With Bulb you 100% cannot, and I believe Octopus wouldn't put you on E7 if you have a smart meter?
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Octopus Tesla Energy Plan
- Thread starter vitesse
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With Bulb you 100% cannot, and I believe Octopus wouldn't put you on E7 if you have a smart meter?
Despite all the rain, the PowerWall + me commuting to work on the bike + lock down = less than £1 a day all in, for gas, electricity, EV charging, can it get any cheaper??
Whats the incentive to getting a smart meter installed when am currently paying more in standing charge than for actual electricity usage??
Whats the incentive to getting a smart meter installed when am currently paying more in standing charge than for actual electricity usage??
We were with Bulb on E7 for a year after they installed SMETS2 smart meters. We since moved to Octopus where we were also on E7 for a few weeks before moving to Agile.
On octopus especially, E7 is just a variation on their dual-rate Go tariff.
E7 aside, there are several firms offering low-cost, time-of-day tariffs. The smart meter gives your the flexibility to choose any of them. You are also free to move from Agile to any other supplier without penalty. I’m not sure the smart meter itself would be such a backward step for you.
That said, it would seem utterly pointless given your current bills. Maybe something to reconsider at another time.
That said, it would seem utterly pointless given your current bills. Maybe something to reconsider at another time.
On a side note ... I requested that my account surplus be returned to my bank and that I just get billed for my actual monthly bills on a variable Direct Debit. Energy companies always seem to make sure that they are holding a significant surplus ... it must be millions and millions they are benefitting from. Clearly some people will not be happy with having higher winter bills and lower summer bills but I'm happy to cope with my own financial planning!
One factor in tariff decision-making is whether or not you are on the gas-grid or not. More isolated villages such as ours only have electricity with the option of LPG or Diesel for hot water/heating. This results in a very high energy bill compared to those on a gas grid.
We switched from LPG to an air source heat pump which, with RHI payments resulted in a significant drop in fuel costs.
We also have PV, a solar thermal panel, an Immersun unit and a PW. During the winter, living in a cold UK Northern region, we typically use 70-80 kWh per day. The PW rarely gets anywhere near fully charged. The system comes into its own in the mid-spring to mid-autumn when the ASHP is switched off.
For us the Agile tariff will not help other than for covering heating from 1-4am and charging our M3. The Tesla Energy plan, despite the loss of the deemed 50% export due to a smart meter, will give us a saving of £900pa over standard tariffs and about £800pa over Agile. And we will no longer have to manage manually our attempted avoidance of the PW exporting when full by turning on white goods/charging our M3.
We switched from LPG to an air source heat pump which, with RHI payments resulted in a significant drop in fuel costs.
We also have PV, a solar thermal panel, an Immersun unit and a PW. During the winter, living in a cold UK Northern region, we typically use 70-80 kWh per day. The PW rarely gets anywhere near fully charged. The system comes into its own in the mid-spring to mid-autumn when the ASHP is switched off.
For us the Agile tariff will not help other than for covering heating from 1-4am and charging our M3. The Tesla Energy plan, despite the loss of the deemed 50% export due to a smart meter, will give us a saving of £900pa over standard tariffs and about £800pa over Agile. And we will no longer have to manage manually our attempted avoidance of the PW exporting when full by turning on white goods/charging our M3.
Its not at all.
I do agree in recent months with the very odd situation of lock down + sun + wind Agile has had alot of plunge pricing, but you need to look at the overall energy use for year + the benefits/losses of going to a smart meter.
Our electricity usage was massive in November/December last year, and looking at Octopus Agile rate from than even excluding the 4-7pm 'peak', the overall average cost of electricity was the same/higher than the 8p per kWh am paying with E7, which I used to charge the PW overnight to full to avoid any day time electricity usage.
