New Price Cap 1 April 2026 Octopus Fixed

bigg

I think the 4800 kWh was using the standing charge in error.

The 9448 kWh figure is closer.

I have had a look at the actual meter readings (first time I've ever done it). Unfortunately, I'm not the messiah, I'm a very naughty boy and I didn't submit the readings every month.

19 January 2025 to 16 February 2026 was 11035 kWh

27 March 2024 to 31 March 2025 was 9584 kWh

The readings vary from year to year, depending on the weather and how sloppy I get with the emersion heater. I had it on a timer which stopped working. I found another one and swapped some bits over and got it working again. The trouble is, it’s on for 1.5 hours, just before I wake up and if I use the hot water later in the day, it starts to get cold in the winter. Not so bad in the summer. When the timer stopped working, it was switched on manually, sometimes I forgot all about it and found it was still on, 3 or 4 hours later.This bumped up the meter readings, over time. I did try leaving it on all the time but that bumped up the readings. That was a lot of words to explain a simple thing.

I’d be happy to estimate the annual usage at 10,000 kWh. It’s a nice round figure and is a fair average.

QrizB

10,000 kWh (more or less) of electricity a year is quite a lot, even for an all-electric property like yours.

You say you heat with oil-filled radiators, topping up with a fan heater. This is amongst the most expensive ways of heating a property. I'm surprised that you don't have storage heaters (which would cost maybe half as much to use) and you'd probably save even more with a heat pump.

Do you own your home, or rent it?

bigg

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81901933#Comment_81901933

What is the normal annual usage for an all electric house?

The oil filled radiator is on most of the time in my bedroom/ office and I occasionally visit the kitchen and bathroom, where I use fan heaters for instant heat, for brief periods of time. I used to have a forty year old gas boiler but that was condemned several years ago. I had a quote of £6000 to fit a new one and declined. After that I had the gas disconnected and started using oil filled radiators. Energy was reasonably priced, in those days. It now takes a lot of my income.

I can't afford new heaters or heat pump. My pension goes on food and heating.I often stay in bed to keep warm and save on heating. I long for the summer to come.

I own the property.

QrizB

Your description of how you heat your property does not sound like it should use 10,000 kWh per year.

Here's my thinking when I say that.

• A typical dual-fuel household with ~3 occupants uses 2700kWh/yr for all the electrical use besides heat. Let's imagine that you also use this much, although it sounds like you probably don't.
• Let's then imagine that you run a 3kW immersion heater for 1.5 hours a day, 365 days of the year. That's enough to heat roughly 100 litres of water a day, and totals 1643kWh/yr.
• And let's guess that your oil-filled heater is 2kW and runs for 18 hours a day, 120 days a year (four months straight). That's another 4320kWh/yr.

This gives a total of 8663 Kwh/yr. But all these numbers should be overestimates for you and your household.

I can't afford new heaters or heat pump. My pension goes on food and heating.I often stay in bed to keep warm and save on heating. I long for the summer to come.

You're spending £2500 a year on electricity, around two-thirds of that being used for heat. You could probably save £800 a year by using storage heaters or a heat pump.

Just out of interest, if you plug your details into Octopus's "heat pump quote" page what price does it give you?

https://octopus.energy/heat-pump-explore/

Telegraph_Sam

I use on average 2780 kWh p.a. electric and 7500 KWh p.a. gas, for a single person household. I was always told that this was "low". I have to confess that it is not unknown for me to confuse kWh's and £££'s. Which gives interesting results.😕

EssexHebridean

if you could stretch to even older type refurbished storage heaters, then I can’t help thinking you would save substantially AND be warmer - and so safer.

@Telegraph_Sam whether your use is in reality low depends as much on the size of your house as much as anything. We use far less electric, and ariund 1000kWh less gas than that for 2 folk in a 3 bed terraced.

matt_drummer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81903446#Comment_81903446

TS has solar panels so may use even more electricity than they think/said, it depends whether the 2,780 kWh is just what they imported?

Telegraph_Sam

Interesting thought: how can I tell if the figure - the difference between two annual readings - is "net" or "gross" (before or after) the input from my solar panels?

Telegraph_Sam

My 14 Month Fix is coming to end at the end of May and I doubt that there will be anything from Octopus that is as competitive. They are suggesting the latest 12 Month Fix @ 24.89 p / SC 59.59 p (with £50 exit fee)

or Flexible Octopus @ 23.81 p / SC 59.59

I reckon that this forum is probably the one to keep tuned in to to hear what are considered to be the best options as the time for decision approaches. [as an alternative to going Agile to enjoy the swings and things]

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959611#Comment_81959611

If those are your electricity meter readings then they just measure the amount you have imported from the grid.

They take no account of how much of your own solar generation you have used or how much you have exported to the grid, so your actual use will be higher.

Your solar system should be able to tell you how much you generated over a year and you should be able to see how much you have exported and been paid for, the difference is what you have used and you can add that to your annual import figure to get your total consumption.