If the noise seems to be a short recurring beep, make sure it's not a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide detector nearby that's running low on battery.

If the meter appears to be humming, check if there's anything leaning on the meter or nearby surfaces which might be causing a vibrating noise.

If none of the above seems to be the case, please do the following:

My meter is buzzing / making a noise

Your meter might be sleeping! Press one of the buttons on the meter to see if it wakes up.

If you have a prepayment meter and the screen shows the word "OFF", then you will need to reconnect that meter before you can use electricity or gas.

Why is my meter screen blank?

 is one of our cutting edge beta smart tariffs. Built with fairness in mind, it features energy prices that change daily based on the wholesale cost of energy (i.e what we pay for it).

Whether you’re brand new to Octopus, or you’re already a customer of ours, head to our Octopus Tracker page below to sign up and get all the information you'll need.

Tracker requires the submission of monthly meter readings, and may require the future installation of a smart meter.

What is Octopus Tracker, and how do I join?

On the Octopus Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff, customers get paid for any electricity they export to the grid (via home solar generation, smart batteries, wind turbines, biogas, biomass, CCGT, CHP, crop, hydro and more).

Customers earn a flat rate of 4.1p/kWh for every unit of power they export.

We have a few different export tariff options. 

You can read more about our smart Outgoing Octopus tariff here

Our SEG tariff is perfect for people who’d like to join Octopus for their energy export, but stay with a different supplier for their import tariff (i.e., the power your home uses from the grid). It’s also a great option for people who want to use Octopus Go for their import tariff, and are also keen to keep getting paid for their exports at the same time.

How do I join Octopus’ Smart Export Guarantee tariff?

Whether you’re brand new to Octopus, or you’re already a customer of ours, once you're sure that you meet the criteria below, 

Sign up to Octopus Smart Export Guarantee

If you’re looking to export anything other than energy generated by solar PV, you should get in touch with 

 as you will likely not have an MCS certificate - which contains the details we would usually use to sign you up.

If you’re interested in exporting energy generated by home solar PV via our Smart Export Guarantee tariff, then there’s a few things that you’ll need:

Once you have the information above, you can 

get started with Octopus' Smart Export Guarantee tariff

What is the Smart Export Guarantee Tariff, and how do I join?

 enables customers to get paid for any energy that they produce at home and export to the grid. Our successor to the feed-in tariff (FIT), Outgoing Octopus is perfect for homes with solar panels, battery storage, or any other way of sharing energy back to the grid. The tariff comes in two forms: Fixed or Agile. Outgoing Fixed guarantees 15p per kWh for every unit you export. Outgoing Agile matches your half-hourly prices with day-ahead wholesale rates.

Whether you’re brand new to Octopus, or you’re already a customer of ours, head to our Outgoing Octopus page below to sign up and get all the information you'll need.

You’ll first need a smart meter we can get half-hourly readings from (either a second generation ‘SMETS2’ meter or a first generation ‘SMETS1’ meter made by Secure). 

Here’s how to work out what type of meter you have.

If you don’t have a suitable smart meter yet, you can still sign up for Agile and we’ll get in contact with you to arrange a smart meter installation as soon as possible.

Please note, there may be times when we can’t install your smart meter right away. This is generally due to local Covid restrictions, WAN coverage in your area, and engineer availability. If you're interested in finding out more, we've written a blog explaining 

why we can’t always give an exact timeframe for your smart meter installation

Currently, you can't be on both outgoingOctopus and OctopusGo, our EV tariff, at the same time.

What is Outgoing Octopus, and how do I join?

 is one of our beta smart tariffs, specifically designed to help electric vehicle drivers charge up on greener, cheaper power overnight.

Octopus Go customers get super cheap electricity for 7.5p / kWh between 00:30 - 04:30 every night, so they can charge up their EV for a tenth of the price of a traditional car, and keep charging costs as low as 2p per mile.

Octopus Go offers a fixed price for the rest of the day (hours between 04.31 and 00.29). [Check your Octopus Go daytime unit price and standing charge 

Whether you’re brand new to Octopus, or you’re already a customer of ours, head to our Octopus Go page below to sign up and get all the information you'll need:

Here’s how to work out what type of meter you have

Please note, there may be times when we can’t install your smart meter right away. This is generally due to local Covid restrictions, WAN coverage in your area, and engineer availability. To find out more, we've written a blog explaining 

What is Octopus Go, and how do I join?

