Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

That would be my gut feeling. But if they decide that my most intense period is during my off-peak slots and rebate one of these the saving would be even lower.  Or would they select one of the lower use peak time slots? Same applies.

I'm not doing it for the untold riches, I'm in it for the fun / the challenge.

They're already said they'll be asking us to turn down the wick when the grid it at its dirtiest, which typically means the morning and evening peak periods.

MWT

QrizB said:

I'm not doing it for the untold riches, I'm in it for the fun / the challenge.

They're already said they'll be asking us to turn down the wick when the grid it at its dirtiest, which typically means the morning and evening peak periods.

I'm not doing it because it isn't open to people on an export tariff...

Spies

Just had my latest bill, been actively trying to reduce gas usage as I'm on the winter workout and have saved about £30 over the 9 week period so far but I've actually used £20 more gas than last month 

It's quite soul destroying seeing such high bills, I've now changed my thermostat to only heat the house to 19c for 4 hours in the evening and set point to 16c all other times as the house is occupied all day.

The great British weather isn't helping too much right now, only saving £11 on my electricity bill and bagging me £7 in SEG.

  

Telegraph_Sam

I suspect results such as those will be a pipe dream in months to come. I was trying to find out what "encouragement" the local authority (Durham) gives to folk to assess housing heat efficiency and offer grants to improve the insulation. No great joy.  The kind of thing that Octopus with its tentacles might get into ... when savings such as yours would still be within reach of the average mortal.

Petriix

Spies said:

Just had my latest bill, been actively trying to reduce gas usage as I'm on the winter workout and have saved about £30 over the 9 week period so far but I've actually used £20 more gas than last month 

It's quite soul destroying seeing such high bills, I've now changed my thermostat to only heat the house to 19c for 4 hours in the evening and set point to 16c all other times as the house is occupied all day.

The great British weather isn't helping too much right now, only saving £11 on my electricity bill and bagging me £7 in SEG.

  

No point comparing month to month, the amount of heating is entirely dependent on the weather and January is almost always significantly colder than December.

MWT

Petriix said:

No point comparing month to month, the amount of heating is entirely dependent on the weather and January is almost always significantly colder than December.

Jan '21 - 2640kWh

Jan '22 - 1920kWh

Been a lot milder weather this year, and a few small changes in heating controls etc. all adds up to a good reduction year on year for us.

masonic

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

First impressions: The devil will be in the detail, I can't see much of a downside but the upside could be limited also.
It looks as if this scheme is targeted at customers who currently do not "power shift" and therefore have more to gain from trying to do so. Conversely Go / Go Faster / Agile Innovative customers would have relatively little to gain if in fact they were economizing in peak periods anyway.
The system targets a particular consumption period and sets the customer a percentage target reduction for this period. The customer grits his teeth and puts a squeeze on his consumption in this period.  The reward is then a credit towards his consumption in this squeezed period. If the percentage reduction percentage is tough then by definition the "value" of the credit will be correspondingly limited. It looks as though the customer will not have the chance to take advantage of the free electricity offer if he only gets to know about this after the event.
Much will depend on the selection of the target period and the severity of the target reduction.
If I have misread the terms I look forward to being corrected.

The devil will indeed be in the detail, but this promotion looks ideal for someone like me, who has electric heating, is just coming out of the highest usage period, and who is well versed in load-shifting from a former period on the Agile tariff.

I read it that Octopus wiill give participating customers 2 hour time slots within the most intensive periods for energy use. they pay  free electricity for what is used in that period if customer hit  reduced consumption targets vs the avg in that period for the previous four weeks.

The promotion appears to be aimed mostly at those who do not normally load shift plus those who do loadshift and normally as an example cook within a 2 hour time slot that is allocated to them and will gain if avoid cooking during that time slot

I must admit I only skim-read, but I got the impression there was also a non-renewable aspect to the choice of time, but agree with your assessment. Maybe they'll alternate 4-6pm and 5-7pm on days when the wind isn't blowing

Looks like the first turn down event is in for me, tomorrow 4:30-6:30pm, reduction of 40% meaning I could get up to 20p of energy free if I can nudge my usage right up to the limit. Good job I'm only doing it for the challenge! It seems a bit silly that I have to ensure that I use as much energy as possible within the limit for the best outcome. I could easily use a lot less than my target, which would be better for the cause.

QrizB

masonic said:

Looks like the first turn down event is in for me, tomorrow 4:30-6:30pm, reduction of 40% meaning I could get up to 20p of energy free if I can nudge my usage right up to the limit. Good job I'm only doing it for the challenge! It seems a bit silly that I have to ensure that I use as much energy as possible within the limit for the best outcome. I could easily use a lot less than my target, which would be better for the cause.

I've got the same offer/challenge. Should be fairly easy; Mrs QrizB and the Experiments are going away for the weekend

BeerSavesMoney

I got the same email today for electricity

Turn down window: 4:30pm - 6:30pm on 24/02/2022

 

Your target: reduce your usage by 0.5 kWh

This is 40% less than you'd normally use across the two hours.

This is based on smart meter data showing you normally use 1.26 kWh over the period.

I guess I’ll go to the gym and save 20p on the electricity bill 🤣

Telegraph_Sam

Oh ye of little faith.  I'd be interested to hear if for anyone it was worth it and if so in what circs.