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Bulb EV Tariff

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D

daveyb

Member
Apr 9, 2021
48
52
Leeds
#1
Bulb now have an EV tariff.

help.bulb.co.uk

About Bulb's EV Tariff

Our EV Tariff is designed for members with electric vehicles (EVs), although it could benefit anyone who can shift a large portion of their electricity usage to our off-peak times. It's in 'beta',...
help.bulb.co.uk help.bulb.co.uk

Edit: it’s not new. It’s a few months old. I don’t know how to search apparently.
 
Last edited:
#4
daveyb said:
It looks like you can request to switch if you have a SMETS2 meter. I do so have requested to switch.

Will update if it happens.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Would it be good to know rates and usefulness. They keep asking me to swap to a smart meter and then when I attempt to do it online it asks if I have underfloor heating and overnight heating and that’s the end of that...
 
#9
Puzuk said:
Alas not being able to swap to a smart meter yet because of E7, I’m kinda stuck on a high rate. I can dream 💭
Click to expand...

To follow up on this, I've finally had to go down the smart meter route with ever increasing E7 costs.

Bulb used E-on engineers to do the meter swap, took them over 3hrs but very professional and even booking a date was quite easy, about 2 weeks leadin time.

My aim is to switch to the Blub EV tariff - essentially a copy of the Octopus GO, whilst the meter is registered/updated in the system I was fully expecting to be on Bulbs normal variable tariff. But to my surprise last night my bill still showed an E7 and normal rate.

51621613719_d2d0ff67ac_c_d.jpg


This morning, my Bulb account is showing a 'day' and 'night' reading from the smart meter!!!

51621613659_e79916ca9a_c_d.jpg


So it seems with Bulb anyways switching to a Smart meter keeps you on E7 if you had an E7 meter to start off with. I may NOT switch to the EV tariff now. Much more interestingly at this time of year Gas really is the main energy cost - we all know this already but its remarkable to see by 09:30AM today we have already burnt through £1.60 worth of gas in heating+hotwater.

51621613104_3be1ce4811_c_d.jpg
 
#10
Mr Miserable said:
Even with Octopus's latest price increase the Octopus GO tariff will still work out cheaper.
Click to expand...
does it though? the day rate on that bulb tariff is 20.11p. The Octopus Day rate is over 24p so although the night rate is 0.68p more than Octopus overall it would work out cheaper for many surely?
I am amazed that anyone would be offering these prices though currently are we sure this page is even still valid? Pretty sure you could not move to bulb and get this right now. You would have to be an existing customer.
suppliers actually don't want new customers right now. due to the price cap every one costs them money.
 
#11
Bulbs EV Tariff is still 'live' on their website for current customers. Apparently I need to wait 2 weeks for consistent meter readings before I can switch....

We'll see, when/if I can switch off E7, though E7 still works OK for our household.

51621613754_33fe474a35_c_d.jpg
 
#12
Jason71 said:
does it though? the day rate on that bulb tariff is 20.11p. The Octopus Day rate is over 24p so although the night rate is 0.68p more than Octopus overall it would work out cheaper for many surely?
I am amazed that anyone would be offering these prices though currently are we sure this page is even still valid? Pretty sure you could not move to bulb and get this right now. You would have to be an existing customer.
suppliers actually don't want new customers right now. due to the price cap every one costs them money.
Click to expand...
I've made a spreadsheet comparing the costs of the several EV tariffs on the market (with rates updated as of 3 weeks ago) to see what would be the best option. I've chosen the Go but it does seem that bulb is indeed cheaper than the go with a caveat, their off-peak rate is variable whereas Go is fixed.

1634984579963.png


This was my monthly calculation for a North West postcode (Manchester area) based on a 365kWh month for domestic usage (my average) and 200kWh per month on the car. (gross estimate as i am still awaiting my delivery, based on daily commute on a "conservative" 3 miles per kWh * 22 working days)
All calculations based on 365 days / 12. (including standing charge)

Octopus normal was based on their Octopus 24M Fixed September 2021 v4.

Y axis is cost per month, X axis is load *sugar* to off-peak (i.e., what would cost me if i shifted a percentage of my house consumption to off-peak)

As we can observe, EDF Go Electric 35 is marginally cheaper than Go, and Bulb EV is about £12 or so cheaper - I.e., i would have to shift my home load 25% on Go to match Bulb price.

However, given current climate, and all the "gossip" going around Bulb not being very stable i prefer to stay on the Go for the time being. I was with Utility Point that just went bust, and still awaiting for my credit refund...

EDF Go Electric is interesting too, its a stable company and owns a few nuclear plants that provide baseload capacity to the national grid, however i chosen Octopus as the feedback on their customer service was better.
 
#13
jsaraiva said:
I've made a spreadsheet comparing the costs of the several EV tariffs on the market (with rates updated as of 3 weeks ago) to see what would be the best option. I've chosen the Go but it does seem that bulb is indeed cheaper than the go with a caveat, their off-peak rate is variable whereas Go is fixed.
Click to expand...
That's a very impressive spreadsheet. Do you actually use the overnight rate a lot? it appears as if you don't get out much 🤣
 
#14
Jason71 said:
That's a very impressive spreadsheet. Do you actually use the overnight rate a lot? it appears as if you don't get out much 🤣
Click to expand...
Thanks! the spreadsheet took an afternoon to do, I work with excel so not too hard do.

I am still awaiting my delivery, a Model 3 LR... scheduled for the 4th November, so the EV part is still based on "guesswork" and considering only my daily commute to work and back as far as EV charging goes, for domestic usage its pretty spot on.

If i add another 30% for "social" use (assuming always off-peak charging) it will just increase the cost, making "standard" tariffs less attractive.

In terms of load shifting, i used to achieve 35'ish% with the usual washing machines/dryer + dishwasher. But since my last dryer died i moved to a heat pump based one that literally burns 1/5th of the old one (was a very old condensed dryer!), so as of now i shift around 20'ish percent. I have 2 young kids, so there's always something to wash/dry... :)

Biggest issue in trying to do load shift is the missus factor.... ehehehe!
 
#15
jsaraiva said:
Thanks! the spreadsheet took an afternoon to do, I work with excel so not too hard do.

I am still awaiting my delivery, a Model 3 LR... scheduled for the 4th November, so the EV part is still based on "guesswork" and considering only my daily commute to work and back as far as EV charging goes, for domestic usage its pretty spot on.

If i add another 30% for "social" use (assuming always off-peak charging) it will just increase the cost, making "standard" tariffs less attractive.

In terms of load shifting, i used to achieve 35'ish% with the usual washing machines/dryer + dishwasher. But since my last dryer died i moved to a heat pump based one that literally burns 1/5th of the old one (was a very old condensed dryer!), so as of now i shift around 20'ish percent. I have 2 young kids, so there's always something to wash/dry... :)

Biggest issue in trying to do load shift is the missus factor.... ehehehe!
Click to expand...
With the Go Faster Tariff you can choose the 4 Hour Off Peak Period we have 20:30 - 00:00, might help with the missus factor !
 
#18
Once my smart meters are sorted, I’ll be looking to switch to an “EV tariff”. I did consider the Bulb one. I’m not currently a customer of theirs (switched from them about a year ago), I’m wondering if they will allow me to switch to them and then go on their EV tariff?
 
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