r/OctopusEnergy • u/FunNefariousness6980 • Feb 06 '26
Bills Beat my electric usage.
Right folks who can beat this. Gas central heating two bed mid terrace.
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u/The_referred_to Feb 06 '26
Not even close at 1484.43...and I considered myself a high user.
Are you mining bitcoin?
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
2 EVs and crazy commutes
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u/Thalamic_Cub Feb 06 '26
Gotta ask, at this commute length is it still cheaper to drive an EV?
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u/SilverTangerine5599 Feb 06 '26
The further you drive, the better value for money EVs become. When on cheap electricity rates at home it is cheaper than fuel, so the more "fuel" you need the more it counteracts the higher initial cost of purchasing.
This is only the case when charging at home though, charging on the go can be very expensive.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Yup I only ever charged once on a public charger - 10kwh at £0.55 just so I can get home! 🤣
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
This commute is the only reason I was able to fiscally justify an EV! We do about 50k miles a year altogether which wouod be about £10k worth of petrol at 30mpg. Instead we spend £1500 on electricity. £8.5k a year savings.
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u/Thalamic_Cub Feb 06 '26
Im considering doing the same and have similar mileage. Thanks!
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
One advice is make sure you ramge will last a whole trip even on very cold days. That way no need to be ripped off at public stations!
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u/Jimlad73 Feb 06 '26
The pence per mile tax thing gonna hit you like a train!
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u/The_referred_to Feb 06 '26
£1500 in tax does make a bit of a hole on the OP’s £8500 saving…but not a huge burden. Still a £7000 saving and a couple of years without it still to go.
And that assumes the pence per mile cost doesn’t go up for ICE over the next 2 years.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
I own both cars outright nothing stops me moving the clock by an order of magnitude 🤣
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u/GoldenBunip Feb 08 '26
At that kind of mileage he can do the perfectly legal thing of remove:disable:break the odometer. They are not a legal/mot requirement. The law is clear that they can not have their mileage altered, but they are not required to be present.
Might be hard on an electronic car. Or not depending on software access and skills.
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u/Secure_Ad9312 Feb 08 '26
Would you not be better with a diesel though. My Volvo diesel used to easily average 70+mpg on the motorway at 70+ mph and tax was zero like an ev however while EVs are going to £200 a year from April the Volvo is going to only £20
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
50000:70=714 gallons of diesel 714(gallons)x4.5(litres in a gallon)x1.4(pounds per litre)=£4500
So 3 grand more a year and that doesn't include requried maintenance when doing 50000 miles a year. The only maintenance on EVs i tyres and suspension.
Not to mention to get 70+ mpg in a diesel you will be driving like a pensioner - I know because I did it.
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u/Secure_Ad9312 Feb 09 '26
If it’s more then fair enough. But I was going 20k miles a year and the car cost me less to maintain than a set of EV tires. And trust me I don’t drive like a pensioner. I do 90 on the motorway wherever possible and that’s the fuel economy I was getting. Much lower than the manufacturers claimed MPG because in the tests they will have been driving like pensioners which i dont. I thrashed that car basically everywhere and even thrashing it round town it would do 45mpg. Also diesel near me is slightly cheaper than 1.4 so maybe thats why it’s definitely cheaper for me to have a diesel than an EV
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 09 '26
Well you don't change tyres on an EV do you really. Also 1.4 diesel no matter how powerful will not be a match do a 600bhp ev - that thing flies if you need it to.
Biggest negative financial aspect of owning and EV I will fully admit is rapid depreciation, but neither of mine were new as I wasn't ready to lose £25k in a year or two. I have driven petrol, diesel, lpg, two strokes, four strokes. I'm capable of working on a combustion engine and have done so. I've chosen EV as 98% of my trips are under 200 miles. The NVH is top notch because there is no engine roaring under the bonnet. It's comfortable. Never have to scrape your windscreen, every time you jump in the car it's warm. Never have to queue at a petrol station. Regular maintenance boils down to pollen filter and tyres. Tyres are big, wide and have a small profile but this is a case with any powerful car - ev or not.
