Octopus Agile

[gangzoom]

That’s my take on it too. My rolling 30-day average is still below 10p/kWh (excluding VAT and standing charge). That’s still below the off-peak EV tariff I used to have with EDF.

Looking at Agile pricing the whole of the last 24hr period was more expensive than what am paying Bulb with E7 at 7.8p/kWh excluding VAT and slightly lower standing charge.

As the days get shorter and energy demands go up is Agile pricing likely to also increase. In the ideal world I think you would swap between different plans depending on time of year!!

 

[Scan Man]

Looking at Agile pricing the whole of the last 24hr period was more expensive than what am paying Bulb with E7 at 7.8p/kWh excluding VAT and slightly lower standing charge.

As the days get shorter and energy demands go up is Agile pricing likely to also increase. In the ideal world I think you would swap between different plans depending on time of year!!

No it's a blip, read my response above as to reason for the current higher than normal cost.

 

[Melsaid]

Is it worth it going with octopus Go? Picking my tesla tomorrow. And currently with out fox the market with an 11.2p per kwh fixed regardless to off or on peak...

We use quite a bit of electricity. Around 5418 kwh per year without the EV...

 

[Medved_77]

Is it worth it going with octopus Go? Picking my tesla tomorrow. And currently with out fox the market with an 11.2p per kwh fixed regardless to off or on peak...

We use quite a bit of electricity. Around 5418 kwh per year without the EV...

11.2p is a good rate but is that throughout the day?

As you'll now be consuming most of your energy at night, charging the car it could be cheaper to have a slightly higher rate during the day when consumption is less (15p) and 5p for 4 hours at night in which to charge the car.

Have a look at Agile as well, rates change daily and at 30 min intervals to meet grid demand.

With Octopus you can cancel at anytime without fees and you can quickly switch between plans with them overnight.

Do you have a smart meter already? That will add to your switchover time if not.

 

[rotor2k]

Is it worth it going with octopus Go? Picking my tesla tomorrow. And currently with out fox the market with an 11.2p per kwh fixed regardless to off or on peak...

We use quite a bit of electricity. Around 5418 kwh per year without the EV...

Cheaper flat rates are terrible if you own an EV while alternatives like Go and Agile exist. If you don’t have an EV then a cheap flat rate is not as bad because it’s mainly about your base load as long as your peak isn’t too extreme. But as soon as you hit 7kW for several hours, the kWh rate *really* starts to matter. My base load is around 330W, so 7kW is 20x that. In other words, if I want to charge my car at 20x my base load but I can do that at a significantly cheaper rate (as long as I do it a certain time of day), even if the rest of the day the rate is higher, I’m still way better off. Agile is just a more dynamic version of Go. We’ve been paid money to charge our cars previously, and the last time I charged (a few days ago) it was at 2.5ish p/kWh.

Yesterday was one of the most expensive days on Agile I’ve seen, and still my average for the day was 14.96p/kWh (Go is 15p for 20h of the day). I’m extremely happy with Agile, but I’m a nerd and I enjoy “gaming” the system with data. Go gives you certainty to know those 4 hours every day are solid at 5p no matter what.

Here are my last 7 days, you can see I charged in the early hours of Sunday morning (and only around 10-12kWh) which massively brought down the average for the whole day to 5.38p. Your flat rate would’ve been 11p all the way through.

 

[darkNstormy]

Cheaper flat rates are terrible if you own an EV while alternatives like Go and Agile exist. If you don’t have an EV then a cheap flat rate is not as bad because it’s mainly about your base load as long as your peak isn’t too extreme. But as soon as you hit 7kW for several hours, the kWh rate *really* starts to matter. My base load is around 330W, so 7kW is 20x that. In other words, if I want to charge my car at 20x my base load but I can do that at a significantly cheaper rate (as long as I do it a certain time of day), even if the rest of the day the rate is higher, I’m still way better off. Agile is just a more dynamic version of Go. We’ve been paid money to charge our cars previously, and the last time I charged (a few days ago) it was at 2.5ish p/kWh.

