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Octopus Energy - cheap overnight charging

23K views 89 replies 34 participants last post by  Delta5 
#1 ·
Hi all

If anyone's energy tariff is up for renewal soon, I've just switched to Octopus Energy - the standard unit rate was cheaper pkwh than my current supplier as it is, but the Go tariff also offers 5p pkwh between 12:30-4:30am.

Also if you sign up via the link below, we both get £50 :) I'm pretty annoyed because I saw a referral link on this forum AFTER I'd switched, gutted!

https://share.octopus.energy/blue-briar-170
 
#27 ·
I use a raspberry pi and jlrpy (from avdevd) to pause charging at the car via jag's api - until it stopped working after a dealer visit recently, but whe this is fixed

I am planning some work linking this code on the PI to the download from the Octopus agile API, it's a winter project - that or IFTTT

I'd rather use the PI than wattcat on my phone as my huwaei tends to take power naps when it's idle for a few hours.

I got a lovely charging session last night being paid to charge - who would have thought it!
 
#29 ·
Russyj - they usually report daily. You might want to get an app such as Watchdog rather than find out directly from Octopus. Mine showed I imported about 90kw of energy for nothing between Sunday morning and Sunday evening. If only it was like that every day!
 
#30 ·
bluenun said:
Russyj - they usually report daily. You might want to get an app such as Watchdog rather than find out directly from Octopus. Mine showed I imported about 90kw of energy for nothing between Sunday morning and Sunday evening. If only it was like that every day!
Thanks bluenun, contacted them and they did a manual push, managed to get 66kwh for 0 or less! I have Octopus Watch, very useful app as trying to read next day prices on the Octopus one is a nightmare, much prefer the table!
 
#31 ·
Has anyone else had a bad experience with Octopus customer service? I can't believe how poor they have been considering all the 5 star reviews.

I switched to them in March and had the smart meter upgraded in July but still haven't been able to transfer over to the Go tariff. The in-house display shows the meter is working but they say they can't access it. Emails take weeks for a reply and it's always the same that the meter team will be in touch - we are 4 months in now.

I think I'm going to have to switch to EDF as the standard tariff isn't cheap.
 
#32 ·
e-racer said:
Has anyone else had a bad experience with Octopus customer service? I can't believe how poor they have been considering all the 5 star reviews.

I switched to them in March and had the smart meter upgraded in July but still haven't been able to transfer over to the Go tariff. The in-house display shows the meter is working but they say they can't access it. Emails take weeks for a reply and it's always the same that the meter team will be in touch - we are 4 months in now.

I think I'm going to have to switch to EDF as the standard tariff isn't cheap.
I understand they respond more quickly to
twitter
facebook messenger
email smart@octopus.energy (I understand this is best)
 
#33 ·
e-racer said:
Has anyone else had a bad experience with Octopus customer service? I can't believe how poor they have been considering all the 5 star reviews.

I switched to them in March and had the smart meter upgraded in July but still haven't been able to transfer over to the Go tariff. The in-house display shows the meter is working but they say they can't access it. Emails take weeks for a reply and it's always the same that the meter team will be in touch - we are 4 months in now.

I think I'm going to have to switch to EDF as the standard tariff isn't cheap.
I had ten weeks of chasing them, trying to find out why the switch to their Go tariff kept failing, but they never gave a satisfactory answer as to why. In the end I emailed the CEO and the issue was resolved in a couple of days. Good luck!
 
#35 ·
My changeover went entirely smoothly started on Octopus Go, they checked my existing smart meter and changed to Agile in about 6 weeks, information on bills and energy use very easy to access online. If they can't read your smart meter Agile is not possible
 
#38 ·
Hi Everyone

I'm on octopus too.

IMO they have aN even better tarried than Go. It's called Agike. The prices track the half hourly electricity costs and quite regularly dip below the 5p that Go is set at. Sometimes even goes negative! Which means they pay you to use it.

If you subscribe to this tariff and get an Ohme smart charger which works with it, you can set a control that charges your car anytime when the rate drops below 5p and that could be anytime during the day, so just leave the car plugged in.

I've not seen the rate go much past 8p / 10p even during the day so can also make use of the cheaper periods for dishwashers etc and which you can monitor via apps such as Octopus Watchdog.

Yes, the tariff can go up to over 25/30p during early evening, so if you cook on electric that's worth considering, but overall the average seems to run below 12p or so even taking into account the evening peak charges. Which is still considerably cheaper than my old Scottish Power tariff which was 18.6 day and 8.7 night!

I think it is a winner and I set my car to top up to 75% when ever below 5p and it just keeps it there.
 
