Electricity Smart Meter

[Kim]

And Octopus 17:00-18:00.  I actually got an email for this one last night.

[Morat]

So, now I have a smartmeter and Octopus is my supplier - what tariff would be suitable for a high consumption household (3 adults, 2 kids) with at least one WFH every weekday?
No solar, sadly.

[grams]

Tracker is good value at the moment.

Agile requires ability to time shift and avoid peaks (especially 4-7pm) to make any saving.

[Morat]

Tracker is good value at the moment.

Agile requires ability to time shift and avoid peaks (especially 4-7pm) to make any saving.

Thank you!
I can avoid washing machine/tumble dryer/dishwasher usage between those times. But as for the rest... hmm. I shall ponder.

[felstedrider]

I had forgotten Octopus still offered a tracker.  I have just had a dig through the FAQs and it’s not entirely clear which wholesale price/contract it tracks.   If it’s day ahead then great as the pattern has been that the forward prices used to set the cap have collapsed in delivery.   Some commentators have asked why the gains aren’t passed to consumers but the suppliers should have hedged so there are no savings to pass on.  Of course the lack or misunderstanding of risk management that caused so many suppliers to fail last Winter would have yielded pretty decent returns in the last 12mths.

[Mrs Pingu]

This any help?
https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-tracker-tariff/

[felstedrider]

This any help?
https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-tracker-tariff/

It doesn’t say specifically but the volatility suggests it’s day ahead.   I used to know someone there I could ask but it has been a while.

This is where details are quite important.  There are 5 different ways of defining the day ahead price as there are different markets and exchanges that clear at different times.  There can be reasonable differences between each.

I recall meeting the founder of an energy company some years ago.   We didn’t exactly hit it off and he was a very difficult individual.  Anyway, he was planning to launch a tracker product and I asked what he was going to track.  For some reason I couldn’t get this point across and he just got really angry.  My point was that if you take out a tracker mortgage you get a pledge that the rate will be the BoE rate plus X.  I figured any consumer wanting a tracker energy rate would want to know what it’s tracking.   The supplier ran out of cash and went bust.

[Mrs Pingu]

I expect if you asked Octopus they'd probably tell you...

[Mrs Pingu]

Was this what you were after?
For electricity, the wholesale price W, is the baseload average price (in p/kWh) from the previous day's N2EX GB Day-Ahead auction. For gas, the W is the day ahead or weekend price in p/therm on the previous working day from Marex Spectron.

[felstedrider]

Was this what you were after?
For electricity, the wholesale price W, is the baseload average price (in p/kWh) from the previous day's N2EX GB Day-Ahead auction. For gas, the W is the day ahead or weekend price in p/therm on the previous working day from Marex Spectron.

Ah-hah.  Yes, thanks.  It’s exactly what we use for index linking.

I’m not an Octopus customer and we do provide services to one or two of their competitors so I have to be a little careful.  With the arrival of the EV I see myself switching once my current fix rolls off.

[Flite]

As from today, we are trying the Octopus CosyOctopus tariff, designed for folks on heat pumps.
Two low price zones, one high price zone and the rest average.
The key is going to be avoiding the high price zone.
It's made more complicated by the fact that our electric AGA has a "smart" system that means it heats up to full temperature twice a day for breakfast and dinner, then drops to low the rest of the time, to save energy. Works fine, as I make sure I do all the cooking in those times. But it is difficult to work out exactly when it powers up to reach full temperature by the designated time.
Work in progress.

[robgul]

Got an email from BG today with the savings values - better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick for not much effort.

PeakSave Sundays - By moving your electricity usage to between 11am and 4pm every Sunday, you've made the most of half-price electricity and earned £7.59.

PeakSave Winter - By joining into events and cutting back on electricity usage during those busy peak times, you earned £4.31.

Your PeakSave reward for November: £11.90

Your PeakSave reward total to end November: £21.47

(And I got my "old codgers winter fuel payment" today  )

[Captain Nemo]

I switched to Octopus and requested a smart meter just prior to having a solar PV with battery system installed back in November last year (2023). "No appointments available in your area", so I sign on to their notification waiting list.

Harvesting photons through December and January with a bit of battery top-up from the grid and submitting monthly meter readings to Octopus went well.

Then the sun starts to shine in February and I see that my old traditional meter is spinning backwards as I'm exporting quite a bit to the grid. As the time approaches to submit the March meter reading I contact Octopus - cos I'm a good boy and don't want them to start kicking up a stink when I submit a meter reading that is less than the previous reading. "Don't bother submitting a reading, we'll estimate" was the gist of the reply.

Eventually get a date for smart meter installation - I'm up North and I already know I don't need a cellular/mobile signal (only poor Vodafone in the village) since the north and Scotland is covered by dedicated radio system. I'm therefore more than a little puzzled when the installer says he can't commission the meter since he can't get an O2 signal. He suggests I contact Octopus (he was SMS Ltd) and request a SKU2 comms hub and T2 aerial be approved for installation.

The comms hub that was installed is a "Standard 420" model, which is correct of the northern Arqiva LRR (Long range Radio) network. And I'm no where near Fylingdales or any other place that needs the "special 450" model. Why the fork was he trying to commission a LRR comms hub with a cellular signal and then tell me to request a SKU2 comms hub (cellular) which is only approved for installation in the Telefonica/O2 central and southern regions?

Discussions with Octopus ensue and they confirm that I should be on the Arqiva LRR and the Arqiva/Telefonica boundary is well over 100 miles south of where I am. The "desk top" check Octopus did on my location prior to approving the smart meter installation showed I should be covered by the Arqiva LRR (99.55% of premises in the region are claimed to be covered).

Now requested a return visit since I do not trust the original installer really knew what he was doing. If it turns out I really am in a blackspot (one of the 0.45%) and my smart meter remains dumb I won't be able to get a tariff such as Flux

Arqiva play their card very close to their chest and it seems impossible to find out were their transmitter/recievers are. Having spent hours trawling the interweb, I have found a number of reports of not being able to get an Arqiva LRR signal and EV owners being particularly pissed off at not being able to get super cheap tariffs.

Some EV forums (and ham radio ones) detail a conectivity solution rigging an external dipole aerial (covering 400MHz to 450MHz), running coax down to the meter cupboard and molishing another folded dipole out of copper wire or thin tube that can be hung near or taped to the comms hub. All sounds a bit iffy and where would I point the external aerial - Winter Hill (70km line of sight distant)?

Anyone out there in the Northern and Scottish regions had problems resolved with Arqiva LRR comms?

The only up-side is that the "final" meter reading from my old meter, as recorded by the installer, appears to have been accepted and my March bill issued (less than £5 )

[toontra]

Finally bit the bullet and had a combined smart meter installed by Ovo today.  Part of the reason was my old leccy meter was in another flat which is often unattended so I had no idea of my usage and couldn't take meter readings.

The new setup seems to be working well.  I'll soon find out if it screws with my (separate meter) FIT payments.

Playing nicely with the solar FIT - a couple of payments have come through in llne with previous years.  The meter shows when you're exporting more than using - on a sunny day like today 500w+ going out for a few hours.