Cheapest off-peak electricity prices

rowan_bradley

I have just had a battery system installed. I intended this to be principally used to store excess solar generation and use it when the sun is not shining. But I'm wondering whether it can also be charged up using cheaper off-peak electricty. It seems to me that I should be able to fully charge the battery using the cheapest power that I can find, and use it during the rest of the day. and thereby get most or all the electricity I need at the cheap rate. This seems particularly relevant during the winter when there is little sun.I'm therefore trying to find out who has the cheapest available rate for off peak. I see that Octopus has a tarriff that offers off peak during the night at 5p per unit. Is this the cheapest available? Does anyone offer cheaper? Of course it also depends on the standing charge. If this is excessive it will negate the savings on units.

Thank you - Rowan

QrizB

The absolute cheapest off-peak electricity is on Octopus Agile, where they occasionally pay you to take electricity off their hands (often called "plunge pricing"). But that's uncommon.

Octopus has other tariffs with cheap off-peak periods but they may have other qualifying factors - eg. owning an electric vehicle.

I don't think any of these tariffs are as cheap as 5p/kWh at present, although I may be wrong.

There are some useful charts at https://energy-stats.uk/ that let you compare Octopus smart tariffs available in each UK electricity supply region.

bristolleedsfan

No Octopus 5p kWh off peak tariffs, might be worth a look for more rate certainty than agile.

https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/

Spoonie_Turtle

rowan_bradley said:

Of course it also depends on the standing charge. If this is excessive it will negate the savings on units.

Standing charge is likely to be pretty much the same between suppliers, unless any whack them up on fixed tariffs.

michaels

Try looking for E7 tariffs

rowan_bradley

michaels said:

Try looking for E7 tariffs

All the E7 tarriffs are much more expensive than Octopus's flexible tarriffs (which can be as low as 7.5p/kWh at nighttime). Do you know of any E7 tarriffs that can beat this?

Rowan

rowan_bradley

bristolleedsfan said:

No Octopus 5p kWh off peak tariffs, might be worth a look for more rate certainty than agile.

I don't need rate certainty, I just need the cheapest rate I can get on average over the year. I will need about 2-3  hours to fully charge my battery. I can write some software to download the rates every day and choose the cheapest timeslots to charge my battery (if the rates change every day, which they do for some of the Octopus taffiffs).

Rowan

Swipe

If you live in the East of England I believe EDF has the cheapest night rate on E7

Petriix

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

dunstonh

rowan_bradley said:

michaels said:

Try looking for E7 tariffs

All the E7 tarriffs are much more expensive than Octopus's flexible tarriffs (which can be as low as 7.5p/kWh at nighttime). Do you know of any E7 tarriffs that can beat this?

Rowan

East of England EDF is 8p before VAT.   Its doing me nicely.    That is two quarters of their current off-peak bias.  We should know if its going to continue in a few weeks when the new rates are published.

michaels

dunstonh said:

rowan_bradley said:

michaels said:

Try looking for E7 tariffs

All the E7 tarriffs are much more expensive than Octopus's flexible tarriffs (which can be as low as 7.5p/kWh at nighttime). Do you know of any E7 tarriffs that can beat this?

Rowan

East of England EDF is 8p before VAT.   Its doing me nicely.    That is two quarters of their current off-peak bias.  We should know if its going to continue in a few weeks when the new rates are published.

E7 also gives 7 hours compared to the 4(?) on Octopus go and doesn't require an EV and as mentioned of late in some regions has had a cheaper night rate.