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My bills have increased this month, am I being billed correctly?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
January 25, 2024
32 replies
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i think there might not be anything i can do since the gas per unit prices has increased in jan 2024 as announced before.

so OVO take my readings automatically which is correct, however i regularly chekc my account, it was £90 last i checked 2-3 days ago, when i checked yesterday, it has now shot up to £215...talk about having a heart attack lol.

my mum is on holiday so im currently in the house by myself in a three bedroom, i only use the heating for 5 hours per day since start of december. il show picture showin december 2023 and then this month:

^ left hand side is gas for decemebr, right being january this month.

how has it gone up 6x?

my last bill was £160 for gas and elec, now i could potentially pay in the next bill £330-£350

can someone help me with this please? is there a way round this at all?

Best answer by azam216

Updated on 05/12/25 by Ben_OVO

Hey guys, as I thought...OVO are now saying it's justified, please see their reply below:

I know you mentioned that you were worried we may have been accidentally billing you to cubic feet instead of metric units. I have had a metering agent in my team investigate your account and they have confirmed that your meter has never been billed to imperial units before and the billing is accurate.

Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues which means that the usage may look larger on some occasions due it accounting for multiple days of usage so when calculating your gas usage please remember to divide the amount used over the missed days as well to reflect your actual usage.

Regarding the high usage compared to your last billing period I have taken a look at your account and can see that from the 10/11/2023 to the 9/12/2023 your gas charges were £139.23 which does fall in line with this month's usage so I would advise taking a look to see if you have any new appliances or if your using your heating more than usual which is to be expected during winter.

To confirm, the meter is being billed accurately to metric units and we have been unable to detect any faults so the increased usage is likely due to a change in your household. For energy savings tips please feel free to consult your online account or check out the below links:

https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/energy-conservation/

https://www.cse.org.uk/

^^ wat U guys think?

We’ve got some other topics on the Forum which may also be helpful:

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Emmanuelle_OVO

Retired Moderator

Hey @azam216,

I’ll get Forum_Support to reach out, please keep an eye on your private messages.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

A

azam216AuthorSolved

Rank 4

Updated on 05/12/25 by Ben_OVO

Hey guys, as I thought...OVO are now saying it's justified, please see their reply below:

I know you mentioned that you were worried we may have been accidentally billing you to cubic feet instead of metric units. I have had a metering agent in my team investigate your account and they have confirmed that your meter has never been billed to imperial units before and the billing is accurate.

Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues which means that the usage may look larger on some occasions due it accounting for multiple days of usage so when calculating your gas usage please remember to divide the amount used over the missed days as well to reflect your actual usage.

Regarding the high usage compared to your last billing period I have taken a look at your account and can see that from the 10/11/2023 to the 9/12/2023 your gas charges were £139.23 which does fall in line with this month's usage so I would advise taking a look to see if you have any new appliances or if your using your heating more than usual which is to be expected during winter.

To confirm, the meter is being billed accurately to metric units and we have been unable to detect any faults so the increased usage is likely due to a change in your household. For energy savings tips please feel free to consult your online account or check out the below links:

https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/energy-conservation/

https://www.cse.org.uk/

^^ wat U guys think?

We’ve got some other topics on the Forum which may also be helpful:

Jeffus

Rank 20

Hey guys, as I thought...OVO are now saying it's justified, please see their reply below:

I know you mentioned that you were worried we may have been accidentally billing you to cubic feet instead of metric units. I have had a metering agent in my team investigate your account and they have confirmed that your meter has never been billed to imperial units before and the billing is accurate.

Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues which means that the usage may look larger on some occasions due it accounting for multiple days of usage so when calculating your gas usage please remember to divide the amount used over the missed days as well to reflect your actual usage.

Regarding the high usage compared to your last billing period I have taken a look at your account and can see that from the 10/11/2023 to the 9/12/2023 your gas charges were £139.23 which does fall in line with this month's usage so I would advise taking a look to see if you have any new appliances or if your using your heating more than usual which is to be expected during winter.

