British Gas, EDF, OVO, Octopus customers must 'take picture' before midnight

A new energy price cap kicks in on Tuesday October 1, with the new rates from 00.01am.

British Gas, OVO, EDF, EON and Octopus customers have 24 hours to lodge a meter reading before midnight or risk being OVERCHARGED. A new energy price cap kicks in on Tuesday October 1, with the new rates from 00.01am.

British Gas, OVO, EDF, EON and Octopus households are being told to enter details of their meter readings before the cap - though, for some firms, you CAN backdate it. Martin Lewis has urged households to be aware of the importance of taking a meter reading.

And customers are also told to take a picture, with Mr Lewis saying it is good to keep a record. Standard meters are the most common, and have one row of numbers. To read your meter, read the numbers from left to right, including any zeros.

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Ignore any numbers after the decimal point or in red. If you have a dial/clock meter it will have six dials. To take your meter reading, you'll need to read the five dials on the top row. To read your Dial (Clock) meter, read the digits from left to right.

If the dial is between two numbers, round down to the lowest number. If the dial is between 9 and 0, round down to 9. Ignore any dials in red. Economy 7 (Day/Night) Meters have two rows of numbers to separately record the electricity you use during both day and night. These rows may be labelled as Day and Night, 1/I (Night) and 2/II (Day) or Low (Night) and Normal (Day)

To read your meter, for each row, read the numbers from left to right, including any zeros Ignore any numbers after the decimal point or in red. Digital meters have an electronic display which changes automatically. You may also have a blue button which allows you to scroll through the screens.

For 24-hour rate customers, scroll or wait until you see the screen with 'KWH' - this is your reading. Write down the numbers from left to right, including any zeros, and ignoring any numbers after the decimal point. For Day/Night (Nightsaver/Weekender) rate customers, scroll or wait until you see the 'R1' and 'R2' screens. R1 is your Day reading, and R2 is your Night reading.

Write down the numbers on the screen from right to left, including any zeros, and ignoring any numbers after the decimal point. Some Nightsaver customers may also have a 'R3' reading, if you have a separately metered storage heater.