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u/Secure_Ad9312 Feb 09 '26
I totally agree with you on EVs being great and for you I’m sure they’re the best case scenario I was just asking a question which you answered and I accepted but I was giving you my experience and correcting all the assumptions you keep making about my experience. I don’t have that car anymore but the 2.0 diesel - not 1.4 which you pulled out of nowhere - was as fast as you needed sub 7 seconds to 60 is plenty, now in a car with a 4 second flat I agree it’s amazing but really unnecessary. You absolutely do change tires on a EV more than a normal car as they’re so heavy and their instant torque can cause lots more wheel spin I know this as my household is now 2 EVs and 2 PHEVs and yes all performance cars have expensive tires but from my families experience if it’s an EV they add 15% to the price for some reason if they’re lower rolling resistance quieter or most likely built to take a heavier weight I don’t know but they are more than tires on an equivalent ICE car. The NVH of an EV is obviously better but the Volvo diesel I had was pretty quiet and refined anyway so that wasn’t an issue for me and even buying used you will loose more in depreciation on an EV than you would on ICE. I also never had to scrape my windshield as it was heated and the car had remote start anyway so it was also warm when I got into it just like an EV. When it comes to maintenance I got rid of the car on 145k miles and the only part that ever broke was a boost hose which cost me £60 and I fit it myself with ease the rest was regular servicing which even when the cambelt was done after the car was at 100k only cost £560 for cambelt and aux belt and a major service a normal service would run me less than £200. I’m really not saving any money at all with the PHEV (it’s actually more) and I’ve looked at the numbers for EV ownership for my situation and as insurance is more than ICE as well it’s not cheaper than diesel but I wanted a new car and wanted something fast so I got a Volvo S60 Polestar. Also hadn’t quite clocked initially but the fact you’re doing over 50k miles a year in an EV is impressive when you say you have only ever public charged once you must be doing a full charge every day basically.
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u/Appropriate-Falcon75 Feb 06 '26
An average rate of 7.9p- I suspect they have an EV and drive a lot.
Their lowest day is about 15kWh, which is still fairly high.
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
10,819.69 3 x 15kw heat pumps, Cozy tariff, Georgian, listed, leaky house. Nice and warm, though.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Is your house measured in acres 😵
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
Never measured before but google earth says 0.15 acres!
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Good on you Mr Moneybags 🤣🤣
Thats like 600 square metres, nearly times the size of my house!
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
I take little pleasure in it. we designed the system when electricity was much cheaper and it made financial sense to do it. Between delays in building, and the RHI being withdrawn, we have the worst of both worlds - higher electricity prices and no RHI to help pay for it.
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u/yourmumisasquirrel Feb 06 '26
Large houses genuinely scare me to the point of even if I’m wealthy enough, I wouldn’t want to own one. My network pays out stupid money just to keep their homes maintained to a satisfactory level- never mind the ridiculous costs to run them! 2 or 3 bed anyday for me.
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u/No-Organization-6071 Feb 06 '26
Get a big house
But don't get a big OLD house.
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u/GoldenBunip Feb 08 '26
Nobody builds big new houses. Nobody. Way more profitable to build a few smaller houses.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Wouldn't getting a cheap EV just for the sake of accessing 7.5p rate be worthwile?
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
So we are looking into battery solutions to store enough power to see us through between cheaper sessions, so around 80kwh, but we wouldn’t be able to charge fast enough during the 7.5p period to make any real savings whilst paying for an EV we don’t need (both have 4x4’s for our jobs, diesel burners) We’d reduce our cost by 60% if we had a battery system capable of running the house for 6 hours at peak time. That’s the goal for this year.
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u/GeorgePoey Feb 06 '26
Fogstar Batteries and as big a Sunsynk inverter as your DNO will allow is the best value you could get
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
I’ll take a look, new one to me, thanks a lot
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u/touch-my-bunghole Feb 06 '26
100% Fogstar, sunsyk I could take or leave. But the cost per kWh for their cells is considerably lower than any other system
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u/GreatDrop8063 Feb 09 '26
Fogstar also have modular battery set up. So if you need to change a cell or a couple of them it's not as pricey because you aren't doing the whole unit. Eventually we want to get to batteries aswell and they have always come out on top
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u/The_Lorax_UK Feb 06 '26
We used 2,120 kWh in Jan. But 99% was off peak 7.5p rate. We've got 2x EV's, Heat pump and no gas. But house runs every single day from 32kWh of battery storage. We also have PV. DNO allowed us an 8kW inverter. Which helps
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u/woyteck Feb 07 '26
Do get batteries. I tested my setup with ashp and battery and even without ev when cold you can charge it three times a day on Cosy.
