Tariff Help

stuhow20

Looking for some advice as it’s making my brain hurt. 

I’m currently on a fixed rate of 32p with Sainsbury’s energy. A few weeks ago we had solar and batteries installed and will be getting an EV in the new year. 

Installers recommended switching to Octopus for cheap rate night tariff for EV and also exporting solar. 

But not sure if it would be beneficial given the fox I’m on at present especially given that I won’t be exporting anything until spring / summer. 

So basically should I stay or should I go?

[Deleted User]

Multi-rate (like E7) might already be beneficial to charge your battery cheap overnight and use it up in the day - do some maths on that.

When you get your EV, it is likely to become even more so.

I don’t know about export, but there are plenty of people on here who do.

ariarnia

if you download the bright app on your phone (using the code on the back of your in home display) you can see when you use your energy in 30 minute chunks.

if you maybe try shifting as much of your use as you comftably can to when the night time rates would be while you are still on single rate (including charging your battery and using it first during the day) then it wont cost you any extra and should be fairly easy to see how the numbers work out for your lifestyle and needs. even just a week would give you a good idea if you are happy to plan for when you do high energy things or how much your battery actually holds in terms of things like loads of washing. 

the ev is harder to guess as you dont know how many miles you'll do and i'm finding it hard to get an estemate online for how much it needs to charge or if you'd need to top it up during the day. and also the actual cost of buying and running it. but if you are going to get an ev anyway then charging it overnight on e7 or similar would definately be cheaper than during the day. 

Alnat1

Ask yourself, when the EV arrives do you want to be charging it up at 32p/kWh? Jan/Feb solar output will be low, Might be worth getting things arranged now.

[Deleted User]

A couple of things to consider (Go/Go Faster/Agile customer for over 3 years).

If you select the Go tariff, the night rate is now 12p/kWh and the tariff duration is, I believe, no longer fixed. If you elect to go on this tariff, then your export SEG payments are restricted to 4.1p/kWh.

If you elect for a flexible tariff; E7 or Agile import then you can get SEG payments of 15p/kWh fixed or variable on Agile Outgoing.

Octopus has withdrawn its Go Faster tariff and I think that the death of Go could well be imminent. I say this as Octopus’ preferred tariff for EV charging is now Intelligent.

https://octopus.energy/intelligent-octopus/

FWiW, if things stay as there are, I will be switching to the E7 and Agile Outgoing tariffs in February next year. This has to be a personal decision based on your usage (including the EV) and solar array generation. Don’t forget to include battery round trip losses in your calculations.

MWT

stuhow20 said:

Looking for some advice as it’s making my brain hurt. 

I’m currently on a fixed rate of 32p with Sainsbury’s energy. A few weeks ago we had solar and batteries installed and will be getting an EV in the new year. 

So much depends on how much solar your have, how much battery capacity and which EV and charger (EVSE) along with your typical daily mileage and of course your typical daily electric use in the house and your method of heating (electric vs gas)...

The odds are you will not be on the right tariff when the EV arrives and may already be better off on something different, just can't tell without more information...

QrizB

stuhow20 said:

Looking for some advice as it’s making my brain hurt. 

I’m currently on a fixed rate of 32p with Sainsbury’s energy.

...

So basically should I stay or should I go?

Just to add another option, do Sainsbuey's have an E7 version of your current fix, what are the rates and will they let you switch to it? And what are their SVT E7 rates?
Currently, E7 tariffs with some suppliers are cheaper than the current Go offering, and you get 7 cheap hours not 4.

stuhow20

QrizB said:

stuhow20 said:

Looking for some advice as it’s making my brain hurt. 

I’m currently on a fixed rate of 32p with Sainsbury’s energy.

...

So basically should I stay or should I go?

Just to add another option, do Sainsbuey's have an E7 version of your current fix, what are the rates and will they let you switch to it? And what are their SVT E7 rates?
Currently, E7 tariffs with some suppliers are cheaper than the current Go offering, and you get 7 cheap hours not 4.

They said if I wanted E7 I would have to have pay for a 2 rate meter to be installed and regarding the SEG they asked if I have an export meter. I thought the smart meter handled that? 

QrizB

stuhow20 said:

QrizB said:

stuhow20 said:

Looking for some advice as it’s making my brain hurt. 

I’m currently on a fixed rate of 32p with Sainsbury’s energy.

...

So basically should I stay or should I go?

Just to add another option, do Sainsbuey's have an E7 version of your current fix, what are the rates and will they let you switch to it? And what are their SVT E7 rates?
Currently, E7 tariffs with some suppliers are cheaper than the current Go offering, and you get 7 cheap hours not 4.

They said if I wanted E7 I would have to have pay for a 2 rate meter to be installed and regarding the SEG they asked if I have an export meter. I thought the smart meter handled that? 

Yes it does.

If you have a smart smart meter it can be switched to 2-rate (or 3- or 4-rate) remotely, and all smart meters include an export register.