British Gas at it again

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Tay
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 1:31 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#11

Post by Tay »

Got my bill for march, taking in to account the credit for the dodgy meter I’m 5 quid in the black, I kicked off my switch to octopus which “might” happen tomorrow!!

I’m on a regular tariff I guess until the move is done and dusted. Saw some stuff about smart tariffs so will look at them in due course, I’m curious if they automatically detect the dual rates as I submitted 2 leccy readings.. ? Would that give me a peak and off peak deal automatically?

Any gotchas I need to be aware off with octopus, i dont want to go down a rabbit hole and get stuck with something I don’t want..

At this time I want peak and off peak, export will be down the road, I might want something like agile for the batteries to buy at cheapest rate etc but won’t be exporting any time soon.

Phase 2 will be getting existing pergola up to large panels and continue ground mounts for at least 4 more 500w+ panels.

Panel availability might well be influencing the design
PV 1.1kWh
Victron Multiplus 8K II 48v/100A + Victron 150/35 charge controller + lynx 1000
CerboGX, 25kW Pylontech batteries
Octopus Agile - Cheaper Battery Charging
Another 2.3kWh on the horizon - ground mount+575's
dan_b
Posts: 1866
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:16 am
Location: SW London

Re: British Gas at it again

#12

Post by dan_b »

Did you use a referral code to go to Octopus?!

No real gotchas - they have almost too many different smart tariffs to choose from I guess - but they're pretty good at letting you switch between them.
Tesla Model 3 Performance
Oversees an 11kWp solar array at work
Tay
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 1:31 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#13

Post by Tay »

dan_b wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2024 11:35 am Did you use a referral code to go to Octopus?!

No real gotchas - they have almost too many different smart tariffs to choose from I guess - but they're pretty good at letting you switch between them.
Yup, my sister is with them..


Cool thanks.
PV 1.1kWh
Victron Multiplus 8K II 48v/100A + Victron 150/35 charge controller + lynx 1000
CerboGX, 25kW Pylontech batteries
Octopus Agile - Cheaper Battery Charging
Another 2.3kWh on the horizon - ground mount+575's
AGT
Posts: 659
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:26 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#14

Post by AGT »

Tay wrote: Wed Apr 03, 2024 11:28 am Got my bill for march, taking in to account the credit for the dodgy meter I’m 5 quid in the black, I kicked off my switch to octopus which “might” happen tomorrow!!

I’m on a regular tariff I guess until the move is done and dusted. Saw some stuff about smart tariffs so will look at them in due course, I’m curious if they automatically detect the dual rates as I submitted 2 leccy readings.. ? Would that give me a peak and off peak deal automatically?

Any gotchas I need to be aware off with octopus, i dont want to go down a rabbit hole and get stuck with something I don’t want..

At this time I want peak and off peak, export will be down the road, I might want something like agile for the batteries to buy at cheapest rate etc but won’t be exporting any time soon.

Phase 2 will be getting existing pergola up to large panels and continue ground mounts for at least 4 more 500w+ panels.

Panel availability might well be influencing the design


The smart meter will automatically meter cheap off peak rate without any switching of supplies, so we get 11:30- 5:30 as a 7.5p per unit, outwith those hours it goes to 29 p a u it I think
AE-NMidlands
Posts: 1816
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:10 pm

Re: British Gas at it again

#15

Post by AE-NMidlands »

AGT wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:29 am
The smart meter will automatically meter cheap off peak rate without any switching of supplies, so we get 11:30- 5:30 as a 7.5p per unit, outwith those hours it goes to 29 p a u it I think
Surely the meter just sends half-hourly readings and you are then dependant on Octopus to a) have you on the right tariff and b) put your readings in the right boxes on their spreadsheet - then c) do all the sums correctly?

Being quite new to this, I have downloaded my import and export figures and done the sums for myself and it seems to be working OK.
A
2.0 kW/4.62 MWhr pa in Ripples, 4.5 kWp W-facing pv, 9.5 kWhr batt
30 solar thermal tubes, 2MWhr pa in Stockport, plus Congleton and Kinlochbervie Hydros,
Most travel by bike, walking or bus/train. Veg, fruit - and Bees!
Tay
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 1:31 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#16

Post by Tay »

Thanks for both relies, i guess I’ll find out soon enough, i got an email this morning saying I’m now getting gas from octopus, but ominously nothing re electric…hopefully BG did make the changes to this industry database regarding the meter ^^

Time will tell, but just a relief I’m away, albeit partially, from bg.
PV 1.1kWh
Victron Multiplus 8K II 48v/100A + Victron 150/35 charge controller + lynx 1000
CerboGX, 25kW Pylontech batteries
Octopus Agile - Cheaper Battery Charging
Another 2.3kWh on the horizon - ground mount+575's
Tay
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 1:31 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#17

Post by Tay »

Tay wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2024 11:00 am Thanks for both relies, i guess I’ll find out soon enough, i got an email this morning saying I’m now getting gas from octopus, but ominously nothing re electric…hopefully BG did make the changes to this industry database regarding the meter ^^

Time will tell, but just a relief I’m away, albeit partially, from bg.
Now on octopus fully :)

Got a whole day and a half of meter readings, twigged that octopus only had one reading, contacted them on twitter and within the hour i was on flexible octopus, not perfect but now have a 7 hr windows for Battery charging with off peak.

I was told once they can fully read the meters i could look at the smart tariffs….i’m not holding my breath as first email this morning was “we cant read your meters……: - hopefully this gets me off the disaster that was smets1 meters - surely somebody needs to fess up about all the issues and wasting tax payers cash…billions wasted..


Anyway, ill drop them another meter reading and see if i can finally get some smets2 installed as thats going to cause issues if i want to feed back at some point.

So far octopus has exceeded my expectations.
PV 1.1kWh
Victron Multiplus 8K II 48v/100A + Victron 150/35 charge controller + lynx 1000
CerboGX, 25kW Pylontech batteries
Octopus Agile - Cheaper Battery Charging
Another 2.3kWh on the horizon - ground mount+575's
dan_b
Posts: 1866
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:16 am
Location: SW London

Re: British Gas at it again

#18

Post by dan_b »

Octopus can read some SMETS1 meters so long as they have the "Secure" branding/logo on them. Im sure they'll let you know one way or the other.
Tesla Model 3 Performance
Oversees an 11kWp solar array at work
Tay
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 1:31 am

Re: British Gas at it again

#19

Post by Tay »

Mine are older than the secure ones, octopus are struggling to get consistent reads already.

Contacted them already as they asked for another reading, also needed to double check i was on an off peak tariff for the battery charging, so at least that is sorted, not the best tariff but better than peak for the battery use.
PV 1.1kWh
Victron Multiplus 8K II 48v/100A + Victron 150/35 charge controller + lynx 1000
CerboGX, 25kW Pylontech batteries
Octopus Agile - Cheaper Battery Charging
Another 2.3kWh on the horizon - ground mount+575's
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