An ‘Economy 7’ setup (also known as eco 7, two rate, or peak / offpeak tariff) has two different energy prices per day – a day rate, and a 7 hour long cheaper rate overnight. This means you pay less for any energy you use at night (usually between 12:00am and 7:00am) and more for energy used during the day (usually between 7:00am and 12:00am).

Originally designed to benefit homes with storage heaters that would heat up overnight, the tariff can also be useful for anyone who uses lots of power during the night.

Unsure how to read your meter? Try reading 

our comprehensive guide to taking readings

 from various types of electricity and gas meters here.

I’ve got an Economy 7 meter - how do I know which reading is which?

It’s important to get this right as mixing up day and night readings can lead to inaccurate bills. Older electricity meters usually have labels for each register. If your meter doesn’t then don’t worry: there’s a simple test to find out which reading is peak and off-peak.

Take a reading after 8.30am but before 11pm, then another reading 1 hour later. If you’re able, try to make sure you’re using electricity during this period; turn on some lights or boil the kettle a few times. When you look at the second reading, whichever register has recorded usage will be your peak reading.

If your readings have got mixed up at any point, don’t worry! As long as we can confirm which reading is which, we’ll be able to get everything fixed.

My meter only has one reading, why are you asking me for two?

 and you’re sure there’s no second reading, please do get in touch. We might have received incorrect info from the industry database used by energy companies and need to correct it.

The best thing to do is take a clear photo of your meter and 

. We’ll check what’s going on and get everything fixed.

What is an Economy 7 meter and tariff?

 is one of our beta smart tariffs, offering customers electricity prices that change every half an hour, based on the wholesale price of energy.

Why? Outside of daily energy ‘rush hours’ (usually between 4pm and 7pm, when everyone’s generally using a lot of power, i.e. dinner time) 

wholesale energy tends to be a lot cheaper

 (and greener – a much higher % coming from renewable sources).

On Agile, if you can shift when you use power outside of these busy times, you can access cheap ‘off-peak’ prices and potentially save some cash, while using the greenest electrons available and reducing strain on the energy grid.

Agile is perfect for people with electric cars, heat pumps, home batteries and any other big energy-intensive appliances.

We wrote this report when we first released Agile Octopus, so the cap, rates and standing charges mentioned have now been updated to reflect market changes.

Whether you’re brand new to Octopus, or you’re already a customer of ours, head to our Agile Octopus page below to sign up and get all the information you need:

You’ll first need a smart meter we can get half-hourly meter readings from (either a second generation ‘SMETS2’ meter or a first generation ‘SMETS1’ meter made by Secure). 

 What is Agile Octopus, and how do I join?

We can connect to any SMETS2 smart meter and some SMETS1 smart meters (such as those made by the brand Secure™). We will automatically try to connect after you've switched but may still ask you to send your first set of meter readings manually.

If we are unable to connect to your SMETS1 meter, it will become "dumb" and work like a normal meter so you'll need to give us manual meter readings. Across the industry, SMETS1 meters are in the process of being upgraded to stay smart when you switch supplier. We will be in contact to let you know when we're making your meter smart again.

What happens if I have a smart meter?

Yes! We currently support traditional prepayment meters for electricity and gas. Please 

 with your name and full address and we’ll get you on board.

Do you support prepayment meters?

We'll send someone to collect a reading from your meters if you're unable to take your own meter readings, or you haven't given us one in several months.

The people who'll come round to collect your readings are from two independent meter engineers called 

. These meter readers will be wearing branded uniforms featuring one of these logos:


We only send meter readers around because it's really important to keep your energy account in good health - ensuring you're not overpaying for your energy, or underpaying and building up a surprise debt. The best way you can make sure you're paying the right monthly amount to cover your energy bill is to take regular meter readings.

We remind you each month about readings, but if you haven't given us any for a while - and we mean, a while - we might send a meter reader around to take them. We need, at the very least, one valid meter reading every year.

Do you send meter readers around?

