🐙Cut your energy bills nearly in half with Octopus Tracker

[ThatFragranceGuy]

When the sessions are on, agile tends to be negative anyway so it says you can take part but you don't get paid twice. I'd imagine you'd need some serious draw to make profit - it was the same with the savings sessions. The real winners are the people who can discharge batteries to the grid and have multiple EV chargers etc as they can then max out everything but even then I doubt it's retirement money.

 

[Andy_W]

5p :)

Had a note from Octopus telling me any electric used vs a running average (didnt really see the detail) bewteen 1-2pm on a particular day would be free. Mentioned it to the better half.

Day came and at 12:30 went downstairs for lunch and the blimmin washing machine was on - she got the wrong hour. Short disagreement about listening and you said etc.

Any way got a note from Octopus to say we used 5p of free electric, and its just appeared on my bill. Result.

Been on the socials to check round others experiance and it seems to have gone down badly, with everyone whinging about 40p saved here or 50p saved there.

Not sure many people actually realise how little per day they spend on electric or how to calculate a washing machine or dryer cost.

Octopus are normlly pretty good at promoting the aggregate good the opportunity was - x million free boiled kettles etc but not seen anything.

Anyone else join in?

I don't bother with these unless it's a long period where it's worth charging the car. Otherwise the time spent thinking about, changing a routine or trying to tell our lass to get in line just isn't worth it.

With having an EV and agile, for me it's just best waiting until it goes stupidly cheap one night for hours, and just charging the car(s) then. The cars control about 75% of our cost I think.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

I don't bother with these unless it's a long period where it's worth charging the car. Otherwise the time spent thinking about, changing a routine or trying to tell our lass to get in line just isn't worth it.

With having an EV and agile, for me it's just best waiting until it goes stupidly cheap one night for hours, and just charging the car(s) then. The cars control about 75% of our cost I think.

Yeah the first few negative price sessions we had everything on at once but it's such an effort it for such a short return.

 

[Nano]

5p :)

Had a note from Octopus telling me any electric used vs a running average (didnt really see the detail) bewteen 1-2pm on a particular day would be free. Mentioned it to the better half.

Day came and at 12:30 went downstairs for lunch and the blimmin washing machine was on - she got the wrong hour. Short disagreement about listening and you said etc.

Any way got a note from Octopus to say we used 5p of free electric, and its just appeared on my bill. Result.

Been on the socials to check round others experiance and it seems to have gone down badly, with everyone whinging about 40p saved here or 50p saved there.

Not sure many people actually realise how little per day they spend on electric or how to calculate a washing machine or dryer cost.

Octopus are normlly pretty good at promoting the aggregate good the opportunity was - x million free boiled kettles etc but not seen anything.

Anyone else join in?

I got 80p of free electricity but I only remembered 15 mins in so plugged the car in. I set the alarm for the one the following week but the wife took the car out.

It's only free for the usage above your regular usage. It's just a way to get people thinking about using electricity at specific times. In the email it breaks it down. I used 5.0 kWh and I usually use 0.43 kWh at that time of day. There was probably a maximum of 7kWh that you could save which is the max a domestic car charger can do in an hour.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

T

I got 80p of free electricity but I only remembered 15 mins in so plugged the car in. I set the alarm for the one the following week but the wife took the car out.

It's only free for the usage above your regular usage. It's just a way to get people thinking about using electricity at specific times. In the email it breaks it down. I used 5.0 kWh and I usually use 0.43 kWh at that time of day. There was probably a maximum of 7kWh that you could save which is the max a domestic car charger can do in an hour.

I managed to get about 15kw on the go by having oven, air fryer, gaming pc doing a stress test and my sound system/amplifier on the go while charging the car but for the effort it's not really worth it also the kitchen was roasting.

