Octopus Energy, including Intelligent and go

[robbieduncan]

I could well be wrong but I read this as if you are on a fixed tariff at a higher rate than the 52p original ofgem cap as of 1st October your tariff will be reduced by 17p. This makes sense to me as it would bring a 52p fixed tariff down to around 34p which is the new capped rate per kWh For a standard variable tariff. As the Octopus Go tariff is 40ish p peak rate (ie below 52p I’m not sure how that would be affected?

That’s an interesting way of reading it and would make sense. Although would be unfortunate for us Go customers and for those of us who fixed as it was just a good fix below 52p makes the choice of staying on Go or not harder

 

[Darreno]

I could well be wrong but I read this as if you are on a fixed tariff at a higher rate than the 52p original ofgem cap as of 1st October your tariff will be reduced by 17p. This makes sense to me as it would bring a 52p fixed tariff down to around 34p which is the new capped rate per kWh For a standard variable tariff. As the Octopus Go tariff is 40ish p peak rate (ie below 52p I’m not sure how that would be affected?

Could mean, at a higher rate than the new 36p fixed rate maybe. We will soon see anyway.

 

[MattM76]

New rates announced:

I cannot see the Go tariff being adjusted given these prices.

 

[rowedav]

I switched over to Octopus last week, thanks to some of the helpful views on these forums. It's been a pretty painless process. Quite impressed with what Octopus have got set up and how they seem to go about things - a big difference compared to EDF who were nigh-on impossible to get in touch with in my experience. Plus, they've ceased their EV tariffs at the moment.

Anyway, have now just switched over to Octopus Go, and locked in for 12 months. Could have held off confirming the switch (car isn't due til Nov), but thought it'd get it done now - in the meantime, I'll get the washer/dryer/dishwasher running overnight so I don't run too much through the daytime (I have solar too but won't be much of that getting generated at this time of year, but hopefully enough to keep daytime house running costs down).

 

[D4NS]

Hi all,

Got a few questions that am hoping will be quick fire ones for those in the know...

1. If IO give you a charge window out of the 6 hours overnight do you also get the 7p rate for other electric usage other than the x kW identified that is needed for charging the car? So if they gave me a slot of 10 to 11pm, would it be 7p per kW for all electric used in that window or do they use the app to work our how much is at the cheaper rate?

2. Has anyone used a battery to simply charge from the grid at night rather than solar panels? My house will be a pain to install solar because of shade etc, so wonder whether a couple of decent batteries that fill up between 23.30 and 05.30. Then use that to run from for the following day. Essentially resulting in a 24/7 7p tariff.

Any advice would be much appreciated. And thanks for all the great advice found through this forum already.

 

[ACarneiro]

Hi all,

Got a few questions that am hoping will be quick fire ones for those in the know...

1. If IO give you a charge window out of the 6 hours overnight do you also get the 7p rate for other electric usage other than the x kW identified that is needed for charging the car? So if they gave me a slot of 10 to 11pm, would it be 7p per kW for all electric used in that window or do they use the app to work our how much is at the cheaper rate?

2. Has anyone used a battery to simply charge from the grid at night rather than solar panels? My house will be a pain to install solar because of shade etc, so wonder whether a couple of decent batteries that fill up between 23.30 and 05.30. Then use that to run from for the following day. Essentially resulting in a 24/7 7p tariff.

Any advice would be much appreciated. And thanks for all the great advice found through this forum already.

I don’t mean to be “that guy”, but…. If you read the original post carefully, it contains the answers to your questions.

Unless I’m mistaken, though, the answers are:

1 - Yes
2 - Yes (although a simple battery integration may work better with a fixed-slot tariff like Go or Go Faster)

And welcome to the forums

EDIT: D’oh! I thought this was a different thread! So sorry! The answers you seek are indeed on the first post of the thread indicated by @Bigbadben on the post below….

 

[Bigbadben]

Hi all,

Got a few questions that am hoping will be quick fire ones for those in the know...

1. If IO give you a charge window out of the 6 hours overnight do you also get the 7p rate for other electric usage other than the x kW identified that is needed for charging the car? So if they gave me a slot of 10 to 11pm, would it be 7p per kW for all electric used in that window or do they use the app to work our how much is at the cheaper rate?

2. Has anyone used a battery to simply charge from the grid at night rather than solar panels? My house will be a pain to install solar because of shade etc, so wonder whether a couple of decent batteries that fill up between 23.30 and 05.30. Then use that to run from for the following day. Essentially resulting in a 24/7 7p tariff.

Any advice would be much appreciated. And thanks for all the great advice found through this forum already.

Take a look at this post, has all the info and more - Everything you wanted to know about Intelligent Octopus But Were Afraid To Ask

 

[Adopado]

Anyway, have now just switched over to Octopus Go, and locked in for 12 months. Could have held off confirming the switch (car isn't due til Nov), but thought it'd get it done now - in the meantime, I'll get the washer/dryer/dishwasher running overnight so I don't run too much through the daytime (I have solar too but won't be much of that getting generated at this time of year, but hopefully enough to keep daytime house running costs down).

... and it's nice to know that it's only Octopus that is "locked in" for 12 months ... you can still bale out with no penalty if something better comes along.

