Snug Octopus (Economy 7) Problems

vienna28

Hi Worlestone, thanks for your response!

After experimenting with the snug settings these past 3 nights I think what I say could possibly dissuade some in moving to snug.

First two nights I had overnight snug charging set for 4.5 hours.  First night my around 3kwh living room storage heater came on at 11:37pm, second night it came on at 12:07am.  Both weren't perfect and I purposely let both run until the end which was 6:37am.  Those extra 7 minutes at the end would have been at peak rate.  In the afternoon hour I put on my hot water but not my storage heater. 

Now this next part may dissuade some moving to snug.   Last night I set overnight charging for 3 hours and I think it worked almost exactly how Octopus energy initially intended.

You can see below the early data from the Bright app and my just below 3kwh storage heater first came on at 1:37am and then switched off at 4:37am. 

When I awoke around 5:45am I tried switching on my hot water but it wouldn't come on.  I tried again 30 minutes later and it also wouldn't come on.

So I guess choose the overnight snug settings carefully: so don't set snug charge settings to 0 hours or you wont be able to put on your storage heaters or hot water overnight. 👍

....

This is an heavily edited post because I had wrongly thought I might have gone into peak rate once my storage heater switched off at 4:37am. 

 

Swipe

Thanks for the update. It sounds like a complete nightmare.

Scot_39

Your hot water wouldn't come on if you had already had your 3 hr or 4.5 hr alcs window.

It exists to cap potential total consumption.

My heaters are almost always thermostat limited - others run them on higher settings continually and they could charge for the full hours available.

Why do you think you were paying day rate at 0430 am to 0630 ?

Don't Octopus produce graphs of rate vs time on their portal as posted above ?  Guessing thats why you say wait to tomorrow as not uploaded yet.

From their FAQs

"Snug Octopus is a smart tariff with peak and off-peak pricing. The electricity for your whole home will be charged at the off-peak rate of 9p/kWh:

• Between 00:30 and 06:30 each night

• Whenever your storage heater is charging on your smart schedule. This is based on the preferences you give us when you sign up

• During your daily one-hour afternoon boost. (This will help make sure your home is toasty in time for tea!)

The rest of the time, you'll be charged the day rate..."

I read that as 6 plus any extra overnight (like tge 1130 to 0030 above) plus afternoon at off peak  but may have been too trusting.

Are you sure Octopus actually billing you peak rate for the 0430 to 0630 slots.  

If you are right - you could say that might mean point 2 overrides 1 if don't take full window  - but wasn't what I expected.  And not as 1 early adaptor posted - based on ? - in the reddit linked thread above - who expected 6hrs off peak regardless of alcs.  And others there had set sub 6 hr timings and not reported day rate issue.

vienna28

Scot, thankfully I was wrong that I might have gone into peak rate after my 3 hour snug charging session ended at 4:37am.  So i've deleted my last post and edited my previous one. 

Here is the graph when I set snug settings to 3 hours charge overnight.  My storage heaters are over 30 years old and are usually operated by the on/off switch.  So that Octopus energy could control an old manual storage heater was to me pretty impressive.

This is the previous night when I had set snug settings to 4.5 hours.  It came on at 12:07am.  I suspect it wasn't completely accurate because it came on before 12:30am, the time off peak is meant to start.  The peak rate from 6:30 to 6:37am was because i purposely let the 4.5 hour charge run until it ended. 

Probably no more storage heaters on for months now.  The previous 3 days I had my living storage heater on so I could experiment with snug settings and by the end of it my living room was over 27C. 😰

Scot_39

Thanks for the check / clarification.

27C - I know you did it as an easy check on the tariff - but I'd be struggling at that heat even dressed normally - but I layer in winter - and switch my heating off or down if hit 17 - to keep my bills down.

AstuteSaverMan

I switched from Economy 7 to Snug Octopus a few days ago, and it's looking good so far.  I'm one of the lucky ones - My ALCS-controlled storage heaters only stay on for 2 minutes after the switch from cheap rate to peak rate.  Since my (ancient) storage heaters control their own intake with internal thermostats, I just leave the Snug settings on the maximum 6 hours - My storage heaters will know when they've had enough.  They will be off for the summer, but my immersion heater, washing machine and tumble dryer all have their own timeswitches set for the 00:30 to 06:30 cheap rate period, so I'll save an extra 30% using them on Snug Octopus rather than the previous Economy 7.  I'm interested to see that for both myself and vienna28, the "afternoon boost" was on about 4 pm to 5 pm, which is rather close to the evening peak which Octopus want people to avoid.  Like other people are finding, my ALCS is switching on about 11 pm until midnight, or 11:30 pm until 00:30 am (giving me an extra cheap period), and then off for a gap until 1 am (but still continuing the cheap rate for everything else from 00:30 am). And I still get the free weekly drink from Greggs!

Scot_39

AstuteSaverMan said:

I switched from Economy 7 to Snug Octopus a few days ago, and it's looking good so far.  I'm one of the lucky ones - My ALCS-controlled storage heaters only stay on for 2 minutes after the switch from cheap rate to peak rate.  ....

And I still get the free weekly drink from Greggs!

Can you remember when your meter switched before on e7.  Was it by any chance also 2 minutes behind regional preset ?

vienna28

To those on snug, who are at home, is your afternoon hour working today?

I've just tried and hot water won't come on.  My snug settings are on 6 hours.

So If others are also the same, they've either switched back to 3-4pm 👍 or it's off for the summer.  🥴

Scot_39

I wonder how regional the setting might be.

Whilst they are talking areas approaching nearly 30 tomorrow - other areas - are forecast to drop back into low teens - and in those areas many elderly and vulnerable - could still need heating.

vienna28

Well I'm in Lincolnshire and without heating my living room is 25C.  So you could be right.

Alternatively maybe it's only me with an issue.  Let's see what others say.