Which Electricity Tariff

[Basicbob]

Hi

Currently I pay £50 a month on electricity, I’m on one of the cheapest electricity tariffs and the deal comes to an end in January.

I pay a standing daily charge and then 12p per kw all day.

the provider is the People’s energy.

the thinking is I’m going to have to make a decision as the deal ends soon and my Tesla gets delivered next week.

the octopus energy tariff 5p is great if you do loads of miles but I will be doing 60 miles a week so with a range of 264 hypothetical I would only need to charge once a week from 100% to 0% but I know that’s not good for the battery so will be kept as 20-80% it was just an example.

as most of my electricity Is used during the daytime and how little the car will be charged am I right in assuming I should just find the lowest tariff and not worry about tariffs like octopus go as any savings I make in charging the car will be eroded with my daytime usage

any thoughts?

 

[Medved_77]

Have a look at Octopus Agile.

Average day rates are often well below the standard 14/15p per kW and if you aren't charging frequently then you can pick the best time of the week to charge the car when the electricity is at its cheapest.

My circumstances appear similar to yours. Less than 120 miles per week but high consumption of electricity usage throughout the day.

The tariff works especially well if you can avoid using energy intensive appliances such as dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer between the 4pm-7pm period each day.

 

[DaveW]

Hi @Basicbob

Worth running your current numbers in the calc I've made, there are sections to input your current usage, plus expected charging and also the option to input your own tariff (so the one you have now to see how that stacks up).

Tesla Cost to charge calculator - TeslaEV.co.uk

 

[Beady3647]

My own mileage is similar being 150-200 miles a week. I'm on Octopus Go and find the four hour 'cheapo' window ideal for washing machine (4 times weekly), tumble drier (4 times weekly) and dishwasher (2 times weekly). All of my appliances have their own delay function but, even without these, timer plugs are cheap enough to buy.

If you only consider your Tesla charging use, it probably won't make sense but if you're prepared to change your household schedule just a little the savings can be considerable.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

My experience has been that the pattern of use each day makes a very big difference when comparing the myriad of different tariffs available. For example, we use most electricity between 00:00 and 07:00 each day, roughly 56% of our total usage is between those times, so around 8% per hour. The other peak usage period for us is between 16:00 and 20:00, that time slot account for about 20% of our usage, or around 5% per hour. The remaining 13 hours per day accounts for less than 2% per hour.

With tariffs like Agile, that change throughout the day, I found that the average price through the day was meaningless for any sort of sensible comparison with other tariffs. I needed to look very carefully at when we used electricity, and what the price was during the periods we tend to use most of it. We've already time-shifted as much as possible into the cheaper overnight period (heating, hot water, washing machine, dishwasher, car charging etc), so what's left is consumption we cannot time shift (cooking, using the TV, lights, etc).

So far, I can't get the new variable tariffs, like Agile, to work for us. Cheapest is still Economy 7, primarily because of the high proportion of usage during the overnight period, but also because of the usage during the late afternoon/early evening, a period when Agile prices can be sky high.

TBH, I think comparing electricity tariffs is something that is going to get so difficult to do before long, than many people will end up paying more than they need to. I also found that the price comparison sites were all, without exception, hopeless at finding the cheapest tariff, mainly because none of them allow a pattern of usage to be used.

 

[HKP_Tom]

I'm another timer plug and Octopus Go user - finding it has definitely reduced our bill - the gas prices are competitive too if you still have GCH. Feel free to message myself or another user you like the look of as a previous customer's referral will get you £50 off your first bill.

 

[Jibjab]

We’re getting a hot tub installed (32 amp version) the same day the car arrives. Getting ready to take a beating on the electricity bill! We’re with Avro at the moment, absolute nightmare to deal with, hopefully 4th time lucky to get the gas smart meter commissioned. I’ll be off to Go then. Currently pay 12.6p kwh, so quite good, but a switch to 5p for four hours for charging, appliances and a hot tub filter/heating cycle (2hrs) will help manage the bills. We shall see

 

[Morriscoombes]

TBH I am happy to pay a small premium not to have this to worry about every day. Life's bloody complicated enough.

 

[Beady3647]

TBH I am happy to pay a small premium not to have this to worry about every day. Life's bloody complicated enough.

I can see your point, but IMHO generally this is what the utility suppliers are looking for in their clients. That way they can be in charge of the situation and gently rip you off.

 

[ACarneiro]

Once battery storage systems become affordable then the likes of Go are a no brainer.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Once battery storage systems become affordable then the likes of Go are a no brainer.

They need to drop a lot in price though. The measure I've been using to see if battery storage makes sense is to work out how much usage I can save by using battery power. The battery capacity just has to be big enough to run the house for the time when it's not charging, with a bit of reserve to allow for age degradation.

For us, with 56% of our usage during the off-peak period, a battery system needs to be able to supply 44% of our total usage. At the moment, we pay £576/year for electricity, but £73 of that is the standing charge, so we actually spend £503/year for the electricity itself. 44% of that would result in a saving of £221.32/year if we had a battery system. Any battery system is likely to have a useful life of around 10 years (house battery packs get cycled very heavily compared to those in cars). That means that, to break even, a home battery system has to have an installed cost of no more than £2,213.20, ignoring any return on investment. Realistically, a home battery system probably needs to have an installed cost of under £2,000 to make sense.

