Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?

[Mammasaid]

Good news for anyone with Octopus EV

Just got an email from them saying;

"What it means for you: We believe it’s fair that we all contribute to the upkeep of the UK’s roads. But at Octopus we’re all about doing right by our customers. We've always worked hard to keep costs low. So for all drivers who have a car on the road, or who’ve already ordered one, we’ve got you covered. You won’t pay extra for your contracted mileage when the tax comes in. That way you don’t have to shoulder an unexpected cost."

[cb31]

997.1 said:

All seems fair enough to me. If the octopus offer was always 6h at 7p overnight, most people would have jumped to that. They did the silly thing of adding in this bonus time and now people are moaning that the bonus has been withdrawn.

It really is no biggie

Not quite so benevolent, they did it for their own benefit. During times of high green generation, instead of paying them to switch off and curtail their output they use the excess power and give it to customers cheap. Everyone wins but now they are changing it. Why would I plug my car in during the day now as there is literally no benefit to me? I charge for 4 hours to help them out but they count towards my daily 6 and if then charging overnight after 2 hours they start charging me the normal day rate. Might as just well plug in overnight and get my 6 hours that way.

It's not the end of the world but I'm disappointed, it feels like everything in this country is just getting worse. At least that is yet one more reason to bin the EV off and get another 911. My wife will be happy, she refuses to take the EV any distance that involves charging, won't even charge it at home.

[Accelebrate]

cb31 said:

Why would I plug my car in during the day now as there is literally no benefit to me?

I’ve always liked daytime smart slots as I’m awake to run household appliances at the same time without messing about with timers.

[pingu393]

Mammasaid said:

Good news for anyone with Octopus EV

Just got an email from them saying;

"What it means for you: We believe it s fair that we all contribute to the upkeep of the UK s roads. But at Octopus we re all about doing right by our customers. We've always worked hard to keep costs low. So for all drivers who have a car on the road, or who ve already ordered one, we ve got you covered. You won t pay extra for your contracted mileage when the tax comes in. That way you don t have to shoulder an unexpected cost."

It also saves with the admin. I suspect they would have to collect the money from each customer and pass that money staright to HMRC. Now they just download the mileages and pay HMRC direct.

[Mark-ri571]

otolith said:

GasEngineer said:

NortonES2 said:

KTF said:

Yes. It makes a big difference if you load shift to the off-peak period.

Its now become part of our routine to queue up the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier before going to bed using the time delay features they have.

Not advisable to run tumble dryer overnight.

The Fire Service advise unplugging all appliances overnight.

We trust the fridge, though, right?

Wasn’t it a fridge/freezer wiring fault that started the Grenfell Tower fire ?

[dhutch]

GasEngineer said:

otolith said:

GasEngineer said:

NortonES2 said:

KTF said:

Yes. It makes a big difference if you load shift to the off-peak period.

Its now become part of our routine to queue up the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier before going to bed using the time delay features they have.

Not advisable to run tumble dryer overnight.

The Fire Service advise unplugging all appliances overnight.

We trust the fridge, though, right?

Presumably they're OK with fridges.

Grenfell was started by a fridge.

[hepy]

cb31 said:

So if I go for a long drive in my electric car I generally bring it home on fumes, then plug it in to charge up to 80% overnight. From 5% to 80% is 62.5kWh, I normally see about 6.8kW reaching the car battery after losses so that means charging for over 9 hours. Octopus will charge me cheaply for 6 and then full price for 3, not happy at all.

I understand why they need to crack down on people abusing the system but this isn't a good way of doing it. My occasional long charge gets penalised instead of them banning people who continually break their terms and conditions. EVs are looking less and less attractive as time goes on.

This is my problem with it.

I’m happy to switch to the drive pack but it’s currently oversubscribed and not accepting new entrants.

Once the IOG changes happen, I wonder if it will be re-opened?

[997.1]

cb31 said:

Not quite so benevolent, they did it for their own benefit. During times of high green generation, instead of paying them to switch off and curtail their output they use the excess power and give it to customers cheap. Everyone wins but now they are changing it. Why would I plug my car in during the day now as there is literally no benefit to me? I charge for 4 hours to help them out but they count towards my daily 6 and if then charging overnight after 2 hours they start charging me the normal day rate. Might as just well plug in overnight and get my 6 hours that way.