When it comes to this summer I've been amazed at how little grid electricity we have used overall thanks to the PW+solar, May was under 1kWh a day, even this month with all the rain its going to be barely 2kWh a day average. That translates to a stupidly low electricity bill, yes Agile I think would have been cheaper, but saving 50% on £3 worth of electricity is hardly anything to get excited about.
The final point is about if I want a smart meter installed, am still undecided, I like E7, its predictable, easy to plan around, and if I get a smart meter I loss the choice of been on E7. We all known how electricity companies can change their tariffs with little warning, what if I switch to Agile and Octopus whacks up prices?? I'll than be stuck not been able to move back to E7 and having to pay what ever the going rate is.
Im with Utilita energy on their Smart E7 tariff. They put a smart meter in and monitor every 30 mins as well. I pay 47p for the first Kwh every day, then day rate is 21p and E7 rate is 4.7 (00:30 - 07:30). In reality that is a 25p service charge and 21p day rate.
Last month my bill was £20, 30Kwh of day rate and the rest E7. The only gripe is, even if you use no day rate electricity, you still get stung for the 47p,
Ive got a PW and 7kw of Solar, and was thinking about the Tesla energy tariff, but, what puts me off is they control my powerwall. I currently have it on cost saving so it tops up on E7 rate based on the forecast for tomorrow etc.
Tesla control you powerwall no matter what, so far the Tesla plan is working, essential I do not need to plan around charging both cars and the pw in the small window, if the pw charges and we export it does not matter, I guess it's like being net neutral. It's working for us.
At the minute I can set the battery behavior, but on the Tesla Energy Plan, I cant, from what I have read.
Need to get a spreadsheet going to compare the different options - Tesla, Agile vs current etc
Im in a similar position. We moved to ASHP, along with Solar thermal. Like you say, in the winter, our electricity use sky rockets and we can get through around 70Kwh in one day. On most days the PW2 was being charged during E7, then being used during peak, but that gets used quite quickly.
We barely export anything in the Winter, but Summer is a different story. I think in May we exported 539 Kwh back to the grid.
Can Octopus manage the FIT side of things as well?
DanAndTheBeard
Member
I'm going to start processing the move to Octopus (tomorrow, most likely) and wanted to know how the referral scheme works. Is it obvious where to enter it? Also, anyone got a referral? (RIP my inbox)
Energy Plan is now available on my patch, so looks like I'm in! I will go from paying 17p/kWh to paying 8p a huge saving over 7000kWh/yr!
We got solar in 2013, so FiT pays us 16p/kWh generated. If I've done my sums correctly, we will go from a net loss against our 4000 kWh generated/yr, to a net gain of £200-£300.
We got solar in 2013, so FiT pays us 16p/kWh generated. If I've done my sums correctly, we will go from a net loss against our 4000 kWh generated/yr, to a net gain of £200-£300.
We switched to the Tesla Energy Plan tariff 4 weeks ago and we are happy so far. We already had a 3.5kW solar PV system installed in 2010, and thanks to the FIT scheme it has more than paid for itself. We have a very high electricity consumption household and the 8p/kWh rate under the Tesla plan will cut our bills by nearly 50%, which should save around £1,000 per year versus our previous tariff. And if something better comes along we are not locked in to any minimum term. It's early days but so far our experience is meeting expectations.
Gatsojon
Member
Ive been looking into it and started the application process but for now, decided that Go works best for me as the car and Powerwall can charge up at 5p and get topped up from the reducing solar this time of year. I might look again April next year.
ACarneiro
Active Member
It’s just the loss of control of the Powerwalls that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I just don’t know how many cycles they’ll put the batteries through if I’m constantly charging and discharging multiple times per day...
tomorrowman
Member
UK Tesla Energy plan need to subsidise/remove the upfront H/W purchase costs to make sense. That's the model they use in Australia.
But Australia gets a lot more sun to its no doubt easier for Tesla to subsidize and get payback
But Australia gets a lot more sun to its no doubt easier for Tesla to subsidize and get payback
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