Octopus new Go tariff

Susan1942

I live in a retirement property and storage heating is the only source of heating.
I use 75-80% of economy 7 heating.
I was told that I should look at their new product Go

This gives you just 4 hours of reduced price electricity 5 p

The rest of the electricity is charged at 12 p

Currently I am paying Just over 9 p.for night rate and I think.16+ p.for the everything outwith the 7 hours which currently is 10 10 pm.- 5 10.
It was a suggestion in a response to.an email I sent as my fixed tariff finished on 10 th December.  I am wondering if anyone knows anything as to the suitability for my situation. I understand this Go is aimed at people who have got electric cars etc

I would appreciate any input.  Thank you Sue 

Brewer20

Have you compared the standing charge rate too?
Edit...in my area the standing charge comes in at 25p per day.

[Deleted User]

Are you sure that the peak charge is just 12p/kWh? I am on Go and my peak charge is 14.63p/kWh. A couple of questions that you need to address: one, can you get enough charge into your storage heaters in 4 hours? If not, then you will end up changing the peak/off peak ratio. Two, do you have or are you prepared to accept a smart meter? Go billing is based on 30 minute usage data not meter readings hence the need for a smart meter.

matelodave

Brewer20 said:

Have you compared the standing charge rate too?
Edit...in my area the standing charge comes in at 25p per day.

You need to look at the whole package, tariff rate as well as the standing charge and don't get hung up on a highish standing charge unless you are a very low user (less than about 3000kwh a year)

25p/day compared to say 15p/day is just £36.50 a year. However only one penny up or down on the tariff rate could could be worth 2-3 times that amount depending on your consumption.

I use 7200kwh a year so 1p/kwh = £72.00 so I'm actually £35.50 better off by saving 1p/kwh and paying an extra 10p/day on my standing charge. You need to do the sums

ASavvyBuyer

Octopus also have Go Faster tariffs that can be a cheaper rate from between 3 & 5 hours. 4.5p/kWh for 3 hours, 5p/kWh for 4 hours and 5.5p/kWh for 5 hours. They all have various timeslots available, starting from 20:30 through to ending at 06:30.

You have to ask to go on the one you prefer, but it is not guaranteed you will be offered that one as the they are trial tariffs to try to help balance the network and make best use of renewable energy.

https://octopus.energy/tariffs/ But don't ask for a quote, just enter your postcode to see all current tariffs, then scroll down past all the Business Tariffs (that should be on a separate tab) and you will find all the variations of Go Faster.

The rates shown are the day rates.

Susan1942

Thank you all.so.much..I didn't even know such a tariff existed.  This just came up in response to an email I sent them

It could well be just someone who thought there is a new tariff's let's mention that..  I would not just change to a suggestion but I know I can ask the question here and know that the advice is always sound.
Thanks to all who responded to my query.  As you say this needs careful investigation.  Thanks Sue.

Gerry1

You might get away with only a four hour charge when the weather is mild, but you'd have very chilly evenings when there's a Beast from the East.  You'd have to top up at daytime rate so that would negate the apparent savings.

If you don't have modern storage heaters with a built in convector you'd have to make sure that your meter has a Boost button so that you can liven up the 4 hour circuit (at day rate) when the NSHs have gone cold. Failing that, you'd have to use a plug-in fan heater, convector etc.

As the tariff is intended for EVs, Octopus may not even be providing a switched 4 hour circuit, they may be expecting the car's charging point to switch itself on at the relevant times, so that would be something else to check.

[Deleted User]

It is reported that Octopus has been fitting SMETS2 meter variants that are ALCS capable. This capability gets around some of the issues of complex metering and storage heaters.