🐙Cut your energy bills nearly in half with Octopus Tracker

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Can I still make a referral a month after I've joined?

You should be able to.

Just drop them a tweet or ring them up and say you forgot to apply the code

My non-url code is Azure-thyme-228

Can't hurt to ask. If you have twitter that's usually my preferred way as they get back to you in a few hours and saves waiting on the phone

 

[The_Tiler]

I'm very confused with tariffs.

The wife has a new electric vehicle, she does about 100-150 mile a week.
I am in the queue for the tracker and have an email saying I'll be able to join 1st July.

I have an offer for a EV tariff 9.5p between 12:30am and 4am and then 38.95p for the rest of the time.

Or I can stay on my current tariff which is 31.92 all the time, unsure because of the low milage the wife does in her EV if it's worth me changing and paying more for most of the day

Anyone got a clue?

I was in the same position as yourself, wife has an electric car and charges it once or twice a week.

Worked out cheaper to stay on the tracker tariff, for me anyway. Our daily cost on electric is less than £2 per day on the tracker, jumps up to about £7 when she charges her car. Its a lot cheaper overall than the Intelligent Octopus.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Called them and they'll add me to the list, once I apply (they're emailing me a link to do that, from Thursday this week.)

That all sounds very promising. Thanks again.

If you didn't get the link yet you can sign up yourself if you google octopus tracker signup

Octopus Tracker

Britains' fairest energy tariff, with dynamic daily pricing and 100% renewable electricity.

octopus.energy

Lot of scary warnings on there but as long as you keep track of prices you're good, there's enough fmttm'ers on them now that this thread will be rapidly bumped if it became unviable too

Can I still make a referral a month after I've joined?

This is in the FAQ so sounds like you're good

Can I add a referral after I’ve already signed up?​

If you forgot to use your friend's referral link when you signed up, just get in touch and let us know the referral code. As long as you signed up directly through our site, we'll be able to add the referral to both you and your friend's accounts.

If you're doing it via signup it's easy as it's a link but if you're doing it after the fact or over the phone you need a specific code - mine is azure-thyme-228

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

Here’s a link if anyone needs it:
Your Octopus Energy Referral code

Octopus Energy

The UK's most awarded energy supplier. We're doing energy better - for you and the environment.

share.octopus.energy

 

[Stanny]

I've pushed my DD back to 1st July so the referral will go through then. Happy days

 

[Andy_W]

I'm very confused with tariffs.

The wife has a new electric vehicle, she does about 100-150 mile a week.
I am in the queue for the tracker and have an email saying I'll be able to join 1st July.

I have an offer for a EV tariff 9.5p between 12:30am and 4am and then 38.95p for the rest of the time.

Or I can stay on my current tariff which is 31.92 all the time, unsure because of the low milage the wife does in her EV if it's worth me changing and paying more for most of the day

Anyone got a clue?

I use Octopus Go which costs me 7.5p per kwh to charge the car 12:30 to 16:30 and Octopus Tracker for gas. There's also Intelligent Octopus with a 6 hr window if your car or charger is compatible

If you have an EV but don't do masses of miles, or WFH then Agile might work too (for the electric).

You can charge at night from 11pm to 5am for ~13p or between 1200 and 1600 it's about 11/12p per kW and the rest of the time it's around 15-17p, other than between 1600-1900 where it hikes up to ~30p. A few hours last weekend, on consecutive days, during the day it was completely free (good time to charge car), and probably will be the same over summer as there's tons of solar chucked out and not much demand on the grid.

600 miles a month is about 150-200kW, so the difference between the 9.5p EV tariff and 11.5p (non busy hours charging) is only ~£3-4 on charging per month, but you would get much more than that back by not paying 38.95p for the other hours.

It doesn't seem practical to me to have an EV tarriff, as shifting all the high-load other items to 0000-0400 would be a right ball ache, unless you have solar and a battery which you can fill up on 7.5-9p per kW, and you also need to do absolutely loads of miles.

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

If you have an EV but don't do masses of miles, or WFH then Agile might work too (for the electric).

You can charge at night from 11pm to 5am for ~13p or between 1200 and 1600 it's about 11/12p per kW and the rest of the time it's around 15-17p, other than between 1600-1900 where it hikes up to ~30p. A few hours last weekend, on consecutive days, during the day it was completely free (good time to charge car), and probably will be the same over summer as there's tons of solar chucked out and not much demand on the grid.

