From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 17/06/2026 15:01, Peter Able wrote:

At least four barmy aspects.-a Can you spot them? Are there more that
I've missed?

We have charged you
Electricity (estimated) 1st June 2026 - 4th June 2026 - -u2.94 Gas-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a (estimated) 1st June 2026 - 4th June 2026 - -u1.22

...

Octopus 12M Fixed (1st June 2026 - 4th June 2026)
Energy Charges for Meter ************
1st June 2026 1005.0 Smart meter reading
5th June 2026 1005.0 Customer reading
Consumption 0.0 Units (m3)
Energy Used* -0.4 kWh @ 5.07p/kWh --u0.02
Standing Charge 4 days @ 29.62p/day -u1.18
Subtotal of charges before VAT -u1.16
VAT @ 5.00% -u0.06
Total Gas Charges -u1.22
For comparison, you used -999.90 kWh in the same period the
previous year.

* Your energy usage is calculated from your gas
consumption using a standard industry formula: ...

SNAFU

That reminds me of a conversation I had with a workmate when I started
work 60 years ago. He had just moved into a new address and registered himself as the new user of electricity. By return of post he got a bill
for -u0 0s and 0d (it was before decimalisation).

As it was a bill for nothing, he ignored it. He subsequently got a red
bill (ie overdue) with a warning that if he didn't pay the -u0 0s 0d
within 7 days the case would be passed to a debt collection agency. So
he put the red bill in the supplied return envelope with a cheque to pay
"Zero pounds, zero shillings and zero pence" for his outstanding bill.
That satisfied the supplier's computer, but the supplier put that cheque
with several others in a pack for their bank - and it crashed the bank computer because that hadn't been programmed to process a zero value.

The bank having a brief computer problem got a 1 inch mention in the
local paper but it didn't say what had gone wrong.


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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 17/06/2026 21:41, Peter Able wrote:

On 17/06/2026 20:28, NY wrote:

On 17/06/2026 17:36, Theo wrote:

What granularity does your smart gas meter send of its readings?-a 0.1
m3 is
quite a lot of gas, so presumably it must report in a smaller
granularity to
the mothership?

We're with Octopus and a smartphone app that talks to the In Home
Device (the little console) reports daily usage in kWhr to one decimal
place. Octopus's phone app (24 hours later) reports it to 2 dp, and
their web site reports it to 3 dp.

I've always wondered how much accuracy is justified and how much is
multiplying a fairly inexact volume in m^3 by a m^3-to-kWhr conversion
factor, and reporting the result to spurious accuracy.


I've noticed a funny with Octopus and gas. When their app and web site
eventually deign to give a reading for "yesterday", often as much as
15 hours after midnight when a new day begins, the figure is slightly
different to the figure for that same day, when reported a few days
later.

I've noticed that change of reading, too - and have reported it to Octopus.-a No interest shown.

At the moment, I cans see 48 16th June figures and 3 17th June figures.

Try downloading a month or two's data.-a Unbelievably slow.

For example, our website result for Mon 15 June was reported yesterday
as 40.2 kWhr (*) but today it's reported as 41.1 kWhr. That later
figure remains the definitive reading if I check again in a few
days/weeks.

It's as if they give a preliminary reading when they first quote a
reading, and then they slightly adjust it, sometimes upwards and
sometimes downwards, the following day to a final reading.


(*) That's also the figure given shortly after midnight on the phone
app which talks to the IHD.

There is no way that 1005.0 minus 1005.0 can produce 0.4 - let alone
-0.4 !-a The same applies to any X minus X, whatever the decimal granularity.

And I didn't pump just short of 1,000 kWh of gas back into Octopus over
the first few days of June 2025 !

I have noticed from my bills that the conversion from M3 to KWh isn't
always exactly the same. It varies slightly depending on the time of
year, presumably based on ambient temperature because the calorific
value for a given volume will depend on the temperature expansion
affecting the volume at the time the gas was used. That variability in
the calculation could explain your 0.4 if the two readings were far
enough apart to have different expansion values.

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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 18:32:38 +0100
Indy Jess John <bathwatchdog@OMITTHISgooglemail.com> wrote:

I have noticed from my bills that the conversion from M3 to KWh isn't
always exactly the same. It varies slightly depending on the time of
year, presumably based on ambient temperature because the calorific
value for a given volume will depend on the temperature expansion
affecting the volume at the time the gas was used. That variability
in the calculation could explain your 0.4 if the two readings were
far enough apart to have different expansion values.

Also the exact composition of the gas, which will depend on its source.
--
Joe

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