Octopus Agile

NedS

bouicca21 said:

I’ve read through this entire thread and am still confused about whether it’s worth swapping from 12M fix to Agile or Tracker.  I can’t get the Compare app to work.  I’m a fairly light energy user - no EV, no heat pump, just the usual (lighting, hot water, heating, tv, internet, laptop) cook a main meal around about 2 or 3 pm,  bake bread and run the dishwasher and washing machine maybe once a week.  

I can easily shift usage of the dishwasher and washing machine to a cheap rate period, but the rest of the usage is going to stay pretty much the same. How can I work out what tariff is best if that Compare app won’t work?  And forgive my ignorance how can I find out what the rate is or is predicted to be at any given time?  My smart meter does tell me a rate but I have no idea whether that’s what I’m paying on my existing tariff or the rate I’d get if I changed to the cheapest tariff.

I’d really appreciate if you could help me get my head round this.  FWIW the smart meter tells me I’m spending roughly £2 a day (more like £4 a day in a cold snap).

Our average price paid for July is 16.7p per kWh, compared to 22.37p on the capped SVR.

The prices on Agile tend to be cheaper that the SVR (or fix) overnight and again in the afternoons. The fact you cook your main meal at 2-3pm will help, as this is typically the cheapest time of the day. We find it hard to avoid putting the oven on at peak rate times of 4-7pm.

If you can then shift any other usage to overnight or afternoons for dishwasher / washing machine etc, then you should be able to make Agile work for you.

Telegraph_Sam

" If you can then shift any other usage to overnight or afternoons for dishwasher / washing machine etc, then you should be able to make Agile work for you"
That is the $64 question: What if you can't?

wrf12345

If you are a seriously low user then I think the only thing better than Agile is a low standing charge tariff, British Gas had one recently but they are such a horrible company to be with I stuck with Agile, my electric bill is averaging twenty percent less than the std tariff but bear in mind I signed up before April and thus avoided the outrageous increase in electric s/c for a year. It is easy to work with the timings if you live alone, if you have six kids demanding media/computer access probably not so much though you could make a game out of beating the energy companies.

Telegraph_Sam

I have heard such reports on BG. 
Sometimes it is a matter of going for the least worst option taking non cost factors (significant load shifting ..) into account. On this score I think Tracker does well enough, arguably ahead of Agile. But in the absence of Compare I can't quantify this.

Newbie_John

Telegraph_Sam said:

" If you can then shift any other usage to overnight or afternoons for dishwasher / washing machine etc, then you should be able to make Agile work for you"
That is the $64 question: What if you can't?

It really depends what else you use. Cooking uses 1-2kWh per average at my household - for the past year at that time 16-19 price average to 33p so you lose about 20p compared to SVR. If you can make it up elsewhere like heating water, very often dishwasher/washing machine, heating or the big ones EV, Heat Pump, battery then the cooking cost can be ignored.

We occasionally cook 16-19 and in the last 200 days only once went 1p over SVR (also only once over Tracker by 7p), the basics running through the day TV, washing machine, kettle make up the difference. 

Once per month per average you get negative prices so that's the day to do everything you can in advance - wash covers, bedsheets..

Winter is a big win for us due to electric heating.

Archerychick

bouicca21 said:

I’ve read through this entire thread and am still confused about whether it’s worth swapping from 12M fix to Agile or Tracker.  I can’t get the Compare app to work.  I’m a fairly light energy user - no EV, no heat pump, just the usual (lighting, hot water, heating, tv, internet, laptop) cook a main meal around about 2 or 3 pm,  bake bread and run the dishwasher and washing machine maybe once a week.  

I can easily shift usage of the dishwasher and washing machine to a cheap rate period, but the rest of the usage is going to stay pretty much the same. How can I work out what tariff is best if that Compare app won’t work?  And forgive my ignorance how can I find out what the rate is or is predicted to be at any given time?  My smart meter does tell me a rate but I have no idea whether that’s what I’m paying on my existing tariff or the rate I’d get if I changed to the cheapest tariff.

I’d really appreciate if you could help me get my head round this.  FWIW the smart meter tells me I’m spending roughly £2 a day (more like £4 a day in a cold snap).

My compare app is working still, so have looked at mine for an update.

I am on and it’s the days in which I charge my EV that I make decent savings as that uses 10 kWh. On the days I don’t charge the car I use around 2-3 kWh and these days I perhaps save 10-20p. Here’s a screen grab for you showing a few days in July. If I didn’t have the ev then I would choose the tracker tariff because I don’t think agile would be with the hassle. 

Telegraph_Sam

On the increasingly rare days/nights when I've been able to get Compare to perform it has shown me on Tracker to be slightly ahead of Agile, contrary to my expections. Confirms my view that there would have to quite a sustained advantage from Agile to compensate for the load shifting hassle.
Anyone who can report on the (daily?) "window" within which Compare operates I'd be keen to know about it

Newbie_John

Here's my one, literally just cooking and cleaning.

Also would consider moving to Tracker but Agile is almost always cheaper so can't justify it.. £54 on SVR. As fixes offer a few % discount it would be negligible, like £50 instead of £54.

Few questions you've asked like where to find rates?
It's available on the Octopus app when you switch to Agile, but most of the time it follows the same pattern - cheapest 2-5am and 13-15 (not during winter though), most expensive 16-19. Then when you hear that storms are coming or it's windy outside it's worth checking the prices for a nice surprise - like it was on 4th of July 😊

MP1995

I would suggest (with the formula differences) 95% of people will find agile cheaper than tracker with very little effort and in a majority of case no effort whatsoever.

For comparison 2024 so far our average price 12.57p kwh on Agile

To achieve that I spend 5 mins a day checking the rates at 4pm and configuring the hot water and advising when we should put thr dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer on. We don't move the cooking the oven or air fryer goes on when needed.

I estimate we will use 7500kwh this year at a max £1200 for the year, which for 5 kins effort each day is a bargain.

Telegraph_Sam

As Archery Chick said you probably need to have a power-hungery EV or some other big ticket item(s) which can be load shifted for the sums to add up. I don't have an EV but do the cooking mainly outside of the peak periods. And I'm surprised to see me marginally better off with Tracker. The weather probably has a bearing in some complicated way (you tell me!)