Octopus Cosy 6 actually ready for market?

Reed_Richards

smallblueplanet said:

Reed_Richards said:

So you end up with a less-efficient-than-usual heat pump system and you are tied into Octopus because only they are supplying you with electricity at a sufficiently low tariff to make the system cost-competitive with a gas boiler?  If Octopus can supply the electricity at a price that still makes them money it would be a win for Octopus, gaining a whole slew of customers that can't go anywhere else.   

Even if true, what stops other suppliers competing with Octopus' low HP tariff? Profit? 

Nothing whatsoever (except possibly profit), but I don't see other suppliers rushing in to compete with other of the fancy Octopus tariffs.

Bendo

wrf12345 said:

Bear in mind, new Labour govn may be climate warming crazy and tax gas out of existence, either directly or by increasing council tax for non-heat-pump homes, which if it ramps up demand will perhaps triple rather than double actual costs...

Bear in mind we might be invaded by aliens in a few weeks too.

stripling

wrf12345 said:

Bear in mind, new Labour govn may be climate warming crazy and tax gas out of existence, either directly or by increasing council tax for non-heat-pump homes, which if it ramps up demand will perhaps triple rather than double actual costs...

Multiple sources have said that re-loading levies onto gas and removing them from electricity are on the policy table - not as a result of electoral choices but because of Ofgem consultations. It's a no-brainer really.... 

wrf12345

"Multiple sources have said that re-loading levies onto gas and removing them from electricity are on the policy table - not as a result of electoral choices but because of Ofgem consultations. It's a no-brainer really.... "

When electric s/charges doubled it coincided with Ukraine crisis and the energy companies going bust and the money was used to prop up the industry, if it had been put on gas it would have given people the option to walk away from that utility, but now that exec bonuses are safe they might roll the dice. Unfortunately, both installation and maintenance costs of heat pumps have been ramped up due to all the "free" govn money washing around the system but if the new govn goes for free install of solar/heat pump then most people will go for it, I guess.

An interesting calculation is whether it is better to site batteries in individual homes (outside I guess, for safety/space) or have battery farms, the former being much safer from a security point of view as both solar and battery farms would be easy to take out, but how they would react with the grid is beyond me in terms of minimising upgrades. So there might be the possibility of zero s/c if you let the energy companies site large battery containers on your land, the payback would be cheaper peak rates for all. Just a thought.

DougMLancs

Looks like Octopus have updated their Cosy tariff ready for the Cosy 6 hitting the market. An extra cheap slot and a drop in the off peak rate. This’ll be great when I’m back on it in November!

Cosy 11.099p;

04:00-07:00

13:00-16:00

 22:00-00:00

Peak Rate (16:00-19:00): 32.843p

Day Rate: 22.65p (for the rest of the day)

stripling

DougMLancs said:

Looks like Octopus have updated their Cosy tariff ready for the Cosy 6 hitting the market. An extra cheap slot and a drop in the off peak rate. This’ll be great when I’m back on it in November!

Cosy 11.099p;

04:00-07:00

13:00-16:00

 22:00-00:00

Peak Rate (16:00-19:00): 32.843p

Day Rate: 22.65p (for the rest of the day)

But what's the standing charge now?
On the 'April 24 Tracker' the standing charge is higher than the SVR. Considering Octopus are promoting electrical heating via heat pumps, smart homes and publicly dissing the SCs it's quite outrageous that they load their own 'smart tariff' with such high standing charges. 

DougMLancs

The standing charge is the same as all the other Octopus tariffs (including Tracker) which is 4% below the price cap

stripling

Thanks for that.
Tracker April 24 for some people is higher than the price cap. The electric SC for the SWest is 65.13 which is extortionate. It's the same for Cosy. 🙁
None of the 'smart tariffs' have to conform to the price cap. They can charge what they like. 

DougMLancs

But the price cap standing charge for the SW is 67.21p so you’re better off than elsewhere. As you’ve pointed out, Octopus are against standing charges but until some changes are made at a national level then they are they are- we’re using the infrastructure after all. You could argue some parts of the SC like funding insulation measures should be from general taxation but we’re still paying it one way or another.

wrf12345

if you fixed before April (and some of the tariffs are 12 month with no exit fees like Agile) then you are on the older, cheaper s/c, which may be causing the confusion when comparing with more recent tariffs... I believe British Gas have a low s/c tariff if you don't mind the constant hassles of attempts at increasing the DD and no variable DD's