I have just worked out my usage and it would cost me about Ā£82 a year more to switch to Octopus 12M Fixed than it would to switch to Tomato Energy. That is only Ā£6.85 per month but it all counts when you are not working.
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šCut your energy bills nearly in half with Octopus Tracker
- Thread starter ThatFragranceGuy
- Start date
Alzi
Well-known member
You're completely right I'm just worried about smaller companies going bust but hopefully there is a bit more stability with them now.
I wonder what would happen if Tomato energy went bust. Would all the customers keep the same tariffs but just get transferred to another supplier like all the Bulb customers did.
Emmersons_BrazillianDong
Well-known member
I moved to Tomato three weeks back. Was a bit worried due to some of the early teething issues with billing and getting usage data. I switched over, data was up and running within 48 hours and in getting 5p electricity overnight 12-6am every day.
The peak price is only 23p kwh and the standing charge is lower than octopus. Tracker has been excellent over the period I had it but the new iteration wasn't going to beat moving away.
It's good to have competition in the market and even Eon have a similar cheaper overnight rate for any EV / battery owners.
The peak price is only 23p kwh and the standing charge is lower than octopus. Tracker has been excellent over the period I had it but the new iteration wasn't going to beat moving away.
It's good to have competition in the market and even Eon have a similar cheaper overnight rate for any EV / battery owners.
Think I will swap over to this supplier. Being an EV owner, the 5p overnight electricity is a big decider.
Emmersons_BrazillianDong
Well-known member
I've kept my gas on tracker for now so still enjoying the free weekly coffee
As I say, there are other providers with good set overnight tarrifs. This is just the cheapest for now that I'm aware of
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
No, bulb was kept operating due to its size. You'd be transferred to whichever company took over your account
Use octopus compare to compare it to what you're paying now. You can enter q custom tariff to match tomato rates.
November would have saved us Ā£8, December Ā£45 but we've had several full charges needed due to holidays, every other month agile has been cheaper than tomato, so not totally cut & dried.
The comparison between my Tracker rate and Agile is roughly the same, so no point changing.
Octopus compare requires me to subscribe to enter the Tomato data. Tracker today is 33.13p and 60.18p standing charge compared to less than 24p, (5p at night) and 42.85p standing charge.
Tracker has been consistently over 24p per day over the last few monthst.
I don't need to subscribe to see that Tomato is cheaper.
Tracker has been great for me, but time to move on.
Octopus compare requires me to subscribe to enter the Tomato data. Tracker today is 33.13p and 60.18p standing charge compared to less than 24p, (5p at night) and 42.85p standing charge.
Tracker has been consistently over 24p per day over the last few monthst.
I don't need to subscribe to see that Tomato is cheaper.
Tracker has been great for me, but time to move on.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
But you said being an EV owner - if you are an EV owner it's been a long time that tracker isn't the best tariff for you, as agile would have been far cheaper to charge your vehicle unless you almost never charge it?
For example 1st April to 31st October on agile our average unit rate was 13.84p
On the tracker December 2023 that same date range was 18p, on the more recent ones you can't compare that full date range, but you're looking at probably 21p since September
The app subscription is like a quid I think, but it's useful because it looks at your actual time of use. No point in having cheap energy if the time you use it is all expensive and you can't load shift. Once nuclear is back online and we get wind and sun again I imagine agile will be competitive again.
Sizewell B came back o line yesterday and you can see here some others are due in the next few days
Power station status
Find the status of our nuclear power stations & see which nuclear reactors are in service & what power they are generating. You can also find which reactors are out of service and for how long.
I tend to charge my car at work about twice a month, and maybe once a month at home, unless going long distances at the weekend. It's being charged more often in the winter because I'm using the heaters and the range takes a battering.
I've tracked the Agile for the last six months and there's no difference for me between that and Tracker. Load shifting isnt really an option for me for various reasons.
I've tracked the Agile for the last six months and there's no difference for me between that and Tracker. Load shifting isnt really an option for me for various reasons.
Emmersons_BrazillianDong
Well-known member
Problem with agile for me was that my car and my charger weren't able to sync with cheap slots.
Having a set timing that's consistent for cheap energy is loads less hassle and I imagine would be for most use cases.
Load shifting is easier when you know the times you're shifting to
Having a set timing that's consistent for cheap energy is loads less hassle and I imagine would be for most use cases.
Load shifting is easier when you know the times you're shifting to
Andy_W
Well-known member
Yeah my charger is dumb so won't do that either, but I just set the car to only take charge midnight to 4am for anytime it's plugged in and then only plug in when it's a cheap night or I'm getting down to dregs, but the latter rarely happens.
Sometimes if it's really windy a different time slot might go cheap which is worth changing times in the car app, but I rarely do this.
An EV overnight rate might have been cheaper the last couple of months, but not by much, it's not worth me changing from agile which has served me extremely well.
Like TFG mentions above, looks like a lot of the nuclear has been offline and coming back on line soon, which probably explains why agile's not been the clear winner for me, for a short while.
I have had Agile for about 3 months now and it would have been marginally better to have been on Go instead of Agile (both comfortably beat the Tracker). I might switch to Go for the ease. I have to check the app every day to see if/when it's cheap and with Agile there are times I have to charge (because I need the full charge for a long journey) which are expensive. The reliability of just being able to set a timer and plug in every day would offset the very minimal savings I could get with Agile.
If the notice period was longer I would be able to plan better. Waiting until 4pm to find out if it's going to be cheap that night makes it difficult to plan. There's been a few times where I've charged and then the next day the rate has been even lower so I'm not optimising my charging/load shifting. The Greener Days thing is rubbish, there's not enough nuance. There's a big difference between a night with negative costs and one with 10p costs but it doesn't tell you that, they are both just "greener days". I've signed up to the email several times and not received one anyway.
18MFC76
Well-known member
39.20 my electric rate tomorrow on Octopus tracker July 2024 :eek:
Yikes, 36,33p for me on December 2023.
Seriously looking at tomato lifestyle now.
15p during my high usage hours morning and evening , 24p the rest of the time, standing charge something like 47p. Fixed for 12 months, no exit fees.
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Robborevolution
Active member
@ThatFragranceGuy if like me you didnāt have an EV and were on the tracker would you be sticking with it or looking at something else? The tracker has saved me a fortune although that did reduce when I moved earlier this year. The last 3-4 months have been very similar to cap and obviously next few days will be very expensive. I have taken view to date that a few bad days are nothing compared to savings made but does seem overall to be a lot less advantage to tracker in recent months so interested in your take
afcb_acklam
Well-known member
tonight there is a regional octopus 'power saving' competition between 6 & 7. I'll be playing for the 'southern softies', battling it out against you lot - the 'ne chip on yer shoulders'. may the best team win.
sherlock
Well-known member
I'm sticking with Tracker for now. Today and tomorrow are high, but we recently had a day of 13p and a day of 17p which pretty much cancels out the two high days.
If it stays at 30p plus for a prolonged period I will rethink but I reckon it will be pretty short lived. My tracker is up for renewal in February so will see what the new offer is then and perhaps take a fix if the tracker doesn't look worth it at that time.
If it stays at 30p plus for a prolonged period I will rethink but I reckon it will be pretty short lived. My tracker is up for renewal in February so will see what the new offer is then and perhaps take a fix if the tracker doesn't look worth it at that time.
TheLodger
Well-known member
I'm still on the tracker, unsure why as I have an EV and heat my home from a ASHP, but as others have said it's saved us a small fortune over the last few years, the thing about the tracker is once you leave it's quite a while before you are allowed to sign back onto it.
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