Should decent off-peak electricity rates be available to everyone, not just EV owners?

shootinglight

I’ve recently been looking into energy tariffs while considering a home battery and possibly solar, and I’ve hit something that doesn’t quite sit right.

From what I’ve read, only around 55% of UK households have a driveway — which effectively means access to an EV charger, and in turn, access to some of the best off-peak electricity tariffs (often around 7–9p/kWh overnight).

Those rates aren’t just useful for EV charging — they can be used for everything: running appliances, heating water, charging batteries, etc.

Out of curiosity, I asked Octopus Energy why similar off-peak rates aren’t more widely available to people without EVs who are still willing to shift their usage overnight. Their response was:

“It makes sense for us to offer lower rates to electric vehicle owners because charging an EV on a standard tariff would be costly for them.”

Which is fair('ish) — but it does raise a question.

Why isn’t the same opportunity available to households who are trying to reduce their bills by changing their behaviour? Things like running dishwashers, washing machines, or immersion heaters overnight could make a big difference if cheaper rates were accessible.

At the moment, it feels like you’re effectively locked out of those tariffs unless you own an EV (and have somewhere to charge it), which excludes a large portion of households — particularly those without off-street parking.

Maybe there are wider factors at play (grid demand balancing, government incentives, supplier risk, etc.), but from a consumer point of view it seems like encouraging off-peak usage across the board would benefit both households and the grid.

Would be really interested to hear others’ thoughts — especially if I’m missing something.

born_again

Economy 7

Which has been available for decades.

shootinglight

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979117#Comment_81979117

Indeed, but nowhere near what you get if you have an EV and there seems to be quite a process to go through to even be considered. That has been my experience with Octopus.

Alnat1

Octopus have the Agile tariff open to everyone, so you could choose the cheapest times to run your appliances. Electricity is priced in 30 minute blocks and those with a battery (with or without solar) can choose the cheapest times to program the battery to charge. Worked well for me before we had the heat pump and switched to Cosy tariff

Scot_39

There are plenty of other tariffs available (including at least in past some EV tariffs where they dont actually recquire an actual EV - although many of the smartest ones do as some actually rely on the car's own charge control) that offer low off peak overnight rates for shifting other loads.

From old style E7 - to many of the smart half hourly billed TOU - think Octopus Cosy, EDF FreePhase (two versions) and EOn Next Smart Saver amongst those on offer from the big 6 - and no doubt others elsewhere too

EOn specifcially reference "load shifting" for theirs in their FAQ - to justify it coming with just 3 hrs cheap overnight - which EOn say they chose for domestic appliances - like say a mashine wash or tumble dry cycle etc and allowing them to set an attractive super off peak rate.

If your willing to roll with the wholesale market - EDF's Freephase dynamic is a sort of mashup of Octopus's daily tracker and half hourly agile pricing - banded into 3 main zones - but also occassionally from users posts in the thread here - apparently offering a couple of hours - on sunny breezy days given glut of solar and wind then available - at 0p/kWh typically in the middle of the day. Theres a regularly updated thread on users prices on that one.

And then theirs Agile Octopus wholesale tracker itself - which recently has paid users 3-4p / kWh at certain hours - if your willing to monitor and adjust patterns around it. Again see its user's thread for examples.

In fact without a year round high EV charge - EV tariffs may not in fact suit everyone - as like E7 off peak overnight - they also can come with daytime increased rates - whers some of the smart tariffs for most of the day - normally excluding say peak 4-7pm - come with cheaper daytime rates than the old E7 style - in some cases cheaper than SR.

Get some quotes - and have a look at not only the bait of the "cheapest night rate" EV tariffs - but also the price being asked to balance the rest of the time - versus some of the other TOU deals - and try guestmating costs on your typical day time use profile.

QrizB

Indeed, but nowhere near what you get if you have an EV

Some suppliers - EDF and Utility Warehouse come to mind - have had E7 tariffs recently (before the US adventure in the Persian Gulf) which were cheaper off-peak than anything offered contemporaneously to EV owners. 5p/kWh or so.

And some EV tariffs are available to customers who don't have EVs.

Keep_pedalling

Even if it was available you need to shift a large percentage of usage to make it worthwhile because of the higher peak rate that comes with the tariff.

shootinglight

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979187#Comment_81979187

Definitely.

The plan is to get a battery and a few solar panels to add to the mix which first got me looking into this as an EV isn't really on the cards just yet. That said, when it's now £100 to fill the tank one wonders whether it might be a good idea!

tim_p

if you’re looking to get “a few solar panels” then you might as well get as many as you can fit / afford / get approved. Once the scaffolding is up, fitting the panels is the easy part.

QrizB

Yes, one of the regulars over on Green and Ethical frequently points out that once you've committed £4k for an installation, adding extra 500W panels can cost as little as £200 each.

JKenH

I agree with the OP’s sentiment. Although in theory EV tariffs are for EV owners, in practice, Octopus is more flexible. I don’t have an EV but I do have solar panels and in December I acquired a battery. I was on Agile but after speaking to an Octopus rep at a garden centre I was told there should be no problem moving on to the Octopus Go tariff. It is straightforward to switch from Agile to Go online but before doing so I spoke to Octopus customer service, told them I didn’t have an EV but the go tariff met my needs, and they said it was OK. The switch online took 3 minutes.

Since then over 99% of my usage as been at the Octopus Go off peak rate (4.99p) and for April my average import cost has been 5.06p. From January 8th to March 31st, when the Go off peak rate was 8.5p my average import cost was 8.72p.