Octopus Agile

Slinky

With our panels and batteries, our average rate this week has been 14.68p, swayed a lot by the negative rates last Sunday night. If we'd gone for the Dec 24 fix, our bill would have been 50% higher than Agile this week.

Just got the renewal notice for Agile for the end of the month, standing charge up just over 6p. We will renew.

greenbee

I've been comparing against Flux (given that's what I was on before), and I'm making a 23% saving this week. I just checked against the October fix (thought I'd pick when I swapped to Agile) and it's a 36% saving. My average price this week has been 13.55p. Over the month it's 62% cheaper than the fix 57% cheaper than Flux, and over the time I've been on Agile it's been 49% cheaper (average unit cost of 10.23p) than fixed, 42% cheaper than Flux. 

As has been said, solar, batteries and not finishing work until 7pm, plus being able to do laundry and run the DW when the prices look best are what makes it work for me. I am hoping for reasonable prices tonight though as I'd like to set the DW off I also have a pile of ironing, but I can come up with plenty of excuses not to do that. 

teaselMay

Oh man don't make cheap power a reason to do ironing! I'd be leaving agile pronto

NedS

I jumped ship from Agile a month ago after the high prices of 12th Dec. We switched to Cosy as we have a heat pump (but no storage/batteries), which at this time of year is our main usage. Using less or shifting large amounts of usage just isn't an option when there are prolonged periods of very high prices, and the Octopus Compare app shows we have saved £34.50 for the month since switching. During the recent cold weather, we have been running the heat pump constantly, but switching off during the peak rate period of 4-7pm. We are averaging 19.1p per kWh for the month, and have been averaging just over 20p during the recent colder weather. The predictability of pricing has been welcomed, and I can live with ~20p per kWh which is working out similar to the price of gas for our heating needs, even during the recent cold spell. Looking at my usage for the 10th Jan, when Agile prices were stupidly high, it would have cost us £20 for the day

northernstar007

still hitting 22p kwh being hard on my tou for jan so far
i'm not using any extra electric during low usage (which we getting v little of)
i know it means nothing but i'm even charging my laptop during the cheapest periods which is running aprox 12-16 hrs a day  anyway thats my rant over

Chrysalis

Archerychick said:

I think it’s been discussed many times, agile is a tarrif for those with either solar, batteries, EV (hybrid) or don’t use large amounts between 4-7pm. With a full EV other tariffs would make more sense.

it naturally made sense for us, with a hydrid that isn’t used every day, and we don’t cook until after 7pm. I’ve saved heaps with Agile. But without the car it would make any sense for us, and we’d be better off on tracker or a fix. 

A single expensive day doesn’t really matter because it’s about the overall cost for us. We are still 28% cheaper than tracker for the last month.

Yeah I try to explain the same, when people look at the past week they then explain why Agile is a bad tariff, but its about the long game.  I used Agile probably for circa 2 years, and it saved me a ton of money in that time plus got me fascinated in the time of use concept.

The market is not in its best place right now and loads of recent high pressure blockers stopping the wind, but it doesnt make it a bad tariff.
I did refrain suggesting it to people, instead was tracker, although no one I suggested it to switched, they either dont care about energy costs or the ones that do care have energy debt preventing switch.
But yeah loading data into octopus compare, the majority of days, agile was cheaper than tracker, and the only load shift I did was avoid use of oven or portable heater 4-7pm.  No solar, EV etc.

EssexHebridean

I have to confess that the recent tendency for the price for the 1900-1930 slot to still be above SVR is a bit annoying. I have absolutely no issue with waiting until 1901 to start cooking my tea, but waiting until 1931 is just running things too late. If that continues, then it may end up being the deal breaker for us as it might on too many days just push us over into the territory of Agile no longer being cheaper. 

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

wrf12345

Cosy tariff actually looks better in many ways, as long as you can stay out of the doubled up peak period, even if you don't have a heat pump or electric boiler, but you are supposed to have one or the other to enrol but I think some have bluffed their way on to it.

KevinG

EssexHebridean said:

Having just looked at the comparison, the week just gone, we'd have been cheaper overall back on the variable. (Which means had we stayed on the fix we were on, that would have been even less.) Over a longer period we are still up, but I'll be keeping a close eye on that just-past-peak slot. 

Same here, about £1 more for the last week but still £20 less for the month.

Patrol

I have switched between Agile and Cosy a few times now, Agile is great and Cosy is a good counter to it when prices shoot up, even without a home battery

https://agilebuddy.uk/ is a handy site, if you set it up with  your Octopus API key it shows what your electricity would cost across all tariffs e.g. for me 13 Dec to 13 Jan Agile would have been £276 while Cosy would be £288

My ground source heat pump insists on running between 4pm-7pm during colder months even if I set it back by the recommended maximum of 3 degrees. When I am home and remember I will switch it off at peak hours, but we don't avoid using the electric cooker sub 45p. The standard tariff would have been £309 so I'd say both Agile and Cosy are beneficial for us even at current rates