Octopus Go/Go Faster/Flux/Agile/IO ??

[G4WFT]

So, we have a 4 kW PV array, 5.2kWh battery and a dumb charger (Pod Point). Currently we're on Octopus Go with 7.5p/39.35p rates. There seems to be a bewildering array of tariffs available from Octopus now and I'm trying to work out if Go is still the best option (it's up for renewal in October). We do almost all charging of the car in the four hour Go cheap window and typically export quite a bit of electricity on bright or sunny days. Lately though I've taken to plugging in the granny charger and trickle charging the car for a few hours on sunny afternoons.

Any opinions as to whether we're better to stay as we are (depending on what the Go rates are come October) or move to one of the more "intelligent" tariffs. I suppose the other option is to upgrade to a Zappi charger or similar or move to another supplier for the export (we get just 4.1p/kWh from Octopus as a Go user). Too many variables to consider!

 

[Leejmoff]

I just swapped from IO to Tracker because it works out cheaper for me overall. My peak/off peak usage is about the same

 

[Mrklaw]

how much peak electricity do you use? Have a look at your bill and it shoudl show your 'average' unit rate which will be based on the consumption off peak vs peak. My guess would be if you use very little peak, and most can be moved to off peak, then a Go or Intelligent would be best (assuming your car/charger is compatibile). Go faster isn't a current product so scratch that. Agile is around 15p/kwh which may be more than your average.

 

[94jdh]

It all depends on personal circumstances, I'm currently on Flux and will likely swap to Go/intelligent for winter period.
This month I'll have been paid around £150 after my usage.

 

[Adopado]

So, we have a 4 kW PV array, 5.2kWh battery and a dumb charger (Pod Point). Currently we're on Octopus Go with 7.5p/39.35p rates. There seems to be a bewildering array of tariffs available from Octopus now and I'm trying to work out if Go is still the best option (it's up for renewal in October). We do almost all charging of the car in the four hour Go cheap window and typically export quite a bit of electricity on bright or sunny days. Lately though I've taken to plugging in the granny charger and trickle charging the car for a few hours on sunny afternoons.

Any opinions as to whether we're better to stay as we are (depending on what the Go rates are come October) or move to one of the more "intelligent" tariffs. I suppose the other option is to upgrade to a Zappi charger or similar or move to another supplier for the export (we get just 4.1p/kWh from Octopus as a Go user). Too many variables to consider!

The app Octopus Compare will use your own individual history to give you comparisons.

 

[G4WFT]

how much peak electricity do you use? Have a look at your bill and it shoudl show your 'average' unit rate which will be based on the consumption off peak vs peak. My guess would be if you use very little peak, and most can be moved to off peak, then a Go or Intelligent would be best (assuming your car/charger is compatibile). Go faster isn't a current product so scratch that. Agile is around 15p/kwh which may be more than your average.

Good point. The last bill, for the month of April, showed my average cost/kWh was 13.1p, so consumption is heavily biased to the 7.5p off-peak rate. All my car charging and dishwasher and washing machine use is done in the Go window so maybe I'm better staying as I am, as you say. Thanks for the input.

 

[Utumno]

The app Octopus Compare will use your own individual history to give you comparisons.

This. The cost of the app is negligible when compared with its utility.

 

[Mrklaw]

It all depends on personal circumstances, I'm currently on Flux and will likely swap to Go/intelligent for winter period.
This month I'll have been paid around £150 after my usage.

you nudged me to go play with excel. A little annoying to do a full month with givenergy dashboard as you only get half hourly downloads of generation and export for the daily report. But I picked a good day lats weekend and a poor day the week before. running that with the flux rates shows an income of £6 on a good day and £1.50 on a poor day. Averaged out very roughly that’d be £4 a day in summer which could be a nice boost to the credit before winter comes.

 

[Epico]

It all depends on personal circumstances, I'm currently on Flux and will likely swap to Go/intelligent for winter period.
This month I'll have been paid around £150 after my usage.

I will be doing this as well. I am currently earning between £3 and £7 a day as well as charging the car. Even on flux for a month now and it really is working well...and like 94jdh said...move back on to go once the sun goes down (literally) in the winter.

I have 6.4kwh array and 8.2 givenergy battery which I dump to the grid at near enough 36p a kWh from 4pm.

 

[nufan]

Does Octopus Compare compare the Tracker rate? Can’t find it there just now

 

[Adopado]

Does Octopus Compare compare the Tracker rate? Can’t find it there just now

I’m seeing Flexible and Agile and IO but not one named Tracker on the list of options (as of this evening).

 

[94jdh]

I will be doing this as well. I am currently earning between £3 and £7 a day as well as charging the car. Even on flux for a month now and it really is working well...and like 94jdh said...move back on to go once the sun goes down (literally) in the winter.