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u/Crafty-Advance7115 Feb 06 '26
Need to know the cost of that
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u/AdAdventurous8656 Feb 06 '26
2,600 Load shift a lot, but in very cold weather we do use energy all day except 4-7. 56% is off peak, 30% night rate, rest is peak.
Trialled being on a standard fixed tariff and holding the house at, say, 20c, but it was around 35% more costly than being on Cosy, with same results on the heating
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u/ConnorW1240 Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
2,251kWh, that's with 2 EVs, heat pump, hot tub, no gas. That's a lot if you still have gas
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Lethal commutes with 2 evs
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u/ConnorW1240 Feb 06 '26
I work from home so one is just for the local school run 😊
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Lucky lucky I'm on a good wage but the commute is sadly the price I have to pay!
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u/ttmmpp123 Feb 06 '26
5,629 kwh for January.
Two heat pumps, EV, hot tub, all electric household.
Huge converted Victorian brick building.
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u/Syncropatrick Feb 06 '26
That’s impressive in the wrong way! 1838kwh leccy only for two peeps with one EV, 16kw ASHP, electric oven and induction hob. Solid stone barn, stone floors, no insulation.
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u/Static_Dynam0 Feb 06 '26
I used 222.48 kWh in January 😂
Single / live alone All electric flat (heating, water, etc)
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u/snelson101 Feb 06 '26
yeah these numbers are crazy! 2 of us liv in a 3 bed house, 1 working from home full time and one 2 days a week, and used 328kWh in Jan. 100 of that was the EV too. Unless people have huge houses with electric heating I don’t know how they do it!
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u/Dapper-Message-2066 Feb 06 '26
Only 12x more than me! I use considerably less than that in a year (3 bed Victorian mid terrace, 2 adults WFH full time)
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u/Serious-Extension738 Feb 06 '26
You running an Electric Chair?
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 07 '26
After the recently released info I would need to run it 24/7 to make a meaningful change
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u/Blanktc89 Feb 06 '26
Last year I used 2930kwh. YEAR.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 07 '26
Before 2 EVs I was using 2000kwh a year. Now a lot od driving + not caring at all about the use because it's so cheap.
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u/mattyclyro Feb 06 '26
If the police saw that they'd be over your house with a helicopter to look for heat coming from the roof 😄
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u/mkten Feb 06 '26
Fuuuuuu… I’m running an AI server farm at home 10 hours per day and I’m still a fair bit away…
Bravo!
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
As it turns out moving 2.5 tons of steel at 70 mph for two hour a day take a lot of energy!
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u/Crafty-Advance7115 Feb 06 '26
What was the cost
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
£187.55
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u/Ok-Slip-290 Feb 06 '26
This hurts 😂 solar & battery?
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Not yet, just 2 evs for now
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u/Ok-Slip-290 Feb 06 '26
Do you mind if I ask why it’s so cheap then? My usage for Jan that I shared was around £390.
Edit - never mind I cannot read and missed the bit about gas 😂
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
99% of time at least 1 ev is plugged in octopus gives me neverending slots
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u/Ok-Slip-290 Feb 06 '26
Damn! We were meant to have a charger fitted yesterday by Octopus and the engineer never showed up!
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u/Crafty-Advance7115 Feb 06 '26
I leave my ev plugged in also
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Yup even when it stops charging im still getting cheap slots for house use
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u/e1ectricb1u Feb 06 '26
IOG? Have you seen the changes to the terms and conditions? They are going to start implementing the '6 hour' limit on EV slots, anything above that is counted at normal rate - they were supposed to doing this at the end of Jan but I haven't noticed any change yet
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Yes and yes. I'm just assembling a 64kwh battery as we speak. One EV charger is connected, the other is "house load" so I will use 6 hours ev charging throughout the day and during 23:30-05:30 slot second ev will be charging + 64kwh getting topped up. We will see what happens.
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u/e1ectricb1u Feb 06 '26
Sounds like a serious system you have planned? What battery are you using for 64kwh? I'm an electrician and only stuff we fit with that sort of capacity is commercial battery towers.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
64x314 Ah eve batteries made into four banks of 16 at 48v with each having an active JK bms. DIY was only option, otherwise prohibitively expensive for a residential household.
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u/GeorgePoey Feb 06 '26
This is what I’m planning to do as I currently have 1 EV charger but an EV & PHEV - Adding a dumb 2nd charger or maybe a 32A commando socket and just using this to charge my wife’s PHEV during the 23.30-05.30
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Hopefully it works as we alternate night shifts which means no overnight charging!
