Check your gas meters, I've overpaid by £1900 in 2 years!

Posted 16th Dec 2022

Just a heads up to anyone still submitting gas readings the old fashioned way.

For the last 2 years, Octopus have been converting my meter readings from cubic feet to cubic metres, done by multiplying by 2.83. My meter clearly states it is already reading in cubic metres so they should have missed that part of the equation when converting to kWh for billing.

This wasn't something I was aware was even a thing until I had a ridiculous bill come through. After going through my old bills, I have worked out Octopus owe us £1900. After a quick phone call, they agreed and have already credited the account with the amount.

Might be an isolated incident, but it's got to be worth a check!

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16th Dec
Went to check my meter. Remembered we don't have gas
16th Dec
Blimey’ now that is a good find
16th Dec
Well done OP, excellent result.
16th Dec
this is mine,tho it's gonna be 250 end of Dec with it being 7 💷 a day
16th Dec
Same as me, measured in m³ already
16th Dec
Wow, very well spotted 👏🏻 (edited)
16th Dec
Nice surprise...£1900 is a lot. Great timing for Christmas
16th Dec
Wow. Will check mine now.
16th Dec
Nice spot mate, hopefully will give you around 3-4 months worth of gas
16th Dec
Out of interest - why all the conversions? If meters read in cubic (feet or metres) why not price in same so people can work out their bills more easily? I'm sure there is a sensible reason I'm unaware of
16th Dec
The reason is because you buy and pay for your energy in Kilowatt Hours Kwh but the meter measures your gas usage in Cubic Metres (or cubic Feet). So the measure of a physical volume of gas needs to be converted into an expression of energy used and that conversion has to be done mathematically. Its a good question, why they do this, its a mystery why you don't just pay for the volume you use in CuM. Probably a good explanation out there somewhere.
17th Dec
Wow - good spot!
We still submit readings so will check the meter (edited)
17th Dec
Take the money out at get them to pay interest.
17th Dec
Well spotted. Can't imagine for one moment that you're the only customer affected.

This needs spreading far and wide. Excellent find!!
2 m ago
OP - great find. (edited)