The installed cost will include a fairly hefty cost for certification and installation, probably about the same as for something like a PV system. I doubt that the installation cost would be less than about £500 somehow, given the high prices being charged for simpler installations, like charge points. That means the cost of the home battery system (battery pack plus inverter/charger) has to come down to around £1,500 to be viable. The cheapest system that could supply the needed daily average energy of about 4 to 5 kWh over a ten year period (assuming a 7 hour off-peak period) costs around £2,800, inc VAT, excluding installation. That price needs to roughly halve to make it cost effective (assuming electricity prices don't increase a lot in the future).

 

[Morriscoombes]

And your last point is the pertinent one.

Until some subsidy or cheaper tech comes along it's not worth doing for the financial perspective.

Realistically, a common standard of V2G will save the grid money compared to other energy sources, even with the feed in portion.

 

[ACarneiro]

You haven’t factored in the fact that a battery storage system will allow you to use more (potentially all) of your solar production, thereby further reducing your electricity cost.
I agree, however, that the tech does need to improve significantly with regards to affordability and resilience (10 years is really not very long at all).
The certification costs are bureaucracy and can be done away by legislation, surely?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Just spotted a flaw in the sums above - I forgot to add in the cost of the cheaper electricity. That makes a significant difference, as the true cost saving would only be about half that I quoted, perhaps about £100/year. That means that a home battery system has to come down to about £1,000 installed to make sense economically . . .

 

[Morriscoombes]

You haven’t factored in the fact that a battery storage system will allow you to use more (potentially all) of your solar production, thereby further reducing your electricity cost.
I agree, however, that the tech does need to improve significantly with regards to affordability and resilience (10 years is really not very long at all).
The certification costs are bureaucracy and can be done away by legislation, surely?

Yeah. if only there were some way of extricating ourselves from huge amount of legislation soon.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

You haven’t factored in the fact that a battery storage system will allow you to use more (potentially all) of your solar production, thereby further reducing your electricity cost.
I agree, however, that the tech does need to improve significantly with regards to affordability and resilience (10 years is really not very long at all).
The certification costs are bureaucracy and can be done away by legislation, surely?

Doesn't make a massive difference, as excess solar generation is very much a summer thing, when we don't use much electricity anyway. The saving from being able to save a bit of solar generation to use during summer evenings wouldn't be a lot, maybe £50 a year, if that.

 

[Bernard_S]

Just spotted a flaw in the sums above - I forgot to add in the cost of the cheaper electricity. That makes a significant difference, as the true cost saving would only be about half that I quoted, perhaps about £100/year. That means that a home battery system has to come down to about £1,000 installed to make sense economically . . .

Unfortunately I can't see that happening anytime soon, maybe in 5 years though. But the install costs will still be outrageous.

 

[94jdh]

Hi

Currently I pay £50 a month on electricity, I’m on one of the cheapest electricity tariffs and the deal comes to an end in January.

I pay a standing daily charge and then 12p per kw all day.

the provider is the People’s energy.

the thinking is I’m going to have to make a decision as the deal ends soon and my Tesla gets delivered next week.

the octopus energy tariff 5p is great if you do loads of miles but I will be doing 60 miles a week so with a range of 264 hypothetical I would only need to charge once a week from 100% to 0% but I know that’s not good for the battery so will be kept as 20-80% it was just an example.

as most of my electricity Is used during the daytime and how little the car will be charged am I right in assuming I should just find the lowest tariff and not worry about tariffs like octopus go as any savings I make in charging the car will be eroded with my daytime usage

any thoughts?

Hi, I am also with People's Energy just in the process of swapping over. I was on Economy 7 (day 13.5p/night 7.3p approx) with a Smart Meter installed in the last 6 weeks.

For me, 20k a year (some supercharging) this worked out the cheapest, but prices have moved on and options sometimes need some calculating.

I'm moving over to EDF go and then on their 98 tarrif, which is more expensive in the day, but benefits from 9pm to 7am and all weekend on the lower tarrif of, currently, 9p per kWh. For me, being out all day and in generally at the weekends is the best option, but still won't be as cheap as the People's Energy one.

Since having the smart meter install, having all sorts of problems as I'm currently on one rate tarrif not two as my contract and they seem useless in sorting it out.

 

[Morhydro]

I am just filling out the Tesla Energy thing. Seems like you buy a powerwall which Tesla controls to import export. They then charge 8p/kWh on imported energy irrespective of time of day and also pay 8p/kWh is you export any power from SolarPV. I currently spend around £2,500 per year on electricity (3 EVS, electric heating, electric cooking and a workshop) so even with the install cost of nearly £10K it look slike a potential 6 to 8 year payback.

 

[andylaight]

I am with “Green”NetworkEnergy who have confirmed they offer NO tariffs for electric vehicle charging, so I’ll be looking for an alternative supplier soon