Octopus Tracker

[Deleted User]

Is there more predictability / savings potential with a particular one?

Tracker is an unpredictable tariff. It is conceivable if World events suddenly changed you could end up paying more than the Ofgem Cap for a period before you could switch away. Will it work for you: it really depends on your attitude to risk. These are not ‘switch and forget’ tariffs.

QrizB

sjnexusmse said:

Does anyone have an opinion on if it might be better to just switch one service to the Tracker, e.g. just electricity or gas? Is there more predictability / savings potential with a particular one?

if you are an Octopus customer you have a choice of electricity smart tariffs,  but Tracker is the only smart tariff for gas.

That's the arrangement I have.

Xbigman

sjnexusmse said:

Does anyone have an opinion on if it might be better to just switch one service to the Tracker, e.g. just electricity or gas? Is there more predictability / savings potential with a particular one?

I'm on Agile for Electric and standard SVR for Gas. My reasoning is that I don't want both being high at the same time plus when they are both likely to be cheap in the summer my Gas usage is negligible, so I'm not going to gain in the summer on Gas but would be likely to lose out in the Winter. No one has a crystal ball so I'm just hedging my bets.

Whilst I'm here. I've been doing an analysis of Agile vrs Tracker. I'm consistently paying nearly 2p kwh more than Tracker. This is partly because I am a low user and there's not much to load shift but also because I shifted some cooking from the 4 pm - 7pm period to later in the evening when the prices are average rather than cheap. Its switching to the cheap periods that gets the average down. So yesterday I put my name down for Tracker. There's no option via the website to say which Tracker (Gas or Electric) so I assume I'll get to chose Electric only later on. I'm still keeping my eye on fixed rates but I suspect there won't be anything compelling enough to go for this year and one of the wholesale tariff's will be the way to go.



Darren

tlcgrantham

I switched to Agile 12 days ago when my Go faster tariff ended. I’ve noticed Agile average prices seems to be consistently about 15 % higher than Tracker. This means that even with load shifting I can’t beat Tracker. If this continues I’ll switch to Tracker if I’m allowed to. 

JohnPo

I moved from Agile to Intelligent Octopus at the weekend, changed my EV a couple of months back, but because of issues with the direct KIA integration and reports of the 12V batteries been killed I had to wait for them to sort it. 

The fixed 6 hour window is great with 11.30 to 5.30 at 7.5p, I have noticed that if I leave the car with a state of charge of around 50% or less and plug and request it be ready by 4am via the app, then I get a charging schedule that includes hours prior to 11.30 which is great as the home usage all gets billed  at the 7.5p rate from the start time of the scheduled charge.

If your have a compatible EV / Charger - worth looking at.

Xbigman

tlcgrantham said:

I switched to Agile 12 days ago when my Go faster tariff ended. I’ve noticed Agile average prices seems to be consistently about 15 % higher than Tracker. This means that even with load shifting I can’t beat Tracker. If this continues I’ll switch to Tracker if I’m allowed to. 

Agile has 11p per kwh loaded onto the usage between 4pm - 7pm. There are 8 three hour periods in a day so if you divide 11p by 8 you find that Agile's average rate per hour as calculated by Octopus on even usage will always be 1.375p higher than Tracker's. If you can load shift out of the 4 - 7 period it brings the average down a bit but to beat Tracker you need to load shift most of your usage to the cheap overnight and early afternoon periods. It took me several months of bills after Agile prices dropped below the EPG to see the clear pattern for my own usage and that I couldn't beat Tracker.



Darren 

tlcgrantham

Thanks for the explanation. The formula on my online account seems to indicate 14pkw is added.

Doc_N

Just out of curiosity, who's responsible for sorting out a SMETS 2 meter that's not sending gas readings to Octopus?  Octopus as the new supplier, or British Gas, who fitted it a few weeks ago? 

Online research suggests it's the new supplier, Octopus, but do they see it that way and deal with it quickly?

QrizB

Doc_N said:

Just out of curiosity, who's responsible for sorting out a SMETS 2 meter that's not sending gas readings to Octopus?  Octopus as the new supplier, or British Gas, who fitted it a few weeks ago? 

Online research suggests it's the new supplier, Octopus, but do they see it that way and deal with it quickly?

Your current supplier is responsible for your meter. They took it over when they took over your account.EDF fitted my original smart gas meter. It worked for a couple of months then stopped reporting ( I could still take and submit manual readings).

EDF never managed to sort it out.

Once I switched my gas to Octopus, they tried various things but eventually had to send out an engineer to replace it.

[Deleted User]

Doc_N said:

Just out of curiosity, who's responsible for sorting out a SMETS 2 meter that's not sending gas readings to Octopus?  Octopus as the new supplier, or British Gas, who fitted it a few weeks ago? 

Online research suggests it's the new supplier, Octopus, but do they see it that way and deal with it quickly?

On a change of a supplier, the new supplier is solely responsible for all meter assets. Whether they can deal with it quickly depends on whether your old supplier has updated the National database with the details of the new smart meter. Meters are not fully commissioned on the day that they are installed.

Your problem might be: a meter that was not commissioned properly by the installer; the distance between the gas meter and the comms hub; a HAN issue or a meter issue.

Report the problem to smart.help@octopus.energy

For future information, the gas meter only sends information to the gas proxy meter built into the comms hub. It does this once every 30 minutes. If your account is set up on a 30 minute profile, then Octopus will initiate two data pulls every 24 hours: one, for electricity data and the other for gas data.