#40 ·
My first 3 agile months with a little bit of time shifting - washer/dryer and charging, even with an electric oven have given me a blended average rate of 8.75p per Kw/h vs 14.07 for their standard rate.

Last nights car charge cost under a pound for 55kw/h, would have been less but the api is playing up, and didn't stop charging when asked.
 
#42 ·
51mes said:
My first 3 agile months with a little bit of time shifting - washer/dryer and charging, even with an electric oven have given me a blended average rate of 8.75p per Kw/h vs 14.07 for their standard rate.

Last nights car charge cost under a pound for 55kw/h, would have been less but the api is playing up, and didn't stop charging when asked.
You do need to be able to avoid using power 4pm to 7 pm peak rate, many won't be able to do that and be better off on a different tarrif. The SSE tariff just deducts around £12 a month up to a the equivalent of 8000 miles for free off peak but no indication of standard rate online, certainly worth a look if the charger timer operates correctly. For some reason you can't use it for storage heaters.
 
#43 ·
#45 ·
Al's Ipace said:
I'm with Octopus Go, with a Pod Point charger. Got fed up with the Jag pre conditioning/timed charging so installed this.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B083QGBGKK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Works easily with it's app and now I reliably charge at 5p between 0.30am and 05.30am. Can now even charge over two days to take advantage of the low fix overnight 5p rate.
Hi Al,

Some of the reviews say the WiFi is a bit weak, do you mind sharing how far you are from your router? Really interested in this!

Thanks!
 
#46 ·
russyj said:
Al's Ipace said:
I'm with Octopus Go, with a Pod Point charger. Got fed up with the Jag pre conditioning/timed charging so installed this.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B083QGBGKK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Works easily with it's app and now I reliably charge at 5p between 0.30am and 05.30am. Can now even charge over two days to take advantage of the low fix overnight 5p rate.
Hi Al,

Some of the reviews say the WiFi is a bit weak, do you mind sharing how far you are from your router? Really interested in this!

Thanks!
I have a Sky router and the router is about 5m away from the unit. The Wi-Fi has to go through two brick walls as well. The app does say weak Wi-Fi when connecting. I has never lost connection and it works well. If you have a problem you could always add a Wi-Fi booster.
 
#47 ·
Can anyone who works heavily from home and who consumes both gas and electricity without any solar or home battery comment on the break even point for switching to a cheaper off peak supply?

I don't do an awful lot of miles in the car and not at all sure that it makes sense to switch from my current 12.9p flat rate.
 
#48 ·
electric beagle said:
Can anyone who works heavily from home and who consumes both gas and electricity without any solar or home battery comment on the break even point for switching to a cheaper off peak supply?

I don't do an awful lot of miles in the car and not at all sure that it makes sense to switch from my current 12.9p flat rate.
I fit your description above and I am on Octopus Agile. I don't do many miles because working from home currently. For the month ending 23 October my average electricity price was 10.3p/kWh
 
#49 ·
sunnyjoe said:
electric beagle said:
Can anyone who works heavily from home and who consumes both gas and electricity without any solar or home battery comment on the break even point for switching to a cheaper off peak supply?

I don't do an awful lot of miles in the car and not at all sure that it makes sense to switch from my current 12.9p flat rate.
I fit your description above and I am on Octopus Agile. I don't do many miles because working from home currently. For the month ending 23 October my average electricity price was 10.3p/kWh
So you have normal usage during the expensive peak window but avoid heavy load I assume like cooking, tumble dryer etc?

What is the gas price?
 
#50 ·
electric beagle said:
Can anyone who works heavily from home and who consumes both gas and electricity without any solar or home battery comment on the break even point for switching to a cheaper off peak supply?

I don't do an awful lot of miles in the car and not at all sure that it makes sense to switch from my current 12.9p flat rate.
Personally, if you don't do a lot of mileage then you are probably as well off as you can get paying only 12.9p / KwH, assuming that is 24/7. Octopus Go drops to ca. £0.05p between 00:00 and 04:30hrs, but is around £0.17p / KwH at other times, another supplier I have is £0.19p / KwH at peak times and £0.09p / KwH between 00.00hrs and 07:00 am so your rate of 12.9 seems pretty good to me. Depends of course on your usage and peak hours etc.
 
#51 ·
we have 4 adults at home, washing machine and dishwasher every day, 200 miles a week in the car and no solar or battery. My last Agile bill had an average unit rate of 6.95p for the 30 days to 15 Nov. We avoid 4-7 for the big items, but there is nothing else special I do other than work out which will be the cheapest time to charge the car in a week and top up when the price is cheapest. We used 949 kWH in that month.
 
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