Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?

[pingu393]

Evanivitch said:

Gravitational potential energy is a crap way to store energy unless you have vast amounts of water and large difference in height, like a dam or a mountain!

Not sure what the standard metric swimming pool is, but a pool 25mx5mx2m is 250m3. 900kWh only raises the temperature 3 degrees C.

In some places they even dump excess heat straight into the ground, and charge the ground ahead of winter GSHP extraction.

I estimated 50m x 25m pool, 25m deep, at a height of 5 m. 32,000 tons of water. Totally impractical. 900 lead acid batteries in the garden would be a better idea, but even that would be barking mad. Especially, as you would need a lot more than that. 1.25kWh is the full capacity of a normal car battery, and in reality you probably only have useful access to 10% of that before you start to degrade it.

[540TORQUES]

Saleen836 said:

Anyone else had the email saying prices are dropping?

Extracting the urine just a bit with the massive hike in daily charge for electricity! It cancels out most of the yearly saving I would make

I am a recent changeover customer from Shell Energy, and received the same email, but my standing charge is much lower than yours. It's still gone up by 15% for this change though.

This time last year i was paying zero for my energy as the government top up paid more than i used, when that ended i was paying £62/month but was only using £38/month worth of gas and electric combined, so my costs have tripled in the last year. My previous tariff i had fixed for 18 months just before the world went mad so was lucky to miss on the crazy hikes.

This is my change which came through today.

[Saleen836]

540TORQUES said:

I am a recent changeover customer from Shell Energy, and received the same email, but my standing charge is much lower than yours. It's still gone up by 15% for this change though.

This time last year i was paying zero for my energy as the government top up paid more than i used, when that ended i was paying £62/month but was only using £38/month worth of gas and electric combined, so my costs have tripled in the last year. My previous tariff i had fixed for 18 months just before the world went mad so was lucky to miss on the crazy hikes.

This is my change which came through today.

How do they work out who pays what for the standing charge? your new rate is the same as what I have been paying! (unless you get a disability discount?)

Similar here regards low usage, I was paying a minmal £10 a month and before the prices went haywire I was paying more for standing charges and VAT during summer months than what I actually used, will be even worse from April with the new standing charge cost

[Simpo Two]

540TORQUES said:

I am a recent changeover customer from Shell Energy, and received the same email, but my standing charge is much lower than yours. It's still gone up by 15% for this change though.

I've just been moved from Shell to Octopus too. The amount pcm is the same, the login details are the same, I just have a dashboard like a children's game rather than something businesslike. I was surprised it went so well though; was fully expecting either a price jump or IT catastrophe.

[540TORQUES]

Saleen836 said:

How do they work out who pays what for the standing charge? your new rate is the same as what I have been paying! (unless you get a disability discount?)

Similar here regards low usage, I was paying a minmal £10 a month and before the prices went haywire I was paying more for standing charges and VAT during summer months than what I actually used, will be even worse from April with the new standing charge cost

I think the reason we are different is based on your previous Shell tariff rate, even though we are both on the same name of tariff type, the naming of the tariff itself is different. it looks like the date stamp of the original Shell tariff is in the switched to tariff name, and ours are different.

I would look at other options for you, 60p standing charge is nuts.

I dont have any special circumstances like a social tariff, just a normal setup.

Edited by 540TORQUES on Wednesday 13th March 22:11

[Random_Person]

My dashboard still shows Avro calculations.

I forgive this though, as Octopus have been amazing and I suspect since starting Tracker in Nov 22 I have saved into 4 figures.

[Audis5b9]

Another saving session tonight 1800-1830

[J210]

Go rates updated for April nbasicly 2p off the standard rate and a 14p increase in standing charge. brilliant

[pingu393]

Audis5b9 said:

Another saving session tonight 1800-1830

Another 18p - unless they base it on the last session. In that case, I'll be incentivised to charge the battery between 1800 and 1830.

[snuffy]

I received an update of my estimate costs for the next year a couple of days ago. But at the same time, they didn't bother to say they will adjust my DD.

I had a look at my previous monthly DDs, each time they changed it:

Nov 2021 : £75 (when they took over from Avro, after they went bust)

March 2022 : £138

April 2022 : £167

Jan 2023 : £184

And there it has stayed ever since. Which means I have a credit of around £540.

But the website says I can change it to £114, which will bring it back down to zero (or there abouts), over the next 12 months. So I have done.

However, it does seem to me they are quick enough to increase the monthly amount (when prices were rising), but are more than happy to leave it where it is when prices are falling. Yes, you can change it, but they dont go out of their way to tell you that.