To confirm, the meter is being billed accurately to metric units and we have been unable to detect any faults so the increased usage is likely due to a change in your household. For energy savings tips please feel free to consult your online account or check out the below links:

https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/energy-conservation/

https://www.cse.org.uk/

^^ wat U guys think?

That looks reasonable

Everything from 15th Dec to 23rd Jan were simply an estimate, and in fact a low estimate to start with. Adjusted by a single manual reading.

You didn't get any smart meter reading in that period. They are not real usage. The drop between 14 and 15 Dec shows the issue with estimates

The 14 Dec and 24 Jan have similar data as they are both based on smart meter data and are real usage around 60kWh a day

You only get billed what is on this page. So keep an eye out to see if they have settled down to daily again. If you keep seeing missing daily readings contact ovo again. Entering more frequent manual readings when smart readings drop out will help if it happens again.

https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings

You don't get billed what is on this page which is your screenshot above

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage

The usage page can be very confusing when smart meter readings stop for whatever reason. Particularly as the estimated data can look real when it is displayed to 2 decimal places.

A

azam216Author

Rank 4

On OVO website it doesn't give me an option to regularly manually enter my readings.

I don't understand when they say "Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues "

^ but nothing missing, you can see all December to January unless they are referring to the below:

DateReadingType25 Jan 202408077.881Smart24 Jan 202408072Smart11 Jan 202407900Manual15 Dec 202307851.023Smart

Jeffus

Rank 20

On OVO website it doesn't give me an option to regularly manually enter my readings.

I don't understand when they say "Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues "

^ but nothing missing, you can see all December to January unless they are referring to the below:

DateReadingType25 Jan 202408077.881Smart24 Jan 202408072Smart11 Jan 202407900Manual15 Dec 202307851.023Smart

Yes I mean that data. That is what you are billed.

Everything on table on the usage page below is made up between 15th December and 23rd Jan

It is an estimate, it is not real. The split by day is a guess. It is not used for billing

Add up all the usage on this page between 15th Dec and 23rd Jan, then divide by the number of days. I can’t do it as the screen shot doesn't include all the days. Else i would do it for you. What does that work out as?

A

azam216Author

Rank 4

^ you can see from above all of december and january. i still have to contest what happened on january 11th till january 23rd. look at jan 24th till the 28th (yesterday)….its kind of in line of my normal use before 11th january.

i assure everyone that what happened between jan 11th-23rd is no different that any other day...in those 12 days i did not use more gas, i have used same amount of gas for my heating everyday….nothing more. i dont know what to do now

Jeffus

Rank 20

^ you can see from above all of december and january. i still have to contest what happened on january 11th till january 23rd. look at jan 24th till the 28th (yesterday)….its kind of in line of my normal use before 11th january.

i assure everyone that what happened between jan 11th-23rd is no different that any other day...in those 12 days i did not use more gas, i have used same amount of gas for my heating everyday….nothing more. i dont know what to do now

Hi,

I appreciate it is confusing.

So look at Jan 11th. It says £11.14

1. This isn’t what you used on this day

2. Your smart meter sent no information to OVO on that day

3. It is just the computer having an educated guess on usage to display on that page

5. You are not billed that amount.

Before I post anything else does that make sense?

A

azam216Author

Rank 4

Ok yes understood so far

Jeffus

Rank 20

On OVO website it doesn't give me an option to regularly manually enter my readings.

I don't understand when they say "Your meter is on daily readings however I have noticed that it does skip a few days likely due to signal issues "

^ but nothing missing, you can see all December to January unless they are referring to the below:

DateReadingType25 Jan 202408077.881Smart24 Jan 202408072Smart11 Jan 202407900Manual15 Dec 202307851.023Smart

Download the app and you can enter manual readings at any time if you find the smart meter readings are missing for a long time again.

Do this rather than the website for meter readings if it happens again

Jeffus

Rank 20

So... that was an example of the guess being too high.

Look at Dec 15th that is an example of the guess being too low

OK?

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My bills have increased this month, am I being billed correctly?

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