Yesterday was one of the most expensive days on Agile I’ve seen, and still my average for the day was 14.96p/kWh (Go is 15p for 20h of the day). I’m extremely happy with Agile, but I’m a nerd and I enjoy “gaming” the system with data. Go gives you certainty to know those 4 hours every day are solid at 5p no matter what.

Here are my last 7 days, you can see I charged in the early hours of Sunday morning (and only around 10-12kWh) which massively brought down the average for the whole day to 5.38p. Your flat rate would’ve been 11p all the way through.

View attachment 588937

Which app is that?

 

[Medved_77]

Which app is that?

Octopus Watch

 

[s88ats]

Octopus Watch

Here I was checking it via the browser *doh*

 

[NorfolkMustard]

I’m liking OctoWatchdog app too. Nice graph of usage overlaid with the agile rates, daily / monthly averages etc

 

[tomorrowman]

Do like the Idea of Agile but I think I need a Tesla Powerwall 1st - that way I can minimise house and car costs (same could be achieved with Go tariff though).

Only problem is they keep pushing solar panels with the powerwall and my house is not south facing - sigh

 

[MrBadger]

Only problem is they keep pushing solar panels with the powerwall and my house is not south facing - sigh

Its a fallacy that PV needs to be south facing. You may not get peak power but might get peak energy if you have a clear E-W aspect as it extends the generation period.

Plenty of cost effective alternatives to Powerwall but even those are unlikely to pay for themselves let alone a powrrwall.

 

[LukeUK]

Plenty of cost effective alternatives to Powerwall but even those are unlikely to pay for themselves let alone a powrrwall.

Yup, agree. My PV might just about pay for itself, if nothing breaks. A big part of this is that 50% of the cost was funded by the builder.

I've looked at Powerwall and other battery storage, and can't make the payback calculations work, however hard I try. Energy costs would have to rise astronomically to make the investment worthwhile.

If you've got the cash, you're probably better off just investing it. You'll have more flexibility then, rather than tying it up in a pile of batteries.

 

[tomorrowman]

Yup, agree. My PV might just about pay for itself, if nothing breaks. A big part of this is that 50% of the cost was funded by the builder.

I've looked at Powerwall and other battery storage, and can't make the payback calculations work, however hard I try. Energy costs would have to rise astronomically to make the investment worthwhile.

If you've got the cash, you're probably better off just investing it. You'll have more flexibility then, rather than tying it up in a pile of batteries.

No more investing I've got enough Tesla Shares as it is. It's the proceeds of that that I'd use to pay for this. Decided to hold off to see what the outcome of Tesla's application to be an energy provider results in i.e. will they do something similar to Australia and build a virtual powerplant where consumer gets to buy powerwalls etc at subsidised rate with a suitable cheap tariff as well

 

[Melsaid]

Cheaper flat rates are terrible if you own an EV while alternatives like Go and Agile exist. If you don’t have an EV then a cheap flat rate is not as bad because it’s mainly about your base load as long as your peak isn’t too extreme. But as soon as you hit 7kW for several hours, the kWh rate *really* starts to matter. My base load is around 330W, so 7kW is 20x that. In other words, if I want to charge my car at 20x my base load but I can do that at a significantly cheaper rate (as long as I do it a certain time of day), even if the rest of the day the rate is higher, I’m still way better off. Agile is just a more dynamic version of Go. We’ve been paid money to charge our cars previously, and the last time I charged (a few days ago) it was at 2.5ish p/kWh.

Yesterday was one of the most expensive days on Agile I’ve seen, and still my average for the day was 14.96p/kWh (Go is 15p for 20h of the day). I’m extremely happy with Agile, but I’m a nerd and I enjoy “gaming” the system with data. Go gives you certainty to know those 4 hours every day are solid at 5p no matter what.

Here are my last 7 days, you can see I charged in the early hours of Sunday morning (and only around 10-12kWh) which massively brought down the average for the whole day to 5.38p. Your flat rate would’ve been 11p all the way through.

View attachment 588937

Thanks for the insight! Really helpful you are a star!

Do you have some more stats for a longer period? Is it averaging per week ~10p? How many times do you charge per week?

