Octopus Care

Octopus Care is an extra feature for customers who look after the Octopus account of an elderly or vulnerable loved one.

By using the Octopus Home Mini’s real-time readings, you can check recent energy activity to show you the last time your loved one switched something on in their home, right through the Octopus app.

After you've set up the Octopus Home Mini in your loved one's home, we'll send you a daily notification (usually via SMS) about whether they've switched any of their appliances on, so you'll have peace of mind knowing they're getting on with their day.

It’s nothing foolproof — smart meters can from time to time miss sending readings but we’ll let you know when we can’t get them, and of course, sometimes there’ll be no new activity because they’re just out and about.

Setting up Octopus Care

First thing's first, you'll both need to be Octopus Energy customers.

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You'll need:

1. To be added to your loved one's account

We'll need permission from the person you're caring for before we can add you to their account. They can either call us to confirm or send us an email at hello@octopusenergy.com.

Once your loved one has confirmed they're happy for you to be added to their account, we'll send them an email containing the Octopus Care T&Cs. They'll just need to respond to our email to confirm they agree to the T&Cs so we can get you up and running.

2. The Octopus Energy app

You can download it from the App Store or Google Play.

3. To head round to your loved one's home to set the Home Mini up

We'll post the Home Mini out to your address but you'll need to set it up in the home of your loved one (Octopus Care won't work otherwise).

Your loved one will need:

1. A smart meter

We’ll need to be connected to their smart meter and receiving regular readings. We'll then just need to make sure their smart meter is compatible with the Home Mini (although the Home Mini works with the majority of smart meters, there's a small handful it doesn't connect to due to industry wide issues).

If they don't have a smart meter, they can add their name to the list - we'll contact them as soon as there's appointments available (and don't worry, we won't inundate them with emails!).

2. A Wi-Fi network set up in their home

Sounds random but the Home Mini needs to connect up to Wi-Fi in order to work!

3. The Octopus Home Mini

We'll send the Octopus Home Mini to your address but you'll need to set it up in the home of your loved one.

We've put a 60 second video together to walk you through it and have an online guide to help with all of your Home Mini questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my loved one need to do anything?

They'll just need to send us an email or give us a call to confirm they're happy for you to be added to their account (if you're not on there already).

You'll then just need to head round to their house to set up the Home Mini (it should only take about 15 minutes).

Do I need to set the Octopus Home Mini up in my house or my loved one's?

We'll post the Home Mini out to you but it's really important you set it up in the home of your loved one using your Octopus Energy app.

We've put a 60 second video together to walk you through the set up.

When I will receive my first notification?

You should received your first notification the morning after you've set up Octopus Care.

Terms and Conditions

Octopus Care is an extra service for customers who have our Octopus Home Mini. Octopus Care is intended to provide you with extra insight to help your loved one, but should not be relied upon as a guaranteed source of energy usage data in the home or as the only way to check in.

You will need to be a ‘user’ on the energy account of the home where the Home Mini is installed. You will need to get permission from the account holder to be added to the account, if you are not authorised to speak on their behalf already.

Once you have opted into Octopus Care, we will send regular notifications about electricity use in the home where the Octopus Home Mini is installed. These notifications may be sent by SMS or via the Octopus app. We cannot guarantee that SMS or app notifications will always be received, as they do rely on third party systems to deliver that we do not have control over.

Octopus Energy will automatically collect data from the Octopus Home Mini at 10-second intervals for electricity and at 30-minute intervals for gas - this cannot be changed. This is a different process from collecting the data we need from the smart meter. Occasionally readings from the smart meter may be delayed coming through to us, if we do not receive them and cannot tell you what the energy usage is, we will let you know.

Although the Octopus Home Mini provides you with in-depth insights on consumption, we still need to collect meter readings from the smart meter. If you ask us to change the frequency of the readings we collect from the smart meter, it will not change the frequency of data we collect from the Octopus Home Mini. If you do not want us to collect data from the Octopus Home Mini, you will have to disconnect it yourself. For further information, please see our privacy policy.

Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!