Octopus Tariffs

[dan_b]

Just been looking at my actual itemised bills (home use) - over the last itemised month being on the variable tracker tariff, my average cost/kWh was 17.1p/kWh.

That feels like a better deal than the fixed rate?

[richbee]

I just looked at the Cosy tariff again, after the price drops - it seems to have improved a lot compared to Flux since I last looked:
standard rate is the same as FLux
Off peak is now 11p vs 14p - and 2 x 3 hour slots
Peak rate is only 1p more than Flux, where previously it was more like 10p more

Looking promising once my ASHP gets installed, as I don't currently have an EV to use IOG - and I'm actually not convinced how much better it would be for a HP

[NoraBatty]

Rich what ASHP are you getting?
I cant recommend homely enough for keeping costs to a minimum.
We are quite light users of electricity apart from the ASHP.
We use about 2kwhs a day, which is covered fully by the soalr in summer.
Weve been on octopus fixed outgoing rate for export at 15p
And are on agile.
We have not had a monthly bill where our average cost has been above 16p/kwh for the past year using homely.
It uses weather forcasts, home heating learning and agile prices to preheat the house to avoid running in the most expensive times. Works on other octopus tarriffs too, but no experience with them
It takes about 2 weeks to learn the heating and cooling pattern of your home, then just runs and does its job.
As i said we are comfy 24/7.

They are integrating battery and car chargers currently, with the idea of making it a whole house smart management system that decides when is best to pull from the grid or pull fron the battery for heat etc.

They are very amenable people, and are open to ideas on how to improve. Some of mine they have already implemented.
Have a look if it is compatible yet with your ashp, if not, keep an eye out, but having been on agile with no batteries, it will make a massive difference to have them.
Cosy is okay, but for the past 4 months, ive had sub 16p energy for about 16hrs a day and with no batteries, no way to make the most of it.

[richbee]

We are getting a Vaillant Arotherm + 12kW.

I haven't heard of Homely - will have to have a look.
I've always been slightly wary of Agile, as you can't predict what the prices will be - but sounds like it's been working well for you

[Krill]

The Flux tariff specifically works better (in summer) if you have an oversized PV array, and (in winter) a battery which will last the day and be charged entirely in the cheap slot, the export has to subsidise the import costs otherwise the tariff doesn't work.

[NoraBatty]

Ah! From what i understand, vaillant are top notch if you get all their bells and whistles and controllers.
Maybe no need to have homely, as they have smart weather comp which ive heard very good things about.
They arent currently compatible with homely, but never say never.

https://www.homelyenergy.com/
They dont like you fitting it yourself so it "has" to be an installer.
Im now a "qualified" installer after watching some youtube videos, signing up online and buying one via midsummer.
To be fair ive done a better job on my heatpump putting right the installers bodges, so im happy to self proclaim installer status.

Its because it cant work miracles on dodgy installs, and they dont want the blame for shoddy work... ive told them they neednt worry as mine has proved it can.

Re agile, yes i had the same hesitations.
I cant speak for now, but certainly when we signed up they allowed you to drop back to a different tarrif with no hassle. At the time i had heard of people agiling in summer and not taking a chance with it in winter.
I think we had 3 or 4 really cold, really still days where 12 hrs was 40p+ per kwh(peaking at 75p 4-7) and about 25p for the other 12hrs. and we still averaged 16p that month.
A fair few negative plunges, but not as many as i had hoped there would have been, but some have been -5p for over 5 hrs. A battery is desperately needed!!
Other half comes in at 7pm, just after the peak and i finish my day earlier, because i can, and have a cheeky nap between 4 and 7pm which misses the worst of the expensive time. We eat alot of stews and casseroles from the pressure cooker, so cooking before peak is fine. Im fed before my nap, hubby zaps his in the microwave when he gets in.
Even morning peak times is not always bad. Today for example
Its been pretty flat, which i would say is approximately correct.
Tomorrows looks more impressive . You can see the white graph below for the past week. Roughly the same each day.
Historical pricings are available.




Given TOU is new to us, as is the ashp. We figured as long as we kept under the normal 27p ish flat rate cap we would be winning.
After a year we are very happy to stay on it with batteries and extra solar to take even more advantage.

[dan_b]

I was on Agile for a while back in Lockdown when I was in the old house where I had solar and a battery, and an ImmerSUN, plus had recently got my EV and there were a huge amount of plunge days as demand was so low! Was kind of fun doing the load shifting and programming the battery to charge at certain times, or the ImmerSUN to force heat the HWT, but at that stage it was all manually done so became very time consuming. Certainly saved a few bob then though.

[richbee]

Ah! From what i understand, vaillant are top notch if you get all their bells and whistles and controllers.
Maybe no need to have homely, as they have smart weather comp which ive heard very good things about.
They arent currently compatible with homely, but never say never.

https://www.homelyenergy.com/
They dont like you fitting it yourself so it "has" to be an installer.
Im now a "qualified" installer after watching some youtube videos, signing up online and buying one via midsummer.
To be fair ive done a better job on my heatpump putting right the installers bodges, so im happy to self proclaim installer status.

Its because it cant work miracles on dodgy installs, and they dont want the blame for shoddy work... ive told them they neednt worry as mine has proved it can.

Re agile, yes i had the same hesitations.
I cant speak for now, but certainly when we signed up they allowed you to drop back to a different tarrif with no hassle. At the time i had heard of people agiling in summer and not taking a chance with it in winter.
I think we had 3 or 4 really cold, really still days where 12 hrs was 40p+ per kwh(peaking at 75p 4-7) and about 25p for the other 12hrs. and we still averaged 16p that month.
A fair few negative plunges, but not as many as i had hoped there would have been, but some have been -5p for over 5 hrs. A battery is desperately needed!!
Other half comes in at 7pm, just after the peak and i finish my day earlier, because i can, and have a cheeky nap between 4 and 7pm which misses the worst of the expensive time. We eat alot of stews and casseroles from the pressure cooker, so cooking before peak is fine. Im fed before my nap, hubby zaps his in the microwave when he gets in.
Even morning peak times is not always bad. Today for example
Its been pretty flat, which i would say is approximately correct.
Tomorrows looks more impressive . You can see the white graph below for the past week. Roughly the same each day.
Historical pricings are available.




Given TOU is new to us, as is the ashp. We figured as long as we kept under the normal 27p ish flat rate cap we would be winning.
After a year we are very happy to stay on it with batteries and extra solar to take even more advantage.

It does sound like you are pretty much sorted - like you say, apart from the battery - which would make a huge difference.-( like the sound of a cheeky afternoon nap to save energy )

[richbee]

The Flux tariff specifically works better (in summer) if you have an oversized PV array, and (in winter) a battery which will last the day and be charged entirely in the cheap slot, the export has to subsidise the import costs otherwise the tariff doesn't work.

Flux has worked well for us over the winter, filling the battery up in the cheap slot, although an extra 5kWh battery on top of the 10kWh we currently have would be good for the really grey days with washing, cooking etc going on to avoid using normal rate grid later in the day.
For the summer, we haven't seen the benefit of export so far as we changed in October. The new pricing means that Outgoing export is now better than Flux - 15p vs 14p - apart from the peak rate export - so I'm not sure how much benefit we'll get from that.

[NoraBatty]

The octopus saving sessions have been a great nap reminder. Off at the fuse, hop in bed.tell Hubs to turn it back on when he comes in, get paid to sleep!