Very pushy replacement energy meter calls

Marvel1

MP1995 said:

We have become a greener user of electricity since changing to Agile.

This benefits the world and also in turn benefits us with really cheap electricity like 10-12p kwh......pre price hike(s) prices.

I do find these anti smart meter posts funny but am happy for those that don't want one to carry on.

However......... do this somewhere else.........this is a money saving site and surely the money saving option is to get a smart meter?

Surely a smart meter is meant to do what it is suppose to do and send regular readings through out the day to save money in the first place.

MP1995

Marvel1 said:

MP1995 said:

We have become a greener user of electricity since changing to Agile.

This benefits the world and also in turn benefits us with really cheap electricity like 10-12p kwh......pre price hike(s) prices.

I do find these anti smart meter posts funny but am happy for those that don't want one to carry on.

However......... do this somewhere else.........this is a money saving site and surely the money saving option is to get a smart meter?

Surely a smart meter is meant to do what it is suppose to do and send regular readings through out the day to save money in the first place.

I completely agree with that with a few caveats for failure rate and of course investment to make sure as many as possible can communicate across the country.

However, when you have one fitted, I believe you should get cheaper rates even if it is not communicating as effectively as required. Might not be the exact savings of 30 min load shifting that some can do but once fitted it should be able to say take advantage of a tariff like tracker with manual readings sent if necessary.

Technology fails and needs regular updating and fixes, it's how that is handled bythe powers that be and that's not the suppliers it's the regulators and how they spend the standing charge.

Spoonie_Turtle

MP1995 said:

Marvel1 said:

MP1995 said:

We have become a greener user of electricity since changing to Agile.

This benefits the world and also in turn benefits us with really cheap electricity like 10-12p kwh......pre price hike(s) prices.

I do find these anti smart meter posts funny but am happy for those that don't want one to carry on.

However......... do this somewhere else.........this is a money saving site and surely the money saving option is to get a smart meter?

Surely a smart meter is meant to do what it is suppose to do and send regular readings through out the day to save money in the first place.

However, when you have one fitted, I believe you should get cheaper rates even if it is not communicating as effectively as required. Might not be the exact savings of 30 min load shifting that some can do but once fitted it should be able to say take advantage of a tariff like tracker with manual readings sent if necessary.

I believe that is almost the case for Tracker.  As long as it communicates with Octopus to start with, if it then fails they don't boot you off the tariff because half-hourly data isn't necessary to bill like it is for Agile. 

(And with them being consistently inconsistent, someone with a smart meter fitted that doesn't communicate from the start might think it worth asking to join Tracker anyway, on the off-chance an individual rep might agree with the principle of it … )

Netexporter

You'd need a meter reading, every day at midnight, for Tracker, I'd have thought.

As smart meters have to be able to hold a year's worth of data, I wouldn't have thought it was too difficult to have a meter reader go and download the data, say every six months, for non-communicating meters, in a similar way to industrial half-hourly meters.

MP1995

There are tracker users still out there without smart meters.

Some, I have read on other forums, just happy with a monthly average so monthly read.

Chrysalis

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MP1995 said:

Marvel1 said:

MP1995 said:

We have become a greener user of electricity since changing to Agile.

This benefits the world and also in turn benefits us with really cheap electricity like 10-12p kwh......pre price hike(s) prices.

I do find these anti smart meter posts funny but am happy for those that don't want one to carry on.

However......... do this somewhere else.........this is a money saving site and surely the money saving option is to get a smart meter?

Surely a smart meter is meant to do what it is suppose to do and send regular readings through out the day to save money in the first place.

However, when you have one fitted, I believe you should get cheaper rates even if it is not communicating as effectively as required. Might not be the exact savings of 30 min load shifting that some can do but once fitted it should be able to say take advantage of a tariff like tracker with manual readings sent if necessary.

I believe that is almost the case for Tracker.  As long as it communicates with Octopus to start with, if it then fails they don't boot you off the tariff because half-hourly data isn't necessary to bill like it is for Agile. 

