Octopus Agile / Octopus Go Faster with 30 Amp Aga. How do you control appliances on Agile?

niktheguru

wow if 22k kwh, then its a definite must!! I'm saving money and only use 6500!!

DC66

lohr500 said:

Hi all.
We have a 30 Amp AGA which is basically a gigantic night storage heater. It has a 30 Amp power supply which powers banks of elements that heat up the core overnight using Economy 7. The 30 Amp feed is permanent live and there is a second 5 amp trigger circuit linked to the Eco 7 consumer unit fuse box. The AGA detects the presence of the Eco 7 signal and switches on the heating elements when Eco 7 is available. If the core falls below a certain temperature during the day due to heavy use, then the Aga controller will switch on the elements to use peak price electricity to raise the core to a minimum temperature. This is lower than the overnight temperature so as to only use the minimum amount of peak electricity.  
Looking at my energy monitor through April and May, the Aga has typically taken between 6 and 7 hours continuous draw at around 5.8kW to fully heat up overnight. The kitchen has no other heating so it will probably take longer in the depths of winter and less in Summer due to the difference in ambient temperature in the kitchen.

I have been looking at the Octopus Go Faster tariff with an 00:30 start and even though I would only get 5 hours at £0.05 per kWh, it would still be a big saving for us to switch due to the high overnight consumption from the Aga, even if the last hour or so of the heat storage charging was at the new Octopus peak rate. 
Depending on how they configure the smart meter that is due to be fitted today, I may need to replace the Eco 7 trigger signal with a timer based trigger for the Aga. That's not a problem.  

I have also been looking at Octopus Agile. My question here is how do you take advantage of the low price times and control when/how to switch on an appliance? I have seen an App called IFTTT which allows you to program events based on the rates, but what device would be needed to switch the trigger circuit on and off based on the program? Are there other switching devices/apps that can be used with Agile?
My other concern is that because the pricing is variable, there could be lots of switching on and off of the heating elements and the required Aga core temperature may not be achieved. 
My gut feel says Go Faster is the better option due to the certainty of the off peak timing and pricing, but if Agile could be made to work, it could be a better option if we see a return to the very low off peak pricing from last year.

How are people using Agile to maximise the demand when prices are low?

Thanks 

Hi, came across this older discussion as I was researching the same idea. Did you get anywhere with Octopus and smart switching your Aga on/off based on agile tariff?
I’m on Octopus already so am
thinking about a similar idea…

thanks
DC

lohr500

I didn't get anywhere with finding a way to switch the AGA heating elements on and off based on the Agile tariff.

In the end I decided that the uncertainty of sufficient low pricing period windows and the potential impact on the heating elements from lots of power up/power down cycles through the day outweighed the potential saving. 

Also, we use the AGA every day and if it hadn't heated up enough using lower priced Agile time windows, then it would need to boost at peak rate to maintain a working temperature.

In the end we switched to EDF ECO20:20 and we are currently paying £0.3090 peak / £0.1267 Off-peak.
Off-Peak window is 9pm to 7am GMT and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Works well for the AGA and gives us a large off peak window for clothes and dish washing etc.

I don't know if ECO20:20 is still available to new customers.

Spoonie_Turtle

lohr500 said:

In the end we switched to EDF ECO20:20 and we are currently paying £0.3090 peak / £0.1267 Off-peak.
Off-Peak window is 9pm to 7am GMT and all day Saturday and Sunday.

…
I don't know if ECO20:20 is still available to new customers.

Given the original date of your thread I'm astonished it was even available to you.  Brilliant!

lohr500

Spoonie_Turtle said:

lohr500 said:

In the end we switched to EDF ECO20:20 and we are currently paying £0.3090 peak / £0.1267 Off-peak.
Off-Peak window is 9pm to 7am GMT and all day Saturday and Sunday.

…
I don't know if ECO20:20 is still available to new customers.

Given the original date of your thread I'm astonished it was even available to you.  Brilliant!

It started out as a 2 year fixed GoElectric98 tariff when we 1st signed up for it in July 2021.
(And given the massive hike in energy prices from 2022 I am so glad we took a 2 year fix!)

When the 2 year fix ended, they no longer offered GoElectric98, but offered ECO20:20 on a variable tariff instead.
The off peak hours for GoElectric98 and ECO20:20 were the same.

In September last year I switched the ECO20:20 tariff from monthly fixed DD to prepay as it worked out cheaper.