Octopus Payment Tracker Page - Is it useful?

BikingBud

Reviewing my payments on the tracker it seems that the system does not account well for historic usage nor DDs actually paid. 

I am currently in credit with an imminent tariff reduction yet the system wants me to increase my DD by 16%. The starting point is an erroneous projected usage for Feb, already billed at a significantly lower consumption and only adds on the DD at the end of the month, ie it is paid on the 8 yet it is only tracked at the end of the month. So a low start point, late addition of DD and over estimating consumption. These combine to give a false forecast over the year and are used to indicate a higher DD is required. When considering the recommended DD is an annual increase of over £400 and the start point is incorrectly calculated and with a forthcoming reduction in tariffs is this reasonable?  

Wouldn't it be better to provide a visible 12 month actual bills and payments log in the tracker and then forecast going forward? Also given that the main driver for billing is consumption would it not all be reasonable to include clarity on the estimated usage that is being modelled?
 

Hoenir

Been a mild winter. Usage may well have been lower. Projections will be based on historic averages. Not the past year in isolation. 

Officer_Dibble

My projections from Octopus have always been utterly useless. If they're based on anything other than plucking a random number from the air they must go back into pre-history. Certainly before we had PV fitted, but I think back as far as the previous owners 10 years ago who seemed to burn fuel like there was no tomorrow.

Alnat1

You could change to variable DD and pay only for what you use each month. Make sure you budget and save over summer to cover the higher winter bills.

BikingBud

Hoenir said:

Been a mild winter. Usage may well have been lower. Projections will be based on historic averages. Not the past year in isolation. 

Yep so as I suggested include the estimated usage as part of the model. Moreover as we are now out of the winter, the end of the season it should again reflect the actual weather not the modelled weather. So if we are Mar, nearly April and we know the winter has been mild then holding DDs high is again false.

BikingBud

Officer_Dibble said:

My projections from Octopus have always been utterly useless. If they're based on anything other than plucking a random number from the air they must go back into pre-history. Certainly before we had PV fitted, but I think back as far as the previous owners 10 years ago who seemed to burn fuel like there was no tomorrow.

Is the estimate on you bill anywhere near accurate?

BikingBud

Alnat1 said:

You could change to variable DD and pay only for what you use each month. Make sure you budget and save over summer to cover the higher winter bills.

Thanks, I know what I could do but that will not improve the model, which after all is offered as a BETA, an indication that it is still in development and is there to be improved. Should we not then identify those issues rather than working around them?