New Octopus Go tariff and off peak options?

[im85288]

iOS shortcuts + Tesla Remote app. You can set start and stop time per day, or all days.

This is almost the perfect solution...however after trying it out I realised that some Automations cannot be run without user input: Enable or disable a personal automation Time of Day being one of them...which is the one I would use.

Shame as it's so close to being perfect. If there is a workaround or someone knows of a different way to have the iOS shortcuts start at a certain time of day and run without user confirmation needed please let me know.

 

[12Pack]

This is almost the perfect solution...however after trying it out I realised that some Automations cannot be run without user input: Enable or disable a personal automation Time of Day being one of them...which is the one I would use.

Shame as it's so close to being perfect. If there is a workaround or someone knows of a different way to have the iOS shortcuts start at a certain time of day and run without user confirmation needed please let me know.

Hmm. You're right. I have my charge scheduled to match my weekday usage so that it only ever runs 00:30-04:30 thinking I had the iOS shortcuts in my back pocket to stop charging if I ever needed to use it.

I'll try to dig for a workaround.

 

[im85288]

Hmm. You're right. I have my charge scheduled to match my weekday usage so that it only ever runs 00:30-04:30 thinking I had the iOS shortcuts in my back pocket to stop charging if I ever needed to use it.

I'll try to dig for a workaround.

Found this YouTube video showing a potential workaround:

Will give it a shot tonight and report back if it worked.

 

[hmy7k]

I use the stats app to schedule a charge, I set this to a few minutes before I set the Zappi to charge, works pretty reliably.

I tend to set it to 3.30 to top up every night.

If I am doing a bigger charge then I check the rates to see when is best.

 

[jimbo_hippo]

For as much of a ‘set and forget’ approach as I can engineer, this works for me. It keeps consumption under 10p a kW all day and works in winter for us. Haven’t done summer yet. With our daily consumption we’ve pretty much reversed the traditional household usage graph for peak. PW charges at night from midnight along with cars. The idea of fitting depleted cars into the magic 4 hours doesn’t work IMHO. You just have to know it’s generally not above 6p to 8p worst case scenario and that’s a sweet spot otherwise you’ll spend all your time fiddling about with apps every night and one night you’ll forget and have half a charge or whatever. Cars set to start charge at 1am. Plug them in in the evening and forget about it.

PowerWall starts charging at midnight.

We only have one Tesla charger for both the Model 3 and the LEAF at the moment. I’ve found lately that lecky is cheap mid evening onwards and doesn’t get significantly cheaper some nights after midnight. So if I have to have 2 cars charged by morning and the LEAF only needs topping up, starting a car charge (usually the LEAF) at about 9pm will be a reasonable cost helped by using what’s left in the PowerWall and reasonably priced grid. Then swap before bed to the Tez.

having a Zappi fitted to capitalise on the baking Lancashire summer ahead (stares at weather app scratching chin) and I’ll modify when solar becomes useable.

 

[Latibes]

Octopus Go automated charge using car and smart charger: Plug in smart charger and set it to stop at 4.30am. Set the car to to start charge at 12.30am in scheduled depart. Car will now start charging at 12.30 am and stopped by smart charger at 4.30am or when it has reached its desired charge amount set. Simple. This is using a Charged EV smart charger which can be checked using the app. Works quite well

 

[cezdoc]

I've just signed up to transfer to Octopus from OutfoxTheMarket. No need for anyone to DM a referral! - I used the Scottish EV Driver's Club (Facebook Group) code - they are pooling referrals for group activities/material so I felt it was donating to a good cause.

I ran some numbers and was surprised how easily Octopus Go should beat my current flat rate electricity tariff. EV charging is about 33% of my overall household usage and over a period of 4 years I'd never found an E7 tariff (for North Scotland) that was worthwhile due to the penalty of higher day rates. But with Go their day rate isn't too much higher than what I'm on (14.46p vs 13.44p/kWh & 25p vs 21p standing charge) and even if I do significantly less mileage in the future I should still end up ahead (I'm confident I'll be able to do virtually all car charging off peak).

