Tomato Energy (Electric Only Supplier) - Too Good To Be True ?

tlcgrantham

lohr500 said:

Definitely wrong.

As an example, the usage they show at 06:00 is actually the usage between 05:30 and 06:00, but they are applying the contract tou unit cost which is in place from 06:00 to 06:30.

This may not apply to all their customers' billing, but it certainly is the case for mine and it would seem many others.

Agreed its definitely wrong at least on MyWatts. I await my first bill to find out what time periods they will charge at lower rates. In the meantime I avoid as much as possible 5:30am - 6:00am, 11.00am - 11:30am and 10:00pm- 10:30pm, all should be at reduced rates, in case they’re charged at the 23pkwh rate.
          Despite the hassle I’m averaging less than 15pkwh so far, considerably better than and less hassle than if I’d stayed on Agile.

Bendo

Looking at my use in Octopus compare, if I'd been on Lifestyle since May rather than Octopus Agile, I'd be about £35 better off now. But I do like my home mini...

Newbie_John

Same here, nearly a month with TE, on the Lifestyle tariff with 5p 0-6am and 13p at 22-0, although I wish now I picked the one with shorter 5p period 1-6 and gained the 20:30-22:30 half priced slot instead, anyway..

Octopus IHD works fine, myWatts data since day one - and it's almost live (unlike Oct Agile), no bills from Octopus for Sept-Oct yet.

I did hear that some people experience billing issues with 5:30 slot so I'm avoiding it till I get my bill. 

SMET2 meter.

No EV, no battery, no gas. Averaging 12/kWh a day although I do warm up downstairs to 25°C at 5:30, so it's about 23°C when I wake up and then just delay heating as much as possible - sometimes not really needed after.

As for the previous Agile, the 23p unit rate at 6pm is like dream 😅

Telegraph_Sam

Bendo said:

Looking at my use in Octopus compare, if I'd been on Lifestyle since May rather than Octopus Agile, I'd be about £35 better off now. But I do like my home mini...

What precisely do you like about the Home Mini??

I suspect that I'm not the only Dec 23 Tracker that is sitting on the fence, waiting to see if Tomato get their systems and services sorted by the mid Feb 25 'deadline".

Bendo

Telegraph_Sam said:

Bendo said:

Looking at my use in Octopus compare, if I'd been on Lifestyle since May rather than Octopus Agile, I'd be about £35 better off now. But I do like my home mini...

What precisely do you like about the Home Mini??

The ability to see electric usagec in real time in home assistant and gas usage within about half an hour.  Makes it easy to monitor the heating cost etc.

debitcardmayhem

Bendo said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Bendo said:

Looking at my use in Octopus compare, if I'd been on Lifestyle since May rather than Octopus Agile, I'd be about £35 better off now. But I do like my home mini...

What precisely do you like about the Home Mini??

The ability to see electric usagec in real time in home assistant and gas usage within about half an hour.  Makes it easy to monitor the heating cost etc.

Sadly though it doesn’t show export, not that there is a lot of that this month☁️

EssexHebridean

Bendo said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Bendo said:

Looking at my use in Octopus compare, if I'd been on Lifestyle since May rather than Octopus Agile, I'd be about £35 better off now. But I do like my home mini...

What precisely do you like about the Home Mini??

The ability to see electric usagec in real time in home assistant and gas usage within about half an hour.  Makes it easy to monitor the heating cost etc.

For me it's the instant ability to see if something has been left on that shouldn't have been - and to get an idea of the power-hungriness of certain appliances which I wouldn't necessarily want to faff around putting through a Tapo plug. Oh - and being able to ascertain where some of the numerous spotlight bulbs in the house hadn't been changed for low energy ones came in handy, as well! 

It is also very useful being able to see the central heating costs within a timescale which means it's often still on at the time - it's made it far simpler to see, for example, exactly how little running it to an additional degree warmer on occasions is. 

bob2302

Telegraph_Sam said:

I thought that the advantage of Compare was that it gives tailor-made consumption comparisons based on my actual usage. Which other tools incl the Home Mini don't. Am I wrong?

The mini just provides data to be displayed in the main Octopus app. This gives you up to date information, but it hides the data from DCC, which is used for billing.  If something goes wrong with DCC access I don't think you would notice it.

The compare app uses DCC data and can show per 30 minute usage and two tariff prices per slot, so it's an alternate way of seeing usage.

I have Compare set up so it opens showing upcoming Agile prices - it's the best way of view this information IMO.

Qyburn

bob2302 said:

The mini just provides data to be displayed in the main Octopus app. This gives you up to date information, but it hides the data from DCC, which is used for billing.  If something goes wrong with DCC access I don't think you would notice it.

For me at least the Mini fills in daily data in the app, going back a month, but not the weekly or monthly views. 

EssexHebridean

Qyburn said:

bob2302 said:

The mini just provides data to be displayed in the main Octopus app. This gives you up to date information, but it hides the data from DCC, which is used for billing.  If something goes wrong with DCC access I don't think you would notice it.

For me at least the Mini fills in daily data in the app, going back a month, but not the weekly or monthly views. 

Yes - when my data stalled for a few days on being pulled, those days were missing in the weekly and monthly views until such time as the data was pulled and the gaps were filled, while the daily views appeared as normal.