Moved into new (and tiny) 2-bed flat. After 49 days, been charged a whopping £750 for electricity! 24 February at 5:10PM in Energy 41 replies 3K views

Scot_39

missmococo said:

pochase said:

@missmococo when did you switch to Octopus and what were the readings you submitted to them.

Also some of the figures you are mentioning in your opening post don't really match up. You are mentioning £30 for Air PurifierS, CPAP, and DehumifierS. From the plural used that would be at least 5 devices. Are they running 24/7 and what is the wattage? £30 sounds very low.

But even if it is only £30, how does that work with the £50 to £70 energy use you had in your old home? Add a SC of £12pm per month, which leaves only £8 to £28 per month for hot water. heating, fridge freezer, cooking, computer, router and washing, plus whatever other electric devices you have.

Either you got your numbers wrong, or there might be a surprise for your old home coming up. Did you already get a final bill for the home you have been evicted from?

The £50-£70 was for other energy usage not including the specific medical items I'd mentioned and brought with me here. Gas/water was on top (and I've not mentioned the cost here as we're just talking about electricity usage).

You cannot simply ignore gas energy usage - as you are now using electric instead - to heat water, heat home and possibly even cook (if gas hob / oven in previous properties).

You are then not comparing apples with apples.

A large panel heater might be 2.5kW, a small one 1-1.5kW.

Say you run a large one in the living area for 2 hours - 5kWh, 2 small for 1 hour (bath/bed) - 2kWh, hot water 3kWh, already at 10kWh per day.

Add medical etc £30 = +3kWh / day.

Your last months average Jan 25 - today = c23kWh average

My Dec - Jan figures average around 18-20 for a small 2 bed mid terrace - but my peaks during cold snaps - closer to 30kWh - and I only heat rest of house to c15C - and without that 3kW 'medical' overhead.

See bill shock section of my long post.  Edit "You are used to heat and hot water at c10.3p recently under EPG - your SSE bill day rate 47.8p+VAT - or nearly 5 times"

Look at how much gas you were paying before - then reduce it to reflect new vs old house size. Edit "To compare kwh - or then multiply if only have cost by c5."

molerat

Unfortunately you are a victim of circumstances and not a lot you can do about that bill now as it does seem correct.

What rates are you paying with Octopus ?

That usage would have cost me £630.90 on single rate SVR and that is with a SC of 48.64p + VAT.

£119.07, £2.50 per day, less.

The unit rate actually went down in Jan as well, only .003p, but still not an increase like with E7.

Trying to switch to single rate may be the best option paying around 33p - 34p for all units.

missmococo

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. With your breakdowns and explanations, I was able to knock down a 24-hour day unit usage to 11 units instead of the 19+ it has been. I was colder than I'm comfortable with but I just wore several jumpers on top of each other and had a blanket. As long as the cold doesn't get into my chest and trigger my lung pain/asthma, I should be able to tolerate it for a month or so longer until the weather gets warmer. 

It was the heaters coming on during the day when I thought they weren't that was causing the consistently much higher units used than I could figure out. The thermostat was very confusing to understand and added to them being located right by ventilated windows, they were on several times during the day when I didn't realise as I wasn't in those rooms. 

Octopus have gotten back and said they can easily transfer me to the single unit rate of 34p per unit so I will switch to that.  

Scottish Power have been terrible with their responses so I'll contact Step Change or a charity and see if they can help me with an application to the hardship fund. Thanks again for your time everyone. Much appreciated and you really helped save me from making any more costly mistakes.

Ayr_Rage

@missmococo thanks for the update and well done for identifying what is going on in your home, I am sure you'll be able to work out your best pricing options now.

Hope you stay well and the weather warms up soon.

missmococo

Sorry, one last thing. Octopus have quoted this to me:

The switch from economy 7 to a flat rate tariff is simple, we would just put a flat rate tariff in place that would have the same charges for day and night consumption.

Your current rates are:
Night: 16.09 p/kWh (EPG: 19.90 p/kWh) 
Day: 47.90 p/kWh (EPG: 43.23 p/kWh)

Our current flat rate tariff is being offered at Unit rate: 35.06p/kWh

As you can see your day rate on economy 7 is considerably higher than the flat rate, meaning that you need to use at least 33% of your electric at night to benefit from the cheaper rates.

I have sent you an email which includes a quote for the flat rate tariff, you will not need to amend your direct debit at this time, we can keep it as it is if you are happy to.

They emailed me through my new quote and rates to agree to but when I click through, this is what it gives me:

These quotes are vastly higher than what the Octopus sent through on the initial email? 

Ayr_Rage

At a guess they are showing the raw rates without taking into account the subsidy from the government EPG.

Spoonie_Turtle

Ayr_Rage said:

At a guess they are showing the raw rates without taking into account the subsidy from the government EPG.

This.

Flexible Octopus is definitely 35.06p/kWh in the Eastern region, that is what you'll be charged OP.

Scot_39

Defintely the raw rates pre discount - but you can currently subtract 31.8p ex VAT IIRC from those rates to get your actual billing rates.

As all SVT are covered by EPG

General background information

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022

Regional pricing till Mar 30th (ex VAT)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-price-guarantee-regional-rates/energy-price-guarantee-regional-rates-january-to-march-2023

Spoonie_Turtle

^ you linking to information has reminded me, Octopus have their own handy page with all their rates
https://octopus.energy/blog/energy-price-cap-oct-2022/

SnakePlissken

schnegge_london said:

At the moment we are all protected by the government's EPG, although I think it doesn't apply to E7, keep our fingers crossed!

E7 is covered by the cap, difference with E7 is its up to suppliers to do the split between day/night rates. 
Some suppliers have higher day & much lower night, whilst others are few pence above cap for day rate  and night rate is a lot higher.

For anyone on E7, they can move suppliers.

But if no timed night circuit for storage heating/immersion, then as others have said its worth checking split between day/night usage. I think needs to be over 50% to be worthwhile, others may know what the exact percentage night use works out as being worth using E7