, what do you mean by "updated today"?

I think you should be using the average daily CV for each day the bill covers, so 01-Jan-2026 to 31-Jan-2026, take the average (add them all up and divide by the number of days, in this case 31) then truncate the result 1 dp.

Or is the website changing some or all the daily values given originally?

molerat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868998#Comment_81868998

National grid update the figures maybe 2 or 3 days after the initial release, if you look at the NG data there are "applicable at" and "generated time" fields which are often different to the "applicable for". That is why Fuse update the bill every month as they reassess the CV just before producing the next bill, I have 3p added for December's bill. That though should not happen in 99.9% of cases using the truncated to 1 decimal place rule as, for instance, 39.3 covers everything from 39.300 to 39.399 so those updated figures should make no difference to the billed figure. Using 3 decimal places, which they are prohibited from doing is of course a different matter.

gpman

Ahh..I see, so that would probably explain the bill correction figures I see on my bill this month. First time I've ever seen that, and with no explanation on the bill as what it related to, I sent off an email asking for a full explanation.

So my issue now is, because of these corrections that NG do, how do I check what values Fuse would have originally used if NG have since changed them? i.e. how do I check the bill correction is correct? And how do I check if the average for this month that Fuse have used is correct if NG have since updated the figures? (ignoring for now the fact that Fuse are not truncating correctly)

molerat

Probably checking on 1st and again at the end of the month but you can download all the data by selecting "all data" which gives as it suggests. Looking at mine there are 3 figures for 1 Jan, 39.4 generated at 10.33 1Jan, 39.4 generated at 10.33 2 Jan and 39.6 generated at 16.00 2 Jan so the last few days of the month could be updated after the bill is produced.

gpman

Thanks @molerat

I see that now. I wasn't looking at 'all data' before.

Interesting, as I've never had this sort of bill correction before from Fuse nor from any other supplier for that matter and there are other suppliers that produce a bill/statement as quickly as Fuse. (e,g, EDF, Octopus, etc) As you say, it probably doesn't make any difference when the CV is being correctly truncated

You probably sense I've changed my stance a little. Previously I didn't really care if the Fuse bill was a penny or two out (adopting the swings and roundabouts approach, coupled with the fact they are cheap anyway), but if they are going to quibble over a penny dating back to last October, then I can quibble with the best of them.

Leave it with me. Let the battle begin. I'm gathering the ammunition together now. The complaint has been filed, and when they give me the explanation as to what they are quibbling about, I'll return fire all guns blazing!

Or maybe they'll offer me £20 to keep me quiet. I think that'll more than cover any loss. I need to tread carefully as I don't want to unwittingly make them aware of the other mistakes they are making in my favour.

molerat

Fuse are pretty slow at producing a bill 🤨. I put my daughter's reads in to Eon just before 12 on Sunday lunchtime and downloaded the bill (which was correct to the 1p and understandable) at 16.32.

bagand96

Are you sure that the calorific value is stated as 39.8 and not 38.8?

The calorific value on the bill is definitely stated as 39.8, I copied and pasted from the PDF file.

I'll have a check through the CV data later to see what that comes out, I suspect you might be right, but the bill definitely states 39.8.

I've never had a bill correction that @molerat refers to, but I'll keep an eye out.

There something definitely off with their gas billing. It's in my favour this month so I'll keep quiet!

molerat

Have you checked your CV on the NG website ? https://data.nationalgas.com/find-gas-data

Just because the bill shows 39.8 does not necessarily mean that is the figure used in the calculation. It threw me at first but the bottom line is usually close to the correct amount, some of the figures shown in the calculation are just made up.

gpman

So I've crunched all the numbers (for me). I think I've now got to wait for Fuse to give me their explanation, as the bill corrections do not seem related at all to a changing CV from National Grid. In fact, I think Fuse have used the latest values, except for Jan where a couple of values were updated after the bill was produced (so I've allowed for this)

What I have discovered is this:

• Sept, Oct & Nov bills all stated a CV to 3dp, Dec & Jan only states CV to 1dp
• Sept & Oct CV as stated is correct to 3dp truncated, but Fuse appear to have used a CV value to 3dp rounded up for calculation purposes
  (If you were to round in the usual way, you would have rounded up for these months)
• The stated CV figures for Dec & Jan are rounded to 1dp, rather than truncated.
• The underying CV figure used for calculation purposes in Jan is again correct rounded up to 3dp (but if you were rounding, it should have been rounded down)
• I do not know where the CV figures Fuse used for Nov & Dec came from. They are close to the correct value but not close enough. Interestingly, or rather suspiciously, it appears the same CV figure was used for calculation purposes for both months rounded to 3dp. (The correct average values from National Grid data is not the same for both months)

I appreciate the CV should be truncated to 1dp for calculation purposes, but I'm leaving that out at the moment in an attempt to get to the bottom of the numbers. If a correctly truncated CV to 1dp is used, there should be no need to apply a bill correction later for any update National Grid applied. This is based on my supply region, it may not necessarily be true for all supply regions.

I've not worked out the full financial effect yet, but it is only a matter of pennies per bill, perhaps 10-15p at most in my worst case scenario. As there are so many possible options, I need Fuse to give me their full explanation first before I crunch the financial numbers.