Friendly credit hours are a feature on prepayment electricity meters that let customers keep using electricity, even after you run out of credit (or emergency credit) during evenings, weekends or Bank Holidays.

Our friendly credit hours depend on whether you have a traditional (non-smart) or smart prepayment meter.

If you run out of credit during these times, the supply won't shut off

. Instead, the cost of any energy you use will be added onto your meter as debt, and will then be deducted the next time you top-up.

You'll move automatically onto 'friendly credit' if you hit £0 on your meter.

Why are there no 'friendly credit' hours industry-wide for traditional prepayment gas meters?

A traditional (non-smart) gas meter will turn off if it reaches £0 at any time. Don't worry, we provide £5 emergency credit so you have time to top up without your gas switching off. In Winter (between November and March), we double it to £10 to give you an extra bit of leeway.

For traditional (non-smart) meters, once you are down to the last £1 of your electricity credit or £2 of your gas credit, you just need to insert your electricity key or gas card to activate the emergency credit.

Please be aware that the emergency credit will be taken in full next time you top up.

If your electricity switches off during friendly credit hours, something else might be going wrong – 

here's what to do when you've got no gas or electricity

What are Octopus Energy's friendly credit hours for customers with prepayment meters?

We like to make sure your bills are as accurate as possible – so you're only ever getting billed for the energy you're really using. That's why we send email reminders to take meter readings every month, unless you have a smart meter we're able to read automatically.

If you have a smart meter, there are a few reasons we might've still asked for a meter reading:

No matter what type of meter you've got, we do need you to submit your very first reading manually. After that, we can connect to your smart meter remotely to take automatic readings if it's a second generation (SMETS2), or a first generation (SMETS1) Secure meter (i.e. says "Secure" on the front). Here's a 

video guide for reading your Secure smart meter

, and a written step-by-step guides for reading your Secure 

2. Your smart meter isn't one we can connect to

If your smart meter is a first generation (SMETS1) that wasn't made by Secure, then we won't be able to link up to it automatically after you switch. The meter will be absolutely fine, but it'll lose it's ‘smart' benefits. It'll behave like a traditional meter, so your in-home display monitor might not work, and you'll need to give us meter readings manually for the time being. Here's 

how to take readings from your non-Secure smart meter

 and the national smart meter roll out here.

3. We installed your meter and we're still connecting to it.

It can take a little while to get your new meter linked up to us after it's been installed. Generally, it takes about 14 days to get all your meter details into our systems, and another few days after that to fully connect so that we're able to take readings automatically.

While we're waiting for your meter to connect, you may receive an email asking for a meter reading. You don't need to do anything if you get this email, as your final meter reading from your old meter will have been taken already by our engineer.

If you receive this email, it just means we're still trying to connect to your new smart meter. If you receive it more 14 days after we installed your meter, 

I have a smart meter - why are you asking for meter readings?

We're installing SMETS2 smart meters now, but area-by-area, which means you'll need to wait til we're installing in your area. We aim to have offered appointments to all customers by the end of 2021.

 and we'll be in touch when there are installations available near you.

When can I get a smart meter?

If you've got a traditional meter, or a smart meter that's in 'dumb' mode, we recommend sending in a reading every month – or if not, as often as you can.

If you have a smart meter that we're connected to, you don't need to worry about sending us readings as we can take these automatically.

When you give us meter readings, we can see how much energy you've really used, and base your bills on that instead of estimating how much you've used. As well as making your bills more accurate, regular meter readings give us a clear picture of your energy use over time, which makes our forecasts of your payments and energy costs much more accurate as well.

It's also a good idea - if you don't have a connected smart meter - to send us a meter reading when your tariff is changing. This ensures any usage you're billed for is completely accurate.

If you're a Flexible Octopus customer, you'll be notified ahead of time when your prices will change. If you want a completely accurate bill, you're best to submit a reading on - or close to - the date your prices change. For example, if your tariff is changing on April 2nd, submit a reading sometime on the 2nd.

However, if you aren't able to provide a reading: don't panic! No one will be massively disadvantaged if they can't send us one. Octopus will still need a reading for that date, but we'll estimate one from your last meter reading instead. This will probably only be a few units off what the actual reading is, if you were able to provide it.

send us a meter reading at any time here.

