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 13/03/25 by Abby_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:
hmmm oh well...i appreciate your explanation and taking out your time, im truly grateful
Given the issues with missing smart meter data, I suggest you run this. It should help ovo diagnose if anything is wrong with your meter and if there is anything they can do. It isn't easy for you with so much missing smart meter data.
I have turned down my boiler, reduced the time the heating is on, and lowered the temperature and yet my bill keeps going up and up and up!! It doesn't make sense!
This comment is intended for initial triage. You’re seeing this because it looks like you didn’t provide enough details
We need more details to help us figure this out. Please remember that Forum Volunteers can’t access your account, so you need to help us to help you.
Things like your meter reading history and what your heating/hot water is would help a ton. Without that kind of info, we’re unable to advise accurately.
Hi @CharlotteT, and a warm welcome to the OVO Forum.
Sorry to hear of the usage concerns you have - always very frustrating! As @Blastoise186 has helpfully mentioned, we’ll need some more info to go on here. Reading history would be great, but if you send in any more screenshots remember to blur out / erase any personal details and also your meter details. Here’s an example of a screenshot I took but with the meter serial number erased (I used Microsoft Paint, but your phone or PC will have other options as well):
One thing I’d recommend looking into - in your own screenshot you can see the top box that talks about booking a visit with an Energy Expert. This may be of help to you, and only costs £25 at the moment instead of the usual £100, however you do need to be a homeowner to get this service. If that’s the case I’d really recommend it as it will shed some light on where the high usage is.
If you’re renting the property you won’t be able to have this service, but I’d recommend doing a google search of energy advice companies in your local area. You’ll probably find that there are charities to give this advice, as well as maybe your local council. We also have some great energy saving tips on our website.
Is it smart meters that you have in your home? If so, check the ‘Usage’ section, as this will give you an idea of when the Usage is highest during the day / night. There’s a guide for this here:
If you don’t have smart meters you’ll need to make sure you’re submitting regular reads, otherwise the account will be based on estimates. We’ll wait for you to come back to us with some more info on this - hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it!
We use 3 different kinds of cookies. You can choose which cookies you want to accept. We need basic cookies to make this site work, therefore these are the minimum you can select. Learn more about our cookies.