(And with them being consistently inconsistent, someone with a smart meter fitted that doesn't communicate from the start might think it worth asking to join Tracker anyway, on the off-chance an individual rep might agree with the principle of it … )

I think even Agile has a fallback, I remember reading on the Octopus website that when 30 minute data is not available they will assume a certain usage spread based on common usage pattern.

Spoonie_Turtle

Chrysalis said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MP1995 said:

Marvel1 said:

MP1995 said:

We have become a greener user of electricity since changing to Agile.

This benefits the world and also in turn benefits us with really cheap electricity like 10-12p kwh......pre price hike(s) prices.

I do find these anti smart meter posts funny but am happy for those that don't want one to carry on.

However......... do this somewhere else.........this is a money saving site and surely the money saving option is to get a smart meter?

Surely a smart meter is meant to do what it is suppose to do and send regular readings through out the day to save money in the first place.

However, when you have one fitted, I believe you should get cheaper rates even if it is not communicating as effectively as required. Might not be the exact savings of 30 min load shifting that some can do but once fitted it should be able to say take advantage of a tariff like tracker with manual readings sent if necessary.

I believe that is almost the case for Tracker.  As long as it communicates with Octopus to start with, if it then fails they don't boot you off the tariff because half-hourly data isn't necessary to bill like it is for Agile. 

(And with them being consistently inconsistent, someone with a smart meter fitted that doesn't communicate from the start might think it worth asking to join Tracker anyway, on the off-chance an individual rep might agree with the principle of it … )

I think even Agile has a fallback, I remember reading on the Octopus website that when 30 minute data is not available they will assume a certain usage spread based on common usage pattern.

As far as I'm aware the fallback for Agile is billing based on the SVT.  What you describe sounds like what they do for Tracker, using an industry formula to apportion usage across the days between readings.

prowla

I took a look at Octopus' Agile offering and they say:

Agile Octopus is one of our innovative beta smart tariffs, helping bring cheaper and greener power to all our customers, but is directly impacted by wholesale market volatility.

Agile prices can spike up to 100 p/kWh any time - although a typical household in Winter '22-'23 paid around 35 p/kWh average.

This tariff is best suited to customers who can shift large amounts of their energy use to avoid these expensive peaks, often by using smart home technologies like solar and batteries.

That 35p/kWh dosn't seem very attractive?

Also, I don't have a battery, so couldn't do that shift to charge it during cheaper times.

Netexporter

prowla said:

I took a look at Octopus' Agile offering and they say:

Agile Octopus is one of our innovative beta smart tariffs, helping bring cheaper and greener power to all our customers, but is directly impacted by wholesale market volatility.

Agile prices can spike up to 100 p/kWh any time - although a typical household in Winter '22-'23 paid around 35 p/kWh average.

This tariff is best suited to customers who can shift large amounts of their energy use to avoid these expensive peaks, often by using smart home technologies like solar and batteries.

That 35p/kWh dosn't seem very attractive?

Also, I don't have a battery, so couldn't do that shift to charge it during cheaper times.

You just minimise your usage between 16:00 and 19:00. I don't have a battery or solar but I always pay far less than the SVT.

BarelySentientAI

prowla said:

I took a look at Octopus' Agile offering and they say:

Agile Octopus is one of our innovative beta smart tariffs, helping bring cheaper and greener power to all our customers, but is directly impacted by wholesale market volatility.

Agile prices can spike up to 100 p/kWh any time - although a typical household in Winter '22-'23 paid around 35 p/kWh average.

This tariff is best suited to customers who can shift large amounts of their energy use to avoid these expensive peaks, often by using smart home technologies like solar and batteries.

That 35p/kWh dosn't seem very attractive?

Also, I don't have a battery, so couldn't do that shift to charge it during cheaper times.

The OFGEM price cap at that time was between 33.7p and 38.3p depending on region, so it was still not expensive.