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Octopus Agile

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  • Effician
    Effician Posts: 533 Forumite
    500 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    masonic said:
    Effician said:
    But you seem to be restricting your usage to be as low as you can manage so a fairly constant daily usage pattern i guess.
    I have no idea what i'll be using on any given day & can often save a weeks worth of energy intensive stuff to be done on a plunge or cheap day or even pull some things out of the hat like today when we don't really have much neccesity stuff to do but will save us money in the long run.
    Anyhow negative prices start at 10:30 so going to make myself busy.
    Yes, I am using only the energy I need. I'll admit to having turned everything on during past price plunges or old-style Saving Session in-day adjustment periods in order to be paid for the consumption. However, I see it as a false economy to use paid-for energy wastefully in order to reduce an average price paid but increase the total cost.

    Perfectly understand the not wasting electric  & my aim in all things is to waste as little as possible (we only put our reuse bins out every 6 to 8 weeks) , i agree using cheap electric to bring down unit rate is not the way to go which is why we try to make all our electric count eg today i'll put the deep fat fryer on & cook 5kg of 13p/kg potatoes to make frozen chips which will last us a month or two in the freezer, often we'll use extra electric to enable savings in other areas.
  • Netexporter
    Netexporter Posts: 1,931 Forumite
    1,000 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Switched off the solar and have the washing machine and heat pump on and set the car charging. At 12.30 I'll have long electric shower whilst roasting a pork joint for dinner. Will I earn more than the standing charge by 3pm?

    Luckily, it isn't sunny, so I don't feel so bad about turning the solar off. Just have to make sure I don't forget to turn it back on this afternoon.
  • NedS
    NedS Posts: 4,485 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 27 April at 11:07AM
    Effician said:

    No real predictions available, you can only look backwards and then use that to do your best crystal ball impression.
    I would disagree,  you cannot input your past time of usage data ino a compare app when comparing Agile because your pattern of usage would change dramatically when on Agile to make best use of the cheap slots, you don't know what energy you're going to use when until the prices are released at 4pm the previous day. Our previous tarrif usage bears no resemblence at all to our current patterns.

    I get what you are saying, but even with that taken into consideration, if past non-optimised usage patterns are comparable or cheaper with Agile, then once usage patterns are optimised for Agile, things should only improve (all else being equal). So one could consider the comparison apps as a non-optimised scenario.
    At least this is how I viewed switching between Cosy and Agile at the end of winter.

  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,538 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Interesting comments thank you. My starting point is where would switching to Agile take me now, as is, rather than in some fictional world of (daily) load shifting which might not be realistic. Octopus Compare should cope with this. If I can work out how to handle the SC's.


    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
  • laidbackgjr
    laidbackgjr Posts: 550 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
     Octopus Compare should cope with this. If I can work out how to handle the SC's.


    Octopus Compare includes sc's in it's calculations.
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,723 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Switched off the solar and have the washing machine and heat pump on and set the car charging. At 12.30 I'll have long electric shower whilst roasting a pork joint for dinner. Will I earn more than the standing charge by 3pm?

    Luckily, it isn't sunny, so I don't feel so bad about turning the solar off. Just have to make sure I don't forget to turn it back on this afternoon.
    I didn't go as far as switching off the solar but I did discharge the battery and do a bit of planning - so the immersion is on (and I'm about to have a lunchtime shower), battery is now almost charged, DW is on, oven is on, WM is on, and I washed down jackets on a cool wash before the plunge pricing, which are now in the TD getting fluffy again. I'm not sure I'll achieve a massive amount in terms of import given that the haze has gone and the sun is now shining!
  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,538 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
     Octopus Compare should cope with this. If I can work out how to handle the SC's.


    Octopus Compare includes sc's in it's calculations.
    Thanks for pointing this out
    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
  • Patrol
    Patrol Posts: 151 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Interesting comments thank you. My starting point is where would switching to Agile take me now, as is, rather than in some fictional world of (daily) load shifting which might not be realistic. Octopus Compare should cope with this. If I can work out how to handle the SC's.


    Not reading all the way back through this thread so apologies if already covered or you are not currently on Agile with a smart meter. Anyway, read on if relevant

    You could try  after registering and providing your Octopus API key, can then go into Tools > Tariff Comparison. Under Detailed Comparison select current tariff and the tariff you wish to check and, so far as I understand, it uses your actual use to show whether you would have been better or worse off and by how much. You can adjust this for different intervals (day, week, month, quarter, year)

    It also gives a table of smart / standard /fixed tariffs so you can see the wider perspective
  • Spoonie_Turtle
    Spoonie_Turtle Posts: 10,284 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Octopus Compare app does have a load shifting function as a paid-for (or free trial) feature.  I don't know about Octopriceapp.com

    But we're in the position of rarely load shifting apart from days like today, which falls into NedS's explanation (and we too are only really considering between Agile and Cosy). 
    [Although for Cosy one of the cheap slots is 1-4pm which lines up with when's generally cheap on Agile, and avoiding non-cooking energy-intensive appliance usage during the 4-7pm peak.]

    And for someone really wanting to be sure, load-shifting as if on Agile in advance is a good idea for them be able to do a like-for-like comparison with optimised usage patterns.
  • Chrysalis
    Chrysalis Posts: 4,701 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 27 April at 8:56PM
    Effician said:

    No real predictions available, you can only look backwards and then use that to do your best crystal ball impression.
    I would disagree,  you cannot input your past time of usage data ino a compare app when comparing Agile because your pattern of usage would change dramatically when on Agile to make best use of the cheap slots, you don't know what energy you're going to use when until the prices are released at 4pm the previous day. Our previous tarrif usage bears no resemblence at all to our current patterns.
    Yes it is a leap of faith jumping on to Agile & somewhat easier for folks coming from E7 as they are familiar with shifting usage but it's more a case of making it work rather than carrying on as normal.
    To make Agile work well requires extra effort  & planning but once used to it can become a lot easier & less stressful.
    As for prices going forward the next few months should be pretty good , grid demand is dropping from winter highs, the sun will shine/ the winds will blow & the gas futures are falling .

    Not necessarily, when I joined agile the 2nd time after leaving Tracker, my usage for the most part didnt change.
    In addition I ran my recent usage on Tracker through Agile, and even with no load shifting whatsoever, including some days oven used between 4-7pm, it was cheaper for my lifestyle.
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