British Gas, OVO, Octopus customers told to 'push button' by next weekend

Every British Gas, OVO, Octopus and EDF and EON customer should push one button on June 30. People are being urged to submit meter readings to their energy supplier on July 1 as the brand-new Ofgem energy price cap kicks in.

On many meters, there is a simple button to push that will illuminate the screen and show you your exact reading - that you can note down and send to your energy supplier. Citizens Advice explains: "You don’t normally need to read your smart meter.

"Smart meters normally send readings to your supplier automatically - this is known as ‘smart mode’." It adds: "A digital meter has an electronic or digital display. It will show 5 numbers in black or white, and might be followed by 1 or more red numbers."

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"If you get cheaper electricity at certain times, you might have a two rate (or ‘dual-rate’) meter. This means it will have 2 rows of numbers," it went on. "The top row (labelled ‘low’ or ‘night’) shows how many units of cheaper electricity you’ve used.

"The bottom row (labelled ‘normal’ or ‘day’) shows how many units of standard-price electricity you’ve used." It adds: "Some two rate (or ‘dual rate’) meters only have 1 digital display. They will either flash up the different rate readings in a cycle or have a button that you need to press to make the display cycle through the readings for the different rates.

"Most meters will have a label that tells you which rate is ‘low’ or ‘night’ and which is ‘high’ or ‘normal’. If there’s an ‘N’ on the label this will stand for ‘normal’ - it doesn’t stand for ‘night’. If you’re not sure which rate is which, make a note of the numbers in the morning and check again later that day.

"The number that’s changed must be your ‘high’ or ‘normal’ rate. "