Looking for advice — long-running Octopus Energy billing/metering issue (Ombudsman involved twice)

squirrelpie

I think part of the difficulty here is that I don’t have a technical background, so I’m trying to describe a very complicated metering and electrical situation in layman’s terms.

You may be right, and there are a lot of non-technical people in the world. You've been asked for pictures a couple of times, and they would really help technical people understand what is going on. Perhaps it's not as complicated as you think to someone who understands it?

I think it would also help you if you could find somebody local who understands enough of the technical stuff to look at it and help you. Maybe a neighbour, or a friendly local electrician, or maybe somewhere like your local Citizens Advice Bureau could suggest somebody?

QrizB

I think part of the difficulty here is that I don’t have a technical background, so I’m trying to describe a very complicated metering and electrical situation in layman’s terms

From what you've said recently, I think it's simpler than you think it is.

It sounds to be something like this:

• A single electrical supply cable into the property.
• A single DNO cut-out with DNO fuse.
• A single smart meter. This might be a five-port meter, or a four-port meter with external contactor.
• A permanent feed from the smart meter to two permanently-live consumer units.
• An E7 switched feed from the smart meter (potentially via that external contactor) to one E7 consumer unit.

There might possibly be a redundant DNO cut-out if the previous complex metering used two separate meters, but that's unlikely to be relevant any more.

A photo would let us confirm this interpretation, or correct it if it's wrong.

Littlemurf

Smart meter

QrizB

That looks like a fairly straightforward five-port E7 metering arrangement.

It's interesting that you've got a three-fuse DNO cut-ou that would normally be associated with a three-phase supply, but as you're only now using a single phase that's a historical curiosity and irrelevant to your current metering.