Desperately Need Help With Octopus Energy

SAC2334

Firstly look on the menu s of the two meters .I m presuming they are gas and electric smart meters on smart prepayment kWh rates which are the lowest rates nowadays for people not on a fixed tariff

Really have to check that there's not a large debt repayment amount on each meter..As a meter reader I once found a debt of £9000 added on the gas meter alone due to long term energy theft although £2000 debt is not at all uncommon just by getting into debt on credit meters which then would trigger replacement to prepayment meters ..Any future meter changes would keep on to smart prepayment

I m retired now and don't know the sequence s to check smart prepayment meters to access the debt repay mode but they are available online how to do it . You really have to sort this out first .

Reed_Richards

A slowly-running hot tap, even as little as a quarter of a litre an hour (half a pint an hour, in old money) would be enough to account for it.

That's a litre every 4 hours, so six litres a day. That can't be right, can it @QrizB? A typical 5 minute shower uses at least ten times that volume of water.

QrizB

Sorry, my error, that should be per minute, not per hour. And it's half a litre, not a quarter. The minute/hour was a typo, the quarter/half was me confusing myself with metric and imperial conversion.

500ml per minute is ~8ml a second.

To heat 8ml of water by 50C takes 1680 joules. 1680 joules per second is 1.68kW. 1.68kW continuously for 24 hours is ~40kWh.

TroubledTarts

All electric panel heaters over winter, all electric shower used for long showers, immersion set on all day.

Just a few things that spring to mind.

unfitfinlay

Hi everyone. Thanks for the responses and sorry for taking so long to reply. I don't live near her, so I'm relying on her to get back to me with answers. The stress is really taking it's toll on her as well, so that hasn't made it easy.

Here's what I know. It's just gas and electric meters and it's £10 a day each on both. No immersion heaters and she barely uses any energy at all, particularly the gas.

I asked her about the meters and she said that there was a gas leak a few years ago and she said she "no longer has access to them". There's a "thing" on them that stops her from accessing it. I'm really confused by this myself, I'll try and get her to take a picture when she's in a better headspace. The leak has been repaired, and Octopus and her Landlord have confirmed that that's fine.

I'll try and get her to confirm the tariffs well.

One thing that's been on my mind is that, when her former neighbours moved out, she suddenly had no hot water or heating. The Council (their landlord) had to come out and do "something" in their flat to fix the heating in her flat. That makes me think that she's paying for their usage. Come to think of it, the problems only started when her previous neighbour passed away and new ones moved in. If this is the case then who would we report it to? There'd be two different landlords and potentially two different energy suppliers involved?

Thanks again for any advice. I realise it's a bit of a convoluted update so I'll try and get more information from her as soon as I can.

WiserMiser

It's nothing to do with your energy supplier at this stage.

It sounds like the meters are in a locked cupboard or meter room. You need to gain access, supervised if necessary, and carry out the Meter Sanity Test as previously advised. Insist on this and be prepared to make a fuss if necessary.

You may well find that she is paying for a neighbour's use.

Crossed meters are relatively common, especially in new builds. Often these properties start with having only Plot Numbers and the official addresses follow later on. Unfortunately the transition is not always linear, e.g. Plots 1, 2, 3 & 4 may become Flats 3, 4, 1 & 2 but the meter labels are not updated.

If the occupants are of similar numbers, ages, lifestyles and comfort sensibilities (quite likely with new builds and young couples) the problem may not be noticed for many years until there's a void period or change of occupier.