 

[Drew57]

Hi all,



2. Has anyone used a battery to simply charge from the grid at night rather than solar panels? My house will be a pain to install solar because of shade etc, so wonder whether a couple of decent batteries that fill up between 23.30 and 05.30. Then use that to run from for the following day. Essentially resulting in a 24/7 7p tariff.

Any advice would be much appreciated. And thanks for all the great advice found through this forum already.

I have a couple of sets of batteries with the second set added to do exactly that during winter.

• 6.7kW linked to the solar PV. These are permanently set to block discharge during IO 23.30-05.30 & SOC only drops by ~1% by sunrise.
• 9.6kW on a separate inverter which can be charged overnight. These will come into their own in winter, fully charging in ~3 hours of the IO low cost period. Currently I let these discharge & run the house 23.30-05.30 because they have been charged by solar since March which is 'free' and they should not be left in a permanently charged state.

Given AC/DC/AC conversion losses & that inverters themselves will generally draw a small amount from the grid the true cost will be somewhat higher than the low rates Go or IO offer.

 

[robmcm]

I had my smart meter install today, guy had the wrong equipment, broke the gas regulator, fitted the wrong replacement, said he would come and fit the right one on Thursday, couldn’t commission the smart meter so left after 5 hours with the job half done…

Seems like I’m going to have to spend half the day tomorrow getting Octopus and AES to sort this mess out!

 

[Benotomy]

Since the beginning of Sep, still waiting for the smart meter access to be sorted by Octopus. In the meantime completed the IO application but not on it yet as everything else is on hold. I must admit I never thought the software/access issue would take this long to get resolved…on a positive though, the responsiveness and customer service on its own feels sufficient to almost justify the switch from major energy firms, I hope the rest will catch up soon (T-4)

 

[Benotomy]

Has anyone considered or already registered with Electroverse (by Octopus)card or similar membership as a back up alternative to Tesla superchargers?

 

[ACarneiro]

Yes, I’ve been a member for a while but never used it.
It’s reaching a critical mass of chargers, though, finally so it’ll be my backup when I visit Ireland in a few weeks.

 

[Benotomy]

Yes, I’ve been a member for a while but never used it.
It’s reaching a critical mass of chargers, though, finally so it’ll be my backup when I visit Ireland in a few weeks.

Thanks that’s also what I thought, a back up option for as & when required. I don’t know the market well but knowing that it is provided by Octopus helps me with the decision to go with it…

 

[ACarneiro]

Thanks that’s also what I thought, a back up option for as & when required. I don’t know the market well but knowing that it is provided by Octopus helps me with the decision to go with it…

Yes, and crucially it has no membership fee…

 

[NewbieT]

And can even give you a discount on some networks.

 

[D4NS]

I have a couple of sets of batteries with the second set added to do exactly that during winter.

• 6.7kW linked to the solar PV. These are permanently set to block discharge during IO 23.30-05.30 & SOC only drops by ~1% by sunrise.
• 9.6kW on a separate inverter which can be charged overnight. These will come into their own in winter, fully charging in ~3 hours of the IO low cost period. Currently I let these discharge & run the house 23.30-05.30 because they have been charged by solar since March which is 'free' and they should not be left in a permanently charged state.

Given AC/DC/AC conversion losses & that inverters themselves will generally draw a small amount from the grid the true cost will be somewhat higher than the low rates Go or IO offer.

That's perfect, thank you. Yes expect it to be a bit more from losses but maybe more around the 10p as opposed to 7p. Still a bargain in comparison with the 34p rate expected. And something I can expand to more of your set up at a later date.

Thank you for the links to the other thread, some good intel in there. Can't seem to show a thumbs-up of appreciation but would if I could.

 

[Benotomy]

So, I am collecting the car in less than 24 hrs but the smart meter access issue hasn’t been yet sorted since the beginning of September as new customer on flexible…I followed up a few times with Octopus and they seem to be tirelessly working to resolve the firmware issue since then. IO switch was initiated at the beginning of this week but at this point in time it also is irrelevant without their connectivity to the meter.

The comms hub green lights seem to flash all at the same time (SW, WAN & HAN) in the correct intervals.

Did anyone have a similar lengthy period to get their firmware issue resolved with Octopus by any chance?

My addiction to check EDD/Tesla account is now switched to Octopus app to see if the meter readings were coming through or not…

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tonybvi]

I’ve just found a list of Ofgem Default Tariff capped rates by region AFTER application of the discounts under the government energy price guarantee have been applied. Although I cannot find specific EV tariff rate caps there is a list for tariffs which have a peak and an off peak rate. These vary by region but typically the standing daily charge is capped at between 45p and 51p, the peak rates are capped at around 40p and the off peak rates are capped at around 15p.
If this information is correct (and it seems to be as the standard variable rates on the same table are around 34p which is correct) I think it highly unlikely that there will be any reduction in the current Octopus EV rates.

 

[browellm]

As I said, I thought there would be little to no chance of Go and Intelligent changing price. There might be some E7 tariffs that make sense for a few people. EDF have some E7 rates with wild regional differences but you could see a situation occurring where E7 + Agile Outgoing works for those with solar.