EV tariff for hot tub (no ev)

CRAIGEMMA

Anyone use an EV tariff to heat their hot tubs at night.
I noticed on Octopus their wording was "Octopus Go is designed for those with ev" then goes on to day reserve right to move you to more suitable tariff etc.

I am obviously clinging to "designed" as a get around but I wondered if they actually do any checks..... 

powerful_Rogue

I've used Octopus Go and now Octopus Intelligent Go to top up the heat in my hottub every night for the past few years.

For Octopus Go they never used to check if you had an EV, things may have changed. Choice is yours whether to say you have one when you don't.

Qyburn

powerful_Rogue said:

.. For Octopus Go they never used to check if you had an EV, things may have changed. 

It hadn't as of early March.  The Ts&Cs say it's "intended" for these with an EV, but they didn't ask, let alone verify, when you select that tariff.

dunstonh

There is also the option for economy 7.

MWT

CRAIGEMMA said:

I am obviously clinging to "designed" as a get around but I wondered if they actually do any checks..... 

Very selective reading to be clinging on to that phrase, it isn't hard to read the rest of the web page for Go

.

Archerychick

I’m on go and I haven’t been asked to prove anything. Worst case you get kicked off the tariff 🤷‍♀️

Spoonie_Turtle

MWT said:

CRAIGEMMA said:

I am obviously clinging to "designed" as a get around but I wondered if they actually do any checks..... 

Very selective reading to be clinging on to that phrase, it isn't hard to read the rest of the web page for Go

.

The "designed for" and "if we find out" are actually in the T&Cs.  I expected then to say it requires an EV but it doesn't, what the OP wrote on their first post is all the T&Cs say.

The sign-up page certainly makes it sound like they check but from other comments it's possible they don't - really someone would have to go through the sign-up process to find out whether they're currently checking or not.

Later edit for clarity: I am NOT implying or advocating that anyone should sign up for a tariff they know they're not eligible for.  By 'someone would have to go through the sign-up process' I was intending that to mean someone eligible, in this case with an EV, but failed to communicate that.  My comment was more that I could see where the OP was coming from but I do not encourage people to knowingly sign up for tariffs for which they aren't eligible.

MWT

Spoonie_Turtle said:

The "designed for" and "if we find out" are actually in the T&Cs.  I expected then to say it requires an EV but it doesn't, what the OP wrote on their first post is all the T&Cs say.

Hard to misinterpret this bit in the T&C's though...

"If you sign up to our Octopus Go tariff but do not meet any of these eligibility criteria..."

Having an EV is one of the criteria to be eligible for the tariff, no EV, not eligible.

It remains disappointing that there is more debate about the risk of getting caught than about the lack of eligibility for the tariff in the first place...

QrizB

dunstonh said:

There is also the option for economy 7.

This seems the obvious choice. You'll get seven hours (not six, or five) of cheap-rate electricity with no wrangling over T&C.

Utility Warehouse even offer an E7 off-peak rate of around 5p/kWh in some parts of the country.

Another alternative would be to use a heat pump to heat your hot tub, and stick with single rate electricity.

lohr500

QrizB said:

dunstonh said:

There is also the option for economy 7.

This seems the obvious choice. You'll get seven hours (not six, or five) of cheap-rate electricity with no wrangling over T&C.

Utility Warehouse even offer an E7 off-peak rate of around 5p/kWh in some parts of the country.

Another alternative would be to use a heat pump to heat your hot tub, and stick with single rate electricity.

Yes, if you can load shift a high % of your usage to the 7 hour off peak window and/or have battery storage that will cover the peak hours, then the UW Eco 7 rate is hard to beat.

Their 33.3p per kWh peak rate is the killer, as is the s/c, but with the right mix of peak/off-peak usage it can be a winner. 

I'm scheduling the heating of our hot tub overnight, reheating the electric AGA, heating the domestic hot water and recharging the battery storage all on off-peak rates.

In the past 58 days since our new battery was commissioned, 99.6% of our 3327kWh electricity use has been on the 4.93p off peak rate, giving an average cost per kWh of 5.1p. Plus 65.4p per day s/c.
That included a couple of days where the new battery was not fully configured resulting in 16kW of avoidable peak usage.

Of course that isn't the whole picture as you have to consider the £7500 capital outlay for the Powerwall 3 battery!!!  

Spoonie_Turtle

MWT said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

The "designed for" and "if we find out" are actually in the T&Cs.  I expected then to say it requires an EV but it doesn't, what the OP wrote on their first post is all the T&Cs say.

Hard to misinterpret this bit in the T&C's though...

"If you sign up to our Octopus Go tariff but do not meet any of these eligibility criteria..."

Having an EV is one of the criteria to be eligible for the tariff, no EV, not eligible.

It remains disappointing that there is more debate about the risk of getting caught than about the lack of eligibility for the tariff in the first place...

I am absolutely not implying anyone join on false pretences, it just struck me as odd that it doesn't explicitly say 'you need XYZ' in quite the same way their other restricted-eligibility smart tariffs do.

So I can see where the OP was coming from. But, as I said, am not and will never advocate for someone joining a tariff they know they aren't eligible for.  I should have made that clear in my previous post though, so my apologies for not thinking to at the time.