Switching to Octopus problems

markin

If you have Gas heating are you making savings being on E7?  EV or Solar batteries?

69bertie

sebtomato said:

Same issue for me. Switched from EDF to Octopus in October, and they didn't update the ALCS schedule on the meter.

EDF off peak was 22:30 to 00:30, and then 02:30 to 07:30
Octopus off peak is 00:30 to 07:30

I've had fun and games with Octopus as well. Like you, they got the E7 readings mixed up. All sorted now. Actually one of the 'good' reasons I switched is because Octopus do a variable DD. Each month, the amount taken is what has been used during the previous month only. So no building up huge amounts of money - I had over £400 with Scottish Power and struggled to get that back. If that was ever necessary, I'd be wanting it to be in my bank account. All seems to be working fine at the moment.

My E7 times are now 00.30 - 07.30. Summer it was 01.30 - 08.30

But tbh, I don't think it matters who you are with. They all have their faults.

brig001

markin said:

If you have Gas heating are you making savings being on E7?  EV or Solar batteries?

Sorry about the delay, I stopped getting notifications

Electric only in my flat
To be honest, probably not much in it if your usage is reasonable as only one standing charge, no servicing etc.

Brian

brig001

69bertie said:

sebtomato said:

Same issue for me. Switched from EDF to Octopus in October, and they didn't update the ALCS schedule on the meter.

EDF off peak was 22:30 to 00:30, and then 02:30 to 07:30
Octopus off peak is 00:30 to 07:30

I've had fun and games with Octopus as well. Like you, they got the E7 readings mixed up. All sorted now. Actually one of the 'good' reasons I switched is because Octopus do a variable DD. Each month, the amount taken is what has been used during the previous month only. So no building up huge amounts of money - I had over £400 with Scottish Power and struggled to get that back. If that was ever necessary, I'd be wanting it to be in my bank account. All seems to be working fine at the moment.

My E7 times are now 00.30 - 07.30. Summer it was 01.30 - 08.30

But tbh, I don't think it matters who you are with. They all have their faults.

Biggest problem I had was that they reversed the day and night readings back every year, and I had to go through the whole rigmarole again. Keep an eye on your bills

Brian

Phones4Chris

MWT said:

If it is a smart meter then they do control the switching times and you should be in touch with the team via smart@octopus.energy to get your ALCS times set correctly.

If it is not smart then they don't have control over the switching times.

Can you explain that one please? My understanding was that the exact E7 switching times were determined by the DNO so that not everyone switched at the same time causing a surge on the network.

Phones4Chris

@MWT Did you see my query?

MWT

Phones4Chris said:

MWT said:

If it is a smart meter then they do control the switching times and you should be in touch with the team via smart@octopus.energy to get your ALCS times set correctly.

If it is not smart then they don't have control over the switching times.

Can you explain that one please? My understanding was that the exact E7 switching times were determined by the DNO so that not everyone switched at the same time causing a surge on the network.

The DNO does not directly determine the exact switching offset per smart meter, they do require the supplier to spread the switching load over a period (typically up to 30 mins).

The supplier configures each meter with an offset so ensure that they do not all switch at the same time.

The bit that is sometimes missed is aligning the rate switching times with the ALCS times so the loads connected to the meter are switched at the same time as the tariff rate registers are switched.

This is something that only your supplier can fix...