Octopus staggering energy price rise emails

BUFF

That's a very high amount of gas for a single person. How big is her house, how old & what energy conservation actions have been taken?
How much do you know about her heating system?

MWT

QrizB said:

25,600kWh or 33,400kWh are both quite large amounts of gas and disporportionate to her electricity use. Is your sister's house particularly large, draughty and/or poorly-insulated? Is there some other reason for her to be a high gas consumer but a low electricity one?

Can you check that Octopus aren't accidentally billing her for an imperial (cubic feet) meter by mistake?

It would be wonderful to discover that this was an imperial/metric mix-up, but her use looks a lot like my elderly father-in-law, and in his case at least it is simply living in a bungalow and keeping the thermostat high.

bagand96

mickstatham said:

bagand96 said:

Thanks for the tariff info. What is her actual annual use in kWh for both gas and electric? And what annual use have Octopus used in the quotes?

As her first year doesn't finish until April this should be approx, by my calculations:
1,700 KWH for electricity
25,600 KWH of gas
up to 6th April 22 (when her contract ends).

(up to Januarys bill she's used: for electricity 1490 KWH and for gas 19,139 KWH)

Octopus are suggesting that she'll use:
2,027 KWH of electricity
33,372 KWH of gas

So based on your estimates (as others have said the gas use is a lot!) the annual cost of tariffs would be:

Octopus 12M Fixed
Electricity: £710.45
Gas: £2660.38
TOTAL: £3370.88

Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed
Electricity: £554.39
Gas: £2240.55
TOTAL: £2794.94

As you can see, still significant increases but unfortunately that is the current price of energy.  Again your sisters fix lasts until April so you could just sit it out and see what the new cap will be for SVT tariffs.

mickstatham

QrizB said:

25,600kWh or 33,400kWh are both quite large amounts of gas and disporportionate to her electricity use. Is your sister's house particularly large, draughty and/or poorly-insulated? Is there some other reason for her to be a high gas consumer but a low electricity one?

Can you check that Octopus aren't accidentally billing her for an imperial (cubic feet) meter by mistake?

She does use a lot of gas. She's 75 and the house isn't great (although there's a possibility that she might move soon into a much better house). No gadgets to speak of just tv, cooker, the usual stuff so basic electricity needs I think. I'll need to check the meter, but that's worth checking. 

mickstatham

MWT said:

Right now though the best advice given her current fix does not expire until April, would be to do nothing and go onto the capped variable rate.

I think that is the way to go. I'll need to speak to them I think, just to clarify matter. Thanks for your help MWT

MWT

mickstatham said:

MWT said:

Right now though the best advice given her current fix does not expire until April, would be to do nothing and go onto the capped variable rate.

I think that is the way to go. I'll need to speak to them I think, just to clarify matter. Thanks for your help MWT

It will be very important to monitor what is happening with regard to the price cap though, we should know more next month so be prepared to move quickly once the news is out as it may still make sense to take a fix but the window to do so before the prices go up in response to the announcement of the cap may be quite short...

mickstatham

QrizB said:

....to revert to the variable tariff. At 21p/kWh for electricity and 4.1p/kWh for gas that would be an increase of ~25% and ~45% respectively,

Thanks for that info. Are these the current SVT numbers?

bagand96

mickstatham said:

QrizB said:

....to revert to the variable tariff. At 21p/kWh for electricity and 4.1p/kWh for gas that would be an increase of ~25% and ~45% respectively,

Thanks for that info. Are these the current SVT numbers?

They are the current Ofgem capped rates for SVT. By the time your sister's fix ends in April it will be the new cap rates. 

QrizB

mickstatham said:

QrizB said:

....to revert to the variable tariff. At 21p/kWh for electricity and 4.1p/kWh for gas that would be an increase of ~25% and ~45% respectively,

Thanks for that info. Are these the current SVT numbers?

Yes, roughly. It varies by region; you can check yours at https://octopus.energy/tariffs/ (ignore the magenta button, enter your postcode and filter on flexible domestic tariffs, then look for "Flexible Octopus".)

mickstatham

Thanks for everyones help with this today. Hopefully we can get something sorted out now that I'm armed with some info. Cheers all.