Octopus Agile

Argyle-mikey

northernstar007 said:

Argyle-mikey said:

After just 3 days on fixed we’ve run back to Agile using the “cooling off” clause. Never again. 

Our SC has gone up from 45p to 55p for some reason, but I’ll live with that. 

Two adults, three pets, no EV’s, no solar etc. 

why, whats happend

Panicked over 99.9p days, switched and missed the subsequent negative charges. Agile for life now. 

Telegraph_Sam

I'm fascinated to read what lengths you experts go to to extract max savings from the tariff. Myself - no EV, no battery,  just solars - I don't think I would go for the changed lifestyle if I was to switch to Agile (barring unforeseen ...)  I would give up a modest amount of (net) savings in return for not keeping my eyes glued to the clock / PC screen and my finger on the heating on-off switch. Just a limited amount of load shifting. And ongoing comparison of SC's with other tariffs

Edit: such thoughts must be stated in connection with the tariff v no. At present I am still on Tracker Dec 23 and if I do a "Compare" it usually beats the latest Agile. Which you will say is not a fair comparison.

Argyle-mikey

Telegraph_Sam said:

I'm fascinated to read what lengths you experts go to to extract max savings from the tariff. Myself - no EV, no battery,  just solars - I don't think I would go for the changed lifestyle if I was to switch to Agile (barring unforeseen ...)  I would give up a modest amount of (net) savings in return for not keeping my eyes glued to the clock / PC screen and my finger on the heating on-off switch. Just a limited amount of load shifting. And ongoing comparison of SC's with other tariffs

Agreed. That’s all we do - do the washing and put on the dishwasher at cheap times, immersion goes on all night if it’s negative. Our payment is £90 a month and I’m more than happy with that. 

You can do very well out of Agile without going to extremes - but more power (less power ?!) to those who do. 

GingerTim

Argyle-mikey said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

I'm fascinated to read what lengths you experts go to to extract max savings from the tariff. Myself - no EV, no battery,  just solars - I don't think I would go for the changed lifestyle if I was to switch to Agile (barring unforeseen ...)  I would give up a modest amount of (net) savings in return for not keeping my eyes glued to the clock / PC screen and my finger on the heating on-off switch. Just a limited amount of load shifting. And ongoing comparison of SC's with other tariffs

Agreed. That’s all we do - do the washing and put on the dishwasher at cheap times, immersion goes on all night if it’s negative. Our payment is £90 a month and I’m more than happy with that. 

You can do very well out of Agile without going to extremes - but more power (less power ?!) to those who do. 

Same. I don't have a battery and still come out with an average per kwh rate considerably less than the SVT or a fix, just by dint of being out at work until 7 most days. I don't watch the clock and would only avoid doing energy heavy things at particular times in extremis, such as last week's peak rate of 99p/kwh.

But generally speaking, I won't organise my life around it.

freehugs_2

Telegraph_Sam said:

I'm fascinated to read what lengths you experts go to to extract max savings from the tariff. Myself - no EV, no battery,  just solars - I don't think I would go for the changed lifestyle if I was to switch to Agile (barring unforeseen ...)  I would give up a modest amount of (net) savings in return for not keeping my eyes glued to the clock / PC screen and my finger on the heating on-off switch. Just a limited amount of load shifting. And ongoing comparison of SC's with other tariffs

Edit: such thoughts must be stated in connection with the tariff v no. At present I am still on Tracker Dec 23 and if I do a "Compare" it usually beats the latest Agile. Which you will say is not a fair comparison.

All we do is put the dishwasher and washing machine on on the start of the cheapest slot in the day we want to do it, having learnt that its the first 30mins of both things that use the most power during their cylces, using delay settings. I'm probably slightly addicted to the simple daily pleasure in it. And there is a huge environmental benefit as most of the power we use is geniunly 'spare', and or low carbon. Octopus thinks we are in the top 1% of households for least carbon, which if true is nice to know.

Pat38493

steveKn said:

interesting to hear how people are saving energy costs with agile. ( at 3am!)
serious question… why do people without batteries use agile ? how much so they actually save over “normal” rate ? is the lifestyle disruption worth it ?

i just choose the lowest rates to charge my batteries, then carry on as before. ( although shifting (dish) washing to charging periods so as to use grid directly) 

I have been on Agile for most of the time for the last 15 months or so, but I have recently switched to Go.  I will probably switch back to Agile in January or February.

No solar no batteries.  We have an EV and a PHEV in the house but our weekly mileage, most weeks, is pretty low with the odd long journey every month or two.

If I look back at the last 12 months, I saved nearly £500 by being on Agile versus all other tariffs.  Of course, I had to check the app each day and shift usage.  Also, our kids are already at Uni and so we can keep our peak time usage low - we do still often make the dinner at the 4-7 peak, but there is usually only 2 of us.  We never run the dryer or washing machine at those times.

The only months where Go was would have been cheaper than Agile was November, and December to date (but that might well change given the wind forecasts for the rest of the month).

I switched to Go for the next month because at this time of year, kids will be back and we have various visitors in and out so I have a lot less control over the timing of usage - easier to not worry about it and then I will go back to Agile early next year.   

I am using the subscription version of the Octopus Compare app to compare my usage, using the "shift usage" option to make a reasonably accurate comparison of what my prices would be. 

Edit - should have mentioned we are a high usage large house - even with just the two of us, our base usage is about 18KWH per day when we are in (11 if we are on holiday).  I have been able to pull up to about 60KWH on some plunge pricing days on Agile if I lucked out and the EV was low on charge. 

Telegraph_Sam

I wonder if the same would apply if you didn't have the EV's.  I believe that GO was specifically designed for EV-people (and probably not for ordinary mortals)   

teaselMay

Just being nosy but what uses 11kWh when you're not there?

Argyle-mikey

teaselMay said:

Just being nosy but what uses 11kWh when you're not there?

I was wondering that too. Under-floor heating, immersion, chest freezers ? 

Ours averages 9 when we’re here, 3.5 when we’re away. 

teaselMay

Mine's less than half a kWh when we're away, just router and fridge freezer, sometimes neither of those if we'll be away ages

and a few minutes a day of outside lights that intentionally overlap with next door