 

[zzzzz]

Had a fkat for work and the leccy with OctoPUS. Sent the meter reading and doubled up with an email pic. Spoke to a nice lady and setteled the account over the phone based on the meter reading.
3 weeks later got another bill for another £300 saying they'd made a mstake.
Your problem I said. In the end I got a Bailiffs Letter.

So Octopus and the mysoginistic owner can go fk themselves.

 

[Borobuddah]

So Octopus and the mysoginistic owner can go fk themselves.

Why do you call him a mysoginist

 

[Gains]

Thanks to @ThatFragranceGuy and others for some great info on this thread.

I’m about to join the EV ranks through the wife’s work salary sacrifice as the deal is unbelievable value through Octopus EV. Loads more incentives to switch to Octopus Energy, free miles, free home charger so I’m about to switch, even though there’s a £50 exit fee per energy account.

My understanding is I’ll join Flexible Octopus then transfer to Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver tariff, and I reckon we’ll fully charge the car once a week, through the night on the cheapest rate. I’ve noticed people with EV’s mentioning Agile, does this give you more flexibility? Is it cheaper?

Bloody minefield all this. I’ll obviously use a link here when switching.

 

[Malaguena]

Thanks to @ThatFragranceGuy and others for some great info on this thread.

I’m about to join the EV ranks through the wife’s work salary sacrifice as the deal is unbelievable value through Octopus EV. Loads more incentives to switch to Octopus Energy, free miles, free home charger so I’m about to switch, even though there’s a £50 exit fee per energy account.

My understanding is I’ll join Flexible Octopus then transfer to Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver tariff, and I reckon we’ll fully charge the car once a week, through the night on the cheapest rate. I’ve noticed people with EV’s mentioning Agile, does this give you more flexibility? Is it cheaper?

Bloody minefield all this. I’ll obviously use a link here when switching.

Save the £50 exit fees

Bin the EV

Buy a diesel car

Sorted :cool:

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Thanks to @ThatFragranceGuy and others for some great info on this thread.

I’m about to join the EV ranks through the wife’s work salary sacrifice as the deal is unbelievable value through Octopus EV. Loads more incentives to switch to Octopus Energy, free miles, free home charger so I’m about to switch, even though there’s a £50 exit fee per energy account.

My understanding is I’ll join Flexible Octopus then transfer to Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver tariff, and I reckon we’ll fully charge the car once a week, through the night on the cheapest rate. I’ve noticed people with EV’s mentioning Agile, does this give you more flexibility? Is it cheaper?

Bloody minefield all this. I’ll obviously use a link here when switching.

When is your fix due to end? You don't pay the exit fee if it's within 49 days of the end of your deal so worth taking a look

You have two options really, and it depends on your usage profile

Agile breaks the day down into half hour slots, generally evenings 5-7 are expensive and first thing like 6-9 and outside of that time it drops down. Usually cheaper overnight and during the day.

If you have an ev it is good for overnight charging and when the weather is windy or really hot or ideally both, it goes really cheap and sometimes negative so you get paid to use energy in those slots

If you can move dishwasher, dryer, washing machine to the cheap times which takes seconds a day really, you can save a lot of your high draw usage. We didn't really change anything else - we aren't sat waiting for a cheap slot for the air fryer to cook tea on.

You can use this site to look back on previous months and see how each day was made up, what sort of unit rates there have been etc

https://agileprices.co.uk/

You'd stay on tracker for gas as no equivalent

Other option is intelligent octopus go - gives you 6 hours at 7p overnight but then your day rate is 22.41p

Gives you some cheap EV charge but fixed higher costs outside of that

Worth looking at your usage and seeing which fits with you best.

Also means if you need to charge during the day it will cost you a lot more, and if you need to do longer than 6 hours in one go then you'll pay more. Good for top ups for local driving

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Apps make agile easy so for example if I want to put dishwasher on for 4 hours on its eco mode it tells me the cheapest slot for that amount of time

 

[Redwurzel]

FG you seem really clued in. :cool:

Out of interest FG what is your approximate annual energy bill (elec and gas)?