I have 6.4kwh array and 8.2 givenergy battery which I dump to the grid at near enough 36p a kWh from 4pm.

It'll be interesting how these rates may alter in July as the price caps reduce. I'm guessing they'll drop, but likely to be relative as import should also follow.

 

[ACarneiro]

EDF seem to now have GoElectric (8p/kWh between 00:00 and 05:00 in winter and 01:00 and 06:00 in summer).
Those 5 hours seem a bit more akin the sadly departed Go Faster tariff and might be an interesting proposition for those of us who need more than the 4 hours of Go but have trouble with IO…

As with Octopus Go, the whole house usage is included during cheap rate and explicitly stated good for charging home batteries.

 

[Mrklaw]

EDF seem to now have GoElectric (8p/kWh between 00:00 and 05:00 in winter and 01:00 and 06:00 in summer).
Those 5 hours seem a bit more akin the sadly departed Go Faster tariff and might be an interesting proposition for those of us who need more than the 4 hours of Go but have trouble with IO…

As with Octopus Go, the whole house usage is included during cheap rate and explicitly stated good for charging home batteries.

46.34 p/kWh for day rate though which is pretty high

go is currently
off peak:

9.5p / kWh​

Day rate (04:30 - 00:30):

41.11p / kWh​

I guess if you load a lot overnight that could work out better for EDF - especially if you have a battery so try and absolutely minimise peak usage


octopus intelligent is the same day rate but 7.5p for 6 hours if you can qualify

 

[ACarneiro]

octopus intelligent is the same day rate but 7.5p for 6 hours if you can qualify

Indeed it seems like a better proposition.
I am still, however, somewhat nervous about its reliability (granted, my view will be grossly skewed by always reading posts about failed or incomplete charges on here) so it’s good to know that there are now competing offers from other suppliers that I can fall back on if Intelligent falls short of my needs.

 

[rob@rar]

… my view will be grossly skewed by always reading posts about failed or incomplete charges on here …

For the sake of balance, I should report my experience with IO has been 100% reliable. I have a Ohme Home Pro charger and a MY. I had significant problems for the first week of being on IO, but that was because I set up the tariff incorrectly (connecting the Tesla to IO rather than the Ohme to IO). Once I’d reconnected so that IO controlled the charger rather than the car, every single time I’ve plugged in IO has delivered exactly what I requested, without exception. Pretty much every charging schedule starts at 11pm rather than 11.30pm, so I’ve always got at least 6.5 hours of off-peak consumption for the house when the car is plugged in, no matter how little charge the car needs.

 

[Rooster6655]

Indeed it seems like a better proposition.
I am still, however, somewhat nervous about its reliability (granted, my view will be grossly skewed by always reading posts about failed or incomplete charges on here) so it’s good to know that there are now competing offers from other suppliers that I can fall back on if Intelligent falls short of my needs.

Although some users here frown upon it, you can just switch if off in the app and charge during the 6 hour cheap period, if Octopus decide its not allowed (unlikely) then you can always move tariff.

 

[94jdh]

EDF seem to now have GoElectric (8p/kWh between 00:00 and 05:00 in winter and 01:00 and 06:00 in summer).
Those 5 hours seem a bit more akin the sadly departed Go Faster tariff and might be an interesting proposition for those of us who need more than the 4 hours of Go but have trouble with IO…

As with Octopus Go, the whole house usage is included during cheap rate and explicitly stated good for charging home batteries.

Prior to Octopus Go, now Flux, was on EDF Go electric 98 - 10 hours every night and all weekend on a cheap rate and worked well with my lifestyle.

 

[RedMod3]

Indeed it seems like a better proposition.
I am still, however, somewhat nervous about its reliability (granted, my view will be grossly skewed by always reading posts about failed or incomplete charges on here) so it’s good to know that there are now competing offers from other suppliers that I can fall back on if Intelligent falls short of my needs.

I'm on IO, and have not charged our cars from the Grid (used surplus solar) and so not used IO functions for the past 2 months; we won't be using the IO function until probably October; I've explained the score to Octopus and have had no complaints. My bill for May was £20.79, of which £3 was caused by a slip up by me. The June bill should be well under £20.

 

[TechnoWatch]

3 questions:
1) do you have any programming experience
2) does your battery system have an API where you can monitor the excess feed to grid?
3) what type of heating/hot water do you have?

If yes to the first 2, then you can write a program to monitor the excess energy and cheap energy rates and when favourable, control the charge rate of the car when at home to put that cheap energy there.

With a 5.4kWh home battery and 4kWh PV, I would expect that you would not have to use any high rate electricity for most of the year.

As a full year calculation though, usually the heating system is the dominant factor in energy needs, so that is the likely biggest consideration in tariff choice.