Octopus Agile

NedS

Bendo said:

Just need to work out whether to fully take advantage of the lengthy plunge tomorrow and crack the heating on or leave it as I know of it goes on, the missus will be having it on every day...

Tell her you are just testing it for the day, pre-winter. The last thing you'd want is to crank the heating on for the first time in October and find out it's not working. Better to test and fix any fault now. It's all in the way you sell it

Bendo

NedS said:

Bendo said:

Just need to work out whether to fully take advantage of the lengthy plunge tomorrow and crack the heating on or leave it as I know of it goes on, the missus will be having it on every day...

Tell her you are just testing it for the day, pre-winter. The last thing you'd want is to crank the heating on for the first time in October and find out it's not working. Better to test and fix any fault now. It's all in the way you sell it

Oh that won't work. She feels the cold more than most with her fibro so I know if  I put it on,  she will adapt to that heat and want it on all the time. Safer to leave it off.

The plunge pricing wasn't as good as some of the apps were forecasting anyway so enough negative pricing to get the thermal store as hot as it will go and avoid using gas for the next few days but not enough to get some pay back from running the heating. Yes I could heat the house for nothing but it will deff cost me more in the long run.

Telegraph_Sam

I use Octopus Compare to evaluate my 14 month fix against Agile. I have found almost without exception that Agile performs better in the short to medium term (yesterday, 1 week, 1 month) but in the 12 month view the 14 month fix is cheaper. This would be quite credible if for a limited period but this contradiction seems to be permanent.  It is not a confidence building measure in Compare much as I appreciate the concept.  I wonder if anyone else has had this phenomenon.

northernstar007

left agile due to there high daily charge dosnt cover the higher rates in winter and avoiding the 4-7 slots
i was paying £20 per month now £27 per month with no higher costs with time tariff

Telegraph_Sam

So you moved to where?

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

I use Octopus Compare to evaluate my 14 month fix against Agile. I have found almost without exception that Agile performs better in the short to medium term (yesterday, 1 week, 1 month) but in the 12 month view the 14 month fix is cheaper. This would be quite credible if for a limited period but this contradiction seems to be permanent.  It is not a confidence building measure in Compare much as I appreciate the concept.  I wonder if anyone else has had this phenomenon.

Should come as no surprise as wholesale prices were pretty horrific at the beginning of this year. Comes back to what I've been saying for months, it's best to change your tariff to suit the seasons/conditions. For most of the year you can save with Agile, but there are periods where it makes sense to jump ship for a while. Since you can switch to another Octopus tariff immediately, the spikes that reverse the trend can be avoided.

Telegraph_Sam

That is what I have done = switch to the 14 month fix though I would not be confident in pre-guessing the market going forward. But that does not help to explain why I see such a pronounced and enduring contradiction between the short / medium reports vs the longer 12 month figures.

Slinky

We've got solar and batteries. I switched from Agile earlier in the year to Economy 7 which gave me 7 hours overnight at just under 13p, if I needed it, (which with the great weather this year I haven't really used), and about 28p for the rest of the time. The only time we ever use a bit of grid electric at the moment is cooking during 4-7pm, so I'm getting that at less than what the peak Agile would be at that time. We've used less than 10kWh of grid electric each month since April. I'll review as we go into Winter whether to switch back to Agile again.

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

That is what I have done = switch to the 14 month fix though I would not be confident in pre-guessing the market going forward. But that does not help to explain why I see such a pronounced and enduring contradiction between the short / medium reports vs the longer 12 month figures.

It's simple. The short and medium reports do not include Dec 2024-Jan 2025, whereas the 12 month figures do.

Bendo

And of course absolutely noone with any sense stayed on Agile at that point given you only have to wait 28 days to switch back, and they don't even seem to enforce that.