600 miles a month is about 150-200kW, so the difference between the 9.5p EV tariff and 11.5p (non busy hours charging) is only ~£3-4 on charging per month, but you would get much more than that back by not paying 38.95p for the other hours.

It doesn't seem practical to me to have an EV tarriff, as shifting all the high-load other items to 0000-0400 would be a right ball ache, unless you have solar and a battery which you can fill up on 7.5-9p per kW, and you also need to do absolutely loads of miles.

I have solar and batteries so my average cost per kilowatt hour is around 10p

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

Agile would have been about £7 more for me last month and that’s without much nighttime use as the sun has been charging the car and house batteries

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

View attachment 58600
Agile would have been about £7 more for me last month and that’s without much nighttime use as the sun has been charging the car and house batteries

When you said 4 year payback, how much was the rough outlay and is that 4 years against standard tariff or 4 years against octopuses cheapest other tariffs? 4 years seems really quick?

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

When you said 4 year payback, how much was the rough outlay and is that 4 years against standard tariff or 4 years against octopuses cheapest other tariffs? 4 years seems really quick?

4 years against standard tariffs. The other tariffs are full of variables so it would be difficult to asses those. I paid £4,300 for 6 PV panels, rails, cable, isolators, fixings etc. Hybrid inverter and 6.5kWh battery.

 

[Andy_W]

I have solar and batteries so my average cost per kilowatt hour is around 10p

Good stuff

I've got a small amount of solar (4 panels), but no battery and I'm going to do a bit of digging to see if it would be cost-effective to get more panels and a battery, compared to various tariffs, when I've got more data. I think I might struggle to make that cost-effective V the agile tariff I'm on (or the tracker), but it would certainly make sense compared to a fixed tariff.

How fast can the batteries charge from the grid?
How many charge cycles can they go through?
How long are they expected to last and when they get passed this do they just drop capacity to 80/90% etc?

I've seen things where people are using Nissan Leaf batteries in their setup, as they're very cheap compared to house-specific batteries etc.

My main concern is moving, and not getting the investment back (on a battery), but to be honest I would probably just take the battery with me if I moved.

 

[Andy_W]

4 years against standard tariffs. The other tariffs are full of variables so it would be difficult to asses those. I paid £4,300 for 6 PV panels, rails, cable, isolators, fixings etc. Hybrid inverter and 6.5kWh battery.

For fag packet maths, if you're averaging 10p, rather than 30p, then you're 20p better off, per unit and if the payback on that is 4 years, then comparing that to say averaging 15p, then you're 5p better off per unit, and payback time goes to 4x that I think, as the benefit is a 1/4 of the other rate? 20p should be around 2x etc.

Of course, rates could go up, and shorten that, but they could also go down, and increase it etc.

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

For fag packet maths, if you're averaging 10p, rather than 30p, then you're 20p better off, per unit and if the payback on that is 4 years, then comparing that to say averaging 15p, then you're 5p better off per unit, and payback time goes to 4x that I think, as the benefit is a 1/4 of the other rate? 20p should be around 2x etc.

Of course, rates could go up, and shorten that, but they could also go down, and increase it etc.

Surely the need the quantity units used on your fag packet somewhere.

 

[Andy_W]

Surely the need the quantity units used on your fag packet somewhere.

It shouldn't matter if your usage stays the same, but you can adjust it for usage, i.e the less you use the longer it will take to make that back, comparing ot other tarrifs.

At a 20p difference and a £4,000 outlay this effectively means you need to get through 20,000 units/ kWh to pay that back, so as you mentioned 4 years it works our 5,000 kWh per year, so you can substitute that same use into the other bands.

Basic table to show what I mean:


This is probably a worse case scenario though, as if the comparitor rate dropped, then the chances are your price per kWh would drop too, so the table below would roughly account for that:

 

[Emmersons_BrazillianDong]

The ev tariff sounds bad as your ev usage will be low and the day rate is more expensive than the tracker if you can't shift usage to night

I'd say you need to look at your usage - octopus website will show you hourly use or use octo aid or Hugo or any third party app

Most people if they can't load shift and charge a well used ev in them hours will be better off on tracker

I've had my smart meter for about 2 years now but because I've been lucky enough to have a cheap fix, I've not looked too much at my usage (I have an EV) so would like to fir the last few months of my switch.

Would some of that insight be in my energy online account, or is a third party app better?

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

I've had my smart meter for about 2 years now but because I've been lucky enough to have a cheap fix, I've not looked too much at my usage (I have an EV) so would like to fir the last few months of my switch.

