I'm not sure how easy automation would be with my current setup. Something I will look into further.
Will run a manual trial for a few weeks maybe and see how it compares with the tracker on octopus compare.
šCut your energy bills nearly in half with Octopus Tracker
- Thread starter ThatFragranceGuy
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Will run a manual trial for a few weeks maybe and see how it compares with the tracker on octopus compare.
I haven't made switch yet but agile is working out about Ā£10 month cheaper for me than the Dec '23 tracker. That's without changing any habits on current use. EV user, work from home and kids using electricity at peak times.
Will see how it goes it for a bit longer but looks like I may have to switch over as potentially bigger savings to be had on agile.
Will see how it goes it for a bit longer but looks like I may have to switch over as potentially bigger savings to be had on agile.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
Look into something like home assistant, I am confident someone will have built an automation. If you ask on one of the big octopus Facebook groups, or on mse, I think you'll get help off someone who has done itI'm not sure how easy automation would be with my current setup. Something I will look into further.
Will run a manual trial for a few weeks maybe and see how it compares with the tracker on octopus compare.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
Some of the days where it goes really cheap save a LOT on agile if you get lucky with charging EV. This is our last 30 days or so, we got the EV mid march, check out the 6th
all we've changed is washer and dishwasher. I work from home. Dehumidifier dries clothes overnight, no real effort to load shift beyond that, I game between 5-7 on a pc
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Block_4_Eastender
Active member
If I compare Agile with IOG it is more expensive over a complete year. Ā£1,083.27 on Agile and only Ā£926.11 on IOG but I have house batteries as well as an EV.
Andy_W
Well-known member
Agile's great for EV's, and got better for me once I understood my schedule better, and realised there are a lot more windy days or summer sunny days, than days I need the car sat at 80-100%.Some of the days where it goes really cheap save a LOT on agile if you get lucky with charging EV. This is our last 30 days or so, we got the EV mid march, check out the 6th
Most of the time now, when I remember I just let the car drain right down until it's next windy, where rates go negative or close to it about once every couple of weeks, and the lass just plugs in the hybrid overnight most nights which practically takes car of all her miles.
In summer it's going to be ludicrously cheap when the solar really starts kicking out, we've got a massive head start on last year as far as prices go, and last year was great for afternoon charging.
Andy_W
Well-known member
I bet it would be much closer in some of these scenarios:
If the house batteries could charge much faster and nail those hours where it's incredibly cheap or you get paid to use it.
If you could have a lot more batteries to last through days where it's pricey, back until it's windy again.
If you could just fill up on the free/ cheap times only, and just dish out 4pm - 7pm and the battery be big enough to cover a week or so of that.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
Tracker should be cheap too.
Car at 15% as nowhere to go today or tomorrow and I had a feeling it would be cheap overnight as it drops to 7.8p at 23:00, but if it's negative in the afternoon I'll blast it then
Block_4_Eastender
Active member
I believe with some effort or automation the gap could be narrowed or even swing the other way. However, at present I can sit aback and do nothing. I may look at some automation in the future.
Andy_W
Well-known member
Yeah, that's it, I don't know whether you would get a good ROI on the time investment, most probably wouldn't but some nerds enjoy beating the system like that. I suppose I would do that if I had more time.
I don't even really try now, with Agile, don't even check rates, just leave it on agile, charge the car and hybrid overnight when I remember and it basically takes care of itself more than well enough.
Think I averaged like 13p per kW in the last 30 days, and I've not even tried, and there's others out there paying double thinking it's protecting them, mad.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
We've averaged 9.1p in April . 12.2p last 30 days but not been on agile 30 days yet
Andy_W
Well-known member
Wow, have you tied your other half up, or has she bought in/ understood this? I have no chance with mine, she doesn't want to understand and wouldn't be able to get her head around it anyway.
I'm on about 11p for the last week mind.
I wonder it there will be some who will be actually making money from this soon, i.e negative bills for cost per kWh, and only paying standing rates.
That's how it should be to be honest, the biggest problem the grid has is balancing, if they can get the demand and production lines almost flat, and do this so we can prepare for low/ peak demand in advance with predicted weather, then the grid capacity could be a lot lower. We aren't going to do this though, as we're heading for crazy excess by the time we've built all the proposed wind farms, but that way is not bad either, and we can sell excess to the EU or keep paying people to charge cars at night more frequently.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
All we've changed is dishwasher and washer, she knows how to check the app for cheapest 3-4 hour slots. Then for ev charging so many negative slots lately we've hammered those
Block_4_Eastender
Active member
Just checked my last bill and my average was 8.58p so will take some beating. Having said that I think I'm in the minority with IOG beating Agile but not sure.
Emmersons_BrazillianDong
Well-known member
I've just looked and from the 1st Jan to end of March Agile would have been Ā£16 cheaper than Tracker which isn't very much. We wfh, use peak hours and have an EV.
