Yet another Octopus Tracker question...

benz1

I know a lot has already been discussed about Octopus Tracker but with the 7 July deadline looming, for those of us that can't get their heads around the complexities of energy tariffs, for an average family that won't be monitoring rates, and are unable to load shift, is it worth switching to Tracker? I don't think it's worth doing for a short term due to the exit fees so it would be a medium to long term commitment.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the newbie question. 

SJMALBA

Load shifting is not too much of an issue, but not monitoring the rates is. 

From the general info. you've given, IMO, Tracker probably isn't a suitable tariff for you.

BTW, does Tracker have exit fees, now? No mention of any on the 'Our Tariffs' page...

[Deleted User]

benz1 said:

I know a lot has already been discussed about Octopus Tracker but with the 7 July deadline looming, for those of us that can't get their heads around the complexities of energy tariffs, for an average family that won't be monitoring rates, and are unable to load shift, is it worth switching to Tracker? I don't think it's worth doing for a short term due to the exit fees so it would be a medium to long term commitment.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the newbie question. 

You are getting confused. Agile has a unit price that changes every 30 minutes so using energy when the unit cost is low will save you money. Tracker has a daily unit price so load shifting will not make any difference to your daily cost.

These types of tariffs can markedly reduce your annual electricity cost; however, Agile in particular does require buy in from all family members and monitoring of market trends.

Spoonie_Turtle

The main load shifting on Tracker would be doing certain higher usage things on cheaper days - such as laundry (especially if you use a tumble dryer) or running the dishwasher.

Though granted not everyone has even that level of flexibility due to family needs.  Just wasn't sure whether you meant load-shifting within a day (which is only relevant to Agile) or across days.

Alnat1

There is no exit fee for Tracker.

ic

benz1 said:

I don't think it's worth doing for a short term due to the exit fees so it would be a medium to long term commitment.

There's no exit fees on the tracker tariff.

https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs

What happens if I want to leave Tracker?

If you find that Tracker isn't right for you, you can change tariffs at any time in your account under ‘change my tariff’. You can also email hello@octopus.energy and we will move you to one of our other tariffs. This can take up to two weeks to be processed.Switching to another supplier will take their usual time. There are no exit fees on Tracker. After leaving, you'll need to wait 9 months before switching back to Tracker, because switching back and forth between Tracker and more typical tariffs (that require us to buy wholesale energy in advance) is costly.

SJMALBA

Spoonie_Turtle said:

The main load shifting on Tracker would be doing certain higher usage things on cheaper days - such as laundry (especially if you use a tumble dryer) or running the dishwasher.

Though granted not everyone has even that level of flexibility due to family needs.  Just wasn't sure whether you meant load-shifting within a day (which is only relevant to Agile) or across days.

Indeed - last Sunday, for example, would have been a good day to do as much 'electrically' as possible... with Tracker, however, they don't seem to crop up all that frequently?

[Deleted User]

Indeed - last Sunday, for example, would have been a good day to do as much 'electrically' as possible... with Tracker, however, they don't seem to crop up all that frequently?

People cannot live their lives hoping that a low cost day is just over the horizon. 

TheKDs

benz1 said:

I know a lot has already been discussed about Octopus Tracker but with the 7 July deadline looming, for those of us that can't get their heads around the complexities of energy tariffs, for an average family that won't be monitoring rates, and are unable to load shift, is it worth switching to Tracker? I don't think it's worth doing for a short term due to the exit fees so it would be a medium to long term commitment.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the newbie question. 

No exit fees but I intend to switch out before winter peaks hit if it makes sense to do so then. But that seems to be the biggest risk - paying double in winter OR fixing for 9 months on a high tariff. 

benz1

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, I thought I had read somewhere that there are fees of £75 for each fuel to leave. I think I am correct in saying that it may take up to two weeks to switch away from it and you can't go back on to it for nine months.

By being unable to shift load, I mean across days. We do several loads of washing a day and can't let it pile up for several days in the hope that the rate will come down. So basically we would just be using power as normal.

So far, one person has said that they don't think Tracker is a suitable tariff for me. Does anyone else have an opinion? Martin's article on Tracker says, "Octopus told us that over the last year, an average household would have saved about 4% compared with the new typical Price Cap figure of £2,074 a year". I guess this depends on the definition of an 'average' household (although in theory, if you use more power than the average household you should save more, right?), and obviously there is no guarantee that this saving will be the same moving forward. It does  concerns me that unit prices could double over the winter months but when averaged out over the year, is it worth the risk?

CSI_Yorkshire

benz1 said:

 is it worth the risk?

Nobody apart from you can answer that question.