Would some of that insight be in my energy online account, or is a third party app better?

The third party app Hugo will give you hourly breakdown or you can request the data from your supplier if you are comfortable with excel

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

It shouldn't matter if your usage stays the same, but you can adjust it for usage, i.e the less you use the longer it will take to make that back, comparing ot other tarrifs.

At a 20p difference and a £4,000 outlay this effectively means you need to get through 20,000 units/ kWh to pay that back, so as you mentioned 4 years it works our 5,000 kWh per year, so you can substitute that same use into the other bands.

Basic table to show what I mean:
View attachment 58609

This is probably a worse case scenario though, as if the comparitor rate dropped, then the chances are your price per kWh would drop too, so the table below would roughly account for that:

View attachment 58610

My comparison was only against the standard tariff using Octopus compare when working out payback. I also didn't account for my PV which is really speeding up how fast my payback will be. Currently I'm saving around 20kWh a day.

 

[Andy_W]

My comparison was only against the standard tariff using Octopus compare when working out payback. I also didn't account for my PV which is really speeding up how fast my payback will be. Currently I'm saving around 20kWh a day.

Yeah, of course, that's how most would do it, but prices will probably drop and change things, they could of course go up through the roof as well mind. Not trying to shoot you down at all, just more trying to figure things out as I'm wanting to do the same, and trying to work out if it's going to be worth getting more solar and a battery, just a battery, or waiting a bit until cheaper batteries come out. Also toying with getting a couple of old leaf batteries and just filling them up on weekends when the agile rate goes to the floor (was free some points last weekend). When energy prices drop I think there will basically end up larger periods where energy is free, when it's sunny or windy. This is what they energy policy is going to want, if done smartly, if enough people sort out their home energy storage then they won't be bothered about giving away energy for nothing when there's loads of it around, as they won't be loading the grid when it's in high demand, and will make it far easier to manage the national peak load on the grid.

I was thinking about this last night and wondering if you had factored for your solar, when working out the average price per unit. I was thinking you maybe got around 1/3rd of your energy for basically 0p per unit, and the other 2/3 for 10p, over the course of a year, so your true cost maybe more like 6/7p?

Is that 20kWh what you get from your 6 panels? I think you said it was 6, but I might be wrong. I've only a rough idea what my 4 are generating, kicking out 600w now, back to the grid (for free ) and I think my current load is ~400W, so probably getting 1kWh out of mine, for maybe 8-10 hours a day in summer.

20kWh is like 600kWh per month, which would be 7200 kWh per year, but maybe only get that high a performance for 1/3 of that time?

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

Yeah, of course, that's how most would do it, but prices will probably drop and change things, they could of course go up through the roof as well mind. Not trying to shoot you down at all, just more trying to figure things out as I'm wanting to do the same, and trying to work out if it's going to be worth getting more solar and a battery, just a battery, or waiting a bit until cheaper batteries come out. Also toying with getting a couple of old leaf batteries and just filling them up on weekends when the agile rate goes to the floor (was free some points last weekend). When energy prices drop I think there will basically end up larger periods where energy is free, when it's sunny or windy. This is what they energy policy is going to want, if done smartly, if enough people sort out their home energy storage then they won't be bothered about giving away energy for nothing when there's loads of it around, as they won't be loading the grid when it's in high demand, and will make it far easier to manage the national peak load on the grid.

I was thinking about this last night and wondering if you had factored for your solar, when working out the average price per unit. I was thinking you maybe got around 1/3rd of your energy for basically 0p per unit, and the other 2/3 for 10p, over the course of a year, so your true cost maybe more like 6/7p?

Is that 20kWh what you get from your 6 panels? I think you said it was 6, but I might be wrong. I've only a rough idea what my 4 are generating, kicking out 600w now, back to the grid (for free ) and I think my current load is ~400W, so probably getting 1kWh out of mine, for maybe 8-10 hours a day in summer.

20kWh is like 600kWh per month, which would be 7200 kWh per year, but maybe only get that high a performance for 1/3 of that time?

My 20kWh a day saving is about what I’ve saved over the last month. This takes into account the 6 panels I bought plus another 10 that weren’t bought recently and also the batteries I have. I have just looked back through my Octopus usage and I haven’t bought any electricity for the car since April 28th. Since then it’s all been free sunshine energy.

 

[Block_4_Eastender]

This is what has gone into the car today for free. Also the house batteries are fully charged.