Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?
Discussion
tamore said:
otolith said:
tamore said:
otolith said:
tamore said:
surely you have meters which give readings? how do those readings compare to the figures on the bills?
The meter just says how many units you've used, though, not at what time of day and hence what tariff. hard to know what's happened with the vagueness.
i guess you're railing against smart meters and smart tariffs in general?
Chris Type R said:
Lotobear said:
We've just transferred to a fixed tarrif from their 'cosy' heat pump tarrif as we got pissed off with having to organise our life around when to cook and stick the dishwasher and TD on.
It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
I think the sweet spot is an EV tariff if you also have batteries which you can charge overnight and cover most of your daily usage. It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
Charge them up overnight at 7p then run the pump off them during the day.
As much as people love their heat pumps (when installed and specified correctly), get it wrong and/or need to use them outside of the 'cheap' electricity period on the heat pump tariff and the costs can spiral dramatically.
They need to be part of an integrated 'green' ecosystem rather than a standalone item.
Chris Type R said:
Lotobear said:
We've just transferred to a fixed tarrif from their 'cosy' heat pump tarrif as we got pissed off with having to organise our life around when to cook and stick the dishwasher and TD on.
It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
I think the sweet spot is an EV tariff if you also have batteries which you can charge overnight and cover most of your daily usage. It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
I was on the fence about solar for some time until I decided it would be a good idea to throw £10k of panels at the roof.
I over specced it as my plan was to export as much as I could as that is realistically where you make the money from solar.
My savings calculations are based on the export revenue and where it has been used in the home as that was a 'saving' on importing it.
So based on that logic, in 2025 my gas bill was £553.52 and electricity £854.18 giving a total of £1408.70.
I received £1216.85 in income from exporting it and 'saved' £349.50 by using the solar in home rather than importing it giving a total of £1566.35 meaning my annual energy bill for 2025 was -£157.65.
Using round numbers, the £10k installation cost divided by £1500 of income/savings per year gives an ROI of 6.66 years at current rates.
So solar does work if can fill the roof with panels and export the vast majority of it.
I realise that a lot of this is based on the 15p export rate and if that were to drop then the ROI would go out to the right. But, if that were to happen, I would then crunch the numbers on adding a battery as I would charge that up at 7p during the night, run the house off it during the day when there is no solar and at night whilst exporting any excess that comes off the roof instead.
I over specced it as my plan was to export as much as I could as that is realistically where you make the money from solar.
My savings calculations are based on the export revenue and where it has been used in the home as that was a 'saving' on importing it.
So based on that logic, in 2025 my gas bill was £553.52 and electricity £854.18 giving a total of £1408.70.
I received £1216.85 in income from exporting it and 'saved' £349.50 by using the solar in home rather than importing it giving a total of £1566.35 meaning my annual energy bill for 2025 was -£157.65.
Using round numbers, the £10k installation cost divided by £1500 of income/savings per year gives an ROI of 6.66 years at current rates.
So solar does work if can fill the roof with panels and export the vast majority of it.
I realise that a lot of this is based on the 15p export rate and if that were to drop then the ROI would go out to the right. But, if that were to happen, I would then crunch the numbers on adding a battery as I would charge that up at 7p during the night, run the house off it during the day when there is no solar and at night whilst exporting any excess that comes off the roof instead.
gotoPzero said:
Plugged in this afternoon and they gave me till 1100 tomorrow. So I presume this 6 hr thing isnt going yet?
Its not in place yet due to 'feedback' from customers after it was announced.If will only be in place when you see the option to pause it at 6hrs in the app and I suspect they will give people plenty of warning about it as well.
KTF said:
gotoPzero said:
Plugged in this afternoon and they gave me till 1100 tomorrow. So I presume this 6 hr thing isnt going yet?
Its not in place yet due to 'feedback' from customers after it was announced.If will only be in place when you see the option to pause it at 6hrs in the app and I suspect they will give people plenty of warning about it as well.
Lotobear said:
Chris Type R said:
Lotobear said:
We've just transferred to a fixed tarrif from their 'cosy' heat pump tarrif as we got pissed off with having to organise our life around when to cook and stick the dishwasher and TD on.
It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
I think the sweet spot is an EV tariff if you also have batteries which you can charge overnight and cover most of your daily usage. It's working out pretty much the same overall without anxiety of getting stuffed with the highest tarrif when you want to cook your evening meal.
The actual rates from Octopus for battery owners aren't great - 17.19p on Flux vs EV rates of 8.5 or 7p depending on tariff. At Flux rates the financials are not compelling.
Flooble said:
AyBee said:
tamore said:
Hobo said:
I won't go into a load of detail, but watch that Octopus are charging you correctly, as I had an issue with my account in May'25 which led to me making an official complaint of overcharging to the tune of around 4k.
