Octopus Agile Peak Rate

[Durzel]

I knocked up a spreadsheet for a friend of mine who was on Igloo (similar rates to Bulb I think). Until recently he was saving about £1.50 a day on Agile vs his fixed Igloo rate, even taking into account the peak. He has got more on the ball with setting timers on the dishwasher, washing machine, etc though.

As of the last few days the differential is more like £1, still cheaper but not amazingly so.

 

[Drew57]

Although EVs still account for a small % of the UK car market, it's growing faster than other segments & if eventually everyone starts to use cheaper off-peak tariffs then surely 24 hr pricing will flatten out more?

Perhaps the fact that existing PV users are now storing & using the excess rather than exporting is also going to contribute slightly to higher prices. Since getting the Tesla I export vey little, previously a lot & the idea of mostly free motoring + zero emissions were the main reasons for switching.

I know it's probably a long way off but maybe one day will we look back on now as a golden age with few electric cars & cheaper electricity to charge them on? (by then batteries will most likely be Gwh & 000's of miles range).

...so I won't complain in the winter if Agile averages low-mid teens p/kWh.

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

Good thing about Octopus is that you can cancel at any time without penalty (as you can with bulb), or indeed switch between any of the tarrifs they offer without penalty. Not all tarrifs penalise for peak time usage.

Have you compared their fixed tariff to bulbs to understand the worst case scenario?

No doubt my energy pattern is different to yours (2 kids, WFH) but I'm seeing around 40-50% reduction on my bills since I switched from Bulb.

Wow that’s great

monthly usage normally at our place (excluding car) is usually around 300-350kwh

 

[Medved_77]

Wow that’s great

monthly usage normally at our place (excluding car) is usually around 300-350kwh

OK, so I'm around double that for the month (with the car).

 

[ACarneiro]

....and then pay them millions to scram them everytime there is a gust of wind.

Well, it’s all about how serious you are about carbon emission reduction, I suppose....
Would probably be cheaper to scram the wind turbines.
Or invest in better storage solutions.

 

[Mr Miserable]

I knocked up a spreadsheet for a friend of mine who was on Igloo (similar rates to Bulb I think). Until recently he was saving about £1.50 a day on Agile vs his fixed Igloo rate, even taking into account the peak. He has got more on the ball with setting timers on the dishwasher, washing machine, etc though.

As of the last few days the differential is more like £1, still cheaper but not amazingly so.

View attachment 575040

Even just a little reduction during the peak period would make a big difference to this Agile bill.
Additionally, the base load appears to be quite high. That might be worth investigating too.

 

[Durzel]

Even just a little reduction during the peak period would make a big difference to this Agile bill.
Additionally, the base load appears to be quite high. That might be worth investigating too.

He's got 2 fridges and 3 freezers.. so, yeah, he could do better on that front. Was a fairly intensive task to get him just to change to Agile really.

Also, today's rates look positively grim

 

[NewbieT]

Worst Agile daytime rates I’ve seen in 6 months . Even so it’s still cheaper than the 14p on I was paying on Go.

 

[seadog]

True, but your not paying 35p at peak rate on Go either. Highest prices since we joined but we've already saved quite a bit, so got to take the bad with the good. Normally don't worry about peak rate as it's usually been in the 20p region but will be avoiding electric at peak as much as possible today, which I suppose is the whole point of the tariff.

 

[Durzel]

It's difficult not to get sucked in to the Agile hype and end up with the misconception that it is some kind of undiscovered gem of a tarfiff that hardly anyone else really knows about, but in reality days like this (and the winter) serve to remind us that it really is important to avoid those peaks, as they can be savage.

It's so hard not to get seduced by the ultra low pence per minute we've been getting though.

 

[Louis0w]

https://twitter.com/g__j/status/1293503662011056130?s=21

 

[Pikey]

Agile still looking favourable against Go, for my personal circumstances anyway...

For period 01/08-10/08:

Agile: £19.30
Go: £27.45

So around 30% cheaper still.

Is this a direct comparison between the 2 tariffs and your usage? I was regularly comparing the two and am always “quids in” however if you charge on agile during the day it will be compared with 14.2p instead of 5p. Whereas you would have charged overnight on Go. Not so easy to work out I guess

 

[Roy W.]

A bit off topic here but I’m still yet to decide on whether or not to make the switch from my current provider (Bulb) to Octopus.

Thing is, most of our household usage is peak, can’t be avoided I’m afraid and with regards to the car, pretty low weekly mileage (100-120).

Anyone else been in a similar situation and went against the grain and stayed where they are, or is everybody jumping ship?

If you know your annual use it’s dead easy to do a quote on the Octopus website. You should have your annual use estimated on your Bulb bill.

With your peak-time use being unavoidable then Agile would be no good for you, but GO might well be better than your current Bulb deal. Your 120 miles a week average car mileage equates to approx 1780 kWh per year, which at the 5p GO rate would cost £89.

I suggest you compare this to your charging cost on Bulb for the same amount of kWh.

So,

Bulb cost per kWh in pence x 1780

gives you your total cost in pence per year with Bulb.

 

[MrBadger]

Blazing sunshine too, so what's up with that?

Too hot for solar. Seriously.

 

[Medved_77]

Is this a direct comparison between the 2 tariffs and your usage? I was regularly comparing the two and am always “quids in” however if you charge on agile during the day it will be compared with 14.2p instead of 5p. Whereas you would have charged overnight on Go. Not so easy to work out I guess

Hi,

Yes, it's a direct comparison based on my actual usage using this tool:

Octopus Comparison

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

If you know your annual use it’s dead easy to do a quote on the Octopus website. You should have your annual use estimated on your Bulb bill.

With your peak-time use being unavoidable then Agile would be no good for you, but GO might well be better than your current Bulb deal. Your 120 miles a week average car mileage equates to approx 1780 kWh per year, which at the 5p GO rate would cost £89.

I suggest you compare this to your charging cost on Bulb for the same amount of kWh.

So,

Bulb cost per kWh in pence x 1780

gives you your total cost in pence per year with Bulb.

Thanks Roy

 

[Durzel]

Things pretty grim tomorrow (South West), hitting peak rate for the first time this year I think?

 

[rotor2k]

Although EVs still account for a small % of the UK car market, it's growing faster than other segments & if eventually everyone starts to use cheaper off-peak tariffs then surely 24 hr pricing will flatten out more?

Perhaps the fact that existing PV users are now storing & using the excess rather than exporting is also going to contribute slightly to higher prices. Since getting the Tesla I export vey little, previously a lot & the idea of mostly free motoring + zero emissions were the main reasons for switching.

I know it's probably a long way off but maybe one day will we look back on now as a golden age with few electric cars & cheaper electricity to charge them on? (by then batteries will most likely be Gwh & 000's of miles range).

...so I won't complain in the winter if Agile averages low-mid teens p/kWh.

I don't think you will ever smooth out demand until every last consumer is controlled by the grid and every house has a battery (50 years away?), so until that day comes, there will have to be pricing incentives to steer consumption away from the high peaks. And in the meantime I suspect we will have so much storage capacity in the grid, that the need for those incentives will be diminished anyway.

 

[Mr Miserable]

The agile rates for tomorrow are horrific.
There will be wind, there will be sun, gas remains cheap and demand will be well below peak.
So please, will someone explain to me why the wholesale price is so high?

 

[Durzel]

Someone on the Octopus forum (not staff) suggested it was something to do with nuclear power being under-utilised (by choice), or something?