Paying too much for electricity

Scot_39

victor2 said:

Glendo1 said:

Gerry1 said:

Switching to Variable DD, preferably monthly, would sort things out.

It means bigger bills in winter and smaller ones in summer, but it avoids the twin nasties of big credit balances accumulating or unexpected catch-up bills.

I am on a standard variable DD

So are you not on an E7 tariff then? That makes running a night storage heater pointless.
Do you have night and day, or peak and off-peak readings?
"Standard variable DD" is not the same as "Direct Debit Whole Amount", which is what Gerry1 was alluding to.

An ihd in my experience will not show the split rates on likes of e7 e10 etc only the total electricity register.

The oP needs to go to the actual physical meter or check his actual monthly or 6 monthly (really?) Statements (bills) to get a split day / night use figure if is on a multirate deal.

And as above we need 2 sets of  figures hopefully a year apart if OP been in property long enough to cover summer and winter.

Going onto monthly "direct debit whole amount" is probably best for someone who can afford the seasonality and it would seem has clear issues tracking their billing and usage - to avoid overpayment or underpayment and any large future catch up shocks.

frostysaver

You have a smart meter - it stores amount used half-hourly for (if I remember correctly) 13 months.

See that either on your electricity provider's website, or if that's rubbish sign up for one of the free apps: eg. Hugo, or Loop

Then look how many kWh (not pounds) you used and when, then decide what you're doing at those times to use it. Then you can be in control

LYNDBO

I've had high readings with octopus , I have a gen1 smart meter and readings were being transposed meaning double the amount per month ,  I had to take them through to the ombudsman and the case was in my favour but still they've got it wrong with day readings reading as night and night readings reading as day, and they claim smart meters are accurate.

DE_612183

LYNDBO said:

I've had high readings with octopus , I have a gen1 smart meter and readings were being transposed meaning double the amount per month ,  I had to take them through to the ombudsman and the case was in my favour but still they've got it wrong with day readings reading as night and night readings reading as day, and they claim smart meters are accurate.

The meter readings WERE accurate - the Octopus billing systems were applying the wrong rates to the wrong consumption - this has always happened on an odd occasion even where meters were dials!