Octopus 3 hour Free Electricity Session tomorrow

Chrysalis

What is much better is this, than these free over baseline schemes.

MattMattMattUK

Chrysalis said:

What is much better is this, than these free over baseline schemes.

Agile is great for anyone with a battery (and ideally solar, heat pump and EV) but without a battery it can involve having to hugely limit energy use at peak times which is not suitable for everyone, especially those with children. The free three hours is open to everyone regardless of tariff, it is simple for anyone to understand, yes most people understand it is usage over their baseline, and is a nice bonus for customers who get free electricity. 

greenbee

MattMattMattUK said:

Chrysalis said:

What is much better is this, than these free over baseline schemes.

Agile is great for anyone with a battery (and ideally solar, heat pump and EV) but without a battery it can involve having to hugely limit energy use at peak times which is not suitable for everyone, especially those with children. The free three hours is open to everyone regardless of tariff, it is simple for anyone to understand, yes most people understand it is usage over their baseline, and is a nice bonus for customers who get free electricity. 

And while Agile prices were low during the ‘free three hours’, I’m still happy that I’ll be getting a refund in the approx 25p it would have cost me during that period.

QrizB

I was out of the house and I hadn't fully briefed Mrs QrizB but nevertheless our EV was plugged in for all three hours so we should be getting a £1.50-ish credit once Octopus crunch the numbers (21kWh at 7p/kWh).

Qyburn

Agile would have cost me £10 more over the past month.  That's before any Free Energy credit. Accepted that my usage pattern is customised for "Go" and not for Agile, but it generally comes in at just under 10p/kWh.

Qyburn

Just for fun I had a quick look and there were a few days in October with even lower Agile pricing than yesterday, I think the cheapest was ..



But you need a way to ride out the expensive days and times like ..



Not doubting it can be done but I think you need more complicated automation, and possibly more battery capacity to ride out days where there's simply no cheap time to top up.

MattMattMattUK

Qyburn said:

Just for fun I had a quick look and there were a few days in October with even lower Agile pricing than yesterday, I think the cheapest was ..



But you need a way to ride out the expensive days and times like ..



Not doubting it can be done but I think you need more complicated automation, and possibly more battery capacity to ride out days where there's simply no cheap time to top up.

It is interesting because the one person I know who is on Agile has 20kW solar install and 60kWh of battery, installed in spring 2024 and he has been paid for his electricity in every month since. Others I know with smaller installs and less battery have worked out the numbers and found that IOG worked out best for them because they always had the cheap overnight rate to charge their EV and home batteries. 

born_again

Looking back at @ 5 Oct I used 7.57kWh & received 53p.
Every one where car EV has been on charge has seen 50p+ received. Not bad, when in 99.9% of cases It would have charged @ 7p anyway.

Normal day rate for me on IOG is 27.88p kWh

Spoonie_Turtle

We have a heat pump and no other green tech (solar, battery, EV, etc.) and Agile has worked out cheapest for us from the available tariffs, even on the expensive days (so far).  I think that's the key though, no EV tariff is open to us and we can't consistently benefit from very cheap overnight electricity such as Economy 7 or similar.  And without solar, we do benefit from the cheaper energy in the middle of the day from Agile.

The second cheapest overall for us is Cosy, although potentially some cheaper flat rate tariff from the likes of Fuse aren't too far off as parts of our routines that can't be moved don't fit neatly into the Cosy off-peak periods.

greenbee

MattMattMattUK said:

Qyburn said:

Just for fun I had a quick look and there were a few days in October with even lower Agile pricing than yesterday, I think the cheapest was ..



But you need a way to ride out the expensive days and times like ..



Not doubting it can be done but I think you need more complicated automation, and possibly more battery capacity to ride out days where there's simply no cheap time to top up.

It is interesting because the one person I know who is on Agile has 20kW solar install and 60kWh of battery, installed in spring 2024 and he has been paid for his electricity in every month since. Others I know with smaller installs and less battery have worked out the numbers and found that IOG worked out best for them because they always had the cheap overnight rate to charge their EV and home batteries. 

I have 12kW solar (but due to orientation/shading don't generate much over 9kW at any one time) and 10kWh of battery. 14 south-facing panels were installed in August 2024, and the rest (6 south-facing but right next door to a wood on the east; 9 west-facing) in April this year. Since April I've been paid for electricity every month - I'll be interested to see the difference this winter to last. 

No EV, so I'm not eligible for EV tariffs. Agile would work better if I could automate it, but I don't currently want to get distracted by trying to get that done. However, it does seem to be the best option for me as long as I keep an eye on it. I know I'm not optimising the export/import options, and I could make better use of negative pricing, but it does mean I can reduce my use of oil for heating outside days where there is significant solar generation, and that's my primary goal given we have a large house and a very small oil tank!