Octopus Agile

BeerSavesMoney

I’ve been on the Agile tariff for a while but recently got an EV so now have the charging scheduled for those negative rates over night. In the long run it’s probably worth it to move to Octopus Go but seeing how continuing with Agile goes for a couple of months first.

Newbie_John

BeerSavesMoney said:

I’ve been on the Agile tariff for a while but recently got an EV so now have the charging scheduled for those negative rates over night. In the long run it’s probably worth it to move to Octopus Go but seeing how continuing with Agile goes for a couple of months first.

I think it depends on how much you travel, there seems to be at least one/two days a month with negative prices - and then average of around 15p off peak. If all/most comes from negative prices - great, if you need to charge daily then Go looks better.

Bendo

Bendo said:

tlcgrantham said:

Agile slightly negative for 5 hours tonight

Saw that one coming and tested my automations for heating the thermal store on Electric and turning all rads on for an hour earlier. Cost me about a quid but gives me confidence to let it run itself now.

Should wake to a nice warm house and not need to put the heating on tomorrow hopefully.

That worked well. Woke up to a nice warm house and about 28 kWh used so pretty much no gas used today.

Now I'll apologise to everyone as now I've got that working, you can guarantee there will be no more negative rates for the rest of the year. The windy weekend that was forecast seems to have suddenly become more calm...

Sorry.

Netexporter

I had a power cut, late yesterday evening, so thought I was going to miss the whole plunge. Luckily NG got the lights back on just in time.

ccbrowning

Does this tariff make sense for a 100% electric house? I have a GSHP as well as solar(but it's just 3kw and doesn't generate much at all in the winter), plus underfloor heating on both floors.

Due the underfloor heating we can get away with the heating being off in the evening (if we get the floor warm before the rates go up). However, since we're 100% electric that means the evening electricity usage would be cooking, lightning, and then computers.

The system itself has some rubbish Salus thermostats.

Netexporter

ccbrowning said:

Does this tariff make sense for a 100% electric house? I have a GSHP as well as solar(but it's just 3kw and doesn't generate much at all in the winter), plus underfloor heating on both floors.

Due the underfloor heating we can get away with the heating being off in the evening (if we get the floor warm before the rates go up). However, since we're 100% electric that means the evening electricity usage would be cooking, lightning, and then computers.

The system itself has some rubbish Salus thermostats.

It depends on your lifestyle and flexibility. If you have a relatively regimented lifestyle, dictated by work hours, etc, then you would probably be better off with Cosy, or one of the Go tariffs, if you have an EV.

Having home batteries would help with the heat pump. Fill them up at night, at very low prices, and run the house off that.

Being an idle pensioner, I can make good use of cheap periods on Agile, even without home batteries (yet), although I do have an EV which I fill up when prices are ideally negative, or certainly below 9p/kWh. My latest bill average cost per kWh was half the SVT rate. I've always saved at least 20% compared to SVT, since I've been on Agile.

ccbrowning

Netexporter said:

ccbrowning said:

Does this tariff make sense for a 100% electric house? I have a GSHP as well as solar(but it's just 3kw and doesn't generate much at all in the winter), plus underfloor heating on both floors.

Due the underfloor heating we can get away with the heating being off in the evening (if we get the floor warm before the rates go up). However, since we're 100% electric that means the evening electricity usage would be cooking, lightning, and then computers.

The system itself has some rubbish Salus thermostats.

It depends on your lifestyle and flexibility. If you have a relatively regimented lifestyle, dictated by work hours, etc, then you would probably be better off with Cosy, or one of the Go tariffs, if you have an EV.

Having home batteries would help with the heat pump. Fill them up at night, at very low prices, and run the house off that.

Being an idle pensioner, I can make good use of cheap periods on Agile, even without home batteries (yet), although I do have an EV which I fill up when prices are ideally negative, or certainly below 9p/kWh. My latest bill average cost per kWh was half the SVT rate. I've always saved at least 20% compared to SVT, since I've been on Agile.

Thanks - yes I was looking at the Cosy one as well. Just on the normal tracker atm... Might make sense for the winter months as I can keep the times fairly regimented. I do work from home most of the time and the other half is an artist with a home studio.

Netexporter

It may be worth having a look at the Gary Does Solar Youtube channel. He looks at all sorts of combinations of tech in relation to Octopus TOU tariffs. He has developed a calculator that you can plug your own figures and situation (or future options like solar, batteries, EVs) to see which might suit you best. Swapping from one tariff to another, between winter and summer, is quite commonly employed.

Newbie_John

ccbrowning said:

Does this tariff make sense for a 100% electric house? I have a GSHP as well as solar(but it's just 3kw and doesn't generate much at all in the winter), plus underfloor heating on both floors.

Due the underfloor heating we can get away with the heating being off in the evening (if we get the floor warm before the rates go up). However, since we're 100% electric that means the evening electricity usage would be cooking, lightning, and then computers.

The system itself has some rubbish Salus thermostats.

I'm in quite similar situation, no floor heating but 90s ceiling heating in the house.

It really depends on your lifestyle I guess, we tend to come home 6-7pm and work from home 1-2 days a week.
Can't justify batteries as I believe they won't pay back, due to lack of radiators cost of ASHP even after the grant is quite huge, house well insulated so the heat stays a while.

Our approach is automated - Phillips ceramic heater 5000 Series - that kicks off either around 4am-6am, 2pm-4pm or 7pm+. Depending on prices / times we're home etc.

And it works well for us.

Saying that, if the Tomato was more established on the market I would probably jumped on their Lifestyle tariff..

Spoonie_Turtle

Octopus Compare will tell you what your current usage would cost on the various smart Octopus tariffs. 
The free version shows a month's worth so you could keep an eye on how things go this winter (and the paid version isn't expensive if you wanted to have a look back further than a month).