Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Telegraph_Sam

Sadly with my limited technical knowledge and not having direct experience of smart meters, I find much of this interesting discussion difficult to follow. At the end of the day, whether or not there is a system malfunction as described, does the smart meter user have the facility to "ghost" the input, in other words to check and control the readings just as if he had been on manual from the start? If "data recovery" is necessary, there is scope for things to go wrong.
Are the REST API and Compare apps (and "python") software which only smart meter users would use, and clued up users to boot? Would they work with an ordinary desktop PC? Recording TOU data manually sounds like a lot of hard work and something which the average consumer could hardly be expected to do. There are gaps in my understanding of how the system ticks.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

Sadly with my limited technical knowledge and not having direct experience of smart meters, I find much of this interesting discussion difficult to follow. At the end of the day, whether or not there is a system malfunction as described, does the smart meter user have the facility to "ghost" the input, in other words to check and control the readings just as if he had been on manual from the start? If "data recovery" is necessary, there is scope for things to go wrong.
Are the REST API and Compare apps (and "python") software which only smart meter users would use, and clued up users to boot? Would they work with an ordinary desktop PC? Recording TOU data manually sounds like a lot of hard work and something which the average consumer could hardly be expected to do. There are gaps in my understanding of how the system ticks.

Nobody needs to do any of this, Octopus has a perfectly servicable portal where you can explore your data, and the Guy Lipman website provides additional tools. I just like to automate things and perform my own data analysis.

On "system malfunctions", the process by which Octopus collects the half hourly data is not super reliable, so there are sometimes delays in the data becoming available, particularly when a meter is first installed. The meters store over a year of half hourly data, and if there are any gaps in Octopus' records then they cannot bill and would need to manually pull down the missing data from the meter. That's the data recovery process mentioned. I've only had to contact them once to do this (one day's worth of readings never turned up on their side) and they resolved it within an hour of me contacting them (a much quicker response than I'm used to!)

Telegraph_Sam

Interesting.  To rephrase what I said, is it possible for the average user without your level of technical expertise to do his own "data recovery" just as an occasional cross check that the meter has got its sums right? Depending on the level of skill required I could imagine that REST / python / Compare could come in useful on occasions.

Re the portal: I am familiar with the one I use for inputting  my monthly Tracker readings. Guy Lipman I am getting to know, but only slowly.

A 1-hour response time must be setting a record.  Was this by email?

niktheguru

Telegraph_Sam said:

Interesting.  To rephrase what I said, is it possible for the average user without your level of technical expertise to do his own "data recovery" just as an occasional cross check that the meter has got its sums right? Depending on the level of skill required I could imagine that REST / python / Compare could come in useful on occasions.

Re the portal: I am familiar with the one I use for inputting  my monthly Tracker readings. Guy Lipman I am getting to know, but only slowly.

A 1-hour response time must be setting a record.  Was this by email?

You do not need to do any data recovery whatsoever. Your half hourly usage is clearly displayed on the octopus website every day. It has a graph to show you your usage through the day and the actual readings per 30minute period underneath that too. The smart meter energy info pages replaces your "submit a meter reading" pages that you currently see.

This is not something that is complicated at all, and for the average user this is enough. The octopus website is updated every 24hours with your usage from the previous day. You can scroll back through previous days usage.

Then every month you will get a bill.

I think for your purposes sam this is enough. I wouldn't get bogged down with the "api" and doing funky things with your usage.

Alternatively you can download the "bright" app on your phone. If you link this with your smart meter (by giving it permission to access your smart meter) it will also give you the 30min readings in its app. The benefit of this is that you get readings every 30mins if you are that way inclined to want to check it.

Another option is that guylipman on his website has an area where you can give his website permission to download your smart data and he can show you your usage and estimate costs compared to agile, go and tracker, depending on your exact usage. (however this will be exactly the same data that octopus has)

Those last two things are optional, and just for those of us that are that way inclined to look at these things. For people, who i suspect like yourself, who are dubious of giving access to 3rd party websites/people your personal information, I suspect you wouldn't want to give 3rd party sites access to your smart readings.

On the odd occasion there is a mishap and octopus fails to pull your 24hr data. This often gets automatically sorted by them, if it doesn't you can just ping them a message and they click a few buttons and update it. There is nothing to worry about. Your readings are stored on your meter for a year, so they can be accessed anytime.

If you are that way inclined you can also note down your daily meter readings from the IHD or from the meters as a check.

If you want to "cross check" your readings the best way to do it is either with the bright app or signing up (for free) to the n3rgy website.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

Interesting.  To rephrase what I said, is it possible for the average user without your level of technical expertise to do his own "data recovery" just as an occasional cross check that the meter has got its sums right? Depending on the level of skill required I could imagine that REST / python / Compare could come in useful on occasions.

Re the portal: I am familiar with the one I use for inputting  my monthly Tracker readings. Guy Lipman I am getting to know, but only slowly.

A 1-hour response time must be setting a record.  Was this by email?

If you have any programming experience then it's a relatively straightforward task to use the REST API to pull down the data, save it, use it to generate plots etc. Obviously with the data and ability to manipulate it as you see fit, there is a bit more you can do as you aren't constrained by the functionality provided by the likes of Octopus Compare and Guy Lipman's site, but between those two tools most things are covered. The new usage page on the website allows the data to be exported to a spreadsheet with no programming required, so that's another route to get the data in your hands, but is only consumption, not price/cost. 

The one hour response time was to their smart@ email address. I probably got lucky, or they are employing AI to respond to simple queries that can be automated.

Telegraph_Sam

Thanks for progressively filling in the gaps - as one might have hoped for from a "Go Faster Demo" site - which presumably does not exist (yet)?

It would be interesting to do a little data analysis and manipulation if no more than Excel skills are required. More important would be whether or not this could be done from / on a  PC rather than a mobile?

[.. and may be Rest Compare & co could make a better job of forecasting prices than Tracker  ]

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

[.. and may be Rest Compare & co could make a better job of forecasting prices than Tracker  ]

The prices Tracker tracks are only set one day ahead. Getting the next day's price is straightforward. Looking further than one day is an informed guess.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

It would be interesting to do a little data analysis and manipulation if no more than Excel skills are required. More important would be whether or not this could be done from / on a  PC rather than a mobile?

Yes, I'm doing everything on PC, I've moved over to using Octopus Compare on mobile for keeping track as it is more convenient, but that isn't necessary.

Telegraph_Sam

Where are the Tracker "tomorrow" prices published if not on their own demo website where I think by common consent the "projected" stats have to be taken with a little salt?

I see that you also have solar panels. How do you decide between running the dishwasher-washing machine at midday in order to get max solar benefit as opposed to running them 12 hours later in order to get the off-peak kWh charge rate?

QrizB

Me? I'm not with Octopus currently, I'm with EDF (ex-GNE).

The formula for the Tracker price varies by region but is published in the FAQ:

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/

The price used is taken from here:

https://www.epexspot.com/en/market-data

So for example, I'm in the Southern region. Tomorrow's wholesale price is £78.01/MWh (7.801p/kWh) and my Tracker price would be [(7.801 * 1.1845) + 7.336 =] 16.58p per kWh. (That may be slightly out if I'm meant to account for VAT somewhere.)

As for your solar question, any power I generate is effectively free to me so if I was on Go I would choose to run the dishwasher / washing machine in the daytime if it's sunny, or at night on cheap rate if it isn't.