Octopus Tracker

k500zm

PNELancs said:

When I asked a few questions of Octopus on Twitter, they put the following paragraph in their reply. Does this only apply if you don’t have a smart meter?

Market spikes can send Tracker prices up to 100p/kWh for electricity or 30p/KWh for gas – that’s three times higher than most customers are paying right now on variable tariffs like Flexible Octopus. Something to bear in mind as well is that you get charged for the monthly average of all the daily readings, not on a day-to-day basis.

Very unlikely to happen - Europe Have imported a huge amount of liquid gas and stockpiled it so they dont have to rely on pipeline gas from Russia and Electricity prices are Governed by Gas prices [STUPIDLY]

If prices do go up you just call and change straight back to your previous tariff [Government Set atm] anytime you want.

So you just have to keep an eye on the tracked rates

Spoonie_Turtle

PNELancs said:

When I asked a few questions of Octopus on Twitter, they put the following paragraph in their reply. Does this only apply if you don’t have a smart meter?

Market spikes can send Tracker prices up to 100p/kWh for electricity or 30p/KWh for gas – that’s three times higher than most customers are paying right now on variable tariffs like Flexible Octopus. Something to bear in mind as well is that you get charged for the monthly average of all the daily readings, not on a day-to-day basis.

Yes.

However just to confuse the matter slightly, on people's bills for the summary calculation they show an average unit rate, but the full details of daily usage and how the charges are calculated (to then add up for the total charge in the summary at the top) will use the actual rates per day.





They apportion usage between readings of a non-smart meter according to an industry formula.

k500zm

A smart meter is not necessary - just take monthly readings and post them and they will calculate what you pay from the tracked rates in the month

Spoonie_Turtle

k500zm said:

A smart meter is not necessary - just take monthly readings and post them and they will calculate what you pay from the tracked rates in the month

Unless you want to benefit from load shifting away from more expensive days into cheaper days, in which case you need to take meter readings as often as necessary for them to be able to charge you accurately.

k500zm

Ok - here we go....

Load shifting means that you use the energy on days which have a cheaper cost.

Now that is all very well and good for companies who can choose not to use energy on expensive energy cost days.

But if you are freezing in your room at home You Dont Have a Choice - you die of hyperthermia

OR you put the heating on!

Washing could, however, be left to a later date when the electricity is cheaper BUT no one has a crystal ball to predict the future and clothes need to be washed unless you are going to tramp it up!

More regular readings when you notice the price has gone down are advisable but that is NOT Load shifting

Spoonie_Turtle

I can see where those terms may be unclear but given the context of this thread is specifically for this tariff, designed to encourage load shifting, I assumed the vast majority of people reading would be faniliar with them and don't need an explanation.

If this were a different thread, or Twitter or Facebook or any other audience, I would  be defining any terms and trying to explain in a more explicit fashion

I don't understand where the hypothermia comment came from.  Of course not everyone can load shift, but nobody's saying it is a requirement to be on Tracker.  Just that if you do load shift, to fully benefit from the pricing differences you need to submit meter readings when the prices change if you don't have a smart meter.  

Day-ahead prices are the closest we get to a crystal ball, but weather forecasts can also help (generally if it's going to be very windy, prices go down).  But keeping an eye on the prices, particularly with the potential peaks on the newest versions, requires some engagement which is why it's not a mainstream type of tariff - most people prefer or need a simpler tariff that doesn't require their ongoing attention.

PNELancs

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I can see where those terms may be unclear but given the context of this thread is specifically for this tariff, designed to encourage load shifting, I assumed the vast majority of people reading would be faniliar with them and don't need an explanation.

If this were a different thread, or Twitter or Facebook or any other audience, I would  be defining any terms and trying to explain in a more explicit fashion

I don't understand where the hypothermia comment came from.  Of course not everyone can load shift, but nobody's saying it is a requirement to be on Tracker.  Just that if you do load shift, to fully benefit from the pricing differences you need to submit meter readings when the prices change if you don't have a smart meter.  

Day-ahead prices are the closest we get to a crystal ball, but weather forecasts can also help (generally if it's going to be very windy, prices go down).  But keeping an eye on the prices, particularly with the potential peaks on the newest versions, requires some engagement which is why it's not a mainstream type of tariff - most people prefer or need a simpler tariff that doesn't require their ongoing attention.

Thanks to you and others for the replies - and I understood it!

Spoonie_Turtle

If swapping oven/non-oven meals around, using the washing machine, tumble dryer, running the dishwasher, charging electrical items etc. on a different day than we otherwise would have to account for the different prices is not called load shifting, then please enlighten me what term we should be using instead? 

Griffindog

You can submit readings daily if you want, I did for over 2 months. If I submit my readings now, I will be charged at yesterday’s unit rates.

if I want to have a big washing day, do lots of baking, charge my camper van battery etc I might opt to do it on a cheaper day.

On Christmas Day my oven was on for 6 hours, I don’t think there was much variation in the rates but if it had been an expensive day I wouldn’t have submitted a reading and would have let Octopus spread the usage over a few days. They don’t split it equally but they have some means of working out when people use more and it is usually quite accurate.

Last summer before the EPG was introduced I had to pay the full 40p/11p caps which was more than the SVR and I was getting twitchy but my usage is low through summer. I stuck with it and saved over £200 for November to December. January has been a good month too.

SJMALBA

Griffindog said:

You can submit readings daily if you want, I did for over 2 months. If I submit my readings now, I will be charged at yesterday’s unit rates.

if I want to have a big washing day, do lots of baking, charge my camper van battery etc I might opt to do it on a cheaper day.

On Christmas Day my oven was on for 6 hours, I don’t think there was much variation in the rates but if it had been an expensive day I wouldn’t have submitted a reading and would have let Octopus spread the usage over a few days. They don’t split it equally but they have some means of working out when people use more and it is usually quite accurate.

Last summer before the EPG was introduced I had to pay the full 40p/11p caps which was more than the SVR and I was getting twitchy but my usage is low through summer. I stuck with it and saved over £200 for November to December. January has been a good month too.

You may already be aware, but, any reading submitted today will be assumed, by Octopus' system, to be for energy used up to the previous midnight.

The next day's electricity UR can be easily calculated after 10:00 am, when Nordpool updates wholesale DA, or you can get it from Octopus after midnight.