Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?

[dhutch]

Following on from the 'bulb' thread.

We have just bought our house and need to switch and am considering Bulb, £50 for me and same for my colleague.
Currently: British Gas for gas (ok, not great or cheapest) and Scottish Power for elec (appalling service already, just sorting out the interim billing period, most expensive quote to date as well).

The other option appears to be Octopus. Slightly more money, but another 'small' green provider with good rates and ratings, fractionally more but fixed for 12 months. They have rung me out of the blue, seemed fair enough.


Daniel

[dhutch]

selnic said:

Just in the process of switching from Scottish Power to Octopus via U Switch. They seem to have the best deal for us, mainly £48 a month instead of £76, minimum one month contract and unlike some, no hidden terms forcing you to have a smart meter. Will have to update later as to how they perform.

Thanks, sounds good.

[dhutch]

Here we are..........


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...



Daniel

[dhutch]

Its crap they are no compatible, but why was it a deal-breaker, smart meters don't do a lot over just taking a quarterly reading.


Daniel

[dhutch]

HTP99 said:

I was told that it wasn't the "smart" features that were causing the issue, it was actually the meters themselves, they don't work with Octopus, I would need new meters.

I would have been fine to have lost the smart functions, I wasn't paying though for new compatible meters.

Oh right, then that's really odd. Unless they are so 'smart' they don't have a readout on the front of them preventing manual reading?

[dhutch]

Just had a chat from a salesman at Octopus, as per when I joined Bulb they are able to match Bulbs current rate and as such quoted me what I am currently paying, as well as for their other tariffs, as below. They are all renewable elec, the super green includes carbon off-setting for the gas. Monthly DD is 12th of the total.

Variable rate (both) £1650
Oct Fixed for 12mth £1714
Oct 'super green' £1800


Daniel

[dhutch]

Condi said:

Absolutely.

1 fridge or EV being shut down for half an hour has negligible affect on the householder or the grid, but 1 million fridges and EV's shutting down has a noticeable effect on the national demand.

It is far harder and more expensive to find an extra 1MW at peak time than it is to shed 1MW of load for a short period of time.

This.

Its what a smart grid actaully looks like, rather than radio-read meters that dont work properly!


Daniel

[dhutch]

Big Al. said:

Guy's just a polite reminder again, referral code requests or supply posts on the thread are not allowed.

Out of interest, why is that?

[dhutch]

Big Al. said:

Because Ben Lowden has already stated that they are not allowed as it breaches the rule of posting No.6 which states:-

No.6 Do not post for the purpose of advertising for personal or business gain, unless Etc.

Fair enough. I hadn't thought of it like that, in part as said I guess because it's a muteral gain.

pingu393 said:

BTW, St. Vincent's Hospice has benefitted to the tune of £100 thanks to the two people who have used my code. I don't see any losers. I understand that PH doesn't gain. If anything, it loses, as we spend bandwidth discussing how petty they can be.

Playing devils advocacy very slight, I guess if give your reference away and hence you have not personal or business gain....?

[dhutch]

TheLurker said:

I wonder how long before people gaming the system actually makes it counter productive for national grid

I wonder how long it will take them to change the system so it rewards what they want rather than being easily gamed.

[dhutch]

pingu393 said:

I'm assuming you have the Tesla app.

Go to Settings

Then Powerwall

100% Backup / 0% Time-based Control

I'm now drawing 5.0kW into the wall. The washing machine has just gone on, but it hasn't really started yet. Wifey just asked if I wanted a cuppa, so it's now 8.3 from the grid. - KERCHING

All bonkers!