Octopus tracker - good for me?

alanwsg

Hi there,

I've recently been blessed with smart meters so I'm now able to switch their tracker tariff.

I hadn't really looked into it before as I thought it was 'time of day' type pricing e.g. where you run things like your tumble dryer overnight to use cheap energy. But after a quick look at their FAQ's it seems to be just a cheaper rate all around, albeit at the mercy of daily changing wholesale prices.

Things is, I have somewhat unusual electricity usage - higher than average and pretty constant at around 140kWh/week all year - around 7500kWh/year. (It's fish. Marine reef tanks. And a koi pond. They need keeping warm and lit and pumps running etc.)

Gas usage is much more normal - hardly anything in summer - lots more in winter, total around 14000kWh/year.

I'm quite surprised by the numbers.
Are the tracker rates a good idea for me or am I missing something?
If it all goes wrong, I won't be bankrupted or anything, just very annoyed.

MultiFuelBurner

Last 30 days in the east of England. Have a look at gastracker.uk and put your region an have a look 

Likelihood with your usage you will save a fortune.

masonic

There's always some risk of expensive days, but so far this winter it has consistently been cheaper than Flexible. Unless you are very unlucky you will build up savings which will offset any expensive periods.

Newbie_John

In the last year the price has been between 14p (half the price) and 90p (4 times more expensive).
Mostly though 25% cheaper.

Saying that in the last 6 months it was always cheaper than standard rate.

So up to you, nobody can predict what's next - but if nothing strange happens, wars etc. then it should stay about 25% cheaper per average.

alanwsg

OK, thanks.

How does the billing work?

At the moment I pay by variable DD, so I pay my full bill each month.

I assume that'll keep happening, but what do you see on the bill, do they show the average price for each fuel over the period, or do they somehow show the price for individual days?

QrizB

alanwsg said:

How does the billing work?
At the moment I pay by variable DD, so I pay my full bill each month.

Yes, you will be billed monthly and can pay by variable DD.

alanwsg said:

I assume that'll keep happening, but what do you see on the bill, do they show the average price for each fuel over the period, or do they somehow show the price for individual days?

The first page of the bill is a summary, showing how many kWh you've used for the period and the average price.

Later pages include a day-by-day calculation showing your use and price for each day of the period. There are some examples on the forum; if I can find them, I'll add links here.

Edit to add: An example of an electricity bill can be seen here.

Second edit: and examples of both gas and electricity can be seen here.

alanwsg

OK, thanks a lot. I think I'll make the switch.

alanwsg

Oh well - that was easy, typed in the request yesterday evening, got an Email within 30 mins - "Do you really want to do that?" - replied straight away and and this morning I'm on Octopus tracker.

Another question (I know there's a 'Tracker' thread but .. 390 pages!!)
Does the IHD "know" the current rate I'm paying and display the correct price. Or what?

MultiFuelBurner

No the IHD won't change everyday you have to look that up or get an automatic email from gastracker.uk for example at just gone 11am each day for electricity and later for gas

knight123

As the above poster has said, gastracker is great for keeping updated.

You can also use emoncms.org/ukgrid as a rough guide for whether prices will go up or down slightly in the days ahead - it gives a regularly updated forecast of winder and solar generation, plus demand. There are a lot of factors involved in the price, but this is generally a good guide.

la531983

Newbie_John said:

In the last year the price has been between 14p (half the price) and 90p (4 times more expensive).
Mostly though 25% cheaper.

Saying that in the last 6 months it was always cheaper than standard rate.

So up to you, nobody can predict what's next - but if nothing strange happens, wars etc. then it should stay about 25% cheaper per average.

Not entirely correct - there were a couple of days in July where it went to 8p