Octopus energy

Leon103 said:

Why do threads like this go the same direction???

To answer the question. Yes I am, they didn't install the meter (smart). Good company. Happy with the benefits - free coffees etc. Had an issue with one month's bill and all corrected.

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same direction? you mean other peole sharing their experiences and those owhich they know?


I also enjoy free coffees from my Costa courtesy card! I have fully declared them, and they have not been donated by a very friendly millionaire mate and I bought the underpants I'm wearing with my own money I have earned.

hoppyscotty said:

same direction? you mean other peole sharing their experiences and those owhich they know?


I also enjoy free coffees from my Costa courtesy card! I have fully declared them, and they have not been donated by a very friendly millionaire mate and I bought the underpants I'm wearing with my own money I have earned.

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People like you that think every advancement in technology is there to brainwash the public.

Be careful those underwear you wear aren't chipped with a tracker, or that Costa app is stealing your data.

I am with octopus, I too resisted a smart meter for years until I had solar panels plus a battery installed. I also have an electric car. That's when I switched to Octopus and got the tarrif that lets me charge the car and my battery overnight for 7p/kwh. I can then use the energy in the battery during the day and any excess from the solar is sold back to the grid for 15p.
Result
My account is in credit which has been steadily increasing over the year. It won't be as good during the winter but it's way better than the old way.

Birdsnestbrewery said:

I am with octopus, I too resisted a smart meter for years until I had solar panels plus a battery installed. I also have an electric car. That's when I switched to Octopus and got the tarrif that lets me charge the car and my battery overnight for 7p/kwh. I can then use the energy in the battery during the day and any excess from the solar is sold back to the grid for 15p.
Result
My account is in credit which has been steadily increasing over the year. It won't be as good during the winter but it's way better than the old way.

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Very good night tariff
I just switched to Octopus. I have 27 panels installed last year and Tesla Powerwall2. I am on Flux tariff, but thinking I will stop trading energy because the difference between buying and selling is only 1.5p…
I asked to install smart gas meter as I don’t want reading meter myself

Leon103 said:

People like you that think every advancement in technology is there to brainwash the public.

Be careful those underwear you wear aren't chipped with a tracker, or that Costa app is stealing your data.

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Oh the irony of accusing someone who is skeptical of our 'illustrious and trustworthy' political elite of being brainwashed!!! Quite the opposite. I am obviously skeptical and untrusting of the lying toe rags. Recent and past events has proved that the price of power and influence of said toe rags is as little as the cost of a couple of pop concert tickets and a couple of snazzy suits and matching glasses.

It's not the technology that I'm against - though the utility of a smart meter is utterly useless other than to access cheaper tariffs. It's how it potentially could be used and the fact it's being pushed on us and choice taken away from us, and the additional power that it hands over to unelected and unaccountable bodies. That in itself should twang a few worry beads in anyone...

But ultimately it's irrelevant as due to our fantastic price inflating energy policy we'll all soon be priced out of the energy market and have to get smart meters to access the cheaper tariffs. Classic bait and switch scam.

Oh and of course the costa app is stealing your data...well not stealing as such as you're willingly, and apparently ignorantly, giving it away for nothing. But gathering data on my coffee consumption habits and selling that data to the highest bidder on the unregulated international data markets (yes such a thing exists) is less of a concern than having my energy usage monitored for purposes I severely doubt will be to my benefit. Whenever any aspect of our life starts to become monitored it is inevitable that taxes, restrictions and limitations are just around the corner.

hoppyscotty said:

It's not the technology that I'm against - though the utility of a smart meter is utterly useless other than to access cheaper tariffs.

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Getting something cheaper is... "utterly useless"?

Larse said:

Getting something cheaper is... "utterly useless"?

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So much this.
Facts are, Electricity is expensive at dinner time and cheap at 3am.

Problem is, you can't stop generating at 3am so what do you do with it?
Octopus give it away, but even then, what are consumers going to do with it at 3am?

The answer is, charge your electric cars. Run the washing machine, and the dishwasher and those other things that really aren't that time-bound.

A mate of mine pays nothing for his electric. Zero. Nil. Nada.
He charges his car during the day using solar panels. He sells it back to the electricity company at dinner time. He barely uses any himself, because he lives alone. Problem is, on a sunny day, he can produce more solar than he can use and the buy-back cost during the day just isn't worth it.

Use 3am generation to pump water back up to the lake like they do in Scotland.
However here in England I’ve got solar power and a battery and I sell excess electricity back to Octopus but I would like cheap electricity to refill the battery during the night.

Appleton Brews said:

Use 3am generation to pump water back up to the lake like they do in Scotland.
However here in England I’ve got solar power and a battery and I sell excess electricity back to Octopus but I would like cheap electricity to refill the battery during the night.

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Yes. Apparently you only get the super cheap rate if you have a car charger or one of their approved batteries, have an heat pump withcs certificate (my air to air system isn't covered on this) or (like me) are on legacy economy 7.

There is also a variable rate, but that's not got guaranteed time bands, so you can't set a timer with certainty.

The other rates are much lower than economy 7, but I don't seem to qualify on any of them even though I have solar & batteries.