When should I send a meter reading?

We'd love to be able to show you your smart tariff pricing (whether for Agile, Go, or any other) on your IHD, but the sheer number of requests that would be needed to display the dynamic, complex pricing on the screen makes it incredibly challenging. This is one of the reasons our smart tariffs are in beta, and we're working to smooth out challenges like this all the time.

We will always give you an In-Home Display when we install a smart meter, but there are 

better ways to track your energy use if you’re on one of our smart tariffs.

 You can now access all the same information directly on your smartphone (which saves you from getting up to tinker with a physical screen near your meter!)

There’s a few different options you can try:

 shows you upcoming daily Agile Octopus prices, and records your half hourly meter readings, consumption info and more in a handy dashboard – head to ‘

Our site is also optimised to work well on all mobiles, so logging in via your browser is the quickest and easiest way to check on things. You can download your online account in an iOS app, or 

even pin a shortcut to your homescreen for an app-like experience

We’re lucky to have an active smart energy community, full of brilliant people who’ve created their own ways for other customers to use to monitor their energy – websites and apps like 

OR, if you want to get your geek on, you could have a go at analysing your data yourself with our open API by heading to our 

If your IHD isn’t working at all, and you’re very keen to have it on, there’re a few troubleshooting tips you can try here, and if those don’t help, just 

I’m on a smart tariff and my meter’s In-Home Display (IHD) screen isn’t working properly

Smart meters are the next generation of metering technology. We're only installing the 

, also known as SMETS2 smart meters. Not only do they save the hassle of giving monthly meter reads, they could save you money! No more estimated bills, and access to all of our most 

Just register your interest in a smart meter here

 - we'll be in touch when we have appointments available in your area.

 - you should see a pop-up and you'll just need to pick a date and time that works for you and we'll sort the rest.

 for full details of the measures we've put in place to keep you and our engineers safe.

Why wouldn't I be able to get a smart meter installed?

Although smart meters will work in most properties, there are a few factors that may mean we can't install one for you just yet:

If you're wondering whether this applies to your home, please 

 and we'll be able to confirm either way. If you're not a customer of ours yet, just ask your current supplier.

What is a smart meter and can I have one?

At Octopus Energy, we can automatically read second generation (SMETS2) and Secure™  first generation (SMETS1) smart meters. But there are lots of different types of smart meters installed around the UK.

Here's our ultimate guide to taking manual readings from a smart meter, whatever type you might have...

If you have a first generation Secure™ smart meter that was installed by Octopus, 

find out how to take readings from it here

Your electricity reading will be a number followed by “KWH”. We don't need the numbers after the decimal place.

If your meter has more than one unit rate (for example, if you're on an Economy 7 tariff), you'll have to take a reading for each rate. 

The two readings will appear one after the other — generally followed by “R1” and “R2” (Rate 1 and Rate 2). There is no set rule as to which one is your peak rate reading and which is your offpeak. Your meter might have a sticky label indicating which is which, though.

After R1 and R2, a third reading might appear onscreen — “T”. This is the total of your peak and offpeak readings combined. You don't need to give us this one.

If your meter has a green A and a white B button:

If your meter has three unmarked buttons:

If your meter has an orange button and a blue button:

*If your meter has two buttons marked Reconnect and Display Select:

Your gas reading will be a number followed by “m3”. We don't need the numbers after the decimal place.

If your meter has three square red buttons (they might be labelled A, B, and C):

If your meter has a left arrow, a circle and a right arrow:

If your meter has orange and blue arrow buttons:

How do I read my non-Octopus smart meter?

Your In-Home Display (or IHD) is the little screen that comes with your smart meter and displays info about your energy consumption. Even if the screen doesn’t appear to be working, there’s a good chance we’re still fully connected to your smart meter with everything working fine.

Smart meters are great but they’re also complex – there are tens of thousands of different combinations of smart meter hard- and firmware currently in use around the UK, and they connect through a number of different companies and networks. This means from time to time, the connection can hit a speedbump, and bits of third party tech like IHDs don’t always work perfectly.

