Why is my Octopus bill so high?

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Octopus fixed tariff.

Bluntington88

Hi, my Octopus Electricity Energy bill has rocketed from £150 pm in September to £500 pm 2 months after that and has continued at much the same cots per month till now.   I heat and cook on gas so no idea why it has more than trebled. Octopus has advised me to do a creep test and a load test which I will do.  However, they state these tests will only show a problem with 'slightly bigger bills'.  Any experience or advice to help me take this forward would be much appreciated.  Thanks.  

MeteredOut

You need to share your actually kWh usage. There could be an issue, but far more likely is that your usage was more than your £150/month DD and a recent reading has caused Octopus systems to notice that and increase your DD to start eating away at that debit balance. The amount you pay each month is not your bill, its just a credit against your usage.

So, first thing: check your actual usage from actual meter readings, not estimates.

dunstonh

Hi, my Octopus Electricity Energy bill has rocketed from £150 pm in September to £500 pm 2 months after that and has continued at much the same cots per month till now. 

You talk about your bill but then tell us about your monthly payment.  Your monthly payment isn't your bill.    

What are the readings on your bill?   Are they actual readings or estimates?

Bluntington88

Thank you. I’m going to do a meter reading today. It turn off all electric appliances. Take a meter reading at that point. Turn on the electric. Repeat in 7 days time. Calculate cost for 7 days based on cost per kilowatt hour x number of units used across 7 days. This will give a typical week’s usage so I can scale this up to a good approximation of cost per month. Do you think this is a useful way forward? 

MattMattMattUK

Bluntington88 said:

Thank you. I’m going to do a meter reading today. It turn off all electric appliances. Take a meter reading at that point. Turn on the electric. Repeat in 7 days time. Calculate cost for 7 days based on cost per kilowatt hour x number of units used across 7 days. This will give a typical week’s usage so I can scale this up to a good approximation of cost per month. Do you think this is a useful way forward? 

Firstly there would be no need to turn off everything to take a meter read, secondly you also need to factor in the standing charge and thirdly it will give you a one week snapshot, which may or may not be useful depending on how variable your usage actually is.

However you still need to answer the other questions people have asked. 
Are your bills based on estimates, their reads, your reads or smart reads?
How many kWh are they billing you for and over what period?
If you have a smart meter, what does your usage show, peaks and troughs, base load overnight etc?
Do you have a debt on your account?

Bluntington88

Thank you for pointing me to all these other elements of my monthly Octopus energy bill. 
Would I find al debt figure showing on my statement account (don’t think I have debt on the account but I will check)?  
Does the Smart reader have options to show peak and trough patterns? And what is the base load account and where would I find the info about/from this?  Thanks again. Appreciate the advice 

MattMattMattUK

Bluntington88 said:

Thank you for pointing me to all these other elements of my monthly Octopus energy bill. 
Would I find al debt figure showing on my statement account (don’t think I have debt on the account but I will check)?  

It would show at the top of the "Payments" section on the Octopus website, right at the top "Your energy balance". You can also get the energy usage that you are being billed for in the payments section and provide us with the amount of energy used and over what period, as well as their estimate of your annual usage, which is also on your bills. 

Bluntington88 said:

Does the Smart reader have options to show peak and trough patterns? And what is the base load account and where would I find the info about/from this? 

On the Octopus account, in the "My energy" section, you can see all your usage data if you are on a smart meter. You can look at the overnight base load by looking at the half hourly data. You can also export this if you want to crunch your own data.

Can you confirm, are your bills based on actual/smart reads? What is the usage over the billing period and what is the billing period for your latest bill (the actual bill, not the Direct Debit, which is not a bill)?

Bluntington88

The creep test today showed usage of 0.01 KWH over 75 minutes with all electric off for 15 minutes then all electric appliances turned back on at 15 minute intervals. 
I’m will look at my Octopus account this evening and try to get more info, as you have suggested. 
 Thank you again for your advice 

Bluntington88

ps all my meter readings are Smartmeter readings 

Qyburn

Bluntington88 said:

The creep test today showed usage of 0.01 KWH over 75 minutes with all electric off for 15 minutes then all electric appliances turned back on at 15 minute intervals. 

Literally everything off, for example switching off consumer unit main switch, or isolator on your side of the meter?  If not then 0.01kWh in 75 minutes equates to 8W which could be made up of all sorts of minor things like smoke alarms, door bell, neon indicators.