Just moved home - Is our usage correct it seems very high?

Sorry to be late to the party. 

Either the smart readings or the manual ones are the wrong way round. One register goes 622 - 665 - 713  (91 kWh in the month) and the other 861 - 1137 - 1164 (303 kWh). At this time of year, I’d expect the offpeak usage to be a lot bigger than the peak usage if storage heaters are working as they should. So, I suspect that the latest reading of 713 to be for the peak (day) register and 1164 for the offpeak (night) one. That means it looks like the meter got it right and Claire got it wrong this time. It would be nice to get Support to swap the manual readings round, but it won’t make any difference to the bill, which only uses the opening and closing readings.

Claire should check that it’s the register labelled TOU Rate 1 that changes during the daytime, while TOU Rate 2 stays the same. This should be the standard: 1 = peak/day, 2 = offpeak/night.

I don’t think there’s any need for manual readings at all since the smart meter is doing its stuff. If Claire has managed to switch to half-hourly readings all round, she’ll now be able to see meter readings every day and usage figures for every half-hour each day. 

​@Bearclaire With those readings, you’re using a lot less than £10 a day. Even if the 22.*10 p/kWh showing on the meter were the rate for both peak and offpeak usage, the monthly bill would be around £110. If it’s the peak rate, the bill would be much less, but I can’t say without knowing what the standing charge and the peak and offpeak rates are.   

Here's is a pic of peak/ off peak charges and standing charge it's now saying in 5 days we've used £45 worth of electric???

Thank you. 

Although your meter is set up for Economy 7, you’re in fact paying the same rate for peak and offpeak use. Unless you have storage heaters (that charge up during the night to keep the house warm during the day), this may be your best option.

Because your account was set up for monthly readings, the figures in the current billing period will be based on estimates, which as you can see can be wildly inaccurate. You can probably see the estimates themselves on the Usage tab. From the smart meter readings you shared earlier, we can see that in the last billing period (8 Dec - 7 Jan) you used 303 + 91 = 394 kWh in total, averaging ~13 kWh/day. In the five days since then, you probably used something like 5 x 13 = 65 kWh (and not the ~168 kWh the charges breakdown shows). 

65 x 0.2344 =  £15.24
  6 x 0.6104 = £ 3.66  
Total ex VAT  £18.90
     VAT @5%  £ 0.94
Total              £19.84

… a lot less than the estimate. 

I can’t find the plan you’re apparently on. Could you take a screenshot of your Plan page (little person icon > Plan details > View plan and rates) and post it here together with the first part of your postcode, please? Crop the screenshot to remove everything below Standing charge before you post it - it’s not a good idea to broadcast the meter identification numbers.

Thanks.

And our living room heater is a storage heater where we buy electric overnight but the bedroom is an oil filled radiator I believe and then we also have a heated towel rail in the bathroom

Should we be in a different tariff the. If we have a storage heater?

Thanks for the plan page - that makes a bit more sense now.
    

You’ll have to make some observations, take notes and do your sums to work out the best option. 

Electric heating at single- or peak-rate is the most expensive you can get. Storage heaters at a decent offpeak rate may be more manageable. Is your shower fed from the hot water tank, or is it an electric on-demand unit on the wall? When showers are heated by electricity, they can get very expensive.

If your storage heater is running all the time, it may be consuming most of your offpeak usage along with the water heater. Depending on how much hot water you use and how big the tank is, it may not be necessary to have the immersion heater switched on all the time, even if it is only heating up during the night. A normal-size tank, well insulated, should be able to store enough hot water for more than a day’s use, but you’d have to test this by switching the immersion heater off when you get up, then wait until there’s no hot water left. 

Towel rails don’t usually have a high rating - perhaps 0.1-0.2 kW - but that will quickly mount up if it’s on all the time (0.1 * 24 = 2.4 kWh = 60p a day = £18 a month). Do you need it to be on all the time?

Depending again on its rating in kW, the bedroom radiator only needs to be on for a period before bedtime and before getting-up-time. You’ll have to experiment to see how long it takes the radiator to get the bedroom up to a comfortable temperature, and remember that it will continue to heat the room up for a while after it’s switched off. It might be an idea to use a programmable time switch to do this. For example, if it takes an hour after switching it on for the room to get warm, try turning it on an hour before bedtime and off again half an hour later. Similarly, on an hour before the alarm goes off and off again half an hour later. This morning session with the bedroom radiator might fit nicely into the offpeak period. This could easily be organized with a £10 Tapo 110P smart plug that you can control from your phone (other smart plugs are available!).

If you can get most of your space and water heating into the offpeak period (midnight - 07:00) and limit daytime usage as far as possible, you should be able to get your usage pattern into the zone where Economy 7 would work for you. The plan you’re currently on is 2 Year Fixed - 05/12/2024 with peak and offpeak charged at the same rate. You may be able to switch to Economy 7 rates even though OVO still says it isn’t possible … you can only ask. The difference would be significant. Had you been put on Economy 7 when you moved in, your rates would have been peak: 26.00 p/kWh, offpeak 17.59 p/kWh and standing charge 61.24 p/day. Those rates have gone up a bit since then, but you would only need to be using at least 45% of your total usage during offpeak hours. That should be possible with a bit of adjustment.