Doubled Electricity Only Bill

DJ13nu

I’m with Octopus energy - Octopus 12M Fixed tarrif 

When we first set up an account (June 2019) the DD was £36 per month - increased to £47 within 1/2 months.

In January we were in credit by £200, and requested this back. Were told this was a mistake, was recalculated and now suddenly we are £200 in debit. 

Our estimated annual cost has gone from £500, to £700, to £900 within a month. They are now requesting we up our DD to £90 a month to cover the debt and the higher usage. 

We are an electric only flat with storage heaters we barely use, so no heating. We live in small 2 bed flat, some weeks with only 1 of us here as the other works away. We have both been working from home but have not really seen a recent spike in energy usage. We like to think we are quite conscious with lights and turning off unused appliances. We leave (what i think?) is an immersion heater on all day for the hot water. From what I can see with google research that is the best option? 

Is this something that needs investigating more? The £90 DD is fine within our budget, but looking at other average energy bills it looks really high. I don’t want to pay for something that is a clear miscalculation on their end, or something to do with our meter or something else. Also if our usage really was that high - why didn’t they amend the DD straight away? 

This is my first electricity bill so please be kind!  Any help appreciated. 

Robin9

So OK  - the usual first questions - are the bills estimated ? If so the readings have a letter E against them.  Do you read your meters ? Have you a E7 tariff ?  

Please post your readings from the bills from when you moved in.


Your initial DD for an electric heated flat does seem low. Something wrong here  -  during June 19 - Jan 20 you will have paid less than £250 in DD  but you were £200 in credit ?

DJ13nu

Bills aren’t estimated, we submit meter reading monthly which is why i’m confused as to why they are just noticing any problems. I don’t think we have an E7 tariff, can’t see that anywhere. First meter reading was 43953.0 and second was 41984.0. They don’t seem to have changed too much since then either. 

Another thing to note is that we live in a block of flats with a shared meter cupboard - it is very confusing trying to understand which is which as somebody has scribbled over all the flat numbers and replaced the flat numbers 3/4 times. We have basically been guessing and using the one we THINK is right. 

I can’t seem to find anything about electricity only bills online so it sounds like it could definitely be a problem with their original estimate and them failing to change our DD accordingly then if you think that we were originally paying less than we should have. 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you've made many or most of the rookie mistakes.

• Have you been submitting monthly meter readings?  Always ignore all claimed savings and suggestions, just do the sums yourself based on your own readings and the published tariff rates.
• Understand that the DD is just a kitty that may or may not cover the costs of your actual usage.  Forget monthly DD amounts, always compare annual costs based on your actual meter readings.
  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay
• NEVER leave an immersion heater on in the daytime, it'll be using expensive daytime rates.  You are on Economy 7, aren't you?  It should be wired so that it's switched on by the meter at the same time as the storage heaters.  Similarly, if there's a boost switch for emergency top up use, leave it off because it'll be on a 24h circuit.  If the immersion heater is on a 24h circuit with a local timer, make sure that the timer is correctly programmed with your E7 times and that it hasn't drifted because of power cuts.  You can find out your E7 times by noting when the meter switches over, or by calling 105.
  

DJ13nu

Hi Gerry 

Yes- always submitted meter readings. 

I understand the DD is not an actual usage amount - just wondering why it took nearly a year for them to amend the amount, and how they miscalculated so bad in the first instance. 

I’ve never seen or known the term Economy 7- the heater i’m referring too is a massive tank like thing. Its not wired to our heaters - they are lone electric heaters that are switched on manually rather than on a timer, hence why we never use them. I don’t believe our water heater has any kind of timer! Sorry I really am a rookie haha 

Talldave

First things first, you need to confirm that the meter you're being billed for is the one supplying your flat.  Match against meter serial number.  Turn everything off, confirm meter doesn't spin or flash; switch on a heater,  confirm the meter spins/flashes; switch it off, confirm the spinning/flashing stops. 

Gerry1

E7 is a tariff which has a meter with two registers.  If you have a meter with only one register (or a single rate tariff) and you have storage heaters, you'll go bankrupt ! 

If you're using plug in heaters such as fan heaters, electric fires, convector heaters, that a BIG No-No.  They'll be at peak (daytime) rate.

No wonder your bills are massive if all space and water heating are at peak rate.  You might as well burn £20 notes to keep warm.

stewie_griffin

Firstly you need to establish which meter is yours. If you don't do this then you'll never know if your bills are correct. Secondly, as others have already said, don't leave your water heater on 24/7. It only needs to be on for a few hours each day.

If you've not got an E7 meter then it's higher unlikely that you've got storage heaters. When you've used them do you just switch them on and they get hot almost straight away?

For what it's worth £90 a month in an all electric property isn't high especially if you're paying off a debt due to the incorrect refund.

[Deleted User]

DJ13nu said:

Bills aren’t estimated, we submit meter reading monthly which is why i’m confused as to why they are just noticing any problems. I don’t think we have an E7 tariff, can’t see that anywhere. First meter reading was 43953.0 and second was 41984.0. They don’t seem to have changed too much since then either. 

According to those readings the meter is going in reverse.
What was entry date and reading and what is reading today?

DJ13nu

Pretty sure we don’t have an E7 tarrif! We hardly use the electric heaters - probably haven’t for months now. So it would have to be the water using up all that energy? What would you suggest moving forward? I suppose I can’t switch while i’m in so much debt with Octopus  😂

I generally enjoy saving money where I can so would love to know more about saving on my bills but as you can tell I haven't the slightest in what anything I use means! 

Talldave

As above, you need to confirm that you are using all that energy by validating the meter you're being billed against.  Then set the water for 2 hours just before you get up. How you set it will depend on whether you have E7 wiring (separate low rate feed to immersion heater). If the immersion heater comes on at any time of day then you're probably not wired for E7 and need a decent immersion heater timer with boost button.