The energy issue is a very personal one for all of us. From the start of the rises in 2022, my gas and electric bills tripled. They were as big as my mortgage and completely unacceptable.
Honestly, it seems to have never ended. Middle boy is in a good placement as a young adult and is very fortunate to have that place, but it’s still a challenge, every single day. Washing is up to my ears EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Old Supplier
Electric bills are still high, but at the height of 2023, we were facing £300 a month for electric, and about £300 for gas. Ridiculous, so we stopped using gas much as the boiler also went daft and kept switching off. I couldn’t move supplier at the time as we had SMETS 1, first generation smart meters. If we changed supplier, the meters would have gone dumb. Our gas meter was blind for two years when our supplier wouldn’t change it. They guesstimated our usage and we couldn’t prove we didn’t use it.
We were promised an off state calculation. Our usage with a new meter showed we only actually used £500 for the whole of the next 6 months in total. Our supplier went back on their promise to do off state calculation for the time we were made to pay £300 per month. Going by current kw use, we know we’ve paid nearly 3k too much during Covid and can’t do a thing about it as the meter was dead. We’re not alone in that either. The app is pathetic and incentives to stay tiny. Absolutely no appreciation of the customers paying them a small fortune for 30 years.
I’m not going to name them, as I don’t want it coming back on me. I’ve got nobody to blame but myself for not being more assertive on this.
Supplier Change
Fast forward to a couple of months ago and my SMETS 1 meter was finally registered on the DCC network, meaning we could change supplier and have our meter remain smart. As soon as that happened, we moved to Octopus Energy. I honestly want to cry. At the first download of their app, my readings show my usage with a day or two delay, but not much.
As soon as that registered, I swapped onto a smart tariff that changes price daily.
Octopus Tracker
My bills have been decimated. Don’t get me wrong, there is a risk to the Octopus tariff, as it is not covered by the price guarantee, but we can change back if the prices go too high. There is a ceiling rate of 100p per kw electric and 30p kw gas, but since about 2022, it hasn’t gone above the average.
I don’t usually get involved with supplier things. The app is a little gamified in that there is a spin the wheel event every month when the direct debit is paid. There are challenges to do, which award points that convert to small amounts of money. Small things like the points systems might seem like nothing, but we came from a supplier where nothing was really the only thing we got. It’s a nice change to feel in charge and able to see the data broken down.
This month, I even got a sausage roll and a coffee from Greggs as part of my app experience.
The low down is that my gas bill halved and my electric has reduced significantly. Even having it on far more. I’m paying so much less and have set aside some money in case there are a few days where the tariff does end up going higher. We’d just move our usage around on those days. I am now on the tracker tariff from Octopus.
Old Supplier: 28p per kw for electric and 7.8p kw for gas on standard tariff.
New Supplier: Averaging about 18-20p kw per day for electric, and 3.5 – 4.5p kw for gas on smart tariff.
Octopus Tracker and Agile are based on wholesale prices and change daily. Prices can go up and down.
Find out more at the links below:
Octopus Tracker Current Unit Rates from Octoprice
Join Octopus
If you decide to move to Octopus, both you and I could get £50 each in our accounts when you pay your first direct debit. Sign up by using the affiliate refer a friend link below. If you are a business, we could get £100 each.
https://share.octopus.energy/warm-bat-410
By Phone, or in the after sign up option, use the code: warm-bat-410
The referral scheme is administered and run by Octopus Energy. Scottish Mum Blog is not affiliated with Octopus Energy is any way. For information on referrals, go to https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-referrals