Octopus Agile vs Tracker vs Go

tlcgrantham

Tracker and Agile at record lows tomorrow.

Pat38493

tastyhog said:

Download the octopus compare app and providing you have a smart meter you can compare your actual usage between different tariffs to see if you'd need to change the way you use things to make a saving, you'll also see a breakdown of average unit rate for the day / week etc, I'm often under the tracker rate, but sometime 5 - 10p above it

How reliable is this Octopus compare app?  I only have a week worth of data so far, but it's telling me that during the first week my electricity would have been more than 40% cheaper on Agile, and about 30% cheaper on Tracker, than on Go.  That would indeed be a significant saving if it was repeated for most of a year.

(I didn't use the EV much this last week so it was probably only charged by about 20KW in the whole week).

QrizB

Pat38493 said:

tastyhog said:

Download the octopus compare app and providing you have a smart meter you can compare your actual usage between different tariffs to see if you'd need to change the way you use things to make a saving, you'll also see a breakdown of average unit rate for the day / week etc, I'm often under the tracker rate, but sometime 5 - 10p above it

How reliable is this Octopus compare app?

I've no reason to doubt the analysis, if that's what you mean.

Pat38493 said:

I only have a week worth of data so far, but it's telling me that during the first week my electricity would have been more than 40% cheaper on Agile, and about 30% cheaper on Tracker, than on Go.  That would indeed be a significant saving if it was repeated for most of a year.

One swallow doesn't make a summer, and one week's data doesn't make a compelling case to switch. Electricity was better-than-free on Agile for much of yesterday, but that's the longest sustained period of plunge pricing I've ever seen. More common has been to get two or three hours of plunge pricing, three or four times a year.

tastyhog

Pat38493 said:

tastyhog said:

Download the octopus compare app and providing you have a smart meter you can compare your actual usage between different tariffs to see if you'd need to change the way you use things to make a saving, you'll also see a breakdown of average unit rate for the day / week etc, I'm often under the tracker rate, but sometime 5 - 10p above it

How reliable is this Octopus compare app?  I only have a week worth of data so far, but it's telling me that during the first week my electricity would have been more than 40% cheaper on Agile, and about 30% cheaper on Tracker, than on Go.  That would indeed be a significant saving if it was repeated for most of a year.

(I didn't use the EV much this last week so it was probably only charged by about 20KW in the whole week).

It just takes your energy consumption and gets the rates, so its as accurate as it can be, to compare tariffs. 

When I first swapped to agile I got about a 30% saving, because the average agile rate for my use ended up being around 20p a kw

You'd probably use a lot out of the peak time for agile so it would be cheaper than go that has a higher daytime rate, and a low rate for 4 - 6 hours overnight.

And it's probably showing cheaper than tracker because yesterday there was a about 8 hours of negative prices during the day, so would skew the numbers a bit, but agile is normally around the tracker rate or a bit lower if you don't use high consumption stuff at a peak rate.

As you have an electric car you should do your sums to compare the night go rate and a low day / night rate on agile, just because an EV is probably the thing that'll make one or the other tariff cheaper for you, an extra 5p more than the go night rate can add up if you're charging storage heaters or charging and EV

tlcgrantham

 I’ve just had my bill for my 1st month on Agile. I used 312kw and paid £45.74.   On Tracker this would have been £60.27.   My previous tariff was Go Faster and would have cost £44.33.  Should I have been on the SVT Flexible tariff I would have paid just over £110.00. 

        However I have applied for the Tracker tariff as most days it was cheapest for us and doesn’t involve so much load shifting or rely on price plunges to be profitable. 

BeerSavesMoney

There’s an App I use which I’ve found very useful called “Octopus Watch”, I’m using an iPhone/iOS so not sure on availability on Android.

Within the settings there’s an option to compare Agile vs Go, it might be useful for you. 

[Deleted User]

BeerSavesMoney said:

There’s an App I use which I’ve found very useful called “Octopus Watch”, I’m using an iPhone/iOS so not sure on availability on Android.

Within the settings there’s an option to compare Agile vs Go, it might be useful for you. 

Worth bearing in mind that,  unlike price comparison website comparisons, the result is achieved by looking into the rear view mirror. Agile, say, may have been cheaper for the past 6 months but there is no guarantee that it will be cheaper for the following 6 months. Moreover, Tracker and Agile react to World events. Putin’s recent decision to pull out of the Ukraine wheat export agreement caused wholesale prices to rise by 8.5% in a day.

BeerSavesMoney

Good point @[Deleted User]

Agile isn’t for everyone, we don’t know what the future costs will be. A tariff with fixed unit rates might be more suitable for their needs.

tlcgrantham

Thanks very much I’ve downloaded Octopus Watch and it’s really helpful🤗

Pat38493

Are you allowed to be on Tracker for gas and Agile for Electric or do you have to be all in with Tracker?