I'm a bit torn as I currently charge the EV when needed rather than waiting for a slot that's cheap. I do wonder how much I might save by shifting the car, dishwasher and washer.
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
I'd imagine a lot
Tomorrow for example agile hits -8p, 10:30am-16:00 all negative prices
I paid 90p to charge it to 90% yesterday
Car, dishwasher and ev will be the biggest uses I imagine if you can shift them it will be huge. Girlfriend uses dehumidifier to dry clothes overnight too so we're saving on that as well. Everything else we don't bother with - we cook peak time, I play gaming pc peak time and gf tv and we've got a very powerful sound system, amplifier, stereo amp, 2 massive subwoofers etc so that all draws a lot of power but we're normally changing any behaviour other than car, washer & dishwasher
It's not all like that tbh but I think at worst you would be a couple of quid cheaper, but everything you can shift would save you more.
So far in the last 30 days we are Ā£32 cheaper on agile than tracker but we only got the EV mid march so that is set to increase
Prior to the December 23 tariff change to tracker, tracker was far cheaper
They've made a change to it again in April and from what I read it's about 5% more expensive than the December one
I've just used off compare and the new tariff for tracker came in April 3rd
For April 3rd to yesterday on agile we spent Ā£31.01
On December 2023 tracker that would have been Ā£44.16
On the April 2024 tracker it would be Ā£53.17 so quite a difference over a 31 day month
On price cap Ā£78.18
Andy_W
Well-known member
The EV is the main one of course, if I tried hard I could knock out 100kW on those, in 14 hours, get that wrong and there's no clawing it back.
I think our dishwasher uses <1kW on eco mode, which takes 4 hours, but some of the other modes are up to 2kW. Eco's cleaned everything just as well as any other mode, even using the cheapest of the cheap tablets, so we just do that over night every couple of days.
I bet the dryer, oven and then washer are quite high up the list too, induction hobs/ air fryers too but it's difficult to not use those near peak hours.
My PC has a 700W PSU, but don't think it's using that most of the time, but that's on nearly all day and three monitors, so I can't load shift those either. Probably only need two monitors though.
I need to have a think about getting a battery, might be able to get effectively near 0p average in good times, if I got one of those. The Givenergy AIO 13.5kW looks good. Would probably pay itself back in 4-5 years on current prices, and probably last a decade more than that.
If prices go up, it will probably pay back even quicker. Suppose if I can get it fitted where it can be moved if I move house, then there's no reason not to do it. Could add more solar panels (only got 4), but would need a new inverter, plus much higher fitting costs, and can't take those with me if I moved, only reason I've not done it. Not sure if you can use different panels on the same system either, but would assume you can.
I'm still on the Tracker. Mostly because I don't have to think and it's cheap enough even if there are savings to be made with Agile. I know you can load shift and save money but what are the consequences if you don't? We tend to plug in when we finish work because that's the last time we touch the car on an evening. If I was charging at that time would the price be massive? I don't want the inconvenience of having to wait for an appropriate time to cause me to forget to charge overnight when I need a full battery the next day (and then being forced to use a rapid charger negating any savings).
ThatFragranceGuy
Well-known member
just use octopus compare and it will tell you what you would pay on Dec 23 tracker vs agile based on your current use and look at the last 4 months - that's your worst situation I guess
Anything from there is an improvement
If you work out your cars battery capacity and cost to charge on your average rate on tracker, I suppose that's your easy savings and anything else is a bonus?
We do the same skin the car, gf gets home from work 7pm and plugs it in, approves it on the app and glances at octopus compare to see what the landscape is like and sets a price cap. The charger app will tell her what slots it will then charge up, and if she sets a Depart time it will tell her if her target can't be met so she can adjust it if needed. So the car is plugged in, charge approved but the charger controls when it does and does not charge. Or you can just tell it to charge no matter what if you need it asap
If you absolutely must charge 5-7 then that is when agile is most expensive. Here is today as an example. I work from home so benefit from the cheap daytime stuff too.
Here is last few days. She was on nights on the 10th so had to do a daytime charge but it was still a few pence cheaper than tracker that day, you can tell the other obvious charge days and see how significantly cheaper they were, that was largely overnight charging
She said she can doing washer and dishwasher but it makes it esker for her as she times them to be done when she gets up so they're ready to hang etc, or if there is cheap evening she does them then and dehumidifier dries overnight
Andy_W
Well-known member
To beat the tracker with an EV you would have to aim the charging at <~70% of the tracker price, if the EV is ~80% of your electric use, or something around that I expect. If you can charge at midnight to 6am then you're probably on a rate ~0-30% of the price so you can nail the tracker without thinking really.
If you plugged in at 4-7pm on agile, that's a big no-no, as you would get nailed by the rate which is twice the tracker price, it's basically the biggest no no.
If you just manage the EV charging you don't have to think about the rest, as the rest is effectively inconsequential.