My partner doesn't like washing machines or dryers to be on at night time. So there is a bit of a consumption in the morning. In covid, I think Ill be charging the car once every one week / 10 days to be honest. So really need to crunch some numbers to find if the 11p flat rate I am getting from out fox the market vs agile with higher rates in the day time is better for me

 

[rotor2k]

Thanks for the insight! Really helpful you are a star!

Do you have some more stats for a longer period? Is it averaging per week ~10p? How many times do you charge per week?

My partner doesn't like washing machines or dryers to be on at night time. So there is a bit of a consumption in the morning. In covid, I think Ill be charging the car once every one week / 10 days to be honest. So really need to crunch some numbers to find if the 11p flat rate I am getting from out fox the market vs agile with higher rates in the day time is better for me

My 28 day average is 9.41p and 17.92kWh/day. I charged 7 times (2-3 in the 40-50% range and the others 20-30%). The 11p rate would’ve cost an extra £7.98. So £100 a year, ie not life-changing.

Did I mention Agile is fun?!

 

[KendoNagasaki]

If it doesn't sort itself out soon, I'll be off to Go!

It’s been enough to make me swap back. I’ve a 3.6kW solar array so even working at home during the day, I rarely draw anything off the grid after 9am unless running a high load appliance. The hassle of avoiding using the oven for kids dinners before 7pm (or paying double the Go rate) makes it unattractive.
Will reassess as the days get shorter though

 

[Melsaid]

11.2p is a good rate but is that throughout the day?

Yes it's throughout the day.

My 28 day average is 9.41p and 17.92kWh/day. I charged 7 times (2-3 in the 40-50% range and the others 20-30%). The 11p rate would’ve cost an extra £7.98. So £100 a year, ie not life-changing.

Did I mention Agile is fun?!

Cool. I calculated it and I would have to charge atleast 4 times per month at a 80kw per charge to start to make sense. I think during covid I'll be charging maybe twice at that rate per month.
Assuming Annual calculation: 5400kw(annual normal consumption) *0.118+(4 times *80kwh*12 months*0.118) for current provider
vs
Octopus: 5400kw*0.15p(low assumption)+(4*80*12*0.05).

Standing charge saves 7 pounds per year with octopus so negligible.

I doubt I'll charge 4 times of 80kwh, so it works out cheaper on my current provider. Guess I'll stick to it till the fixed tarif ends in March next year and get to enjoy charging anytime for the mean time!
I found out that they are not doing that tarrif anymore, and seems to have been available only for the east for some reason. Maybe why got a good deal here.

 

[SimonT]

My 28 day average is 9.41p and 17.92kWh/day. I charged 7 times (2-3 in the 40-50% range and the others 20-30%). The 11p rate would’ve cost an extra £7.98. So £100 a year, ie not life-changing.

Did I mention Agile is fun?!

Twice as much fun when you have a battery as well.

 

[rotor2k]

Yes it's throughout the day.



Cool. I calculated it and I would have to charge atleast 4 times per month at a 80kw per charge to start to make sense. I think during covid I'll be charging maybe twice at that rate per month.
Assuming Annual calculation: 5400kw(annual normal consumption) *0.118+(4 times *80kwh*12 months*0.118) for current provider
vs
Octopus: 5400kw*0.15p(low assumption)+(4*80*12*0.05).

Standing charge saves 7 pounds per year with octopus so negligible.

I doubt I'll charge 4 times of 80kwh, so it works out cheaper on my current provider. Guess I'll stick to it till the fixed tarif ends in March next year and get to enjoy charging anytime for the mean time!
I found out that they are not doing that tarrif anymore, and seems to have been available only for the east for some reason. Maybe why got a good deal here.

Thanks, that’s informative. 4x100% charges is 1,000 or so miles a month, which is a lot (for me)! I’m currently insured for 6,000 a year and will probably close the year having done less than 3,000.

Given my 7 and 28 days averages, I think it shows that Agile works out cheaper than Go, but there’s not a huge amount in it.

 

[roadcred]

It’s been enough to make me swap back. I’ve a 3.6kW solar array so even working at home during the day, I rarely draw anything off the grid after 9am unless running a high load appliance. The hassle of avoiding using the oven for kids dinners before 7pm (or paying double the Go rate) makes it unattractive.
Will reassess as the days get shorter though

A Powerwall cures the 4-7pm highspot.