I like the idea of being incentivised to use off peak "greener" energy but had been put off by the smart meter installation fiasco, so finally thought it was worth trying to get involved although I wish I'd read this thread before switching, some helpful anecdotes are included (I've probably read about 2/3 of the posts)!

So we'll see how it goes but I'd be interested to hear if folk in "North" England / Scotland have had much success getting a SMETS2 meter installed recently, and also are Octopus likely to offer compensation for being on a more expensive tariff while I'm waiting for a meter so I can switch to Go? I'm electricity only if it helps - not on the gas network.

 

[philgods]

I've just signed up to transfer to Octopus from OutfoxTheMarket. No need for anyone to DM a referral! - I used the Scottish EV Driver's Club (Facebook Group) code - they are pooling referrals for group activities/material so I felt it was donating to a good cause.

I ran some numbers and was surprised how easily Octopus Go should beat my current flat rate electricity tariff. EV charging is about 33% of my overall household usage and over a period of 4 years I'd never found an E7 tariff (for North Scotland) that was worthwhile due to the penalty of higher day rates. But with Go their day rate isn't too much higher than what I'm on (14.46p vs 13.44p/kWh & 25p vs 21p standing charge) and even if I do significantly less mileage in the future I should still end up ahead (I'm confident I'll be able to do virtually all car charging off peak).

I like the idea of being incentivised to use off peak "greener" energy but had been put off by the smart meter installation fiasco, so finally thought it was worth trying to get involved although I wish I'd read this thread before switching, some helpful anecdotes are included (I've probably read about 2/3 of the posts)!

So we'll see how it goes but I'd be interested to hear if folk in "North" England / Scotland have had much success getting a SMETS2 meter installed recently, and also are Octopus likely to offer compensation for being on a more expensive tariff while I'm waiting for a meter so I can switch to Go? I'm electricity only if it helps - not on the gas network.

North East England here
2 weeks from application to change supplier to Octopus (variable tariff)
Immediately applied for Go tariff and new smart meter was installed 3 weeks later.
Just waiting for the final step where the switch me over (3 days and counting......)

 

[Adopado]

So we'll see how it goes but I'd be interested to hear if folk in "North" England / Scotland have had much success getting a SMETS2 meter installed recently, and also are Octopus likely to offer compensation for being on a more expensive tariff while I'm waiting for a meter so I can switch to Go? I'm electricity only if it helps - not on the gas network.

Octopus have frequently been offering SMETS1 meters in Scotland due to there being a stronger chance of a reliable data connection. They claim that a future software upgrade of the meter can bring it to SMETS2 specification in the future (we'll see!). I have heard of someone getting some compensation for the electricity charges if the transfer to GO is delayed significantly so it might be worth asking about that.

 

[Mark_T]

So we'll see how it goes but I'd be interested to hear if folk in "North" England / Scotland have had much success getting a SMETS2 meter installed recently, and also are Octopus likely to offer compensation for being on a more expensive tariff while I'm waiting for a meter so I can switch to Go? I'm electricity only if it helps - not on the gas network.

I did get a credit as an apology for some delays during the process of getting my smart meters installed, but I wouldn't expect anything directly driven by the difference in tariff as long as they are using best efforts to get the job done.

 

[Mark_T]

Just waiting for the final step where the switch me over (3 days and counting......)

Has their system confirmed they are receiving the 30 min data?

Either way I wouldn't wait more than another couple of days before chasing as the data should have begun flowing by then unless the meter config is wrong...

 

[Sinx]

I did get a credit as an apology for some delays during the process of getting my smart meters installed, but I wouldn't expect anything directly driven by the difference in tariff as long as they are using best efforts to get the job done.

I just had an email exchange about how long it would take to get a smart meter installed and was told 3-6 months!