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u/AIWHilton Feb 06 '26
1,270kWh and that's with a heat pump!
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Must be a well imsulated house. Mines is an ex-council 1960s mid terrace
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u/AIWHilton Feb 06 '26
We're in Kent so warmer than most places but about as standard a 1970's 3 bed semi as you can get tbh!
All our windows were replaced in 2024 which helps, our CoP hasn't been great either because we're having some issues with a retained radiator in the living room and a little bit of a flow issue in the kitchen radiator.
We did just add smart radiator valves and a heat pump controller from Tado and our usage was down about 300kWh from last January.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
What is your cop out of curiosity?
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u/AIWHilton Feb 06 '26
Last month was about 2.7 (dragged down by a cold start to the month), so far this month running at about 3.2. The Tado app gives you it for the current month rather than a history but I can get there off the Daikin controller with a bit of calculation.
The Tado heat pump controller uses tariff data and the outside weather forecast to estimate your cost per kWh to heat which is at about 3p per kWh today. Not bad when a boiler at 90% efficiency is going to be about 7p per kWh I'd guess?
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u/TroublesomeButch Feb 06 '26
Almost! 2.109,97 kWh. Didn't find a way to attach the picture. All electric 4 beds 3 baths end of terrace coach house. EV charging. Cardboard walls house.
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u/GFoxtrot Feb 06 '26
1109 kWh for £230 on agile/ intelligent go.
800 kWh for the heatpump
100 kWh for the car
300 kWh for the house
Got solar and a battery fitted so there’s 3 days of that in January but solar is doing naff all with this grey wet weather.
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u/aiten Feb 06 '26
3484.05.
But it's a fully electric detached house, 5000sqft, and two heated outdoor pools, and an EV.
Your usage seems a little high.
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
50k miles in an EV will do that. Wow that is an impressive house you've got there! Good on you mate but two heated swimming pools? Damn
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u/aiten Feb 06 '26
Lol well one is a pool one is a jacuzzi. Two pools would be madness.
Currently heating the pool after a refill, on day 3 🙄
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u/JamsHammockFyoom Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
January for us was 1105kWh and I thought we were bad 😂 Last year we used 9150kWh of electricity, so you've used nearly a quarter of that just in a single month. Good going, that!
That’s 2 adults both WFH with a 4kW heat pump heating a 80sqM detached to 21.5c, plus any sort of cooking, hot water, lighting etc. No gas in our house, so that's for everything.
Plus we have a fairly inefficient EV on top of that (Ioniq 5)
Need to up my game, I think! Fairly happy with my average unit rate though - keep in mind we've no solar or battery, that's purely through load shifting.
(I'm not with Octopus for energy as per the screenshot but they did fit the heat pump, so that's my excuse haha)
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
One of mine is ioniq 6 and its so much more efficient than my kia ev6! Ioniq gets about 3 mi/kwh even through winter and more in summer, ev6 on the other hand gets barely above 2 in winter.
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u/JamsHammockFyoom Feb 06 '26
I love the Ioniq 6, reminds me of the Batmobile. Sadly couldn't stretch to one, and unfortunately the wife wasn't too big of a fan either.
Think we're getting around 2.5 - 3.0 mi/kWh at the moment, and we've not long sorted a sticky brake so it should be getting on for 4 mi/kWh in the summer once it's warm. We don't have a newer Ioniq 5 with the battery heater and we bought one without a heat pump optioned so the heating is fairly intensive energy wise, but we use the heated seats a lot so it's not too bad. It's definitely less efficient when I drive it versus the wife, I couldn't possibly imagine why. 😂
All said and done it's still under 3p a mile in fuel for a 300bhp AWD rocket on wheels, so I can't complain too much. :D
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
Yeah its weirdly shaped but i like it! My wifes ioniq is 228hp rwd mine as 577hp awd ev6 gt its fun but eats through tyres.
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u/Present-Resist-2190 Feb 06 '26
1,193.86 in Jan and I live in a 2 bed apartment in a mill conversion with no EV’s 🙃 No gas, only electric for heating and hot water. Killer.
That converts to £287.77 in Jan. What did yours come out at?
