Octopus Energy Hike in bills.

Just-asking_4

Hi.

I was an Avro customer that was transferred to Octopus when Avro closed.

I was paying around £120 per month most of last year. 2 bedroom house, 2 adults. Usual household items plugged in.

I recently submitted meter readings, having not done so for a couple of months, maybe 3.

I am now showing as almost £900 in debt with them, and they are stating my estimated energy usage £ for this year is as follows.

£2762.74 a year for electricity. £555.96 a year for gas.

This has shocked me.

They are also offering a fixed rate for 12 months as follows.

Octopus 12m Fixed £6122.43
Loyal Octopus 12m Fixed £5864.69

Again this is for a 2 bed with 2 adults.

I know energy costs are going through the roof, but wow is all I can say.

There is a smart meter which was installed by Simplicity years ago, but it doesn't send readings, so I do them manually when I remember. The debt part of it doesn't bother me, its just the fact that they are saying I'm looking at a bill of around £6000 per year. I can't get my head around paying that for what we have here and the size of the house.

Is this really what I am looking at paying from now on?

QrizB

Avro went bust back in september, so you've had five months - then five expensive months - with Octopus. Octopus's rates are higher than Avro's were and so your £120/month will not have been covering your bills. Owing £900 sounds quite possible.

Octopus's projections for the year do appear quite high. You seem to be using far more electricity than a typical household, but much less gas.

What is your estimated annual consumption in kWh (it will be printed on your bills)? Can you share your meter readings with us?

Keep_pedalling

Are you using electricity for heating or charging an EV? For a 2 bed with a gas supply your estimated electricity costs are very high. 

QrizB

Looking at your numbers again:

... they are stating my estimated energy usage £ for this year is as follows.

£2762.74 a year for electricity. £555.96 a year for gas.

They are also offering a fixed rate for 12 months as follows.
Octopus 12m Fixed £6122.43
Loyal Octopus 12m Fixed £5864.69

Those numbers would be consistent with you using around 13,000 kWh of electricity and 11,000 kWh of gas a year. That's about 4x as much electricity as a typical property.

Your meter readings would be really helpful to us in trying to understand what's going on.

Robin9

Please do let us know the meter readings form your bills - include the letters A, C or E  or Smart/Consumer Read /Meter Read etc

Sending readings just when you remember isn't good enough. Read your meter now - send it to Octopus (and us) today

Your electric consumption is 4x average.   Edit - I wonder if you are reading the meter correctly.  When did Simplicity install the Smart - it would have read 0000 at that time.

Just-asking_4

This is what's written on the bill.

Electricity Tariff Name Flexible Avro October 2021 v1
Product Type Variable
Payment Method Direct Debit
Unit Rate 19.99p/kWh
Standing Charge 23.68p/day (£86.43/year)
Price Guaranteed Until Not applicable
Early Exit Fee None
Estimated Annual Usage 12730.1 kWh

Gas central heating, and gas cooker. Not charging an EV.

What meter readings do you mean? I have always been pretty lax with taking and sending them, but when with Avro it didn't matter a lot because even when I did, the DD stayed at £120 and that covered what was being used when the submitted readings were processed. The last electricity reading I submitted was 14th February and it was 064164. Today the reading is 064629. I have a few Echo show 8s plugged in since Christmas, and I have a pond with a large pump running, but that has been going for years so it isn't a new thing. I cannot see anything in the house that would be a massive drain on the electricity and there is nothing unusual that has been plugged in - in the last few months. 

As I said the debt part doesn't bother me, I am ok and thankfully I can cover it, but I couldn't be paying £500 a month going forward because it is shocking. I have family in a 3 bed house with 4 young children, using iPads, consoles, constant washing machine use etc who pay half of what I do. They are on a payment meter so not sure if that makes a difference.

Just-asking_4

One thing that does stick in my mind. maybe 7 years ago, the house next door was having a new kitchen and bathroom fitted (council house general upgrades) and one of the workers knocked and came in, and asked if he could access my electricity cupboard which is on the wall in the living room, same places as the neighbours. That did strike me as odd, could he have somehow connected a part of their electricity to mine? To check this I did turn off the electricity last night for half an hour so see if the reading would change, but it didn't. Still quite an odd thing that they came in and did something though as my electricity box shouldn't have anything to do with the neighbours, but as I say they are in the same place on the wall in each of our houses, with just a wall between them.

QrizB

Thank you for the info.

Just-asking_4 said:

This is what's written on the bill.
...
Estimated Annual Usage 12730.1 kWh

That is more than four times the amount of electricity that I would expect for a household like yours. And it's this huge electricity consumption that's causing your projected bill of £500/month.

... I have a pond with a large pump running,

Is the pump clogged?

Robin9

Look again at your Electricity bill please. There will be a page full of meter readings  and how your bill is calculated.

Against those readings will be the letters A, C, E as above.  What were the opening and closing readings on the bill please and what was the letter ?   

What is todays reading please. ?

Just-asking_4

No the pump is ok, I keep it clean and functioning properly. 

I do appreciate the advice so thank you. Do you have any idea what I can or should do? I did email Octopus last night basically saying the same as I have here, and asking them if they think it is normal for a house of this size with 2 adults to really be using that amount of energy but I doubt they will have much of an idea. What I will say is, I probably do have things plugged in that are not being used, so in standby, it isn't something that has bothered me before, and bill wise it doesn't seem to have made a huge difference, until now, but I have started switching these things off to see what difference it can make. 

Robin9

The classic causes of high electricity bills in a gas heated house

Electric showers
Fish Tanks
Big American Style Freezers
Old Fridges
Use of panel or fan heaters
Electric Aga's 
Lots of old Halogen lighting

Ignore the things on standby - the phones, TV's


Do a room by room. shed by shed, garage by garage, loft by loft  list of what you've got.

But first read that meter and get an up to date bill.

Photos of the meter please and the consumer unit