Octopus Tracker

pete-20-11

Doc_N said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Doc_N said:

QrizB said:

Looks like Tracker has some expensive gas this weekend. Time to wrap up warm!

Still fractionally below the cap though.

Unless you are on July24 , oct 24 or dec24

Fair point. I was on Dec 23, and looking at that, but switched gas recently to a fix at 6.75. 

Ouch! I managed to fix at 5.74. so far I'm glad I fixed, not sure when prices will fall, guessing not for a while. 

Doc_N

pete-20-11 said:

Doc_N said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Doc_N said:

QrizB said:

Looks like Tracker has some expensive gas this weekend. Time to wrap up warm!

Still fractionally below the cap though.

Unless you are on July24 , oct 24 or dec24

Fair point. I was on Dec 23, and looking at that, but switched gas recently to a fix at 6.75. 

Ouch! I managed to fix at 5.74. so far I'm glad I fixed, not sure when prices will fall, guessing not for a while. 

Apologies - stupid of me.  I meant 5.74!

Octopus 12M Fixed December 2024 v1 Ending 02/01/2026

5.74p/kWh  29.43p/day

pete-20-11

Doc_N said:

pete-20-11 said:

Doc_N said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Doc_N said:

QrizB said:

Looks like Tracker has some expensive gas this weekend. Time to wrap up warm!

Still fractionally below the cap though.

Unless you are on July24 , oct 24 or dec24

Fair point. I was on Dec 23, and looking at that, but switched gas recently to a fix at 6.75. 

Ouch! I managed to fix at 5.74. so far I'm glad I fixed, not sure when prices will fall, guessing not for a while. 

Apologies - stupid of me.  I meant 5.74!

Octopus 12M Fixed December 2024 v1 Ending 02/01/2026

5.74p/kWh  29.43p/day

AHH, that sounds much better! 

Same deal as me then. Almost the same dates too. 😀

Doc_N

pete-20-11 said:

Doc_N said:

pete-20-11 said:

Doc_N said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Doc_N said:

QrizB said:

Looks like Tracker has some expensive gas this weekend. Time to wrap up warm!

Still fractionally below the cap though.

Unless you are on July24 , oct 24 or dec24

Fair point. I was on Dec 23, and looking at that, but switched gas recently to a fix at 6.75. 

Ouch! I managed to fix at 5.74. so far I'm glad I fixed, not sure when prices will fall, guessing not for a while. 

Apologies - stupid of me.  I meant 5.74!

Octopus 12M Fixed December 2024 v1 Ending 02/01/2026

5.74p/kWh  29.43p/day

AHH, that sounds much better! 

Same deal as me then. Almost the same dates too. 😀

Yes - quite a few of us jumped ship at the same time. Electricity was available at the same time at 22.46 (E Mids) but I stayed with Tracker on that. Possibly wrongly!

Slinky

Badboi said:

Anyone had experience of outfox the market? My tracker ends early march and outfox seems to be the cheapest unit price at the moment (2 years, 6.03 gas, 24.6 elec) for me, but don’t want to repeat neon reef, etc 

We were with OFTM for a while. We had an old style E7 meter as the previous owners had it even though we have GCH. We were on a fixed deal with OFTM for a year where it was single rate, after the fix ended they dumped us back onto E7 rates again, saying it wasn't possible to give us single rate on a dual rate meter (despite us just having come off the fix where they gave us single rate). We went to EDF who after a fight put us onto single rate tariff (told us it was possible before we moved to them, then denied any knowledge after their 28 day waiting period). EDF eventually paid us £100 to install a smart meter, which was a good result as we wanted one anyway as we were having solar installed. A couple of months after installation we moved to Octopus. 

The DNO records haven't been updated properly yet, as nearly 2 years after having had the smart meter installed, if we try and get a quote, some, maybe all other suppliers still think we have an E7 meter.

QrizB

Slinky said:

The DNO records haven't been updated properly yet, as nearly 2 years after having had the smart meter installed, if we try and get a quote, some, maybe all other suppliers still think we have an E7 meter.