I ask because we are told (by all sorts of people and organisations the cost of energy is really high now).

In the late 1980s I was paying around £320 for a 2 bed flat in energy bills, which in todays money would be around £900 plus VAT (now)

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

FG you seem really clued in. :cool:

Out of interest FG what is your approximate annual energy bill (elec and gas)?

I ask because we are told (by all sorts of people and organisations the cost of energy is really high now).

In the late 1980s I was paying around £320 for a 2 bed flat in energy bills, which in todays money would be around £900 plus VAT (now)

Our usage won't be typical of most people's, as we have had an EV for 6 months and we use a lot of devices and have a sound system that would give most cinemas a run for it's money. Our usage last 12 months is as below, you can see where the ev kicks in - luckily most at low rates





So total £1,815.83, £151 a month if divided by 12.

That's 2 people, good sized 4 bed house, tons of devices (games consoles, gaming pc, work laptop, several amplifiers) and 6 months of EV. Some of that is offset by mileage claims on the ev as well but not a huge deal.

I'd say most people are probably paying a bit above what the price cap predicts. The current cap is £1717

We estimate the typical household in England, Scotland and Wales uses 2,700 kWh of electricity and 11,500 kWh of gas in a year.

We've used about 2700kwh of EV energy so we would be well above that if we were on a price cap tariff at 22p per kWh; smart energy GB says 4100 units for a 4 bed, 2700 units for 2-3 bed, 1800 units for 1 bed flat.

So overall our usage is high but costs are low thanks to tracker and agile and load shifting high load stuff to night times when energy is cheap.

Re: late 1980s, it was higher then I think, but the difference being that then it was a gradual increase rather than a sharp shock rise seemingly every quarter.

 

[Ayresome]

FG - Can I tap into you great knowledge of Octopus and all things tariffs based for a bit of advice please?

I joined the tracker last year which was great advice from yourself thank you (and hope you got the £50 ;)). I do not have an EV so have been happy to plod away on the tracker. I know the price has increased since last year and it still looks a good deal. Is Tracker the one to stay on or should I be looking at other tariffs now? PS: I appreciate i am after advice and I will look into it with greater detail myself if you can point me in the right direction. Thanks

 

[Redwurzel]

£1815 is quite low, considering the EV for 6 months and I can see Electricity represents 74% of your total energy. We use more gas I think than electricity, so possibly approx £700 was the EV, taking home energy down to £1115 on above average size property. I was guess you are paying around 30% less than the average house owner.

Compare that with say £945 in 1989 on a 2 bed property. I was say you are managing to pay less in todays prices than I did in 1989 - so called days of low prices and higher usage devices. It also shows it is possible get energy prices lower with careful planning without even cutting consumption.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

FG - Can I tap into you great knowledge of Octopus and all things tariffs based for a bit of advice please?

I joined the tracker last year which was great advice from yourself thank you (and hope you got the £50 ;)). I do not have an EV so have been happy to plod away on the tracker. I know the price has increased since last year and it still looks a good deal. Is Tracker the one to stay on or should I be looking at other tariffs now? PS: I appreciate i am after advice and I will look into it with greater detail myself if you can point me in the right direction. Thanks

Take a look at the app Octopus Compare - you can select specific versions of the tariff (as they create almost quarterly iterations of it now) and you can select agile or price cap and it'll show you what you would pay on each and compare monthly, annual etc

For me tracked and agile were about on parity before getting an EV, but since then I think they have put tracker up a couple of times

 

[afcb_acklam]

Take a look at the app Octopus Compare - you can select specific versions of the tariff (as they create almost quarterly iterations of it now) and you can select agile or price cap and it'll show you what you would pay on each and compare monthly, annual etc

For me tracked and agile were about on parity before getting an EV, but since then I think they have put tracker up a couple of times

is it reasonable to stay on tracker until prices converge, then leap to a fixed price deal?

