Brand new home Energy bills seem to be extortionate

Jasond

Good morning all,

so im a new home owner and I bought a three bed house for myself (lucky me). now when I moved in the house already had British Gas installed, and within a month I had Octopus energy knocking on the door saying they can bring my bills down to £34 per month for electric and around the same for gas if I remember right.

now between the time of switching and now nothing in the house has changed, I'm still the only occupant, I shower 1x a day and take less than 5mins to do so, I don't leave taps running and I use only 1 of the 3 toilets and 1 of the bathrooms. (electric powered shower).

when im in the house in the day if I have no work on I have the tv on and ill boil the kettle around 5x a day (doesn't seem bad to me).

on a night I have 2 LED lights on in the house, one for the kitchen counters and my living room corner lamp and the TV... again I don't think this is by far excessive?

so I have been sending readings since I was with them via their app which takes a photo its self and you confirm the reading in hind sight seems brilliant.

yet my electricity bill has gone from £34pm to £70? in less than 5 months...

now I've just turned my mains off at the fuse box this morning and checked for usage on the meter and it didn't budge at all. im now testing for a further hour with the house sat idling. to see what that does.

I woke up this morning and the smart reader was showing 0.00kWh's and id used 38p since midnight. I took a shower and that jumped to 51p.

when im looking the house is idling at 0.02pkWh and if I put the TV on its at 0.03kWh.

with my workings out I should be averaging £28pm for electric?

I asked my mum about their usage and bare in mind they're retired and there are two of them in the house using the house daily and comfortably they are using less than £25pm.... and their house is from the 60's!

something to me isn't adding up and I can't put a finger on what's going on? and ideas?

matelodave

Who guessed what your energy consumption was going to be. If you hadn't been in the house and diden't give them your own figures then you wont have had an accurated estimated of what your annual energy consumption was going to be.

What sort of heating have you got is it an all electric place and have you got gas?

Don't assume that the in house display is accurate - start reading the meter it'self in kwh and keep your own records. Do it daily for a week or so and then weekly. Bear in mind that this is the coldest time of the year so you will use significantly more energy between November and March then you will in the rest of the year.

TBH £34 a month is unfeasibly low so you've probably ramped up a £100 or more in debit already - have you checked your on line account to actually see what you've been using.

As you've only been there 5 months you should be able to work out how much energy you've used in kwh (take the initial reading away from todays reading) and multiply it by the tariff. Add on roughly how many days worth of standing charge and that will give you the cost of energy that you've used so far (dont forget to add 5% VAT).

Now take away how much you've already paid (say 5 months at £34 = £170) and that will show you how much you owe.

You should get into the habit of checking your on-line account at least once a month and ensuring that it lines up with your meter readings - if it doesn't get it corrected. You will also see whether your DD is actually going to cover your consumption.

Quentin

Does the consumption on your bills reflect the figures you have been sending in, or are they (over) estimated?

Robin9

You've already identified one of the big users - your shower. Ignore the TV, PC, kettle - what matters is the heating and to a lesser extent your cooking. Trying to compare with your parents or the man in the pub is also folly. What matters is what you use.

As you already send in the readings do you actually look at your bills ? Does the letter E appear against any of the readings. Can you post your actual readings from when you swopped to Octopus and now please.

PS Have you left the immersion heater switched on ?

Jasond

when you say £34 is unfeasible im having to disagree as others in the area on the same building site are using less than me with 3/4 people in their homes...

I have an intolerance to heat so my heating (gas) only comes on 2x a day at 6:30pm for around 2 hours and then doesn't come on again until 6am the next day for an hour. and the house sits between 15c and 19c depending on the temp outside.

right now so far today the house is idling at 0.00kWh's with nothing actually on physically like the TV its all on standby. and the temp in the house is at 18C

Ive used 57p since midnight
currently sat at 0.00kWh's for the last 2 hours
00.18kg CO2 per hour emissions
with a power draw of 38w according to the smart display

my tariff on the readers showing
17.030p/kWh
daily standing charge of 25.670p in VAT

my meter reading is currently on 01685kWh (total actual import). this hasn't moved in 3 hours of checking

Robin9

There are threads on here about running gas boilers for an odd hour or two and how inefficient that may be. But your concern is for electric.

Trying to put your figures into context. You were with BG for a month and now been with Octopus for 5 - 6 months in total. The meter would have read 00000 when you moved in . As its now 01685 that means about 3300 in a year - that is above average. 3300 units at 17p is £700 a year.

[Deleted User]

Jasond wrote: »

when you say £34 is unfeasible im having to disagree as others in the area on the same building site are using less than me with 3/4 people in their homes...

Perhaps they have a cheaper energy tariff than you

Ive used 57p since midnight

Is this just the electricity so far ? It will include the standing charge so only 3kWh energy used today so far

my tariff on the readers showing
17.030p/kWh
daily standing charge of 25.670p in VAT

my meter reading is currently on 01685kWh (total actual import). this hasn't moved in 3 hours of checking

Is this a new build property or have you had a new meter installed since moving in? At 1685 total, that is 11kWh per day used.

5 months electricity reading for 1685 would mean £286.96 for electricity before standing charges of £38.50 (150 days).
So £65 per month is a reasonable figure for electricity and charges.
As you have been underpaying then a few more pound would be added to your bill to make up for the debit caused.

Rodders53

No fridge or freezer running? They consume a fair bit of 'leccy in most homes.

Your meter readings from day 1 for both gas and electric, and monthly since, would be essential for checking the suppliers' bills.
What are they?

Jasond

I have the fridge freezer on 24/7 along with the router for the wifi.

it makes no sense to me as I have a friend only 6 doors away from me in a house one year older than mine and they was both built in 2018.

they are a couple using £15 less than me and they use more electronics and lighting...

my standing charges are more than theirs too. which I get would be the difference but what im getting at is im generally out the house for 6-8 hours a day...

when im in on an evening I only have the tv on or my pc... never at the same time.

like now I have my pc on and my usage is 0.06kWa (no lights on in the house or heating) turn my PC off and it drops to 0.00Kwh.

[Deleted User]

@Jasond

No matter what happens I hope you will learn the lesson that people knocking on your door saying they can save you money are generally not going to do that. Ever.

The only people able to save money are them by signing you up.

Robin9

Rodders53 wrote: »

........

Your meter readings from day 1 for both gas and electric, and monthly since, would be essential for checking the suppliers' bills.
What are they?

Please Jasond.

What is your Octopus tariff - it sounds expensive for Octopus. Their June tariff was 14.616 and 19.1