Octopus Energy Direct Debit Doubling

Carrot007

Ultrasonic said:

tomp2494 said:

My current use for this month according to my ihd isn't even 60 pounds and it resets on Saturday....
so something somewhere ain't quite right! 

I live in a one bedroom small flat

I'd double-check the figure you gave for your gas usage. My electricity usage is very similar to yours but I use about 4,000 kWh of gas per year compared to the 26,321 kWh figure you stated above.

I would double check yout figure 4K kWh is ridiculously low unkless a 1 room property. I would say 16K is a good average (the usual stated averages as bad for many reasons).

So yes 26K is high, but if a 5 bedroom probably not.

tomp2494

The 26,321 estimated annual usage is correct for gas 
But this last year has been a year like no other, I was furloughed for the first five or so months so spent much more time than usual at home with the heating on, which I don't think went off until the end of May or early June! 
The last bill (31st Jan to 19th Feb) I used 417kwh of gas....

MWT

tomp2494 said:

The 26,321 estimated annual usage is correct for gas 
But this last year has been a year like no other, I was furloughed for the first five or so months so spent much more time than usual at home with the heating on, which I don't think went off until the end of May or early June! 
The last bill (31st Jan to 19th Feb) I used 417kwh of gas....

That would suggest your annual estimate should be around 6,000kWh for gas which would in turn put your DD at around £60 now going up to £91 from April 1st...

That is a very long way from 26,321... but if that bill is typical of how you are heating the house now then you need to let Octopus know that your usage pattern has changed dramatically if they push you again on the DD amount.

QrizB

If you log on to your Octopus account you should be able to choose your own DD, so long as you stay in credit.

Over the past few months I've adjusted mine 3 or 4 times

tomp2494

OK. I have decided that Octopus estimations are wrong. I'm just going to up the DD to 93 pounds from the current 60,  in time for April. 

MWT

tomp2494 said:

OK. I have decided that Octopus estimations are wrong. I'm just going to up the DD to 93 pounds from the current 60,  in time for April. 

Sounds like a plan, just keep the account balance positive and top-up if necessary when you get the bill.

Ultrasonic

Carrot007 said:

I would double check yout figure 4K kWh is ridiculously low unkless a 1 room property. I would say 16K is a good average (the usual stated averages as bad for many reasons).

I am 100% certain of the accuracy of my figure, as a single resident in a three bedroom detached house by the way. Energy use for heating can vary wildly between households but I mentioned my figures as I had comparable electricity use (which is also a low value compared to the average). It was the combination of low electricity use and high gas use that struck me as unusual, hence my suggestion to check. Also of course because the figure didn't appear to tally with the IHD.

Edit: note that @tomp2494 stated they live in a one bedroom small flat too.

wild666

If you've missed out the decimal point between the 2 and 1 then using the April figures I have for my region your monthly DD would £69.11 but £159.68 if the figure for gas is correct. Maybe they have included a 20% October increase within those figures as well, but this would be speculation on the prices increasing by 20% in October. 

LADYXXMACBETH

If only my bill was doubling. My British gas bill has tripled. In the last 3 months. I'm now paying an extra £215 for energy. 

MWT

LADYXXMACBETH said:

If only my bill was doubling. My British gas bill has tripled. In the last 3 months. I'm now paying an extra £215 for energy. 

Not trying to be picky, but it is very important to keep the DD and the bill separate.

In this case the DD level being requested did not match the level of the billing because the estimated annual use was wrong.

So it is always worth checking that the level of the DD is set correctly given the level of the bills you are likely to receive as you do not want to be building up a high balance, or going into debt.