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Can you help me understand my Octopus E7 bill?

System
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  • Hi, I'm finding this site a little hard to navigate. However, I was with Bulb (I have no Gas) all Electric. Now with Octopus. I live in a 2 bedroom. Apartment, with Economy 7 storage heaters, I own the property. Just got Bill from 17th Jan to 27th February. I gave meter reading this morning. My mouth will not close looking at this Bill. £444 for that time period! 
    I'm wondering if they have mixed my bill up with King Charles Bill for Buck Palace! Joking aside, does this sound right? Any advice gratefully appreciated.
  • Sounds realistic to me. That will probably be the most expensive 6 weeks of the year and you could use easily 20% of your annual heating bill in these 6 weeks alone. 

  • LomonM said:
    Hi, I'm finding this site a little hard to navigate. However, I was with Bulb (I have no Gas) all Electric. Now with Octopus. I live in a 2 bedroom. Apartment, with Economy 7 storage heaters, I own the property. Just got Bill from 17th Jan to 27th February. I gave meter reading this morning. My mouth will not close looking at this Bill. £444 for that time period! 
    I'm wondering if they have mixed my bill up with King Charles Bill for Buck Palace! Joking aside, does this sound right? Any advice gratefully appreciated.
    That's certainly high compared to my use for that same period, and the same sort of property. Of course, we could be heating to different levels, with less insulation or any of a number of other variables, but still. I've just quickly checked and I'm showing billing of under £300 for a slightly longer period end December > end February.  

    Is the bill based on accurate readings (at both ends), either from a smart meter (and if so, have you check on the meter itself that they are correct) or from readings you have given yourself? (I see you say you have given a reading today, but that may not have been used to generate the bill you've just seen so worth checking). And, importantly, have you checked that the day & night readings are the correct way round? They can get transposed and that will lead to a hefty bill! 
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  • Raxiel
    Raxiel Posts: 1,403 Forumite
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    LomonM said:
    Hi, I'm finding this site a little hard to navigate. However, I was with Bulb (I have no Gas) all Electric. Now with Octopus. I live in a 2 bedroom. Apartment, with Economy 7 storage heaters, I own the property. Just got Bill from 17th Jan to 27th February. I gave meter reading this morning. My mouth will not close looking at this Bill. £444 for that time period! 
    I'm wondering if they have mixed my bill up with King Charles Bill for Buck Palace! Joking aside, does this sound right? Any advice gratefully appreciated.

    Even with the cold snap in January and this last week, that still seems a lot for E7, assuming your storage heaters are charging up on the overnight rate.

    Do you have a Smart meter? If not, have you submitted any manual readings in that period?
    Next to the meter readings on the bill, what does it say? If it's 'Estimated Reading' then read your meters yourself and enter them into the website so they can generate a new, more accurate bill.

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  • Gerry1
    Gerry1 Posts: 10,849 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Always worth doing the Meter Sanity Test for peace of mind, especially if the meter is in an external cupboard or meter room.
  • Hi,
    LomonM said:
    Just got Bill from 17th Jan to 27th February. I gave meter reading this morning. My mouth will not close looking at this Bill. £444 for that time period!
    so how did the reading you gave this morning compare to the bill?
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    How about giving us the opening and closing reads on each register so we can see how many units you have been billed for on each. and your unit rate costs? Without these, any speculation is idle.
    Does the opening read on 17/1 match your closing read on your last Ovo bill?
    Does the closing read on your bill match, or near match, today's read?
    Are the bill readings agent, customer, or estimated?

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