It's not the end of the world but I'm disappointed, it feels like everything in this country is just getting worse. At least that is yet one more reason to bin the EV off and get another 911. My wife will be happy, she refuses to take the EV any distance that involves charging, won't even charge it at home.

Yep. They’re trying to make more money for themselves. They make more money when shoving power into your car when there’s high green generation vs shoving power into overnight.

And they know that no one is going to go out and plug in at 11pm. Or adjust their apps to start charging at 11pm to get one back on them

They know that people will plug in when they get home

The only difference is that you might need to plug your car in more days a week. Very few will be running their car down below 40% (from 100%) each day.

I don’t mind too much. I’d prefer to keep things as is but don’t feel I’m being screwed

[cliffords]

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

[outnumbered]

cliffords said:

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

We are on Octopus Go, which gives 5hrs cheap rate overnight. We do have an EV but it's probably charging just 1-2 nights a week on average. It's a dumb charger so Octopus can't tell what the load is caused by.

I'm sure there's nothing to stop you going to that tariff for the EV "you're planning to order next week" , and then "changing your mind and sticking with fossil fuel". They're unlikely to notice, as long as you manage to shift some load to overnight, and even if they did, what's the worst that could happen?

[otolith]

cliffords said:

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

The cheap night rate does come at the cost of a higher day rate, though, so if you don’t have the ability to make proper use of it you may find yourself paying more.

[Greshamst]

It’s been very windy quite a few days this week, but this hasn’t translated into cheap agile rates. Especially today given it’s a weekend.
Seems unusual.

[tamore]

Greshamst said:

It s been very windy quite a few days this week, but this hasn t translated into cheap agile rates. Especially today given it s a weekend.
Seems unusual.

huge demand

[cliffords]

cliffords said:

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

Just to follow up on this I called them today and spoke to them about lower cost overnight electricity. They answered the phone and were quite helpful. They do offer 6 hours of lower cost electricity and I explained I had no EV or HP . This means I do not meet the criteria of the arrangement. However if I intend getting an EV I can take the tarrif. BUT they want to fit a charger at my house. I got the impression they are well versed in this question and knew exactly what I was asking. They basically said no by saying Yes with a few conditions. Doing a bit of internet hunting last night it appears a few cases are mounting of unfair discrimination on energy prices on this exact subject. Let's see what happens.

[KTF]

They have offered an economy 7 tariff for ages and that's open to all.

It just isn't as cheap as some of their EV ones and the day unit rate higher than flexible.

[okgo]

So it does happen..!

[cliffords]

KTF said:

They have offered an economy 7 tariff for ages and that's open to all.

It just isn't as cheap as some of their EV ones and the day unit rate higher than flexible.

She didn't tell me about this but I had seen it and did ask. It's 6 hours again and is not available this month as a new version of this tarrif is due to be released in Jan 26. At the rates shown now ,I don't think it would work for me . Seems like I need to spend £40k on a car or £8k on a heat pump to join

[dickymint]

cliffords said:

cliffords said:

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

Just to follow up on this I called them today and spoke to them about lower cost overnight electricity. They answered the phone and were quite helpful. They do offer 6 hours of lower cost electricity and I explained I had no EV or HP . This means I do not meet the criteria of the arrangement. However if I intend getting an EV I can take the tarrif. BUT they want to fit a charger at my house. I got the impression they are well versed in this question and knew exactly what I was asking. They basically said no by saying Yes with a few conditions. Doing a bit of internet hunting last night it appears a few cases are mounting of unfair discrimination on energy prices on this exact subject. Let's see what happens.

Good as that is exactly what it is!!

[Philvrs]

cliffords said:

Looking at moving to Octopus,it would seem to be a lower unit rate for me if I do.
I can't seem to get a tariff that gives me a reduction in electricity at off peak. I don't have an EV or battery storage or ASHP, and that seems to exclude me is that really fair ?

I would run , dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine off peak . Also background electrical convector heater.

I may call them next week but it seems odd . Surely someone has had this request before but I can't see it anywhere on their site .

I don’t think your load shifting will bring your average down by much, have you looked at a quote from home energy elec only tariff? It was the best I could find although it is variable.

[otolith]

cliffords said:

Seems like I need to spend £40k on a car or £8k on a heat pump to join

Lots of cars a quarter of that price or less. But yeah, having some way of sucking up that cheap energy when it’s available is necessary to make the deal work.