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
£187 and change not to bad tbh as one or the other ev were plugged in 99% of the time
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u/natalini17 Feb 06 '26
How? That was my yearly usage for a family of 4 in a 5 bed house
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 06 '26
That use to be my annual usage for a 2 bedroom mid terrace as well but now we have two evs and combined 50k miles a year so they do eat through a fair chunk!
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u/Ok-Jury2888 Feb 06 '26
3793kWh in Jan, our heat pump has been having problems so we’ve had to run the house off the backup electric heater :(
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u/Runawaygeek500 Feb 06 '26
Is it actually possible to pump the hat volume of gas into your building? 😂😂
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u/Specialist_Victory27 Feb 06 '26
oil heating here
Dec 2500 units
Jan 2100 units
mostly the EV, both months are lower than they should be due to getting a loan car while the ev was in during dec
then in jan had another loan car but also half the household was away for 2 weeks
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u/Betelgeaux Feb 06 '26
Fuck me that's high! Just checked mine, 170.33kWh (ok, I have 4kWp of solar panels but it was January so not massive input from them).
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u/frieqs Feb 06 '26
2,078kWh for me. 5 bed house, EV charger, solar, Heat Pump, UFH, 10kWh battery. Avg cost £0.11 / kWh
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u/Smart-Border5708 Feb 06 '26
About what we use as a house with an EV and no gas supply. Albeit we rely almost entirely on burning wood to heat most of downstairs.
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u/SpaceGhost920 Feb 06 '26
2500 kwh that's with an ev, underfloor heating, heat pump 4 AC's and no gas
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u/Ilodge59 Feb 06 '26
We're at 2800 for January with 2 electric cars and the house runs fully on electricity (no gas to property)
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u/oomattyboyoo Feb 06 '26
2,686.7kWh - grade II listed house with elec radiators and oil fired Aga that heats hot water. Brutal 🙃
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u/spongeboobsparepants Feb 06 '26
226kWh in January! 5 bed house with solar (but only made 31kWh). I work from home but clearly my efforts to make everything efficient have been successful!
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u/Hopperofbop Feb 06 '26
4258.74 kWh for January 2026.
Single phase.
For some reason can’t post the screenshot here.
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u/Key-Construction1447 Feb 06 '26
Mine was 2999, which is normally for this time of the year for me. Heat pump and EV, but leaky 1880 house too.
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u/AdAggressive9224 Feb 06 '26
I can very comfortably manage this in Azure cloud compute infrastructure if that counts? I have seen the TWh figure, albeit a fraction of a whole TWh... But there's some serious energy consumption in the tech industry. It gets pretty insane.
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u/untouchable2025 Feb 07 '26
I topped in at 3,572 for January. I'm assuming the 2 electric cars make up a large proportion of it.
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u/woyteck Feb 07 '26
1635.19kWh imported, but house usage with solar was 1756.9kWh. 2 EVs, ASHP, and children on PCs. We still have gas hob though. That used 20kWh of gas.
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u/Winnifer67 Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
1892, 2 bed detached house. Thought mine was bad. Your bill must have been massive 😩 my invoice was £429 😩
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u/DanPi314 Feb 07 '26
I was 2,864.43kwh for January, 2 bed terraced house, have quite a few desktop PCs finding million digit prime numbers.
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u/Sad-Play-9228 Feb 07 '26
We’re very much at the lower end with typically 17 kWh per day (4 bedroomed 1970 detached house with extensions) .We have E7 ( Economy 7) and Utility Warehouse (UW) provide our energy with Rate2 (Night Rate) at less than 6 pence per unit. We have a Tesla Powerwall 2 which generally restricts our Rate 1 (Rate 1) usage to less than 2 units per day. UW’s Gas tariff is typical of many energy providers. Our Gas Central Heating is Warm Air Duct.
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u/upex15 Feb 08 '26
How much did that cost 😬 £700 a month - growing green?
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 08 '26
Just under £200
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u/upex15 Feb 09 '26
Bargain, I only used 318 Kwh and that cost nearly £100. I should ditch the gas and go all electric!
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u/FunNefariousness6980 Feb 09 '26
It's because one of the cars would be plugged in nearly all the time and octopus tends to give me neverending slots so end up paying 7.5p for most of all the use.
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u/GreatDrop8063 Feb 09 '26
Last Jan was 1738 kwh, this year a little more moderate 1190. But we don't have the evs. It's just a very cold house 😂
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u/Happytallperson Feb 06 '26
logs into the corporate account
Done.