 

[im85288]

Thanks for the ideas for the Agile Tariff, I think for me having moved from Octopus Go I know I only really need about three hours of charging per night of the car (powerwall seems to be charging for less these days too due to it knowing there is solar being produced). The aim is of course to try and get it to charge in the three cheapest continuous hours...which last night meant starting at about 01:30.

I may look into using Timed Boost on the Zappi...but from reading elsewhere this does not seem to work properly with the Model 3 as it cannot wake it up from being asleep! The workaround shown above will probably be good enough for now (using the do not disturb mode) as it's really the start time I want to alternate (based on the figures for the next day). You would really think scheduled charge times would be part of the Tesla App

 

[philgods]

Has their system confirmed they are receiving the 30 min data?

Either way I wouldn't wait more than another couple of days before chasing as the data should have begun flowing by then unless the meter config is wrong...

I've already emailed impatiently!

 

[Adopado]

North East England here
2 weeks from application to change supplier to Octopus (variable tariff)
Immediately applied for Go tariff and new smart meter was installed 3 weeks later.
Just waiting for the final step where the switch me over (3 days and counting......)

I had to phone Octopus to chase up the connection after the meter was installed. I had thought it wasn't working properly but they were in fact able to access the half hourly readings and switched me over less than 24hrs later.

 

[12Pack]

Found this YouTube video showing a potential workaround:

Will give it a shot tonight and report back if it worked.

Should work. Need less to say set it for when DND is set to turn off (I actually do used it at bedtime).

 

[cezdoc]

I did get a credit as an apology for some delays during the process of getting my smart meters installed, but I wouldn't expect anything directly driven by the difference in tariff as long as they are using best efforts to get the job done.

I just had an email exchange about how long it would take to get a smart meter installed and was told 3-6 months!

Thanks both, @Sinx a 3-6 month wait is the sort of situation I want to avoid. Reading through this thread it sounds like you could enquire about a SMETS1 meter - Octopus might not proactively suggest it as I gather it wouldn't count towards their smart meter roll-out obligations.

@Mark_T yes that sounds fair on the face of it. In my case I've calculated the non-smart tariff I've signed up for (Flexible Octopus April 2019 v1) would cost me ~£150 more per annum than the OFTM tariff I'm currently on. Taking into account the £50 referral credit that leaves me about 4 months before I'd be in a worse position than just sticking with my current provider. If Octopus can switch me to Go before that I'd be content (but sooner = better, and if they are quoting 3-6 months rather than a matter of weeks I might need to reconsider during the cool off period).

 

[Mark_T]

, and if they are quoting 3-6 months rather than a matter of weeks I might need to reconsider during the cool off period).

You really need to have a conversation with them directly, the answers given are highly dependent upon geographic location as the installation teams try to get clusters that are close together whenever possible so the answer for one person will not be the same for all...

 

[Jason71]

I've just signed up to transfer to Octopus from OutfoxTheMarket. No need for anyone to DM a referral! - I used the Scottish EV Driver's Club (Facebook Group) code - they are pooling referrals for group activities/material so I felt it was donating to a good cause.

I ran some numbers and was surprised how easily Octopus Go should beat my current flat rate electricity tariff. EV charging is about 33% of my overall household usage and over a period of 4 years I'd never found an E7 tariff (for North Scotland) that was worthwhile due to the penalty of higher day rates. But with Go their day rate isn't too much higher than what I'm on (14.46p vs 13.44p/kWh & 25p vs 21p standing charge)

it seems octopus rates varies a bit by region my Octopus go day rate is only 13.72p/KWh
I am in Shropshire

 

[Jason71]

I had to phone Octopus to chase up the connection after the meter was installed. I had thought it wasn't working properly but they were in fact able to access the half hourly readings and switched me over less than 24hrs later.

same here. They won't even start looking at it for 2 weeks after installation unless you chase them which is best done by phone.
They say the installers have upto 2 weeks to get the data to them but in reality it's usually a day or so so wait a couple of days then pester them repeatedly.