[540TORQUES]

snuffy said:

I received an update of my estimate costs for the next year a couple of days ago. But at the same time, they didn't bother to say they will adjust my DD.

I had a look at my previous monthly DDs, each time they changed it:

Nov 2021 : £75 (when they took over from Avro, after they went bust)

March 2022 : £138

April 2022 : £167

Jan 2023 : £184

And there it has stayed ever since. Which means I have a credit of around £540.

But the website says I can change it to £114, which will bring it back down to zero (or there abouts), over the next 12 months. So I have done.

However, it does seem to me they are quick enough to increase the monthly amount (when prices were rising), but are more than happy to leave it where it is when prices are falling. Yes, you can change it, but they dont go out of their way to tell you that.

Who does? Shell kept badgering me to increase it, I didn't, so they increased it anyway, I then logged on and reduced it back down again.

You just have to keep an eye on it, they are not using my money as free banking and earning interest on it, so I never let it grow above what is required to service the charges.

One of the biggest scams in the country is energy companies banking peoples money and not paying interest on these funds.

[John87]

J210 said:

Go rates updated for April nbasicly 2p off the standard rate and a 14p increase in standing charge. brilliant

1p on standing charge and 3.5p off unit rate for me which seems fair compared to the price cap. If you have 14p added to the standing charge it must have been one of the lower ones to begin with

[Elroy Blue]

540TORQUES said:

snuffy said:

I received an update of my estimate costs for the next year a couple of days ago. But at the same time, they didn't bother to say they will adjust my DD.

I had a look at my previous monthly DDs, each time they changed it:

Nov 2021 : £75 (when they took over from Avro, after they went bust)

March 2022 : £138

April 2022 : £167

Jan 2023 : £184

And there it has stayed ever since. Which means I have a credit of around £540.

But the website says I can change it to £114, which will bring it back down to zero (or there abouts), over the next 12 months. So I have done.

However, it does seem to me they are quick enough to increase the monthly amount (when prices were rising), but are more than happy to leave it where it is when prices are falling. Yes, you can change it, but they dont go out of their way to tell you that.

Who does? Shell kept badgering me to increase it, I didn't, so they increased it anyway, I then logged on and reduced it back down again.

You just have to keep an eye on it, they are not using my money as free banking and earning interest on it, so I never let it grow above what is required to service the charges.

One of the biggest scams in the country is energy companies banking peoples money and not paying interest on these funds.

Just do what I do. Direct debit and pay the amount I use every month. So always have a balance of £0

[540TORQUES]

Elroy Blue said:

Just do what I do. Direct debit and pay the amount I use every month. So always have a balance of £0

I am on DD. I don't follow you, as you have to have a DD set value they take every month? What am i missing?

[snuffy]

540TORQUES said:

Who does? Shell kept badgering me to increase it, I didn't, so they increased it anyway, I then logged on and reduced it back down again.

You just have to keep an eye on it, they are not using my money as free banking and earning interest on it, so I never let it grow above what is required to service the charges.

One of the biggest scams in the country is energy companies banking peoples money and not paying interest on these funds.

Who ? Octopus.

[snuffy]

540TORQUES said:

Elroy Blue said:

Just do what I do. Direct debit and pay the amount I use every month. So always have a balance of £0

I am on DD. I don't follow you, as you have to have a DD set value they take every month? What am i missing?

I assume a smart meter is being refered to ?

[Bluevanman]

Saving session 6.00 to 6.30 tonight.
Website is struggling though

[540TORQUES]

snuffy said:

540TORQUES said:

Who does? Shell kept badgering me to increase it, I didn't, so they increased it anyway, I then logged on and reduced it back down again.

You just have to keep an eye on it, they are not using my money as free banking and earning interest on it, so I never let it grow above what is required to service the charges.

One of the biggest scams in the country is energy companies banking peoples money and not paying interest on these funds.

Who ? Octopus.

I'm new to Octopus, but not aware they pay interest on any balance you build up.
All my previous energy suppliers have played the game in trying to get you to hold more cash in their accounts than you need to pay the bill.

[Silverage]

I can’t even get the Agile prices website working let alone the Octopus one.

[540TORQUES]

snuffy said:

540TORQUES said:

Elroy Blue said:

Just do what I do. Direct debit and pay the amount I use every month. So always have a balance of £0

I am on DD. I don't follow you, as you have to have a DD set value they take every month? What am i missing?

I assume a smart meter is being refered to ?

I don't have a smart meter. I send correct readings every month.