Octopus pretty much rejected everything I said, without any evidence, simply stating the billing was correct and just be assured of which, and that they understood if can seem difficult to understand. Roll forward to January 2026, and they have back down in full, confirming they over billed considerably, and agreed to write off every penny.
In the past 9 months they have failed to provide any evidence to multiple claims they put forward, it went from 4k, to 3k to 2k, to just under 1k, and eventually to zero. It was simply a series of unsubstantiated numbers being thrown at me seemingley to try get me to pay something. They even went so far as to say previous details they had put in writing to me was incorrect as their team had made mistakes, and the account balance was higher as I was actually showing them they owed me money back and threatening small claims.
A complete joke of a company, and not one I could recommend to anyone. I never chose to use them, I was moved to them when Bulb closed. I genuinely dread to think how much I have overpaid them in the past few years.
surely you have meters which give readings? how do those readings compare to the figures on the bills?Octopus pretty much rejected everything I said, without any evidence, simply stating the billing was correct and just be assured of which, and that they understood if can seem difficult to understand. Roll forward to January 2026, and they have back down in full, confirming they over billed considerably, and agreed to write off every penny.
In the past 9 months they have failed to provide any evidence to multiple claims they put forward, it went from 4k, to 3k to 2k, to just under 1k, and eventually to zero. It was simply a series of unsubstantiated numbers being thrown at me seemingley to try get me to pay something. They even went so far as to say previous details they had put in writing to me was incorrect as their team had made mistakes, and the account balance was higher as I was actually showing them they owed me money back and threatening small claims.
A complete joke of a company, and not one I could recommend to anyone. I never chose to use them, I was moved to them when Bulb closed. I genuinely dread to think how much I have overpaid them in the past few years.
I can quite see that they might have decided that the 4000kWh on the meter (absolute figure) was all at their peak rate.
(*) I was also on a Tesla that monitored consumption, so I knew they were correct, and that the readings didn't agree - there was no "fraud" from their side. The only dispute would have been about the unit rate. I could have worked it all out by uploading the Tesla data, and offered to do that, but we agreed that an average unit rate was the best option.
I agree with the OP - it does sound like they are chancing their arm - which is not a good look.
I think any claim by them would be thrown out, as they keep changing their invoice. It's obvious that they are just after "something", and don't have a clue what that "something" is.
KTF said:
gotoPzero said:
Plugged in this afternoon and they gave me till 1100 tomorrow. So I presume this 6 hr thing isnt going yet?
Its not in place yet due to 'feedback' from customers after it was announced.If will only be in place when you see the option to pause it at 6hrs in the app and I suspect they will give people plenty of warning about it as well.
Currently away on business so don’t have all the details to hand, but the account went from £700 in credit to £2750 in debit overnight according to their app, which is when things started getting interesting.
I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn’t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn’t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn’t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn’t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn’t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn’t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
Hobo said:
Currently away on business so don t have all the details to hand, but the account went from £700 in credit to £2750 in debit overnight according to their app, which is when things started getting interesting.
I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
Was this Electric or Gas?I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
Hobo said:
Currently away on business so don t have all the details to hand, but the account went from £700 in credit to £2750 in debit overnight according to their app, which is when things started getting interesting.
I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
did they send someone out to manually read the meter? that's the normal process with stuff like this.I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
Hobo said:
Currently away on business so don t have all the details to hand, but the account went from £700 in credit to £2750 in debit overnight according to their app, which is when things started getting interesting.
I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
Were you powering the lights at Wembley Stadium?I had photos/records of all meter readings, and therefore it was quite easy to work out spending during any given period as was on a fixed rate.
They didn t accept my finding though and simply tried to enforce payment which I rejected. 9 months later after constant rejection they agreed to clear the balance. They still didn t accept overcharging officially. Just to clear the balance.
They simply wouldn t respond to my clear evidence, simply saying they were correct and I was wrong, and could understand how it could be difficult to understand (but never tried to explain). They simply tried to overcharge and were found out.
The house breaker is 100A, that's 24kW. Running that for 24 hours is 576kWh. This means they are trying to charge you nearly £4 per unit at maximum conceivable power.
If you ran your house at that rating for 24 hours, I'd expect the fire brigade to have visited a few times to check on where the smoke is coming from
Evanivitch said:
Yeah they're having to unwind a while load of things. Like throttled charging and when they do tiny <10 minute charges.
I think they've probably discovered a lot of their issues were being caused by their own configuration with some smart chargers.I'm frequently mystified by some of the times it charges and some sessions shorter than the minimum billing period when it doesn't need to.
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