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

£1815 is quite low, considering the EV for 6 months and I can see Electricity represents 74% of your total energy. We use more gas I think than electricity, so possibly approx £700 was the EV, taking home energy down to £1115 on above average size property. I was guess you are paying around 30% less than the average house owner.

Compare that with say £945 in 1989 on a 2 bed property. I was say you are managing to pay less in todays prices than I did in 1989 - so called days of low prices and higher usage devices. It also shows it is possible get energy prices lower with careful planning without even cutting consumption.

We used to use a lot of gas for heating but we had Insulation brought up to standard and boarded the loft out, and we have temperature sensors in every room so have access to data around how warm the house is or isn't, the house retains heat quite well but unless it's freezing we find it cheaper to heat the person than the house, so we tend to have it on every now and then when it's really cold but make good use of heated bedsheets (costs far less than heating the house) and giving our 20 year old cat a heated pet mat rather then putting heating on or leaving it at 21c

When I'm at work in my office the room soon warms up anyway with laptop on and cats hanging around, so don't have any increase off that other then elec for a laptop which isn't huge

Definitely savings to be had - even now I bet there are tons of people still paying the price cap. Even if you people don't want to or can't load shift with time of use tariffs, tracker will still be cheaper over the year than price cap.

I'd imagine the amount saved by people in this thread alike would probably be in the tens of thousands quite easily- yet tracker and agile is a really small part of octopus customer base.

Octopus also giving out 20k elec blankets this year and winter fuel payments to those most in need (means tested).

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

is it reasonable to stay on tracker until prices converge, then leap to a fixed price deal?

Yeah makes sense

Read Cornwall Insights predictions though as you'll see which way prices are trending and I'd not take a fix if you'll never get an EV and it's expected prices will go up a decent amount as you then don't benefit from any drops

Predictions & Insights into the Default Tariff Cap (Price Cap)

Cornwall Insight is a trusted provider of forecast models for the Default Tariff Cap, commonly known as the price cap

www.cornwall-insight.com

Over winter gas is the major price pressure for people and tracker is about 1.5p a unit cheaper than price cap at present. Tough to beat that over thousand of units (11500 units average so if it stayed that way, would be £172 saved but many will use more than price cap and the price cap amount is forecast to go to about 6.4p for gas

 

[Gains]

When is your fix due to end? You don't pay the exit fee if it's within 49 days of the end of your deal so worth taking a look

You have two options really, and it depends on your usage profile

Agile breaks the day down into half hour slots, generally evenings 5-7 are expensive and first thing like 6-9 and outside of that time it drops down. Usually cheaper overnight and during the day.

If you have an ev it is good for overnight charging and when the weather is windy or really hot or ideally both, it goes really cheap and sometimes negative so you get paid to use energy in those slots

If you can move dishwasher, dryer, washing machine to the cheap times which takes seconds a day really, you can save a lot of your high draw usage. We didn't really change anything else - we aren't sat waiting for a cheap slot for the air fryer to cook tea on.

You can use this site to look back on previous months and see how each day was made up, what sort of unit rates there have been etc

https://agileprices.co.uk/

You'd stay on tracker for gas as no equivalent

Other option is intelligent octopus go - gives you 6 hours at 7p overnight but then your day rate is 22.41p

Gives you some cheap EV charge but fixed higher costs outside of that

Worth looking at your usage and seeing which fits with you best.

Also means if you need to charge during the day it will cost you a lot more, and if you need to do longer than 6 hours in one go then you'll pay more. Good for top ups for local driving

We’re tied in until April, so won’t avoid it. I still think it’s worth switching due to the 4000 free miles for doing so, they claim 4000 miles but it’s actually £60. And if I get the £50 for switching it covers the fees.

I’ve still emailed octopus to see if there’s any other incentives but I’m looking to get it sorted due to the time constraints of the EV being delivered.