Drifting further off-topic, but E7 might be worth considering paired with solar. For half the year you use far less daytime electricity but get to benefit from the nighttime cheap rate period.

Telegraph_Sam

Technical query regarding the conversion formulas: Most of the wholesale market to retail conversion formulas contain a variable and a fixed element (depending on location). Is this fixed charge quite separate from and in addition to the Standing Charges that feature prominently in one's tariff info? For true comparisons it would necessary to take account of both somehow.

Telegraph_Sam

QrizB said:

Slinky said:

The DNO records haven't been updated properly yet, as nearly 2 years after having had the smart meter installed, if we try and get a quote, some, maybe all other suppliers still think we have an E7 meter.

Drifting further off-topic, but E7 might be worth considering paired with solar. For half the year you use far less daytime electricity but get to benefit from the nighttime cheap rate period.

Is precisely now the right time of the year to make comparisons with and decide on the choice of a fixed vs a variable tariff that would normally apply for the following 12 months???

I read the following quote from Tracker Q & A's in the Octoprice web site

Can I switch to flexible plan in winter when the unit rate is high and back to Tracker in spring?

Octopus has made it not possible to make such timely switches as Tracker quitters have to wait 9 months before being allowed to switch back to Tracker in order to save their admin costs. But the idea of Tracker is that you can save more during summer months which can be used to offset some more expensive rates in winter. Sticking with Tracker throughout the year is almost certainly cheaper than with Ofgem protected plans.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

Technical query regarding the conversion formulas: Most of the wholesale market to retail conversion formulas contain a variable and a fixed element (depending on location). Is this fixed charge quite separate from and in addition to the Standing Charges that feature prominently in one's tariff info? For true comparisons it would necessary to take account of both somehow.

Yes, the daily standing charge needs to be added on to your cost after calculating your consumption cost by multiplying the per unit base cost and wholesale-price-related cost by the number of units you used that day.

Telegraph_Sam said:

QrizB said:

Slinky said:

The DNO records haven't been updated properly yet, as nearly 2 years after having had the smart meter installed, if we try and get a quote, some, maybe all other suppliers still think we have an E7 meter.

Drifting further off-topic, but E7 might be worth considering paired with solar. For half the year you use far less daytime electricity but get to benefit from the nighttime cheap rate period.

Is precisely now the right time of the year to make comparisons with and decide on the choice of a fixed vs a variable tariff that would normally apply for the following 12 months???

I read the following quote from Tracker Q & A's in the Octoprice web site

Can I switch to flexible plan in winter when the unit rate is high and back to Tracker in spring?

Octopus has made it not possible to make such timely switches as Tracker quitters have to wait 9 months before being allowed to switch back to Tracker in order to save their admin costs. But the idea of Tracker is that you can save more during summer months which can be used to offset some more expensive rates in winter. Sticking with Tracker throughout the year is almost certainly cheaper than with Ofgem protected plans.

Here is a plot of the actual unit prices based on the current Tracker version over the past 12 months:

It looks to me like January-March 2024 were no (-edited) more expensive on the whole than July-September 2024, so on what basis do you expect July-September 2025 to be cheaper than now? Especially given your pricing now is cheaper because you are on the Dec 23 tariff, but will move to the more expensive Dec 24 tariff if you remain on Tracker. Other than those 2-3 spikes probably not being repeated in the summer months, I wouldn't expect prices to be very different unless the geopolitical landscape changes.

Telegraph_Sam

It is always a good idea to have some facts like your stats (from gastracker?) to draw on.
If there is some evidence that Jan-March (2024) is more expensive than July-Sept (2024) then there is a point of view that 2025 could follow a similar pattern - with all the usual caveats. Which was the point I (and Tracker Q & A)  was making
The other underlying influence re the end of Dec 2023 v 1 is separate and needs to be mentally considered separately. Like rejoining Tracker in the summer months after an interim spell on the 14 months fixed tariff for example.