If you can see regular meter readings appearing on your 

, it means your smart meter itself is working fine and we’re connected. If readings aren’t appearing (or haven’t in more than 3 days), it’s more likely there’s a connection issue with your smart meter: just 

You can easily monitor your energy use online

The good news is there are other simple ways to monitor your energy consumption. Your 

 dashboard has a lot of the same info and you can access it easily from your phone or computer. You can also 

pin a shortcut to your phone’s home screen

 for an app-like experience, or download your online account as an app for iOS.

 and our energy experts will be happy to take a look.

Why isn’t my Smart Meter’s In Home Display (IHD) screen working?

We're big supporters of the Government's target to get a smart meter in every home by 2025. This will help people manage how and when they use energy - saving money, carbon and the planet. We've been powering ahead with smart meter roll out. Thanks to a great response from our customers, we installed 466,000 smart meters last year. We are all set for a further ramp up in 2022.

The Government has a formula for each energy retailers' 2022 smart meter target, which is based on the number of customers they have. According to this, our target is to install 294,892 gas and 307,987 electricity meters by the end of the year, a breakdown of which is provided below. This target has shot up because we have taken on the customers of Avro after it exited the market, and Avro was behind on its roll out programme. We are worried that a big push on smart meters is not the right thing for customers who have just experienced a retailer failure, and could damage hitting the 2025 target.

These are unprecedented times and the impacts of supplier failures will not have been in Government's thinking when forming the rules. We're in active and positive engagement with government and the regulator to agree a roll out strategy for 2022 that works for all our customers and toward the overall success of the smart meter rollout.

For those needing more specific detail, our targets are:

Domestic Credit
Gas: 292,892
Elec: 303,937

Domestic Prepayment
Gas: 1,600
Elec: 1,900

Non-Domestic Credit
Gas: 350
Elec: 2,150

What are your smart meter targets?

If you’ve realised you put the wrong reading in after you submitted it, (whether you mixed up electric and gas readings, added an extra digit, made a typo or anything else) don’t worry.

Please submit a new meter reading, and we'll generate a new, corrected bill for your account. You can submit reads in your 

I accidentally sent an incorrect reading, what should I do?

Send us a reading at any time by clicking here

There are a few different kinds of meters out there, so we’ve put together guides for taking manual readings from all of them. It’s super easy to do.

how to work out what type of meter you have

If you know which type yours is already, jump straight to right guide below

Usually your smart meter is pretty ace at sending us meter readings automatically, so you don’t have to. But there are some cases where you’ll need to 

 – for example, your first ever meter reading after you switch.

Without meter readings, your bills are based on guesswork. We have to estimate how much power we think you’re using, and if we guess wrong, you can end up either paying too much every month, or not enough – which 

could leave you with a big surprise bill to pay down the line.

So regular meter readings are really important.

We know it’s a bit of a boring job, but we’ve made it really simple and quick:

Every time you submit a reading, you get to spin a wheel of fortune for a chance to win up to £512 in credit.

How do I read my meter?

Your smart meter will have a fixed off-peak 7 hour period from 00:30 to 07:30. This time period takes place according to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), so during British Summer Time (BST) the 7 hour period will take place between 01:30 and 08:30. This may differ from your existing off-peak period on your current non-smart meter.

What happens to my Economy Seven (E7) tariff when I have a smart meter installed?

Sure thing! If a standard 2 rate tariff doesn’t suit you because you use most of your energy during the day, we can switch you to a flat rate where electricity is the same price, night and day. 

I have an Economy 7 meter. Can I be on a flat rate tariff?

This likely means our system thinks you have an Economy 7 meter.

On Economy 7, you have a day price and a night price for your energy, instead of a flat price all the time. Economy 7 gives you access to cheaper electricity at night (via a cheaper night rate) and slightly pricier energy during the day (via a more expensive day rate). Sometimes you have to press a button on your meter to show your second (nighttime) reading.

If an Economy 7 setup doesn’t suit you, just 

 – we can switch you to a flat rate where your electricity is the same price, night and day.

If you’re pretty sure that there’s no second reading on your meter, 

 as we might’ve received incorrect info about your meter from the industry database and need to correct it.

Meters

Including any questions you have about your old supplier.

What can we help you with?