At least that was the situation a couple of years ago. Maybe they are more flexible now as I could swap from E7 (12am-7am) to a 1am-5am for lower rates

We have solar panels and a battery. I run a home assistant server that gets the forecast for agile (variable) electricity rates a day in advance and so intelligently schedules charging the battery at the cheapest rates overnight. This evening is going to fill the battery at 6p/kWh.

Even if you don't run home assistant, there are internet services that can do this for you for a couple of pounds a month and control your battery.

Even with the days getting shorter at the moment, my electricity bill is negative (I make money) for an average day.

jof said:

Yes. Apparently you only get the super cheap rate if you have a car charger or one of their approved batteries, have an heat pump withcs certificate (my air to air system isn't covered on this) or (like me) are on legacy economy 7.

There is also a variable rate, but that's not got guaranteed time bands, so you can't set a timer with certainty.

The other rates are much lower than economy 7, but I don't seem to qualify on any of them even though I have solar & batteries.

At least that was the situation a couple of years ago. Maybe they are more flexible now as I could swap from E7 (12am-7am) to a 1am-5am for lower rates

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Frankly, Octopus Go doesn't have any way of seeing if you indeed have an EV.
And it's 8p a unit between 12:30 and 05:30

Alternatively, if you don't eat at usual times, Agile Octopus is open to anyone. That's a proper interesting tariff.
Another mate of mine has switched his main meal to lunchtime. He actually gets paid at times to take electricity from the grid.

Stu said:

Frankly, Octopus Go doesn't have any way of seeing if you indeed have an EV.
And it's 8p a unit between 12:30 and 05:30

Alternatively, if you don't eat at usual times, Agile Octopus is open to anyone. That's a proper interesting tariff.
Another mate of mine has switched his main meal to lunchtime. He actually gets paid at times to take electricity from the grid.

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This is very much true and I have heard/read of many that are signing up without getting a EV. Their day rate in that tarrif is expensive though.

Yeah, I'm on Octopus go, and was never asked for proof of having an EV or charger. You need a compatible one for their Intelligent tariff.

They don't care if you have an EV or not. They charge slightly higher unit price for during the day, you can absolutely make it work for you if you have an EV or batteries you can charge during the cheap hours.

We're on Octopus agile. The price of electricity has just gone negative. And I'm brewing tomorrow, so I'm actually getting paid to heat up my brewing water! (And the fan heater is on too)



Update. Well that's a bit crazy. We scheduled the washing, tumble dryer, dishwasher, mash and sparge liquor heaters, battery charge and heating overnight when the price dropped to between 2p and -1p per unit

Overnight we used/stored 22.5kWh of power. Total cost: 2.2 pence.

Agentgonzo said:

We're on Octopus agile. The price of electricity has just gone negative. And I'm brewing tomorrow, so I'm actually getting paid to heat up my brewing water! (And the fan heater is on too)
View attachment 104794


Update. Well that's a bit crazy. We scheduled the washing, tumble dryer, dishwasher, mash and sparge liquor heaters, battery charge and heating overnight when the price dropped to between 2p and -1p per unit

Overnight we used/stored 22.5kWh of power. Total cost: 2.2 pence.

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Yet the Torygraph said that we're due blackouts (we're not)
https://archive.ph/Xm87K

Stu said:

Yet the Torygraph said that we're due blackouts (we're not)
https://archive.ph/Xm87K

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That'll explain why the agile rate went up to roughly 70p/kWh between 5pm and 7pm this evening then! Fortunately we have a battery so didn't have to import any leccy from the grid during that period.

Agentgonzo said:

We're on Octopus agile. The price of electricity has just gone negative. And I'm brewing tomorrow, so I'm actually getting paid to heat up my brewing water! (And the fan heater is on too)
View attachment 104794


Update. Well that's a bit crazy. We scheduled the washing, tumble dryer, dishwasher, mash and sparge liquor heaters, battery charge and heating overnight when the price dropped to between 2p and -1p per unit

Overnight we used/stored 22.5kWh of power. Total cost: 2.2 pence.

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Cool! I am calling Octopus on Monday to find out about this tariff - I charge Tesla PowerWall at night for 15 p/kWh (nice to see that the battery is quite smart - it checks the weather and charges full battery when the forecast is very cloudy weather, but does a bit if the forecast is good sunny day). My tariff looks rubbish when compared to yours

I now have second thoughts - when is such a low price? Probably when the generation is the highest like very sunny day. Well, I need to dump the energy when it is sunny and if the export tariff is not great then I might be losing more than I gain. My Tesla Powerwall 2 is about 15 kWh, while my usage is 15-22 kWh/day, plus the lowest power generation is about 1-2 kWh in winter days, but rarely falls below 5 kWh (last December was very cloudy though, I think I generated 143 kWh in that month. My conclusion is that similar December would cost me circa £70 in energy now

Tomorrow is an abnormal day, but it's essentially free for many hours.

You can use https://agile.octopushome.net/dashboard
To make up your own mind based on how much it fluctuates

Free electric tomorrow between 13-14hours

Leon103 said:

Free electric tomorrow between 13-14hours

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Yep. I got the email. But leccy (on agile) is essentially free for most of the morning so we're queuing up everything to run tomorrow morning