Please tell me this is a joke so I can sleep tonight (electric)

[Headphonehair]

……and have a bath tomorrow

just had electric bill through for £890!

For context: just ds and I lived in a 2 bed end terrace, gas and electric £50 pm.

we’re hotbods so our bill is usually cheaper than the average household.

just moved to a 3 bed semi with electric only. On economy 7. Didn’t use cooker for first 3 weeks as hob knob snapped off on No 6 but that’s another story. Only difference in use is we have a bath instead of a shower. Haven’t turned heating on yet.

I’m aware that it would be more expensive due to being electric only and a slightly larger property, and also prices rising, but £840 increase? Really?

Surely this can’t be right, or is it, any thoughts?

with octopus same as previous property if it makes any difference.

@OhNoForever @kitchenhelprequired
that’s a massive relief to start with, thank you.

still seems too expensive though, maybe now the temp has been changed this might alter

Have a word with the heating guy and see if something like this can be added to the hot water spur so you can control when the water heats. You don't need it to be able to heat for 7 hours overnight every night.

@CesareBorgia that’s why I asked everyone else, my maths isn’t great especially not this late. Thanks

a timer like that would be great. We don’t get through all the hot water, washing machine is cold feed and ds is a teenager so rarely has a bath 😂

15.6 seems very cheap tbh

That’s £500 of the problem solved which is a great start and I’m sure i can figure the rest out somehow with a bit of tweaking. Bit disappointed with octopus for the massive over estimation especially given the rising cost of living, the fact that my bill has always been very low, and the previous tenants paid around £300pm. But hey we all get it wrong sometimes. Thanks to everyone who chipped in

Day rate is 36.45 which without looking i could probably guess is quite expensive. I best check that one too, although most of the cost is at night

Good luck getting Octopus to change their bloody estimations!

I've been trying for a year - they still keep putting my DD up to cover their forecast of 17.7k kw of gas - last year I used 6k. Basically has become another savings account as constantly running up 100s in credit!

We had an email in January that they estimated our yearly electric to cost £12000 and suggested we up our direct debit to £860 a month 😂

We live in a 3 bed hour. Half the week I work nights so no one's here as do works away.

We kept it to 188 a month and we are in credit by a few hundred quid 😂

We are same as you OP our bills appear to be way lower than the average household apparently.
When I moved house they had to estimate.
Their estimation for me would have been triple the amount I was paying! It was only after I objected and said how much we'd been paying that they lowered it to double the amount I'd been paying instead of triple! (Still couldn't believe it).
After some time and some actual readings rather than estimations, I was right about the amount we used, the payments eventually went down!
Shocking sometimes how inaccurate estimations can be

While Octopus is one of the better providers, they're still dodgy. They haven't charged me for what I have used and I'm in a spat with them right now trying to lodge a complaint and they don't make it easy. I called them out and they credited my account and then billed me an amount which effectively removed the amount they credited me. I called them out and the same happened.

We have lived in our all electric house for almost 11 years.
Store heaters in economy 7 ( we love them)
An Emerson Heater- 1 hour 15 economy 7 - plenty of hot water , though we have showers.
Usually over night Emerson £ 0.48 so less than £15 a month.
Aug was £71
Sept £100
This is for dh and me - 4 bed.
With EDF
It will go up as we start to turn on the storage heaters - we currently have 4 on low.

Sheesh!!! You would've had to peel me off the floor!
I can only suggest checking, and writing down, your meter reading each day at a certain time for a while, and maybe you'll see if there are any leaps. If there are any leaps it should just be a wash day or if you and your son bathe one after the other, that sort of thing!
Switch off all unused plugs and appliances and just switch them on when needed, then off again afterwards.
Are they ordinary light bulbs throughout the house? I know some people like the ones that warm rooms.
If you have any outbuildings, check all electric is off in those, too.

Octopus took 2.5 years to vaguely get their forecasted use right for my house, and I have a smart meter so they get daily updates without estimates. The highest was too high by about 50% (£60) now they're off by 5-10% (£5-10) either way.

You normally get an email warning you of an increase in the direct debit - you need to respond to this and object, and then they'll leave you alone until the next review (usually 6 months). You can also amend it online but usually only by £5-10 increments at a time (so do it multiple times in a row), so that may take you a while.

I have found their customer service to be quick to reduce it after you've told them that their forecasting is terrible.

Electric heating is always expensive, but if you use storage heaters sensibly and effectively you can reduce costs. Most electricity suppliers give good advice on this on their websites, and Google is your friend.

In my last two houses I’ve had Octopus and I just tell them that I want to pay what I use each room. You have to ask though.

Room? Month!!

We told Octopus that we’re not living in our house atm and have been paying £60 per month.
We we’re £160 in credit.
This month they decided to take £250 and no I couldn’t change it as they sent an email 3 days before, allowing me 3 days to do so, but I didn’t see the email on the first day.
Now were £400 in credit and still not in the house.

Im on economy 7 and like you the only thing being used at night (bar everything in standby mode which costs nothing) is my immersion heater which costs approximately £1.65 a night but it’s really old and that water is red hot. The rest of the day time use without use of an electric shower or tumble dryer which takes masses of electric is approximately £2.50 so yours is 100% wrong. Economy 7 is more expensive but from 1st of October you should be paying approximately 0.30p per kWh in the day time and 0.20p for your nightmare rate plus standing charge if your company charges one. Give them an actual reading from the day you moved in and they should adjust the bill accordingly.

I contacted Octopus about a larger than anticipated rise in my payments and they were lovely, so helpful and reduced it down for me by about £60 per month, just email them and explain, they get back to you really quickly and are really helpful, unlike others

@HouseIsOnFire you can cancel your direct debit and pay the bill only each month. It's much better to save the money yourself and get some interest, as well as have it readily available if you need it, than trust that Octopus will give you it back when you need it.

Ask the engineer about the switch in the cupboard. Normally, the switch next to the tank is the immersion switch

I’d challenge it with Octopus. I was transferred to them when Bulb went into administration. I’m a low user and they estimated my bill at 3 times the amount, despite having 5 years of historical readings from bulb. Kept waffling on about the estimate being set by some official body outside their control ?
They also initially wouldn’t let me change the hugely inflated direct debit amount they’d set for me, because I was now in debt with them. When I supplied the correct reading (they had it anyway) they owed me hundreds.
Send them the correct metre readings.

Random but the founder of Octopus was on Desert Island Discs on Sunday. He sounded like a nice man.

Check the economy 7 hours, they do change. Do you need to be on an E7 tariff?

If you do then for things like washing it is worth putting on a timer if you can so your washing / dishwasher etc run overnight.