Desperately Need Help With Octopus Energy

unfitfinlay

Hi,

I'm trying to help a friend of mine who is going through a horrendous time at the moment. She's recently escaped from an abusive relationship, which has caused a lot of issues, particularly financially.

From what she's told me, one of her biggest problems is the amount that Octopus is charging on her pre-payment meter. She's lived in her flat for 13 year and everything was fine until two years ago when it suddenly started charging her £10 a day, on both meters. She lives in a small, one bedroom flat, and only uses very basic things. The TV, Shower, etc. There is no way she could possibly be using £600 a month.

The meter has been checked for faults, both by her landlords and by Octopus themselves, and no fault was found. She eventually took her complaint to the Ombudsman and Octopus agreed to replace the meters with a Smart Meter and gave her a token £100 goodwill gesture. However the high usage has continued, even with the new meters. Neither Octopus nor the Ombudsman are willing to investigate again, as they consider the matter resolved.

Can anyone give me any advice about what she can possibly do next? She's currently on Universal Credit and simply can't afford this. The bulk of her money is going straight to the meter.

I really appreciate any help anyone can give.

ladruid

Sadly. it's going to be an investigation, you need to break this down into stages

If the meter has been changed then it's unlikely to be the meter, so discount that.

Next step is to find what's eating the usage.

Did anyone new move into the flats around her when the usage spiked 2 years ago?
So firstly check to see if anyone else has "spliced" onto her supply/meter. To do this, turn of absolutely everything electrical and look at the smart meter, see if there is still usage. If the meter doesn't show any use, then it's shows no one else is using the supply at that time.

Check electrical items
Next step, try to pinpoint what is using all the electric… do a complete list of all items that could be using energy and turn them on one by one and check their energy usage. Write this on your list to build a picture of usage.

Check how much energy is being charged at
Next find how much you are paying for standing charge and unit rates. This might help find current costs of the Octopus Prepayment tariffs, but yours could be different :- https://octopus.energy/tariffs/

I did a quick check for my area and it would cost this for "Octopus Key and Card" Prepayment meter :-
Electricity + Gas = 76.87p a day standing charge for both
Electricity = 22.95p/kWh
Gas = 5.37p/kWh

So to be using £10 a day at this rate you would need to be using a hella' lot of gas/electric.

Maybe find out what she's paying for standing charge / unit rates and post here, we might be able to help more.

QrizB

If the problem persisted through a meter change, it does sound as though there might be more to it.

You say the problem is "on both meters". what are you referring to by "both"- do you mean on the old meter and the new meter, or are you saying she has/had two electricity meters?

What tariff is she on? How does she heat her home? Is it that she used to be on an Economy 7 tariff and somehow got switched to standard rate?

Could she (or you) carry out the Meter Sanity Test?

squirrelpie

Next step, try to pinpoint what is using all the electric… do a complete list of all items that could be using energy and turn them on one by one and check their energy usage. Write this on your list to build a picture of usage.

I agree this step is important. I think it's probably best if the OP does this rather than the friend who has the problem. A fresh pair of eyes and so forth. Walk around the flat and look everywhere for power outlets. You might consider buying something like a Tapo P110 to measure consumption at each socket.

Where are the meters? In the flat or outside? You say "charging her £10 a day, on both meters" but how much of that is for electricity and how much for gas? Or is it £10 per day on each meter?

FreeBear

Both meters - Economy 7 tariff ?

If so, I'd start looking for storage heater or immersion heater that is permanently on.

Scot_39

Given a step change - and apparently applied on two separate prepay meters - is there any chance she was transferred over to prepay back then - having accumulated large debts in the previous years on credit meters - and so the £10 includes a debt repayment component.

Are we talking gas / electric for the 2x£10 - or some strange legacy electric that Octopus could only replcicate with 2 meters (most common tariffs like their e7 - wold only have needed one I suspect )

At a rough guess - not knowing region and rates for SC / per unit - £10 would be around 35kWh of single rate electric (high but not unbelievable in winter ) per day - but potentially over 150kWh gas per day - so 4500kWh per month (definitely not normal) at last couple of quarters rates.

As shes been dealing with Octopus - I assume shes on standard domestic prepay.

Where are her meters physically ? Do the meter serial numbers on new meters now match new bills.

Could you or she - if able do some sanity or isolation checks - say at electric consumer unit ?

Does she have operational IHD - if not - can she see energy use on Octupus portal down to half hourly now smart - or could you access for her via say third party Bright app.

kazwookie

Is she paying for another flat?

Is the serial number on her bills the same as on the meter or different?

Turn the meter off at the main board, and see which flat 'yells' they have no power.

born_again

Immersion heater on 24/7?

Panel heating?

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981649#Comment_81981649

I would certainly check the meter(s) to see if it shows debt being recovered…

WiserMiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981807#Comment_81981807

Unless there's a dripping tap or a leak, a well insulated immersion heater left on 24/7 will waste less than 2kWh per day. That alone won't account for seriously high bills.

For about seven months of the year the lost heat wouldn't be wasted because it'll heat the house so the boiler wouldn't work so hard.

QrizB

While we wait for the OP to come back with more info ...

For a single-rate default tariff, £10/day works out as something like 40kWh/day. That's definitely possible but should be noticeable as "something getting hot".

A slowly-running hot tap, even as little as a quarter of a litre an hour (half a pint an hour, in old money) would be enough to account for it.

You'll see over the page that I messed up there. It's half a litre per hour, 8ml (half a tablespoon) a second.