Octopus Snug and clock issues

Rosie1001

looks like everyone on snug is getting same timings 

Rosie1001

Swipe said:

Parslee said:

I'm also having problem with Snug, my radiators have been turning on at 8pm for the last two weeks on Thursdays only, but last night (Tuesday) it happened again.  They turned on at 8pm, they were off at 11.55pm then on again about 40 minutes later but they were still on at 4am.  Twice Octopus have said they would sort it out but still it's happening and getting worse.  I've yet to ring them today again.

This is only a problem if you are being charged at peak rate when they come on. What does the Octopus app say?

It does charge in off peak , but it can push your daily costing up as it’s turning the heaters on for longer per day 

it’s not a issue for me , but some who is only wanting the hours they state will definitely see a difference in cost 

Ildhund

Rosie1001 said:

looks like everyone on snug is getting same timings 

Hello again Rosie 👋
That's a nice-looking chart (except I go cross-eyed trying to match times to bars!). However, it would be even more interesting for me if it showed kWh rather than £. I find it very difficult to visualize the change in usage when storage heaters are fired up - or perhaps the immersion heater, if that's the cause of the spike at ~05:30. Is it possible to see the same chart in kWh? 

Scot_39

Parslee said:

I'm also having problem with Snug, my radiators have been turning on at 8pm for the last two weeks on Thursdays only, but last night (Tuesday) it happened again.  They turned on at 8pm, they were off at 11.55pm then on again about 40 minutes later but they were still on at 4am.  Twice Octopus have said they would sort it out but still it's happening and getting worse.  I've yet to ring them today again.

Its not a fault but a feature.

Octopus can give cheap energy at any time outside core hrs.  Normally only an hour or so - the 11pm start examples are all outside core 0030 0630.

I asked in an earlier post - speculating not all would welcome the change.  If user portal changes to cap hours might stop this.  Upto 11 hrs in one 8pm example above - 10 overnight.  Not that most storage heaters are rated for 10 hrs - but many with some discharge overnight could take more than would in a 6 hr charge slot.

For understandable reasons - cost and also heaters at temp as go to bed - so warm nights, cold by following day time. 

There were a couple of users who had selected as little as 3 hrs overnight here and in other forums to cap costs.  They were seeing on offs in their half hourly use charts.  But afaik still got the full 6 hrs a 9p as promised.

And is there any other time target you can set - as per the original launch time publicity - for the end of those reduced hours.  So say 5 hrs or any sub 6 default overnight by 0630 end of core  (i oftrn though everyone would surely just select as late am as possible - so maybe it just defaults to it.  But there are early risers.)..

Does anyone know how quickly such a reduction kicks in, and how easy it is - or even if is possible - to ho back to max selected by Octopus in the portal if were to try a test - is that just selecting 6 overnight (or 7 if includes afternoon).again ? ?

You might want to check with Octopus if they can recommend a portal configuration not to have your heaters on for upto 11 hrs in cases of big core hour extensions one of the 8pm examples above.

They probably think most will welcome the extra cheap hours - perhaps not realising the potentially negative impacts - costs and heating profile - for many with older heaters.


Have you tried to see if reducing the hours from nominal 6 core overnight  to 5 or less might change the default behaviour ?

Said 5 in case default is 6 and only in hours - butvcan you set 6 to get core - and fully flexible is no selection  just default ? 

If you have old lossy nsh - you could if knew it was happening turn the input down or heater off at wall etc and it wouldnt charge, or only a little, stop, manually turn up or  lose heat and hopefully recharge early in am - but seems really random (*) so no chance of that.

(*) or is it yet another consequence of uk renewables policy  - as might be following excess wind generation capacity (the use it or lose it and pay wind generators - like Octopus itself - curtailment problem) so could see if correlated with their day ahead agile evening 1/2 hrly or tracker daily pricing.

But  doing so checking forecast or heater activation to react just in case every day / night a pain.

Rosie1001

The spike at 5.30 am would be me getting up , possibly shower or kettle etc 

Rosie1001

On th first pic from yesterday, all slots in green are when the storage heaters / off peak is active 

however all my homes electric goes over to the off peak , so not just the SH usage 

yesterday was a heavy day for me usage wise , washer and dryer were  on a lot 

Scot_39

Swipe said:

Parslee said:

I'm also having problem with Snug, my radiators have been turning on at 8pm for the last two weeks on Thursdays only, but last night (Tuesday) it happened again.  They turned on at 8pm, they were off at 11.55pm then on again about 40 minutes later but they were still on at 4am.  Twice Octopus have said they would sort it out but still it's happening and getting worse.  I've yet to ring them today again.

This is only a problem if you are being charged at peak rate when they come on. What does the Octopus app say?

Not that simple at all.

Cost - many heaters coild take more charge in say 10 hrs overnight as above 8pm charts spread over  10.5 hrs 8-0630)  - than 6 core or 7/7.5 hrs spread over 6 or 7.5 hrs (11-0630).  More kWh even at 9p is still more cost.

Heat profile - lossy nsh will get hottest late evening on lower input settings or early am on highest -  potentially very wasteful - and risk depletion by following afternoon and evening even when  boosted 1 hr at 3pm.

Potentially with a wait thst day back to 11pm or beyond before next night charge.  Again as demonstrated by charts above.

If was consistent and gradual users could adjust their settings or switch on off even to some extent - it isnt 8pm one day  back to 11pm the next.

Just as I have to to track weather to some extent.  My nsh seldom take more than 2-3 hrs charge on average a day across the 3 in a cold month. Controlled on low input setting for cost reasons. I really wouldn't want that ending late evening say at 10pm.  Even as a night owl up regularly beyond midnight.

Rosie1001

The later in the day boosts are wasted on me as we are early to bed to watch tv , up daft o’clock in the mornings 

but I’m not complaining, the costs are still less than I was paying with Edf per month and my home is a lot warmer 

Jackie62

QrizB said:

Jackie62 said:

... but now the clock, controlled by Octopus and our SMETS2 meter, has gone wrong!

Why do you think its gone wrong?

Jackie62 said:

The heating has been coming on at 8pm instead of 11pm, turning off at 11.30pm, then turning back on at Midnight!

Octopus can vary the hours as part of the Snug tariff. This isn't necessarily an error.

Jackie62 said:

It's been going on since 20th October. No doubt the next bill will be sky high because of this clock error and I expect full reimbursement.

You should have had at least one bill since the 20th of October. Have you checked it?

Your off-peak times have changed, but are you being charged at off-peak rates during those periods? Or have you been charged at peak rates?

The off peak times are different every day. Octopus have escalated the issue as a complaint. We only had off peak for 4 hours in 24 hours 2 days s ago. 

Jackie62

Netexporter said:

If you want the cheap rate at fixed times you need to be on the Cosy tariff, Snug is an intelligent tariff, so the cheap slots vary in their timing because they are based on the half-hourly wholesale price of electricity.

We are not getting our quota of cheap rate in any 24 hour period. Octopus have told us that there is a clock issue.