Octopus Energy - Sharing my Prices and thoughts - January 2023 onwards…

Hello everyone,
I appreciate there’s a lot of chat on electricity prices. I thought that I would quickly share mine.

I’ve been with Octopus for a while now and my current rates are:
Standing charge; 25p/day
00.30-04.30hrs: 5p/KwHr
04.30-0030: 13.72p/KwHr
So in todays environment I’ve had a pretty brilliant deal running my EV‘s and powering my house.

I have a PodPoint charger and Octopus currently don’t cover this model for their Intelligent Octopus tariff, so it looks like my only option with Octopus is the variable Octopus GO (all residential Octopus tariffs going forward are variable I believe)

The new proposed rates are:
Standing charge; 47.59p/day
00.30-04.30hrs: 12p/KwHr
04.30-0030: 41.64p/KwHr

So for me the cost of home car charging (I only really charge during off-peak times) has increased approximately 250% and the cost of peak electricity 300%.
these prices will start in January 2023 if I go ahead.

Whilst 12p is a big increase it’s still relatively extremely cheap to charge the car if I stick off-peak.
The biggest financial increase will be the household electricity costs (about 50% of my annual electricity consumption is used to run the household and most of this is not off-peak)

Slightly off-topic but - Personally I am lucky that I can use my gas and electricity (keeping a close eye on costs) and whilst concerned about the increased costs, not worry overly about paying the bills (I do try and manage my Monthly payments in advance to try to preempt the increases).
I am really concerned that many will for example be afraid to turn on their household appliances or gas central heating for fear of the excessive costs that this might incur.
For example if I were to run my 30KwHr boiler for 6hrs/day (a lot of people are at home during the day more than ever) at the current rates that would cost around £30/day or £900/Month! Electric heating using say 20KwHr (using my latest Octopus rates) would be around £50/day £1500/month - crazy costs.
Luckily there are options of just heating one area and cutting the temperature a little on the thermostat/rooms etc.

Anyway, I thought that I would share my experience And thoughts.

Stay warm.

You could use your PP as a dumb EVSE and plug in an Ohme to use IO?

Yes. I am considering that. I have a tethered PodPoint so I guess I would need to get that modified. Octopus say they are adding new chargers too, so I hope that PodPoint will be available soon. They will need to hook up with PodPoint servers I guess.

I am looking at moving to octopus intelligent and because I work from home during the day makes me wonder if it's beneficial as the rates is higher than the price cap during the day.

What’s the day rate price cap at the moment?

Goldie007 said:

I am looking at moving to octopus intelligent and because I work from home during the day makes me wonder if it's beneficial as the rates is higher than the price cap during the day.

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I think that you need to get your expected annual consumption figures if you can using historical data.
For example mine are around 4000kwhr charging the car and 3800kwhrs running the house. If you can then multiply the consumption by the expected rates you will get an idea of what it might cost you. You can then see what your projected costs might be if you are able to charge during off peak etc.

Cocijo said:

I think that you need to get your expected annual consumption figures if you can using historical data.
For example mine are around 4000kwhr charging the car and 3800kwhrs running the house. If you can then multiply the consumption by the expected rates you will get an idea of what it might cost you. You can then see what your projected costs might be if you are able to charge during off peak etc.

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I don't have any car charge yet as I am fur delivery of an MG4 next week hopefully. So think about that if I add the current usage then use the 4p per unit extra I will be charged. This is all what if's I guess. First ev so all new to this

Oh ok. Well if you know what approximate mileage a year you will travel you can divide this by say 3.5 (an average miles/KwHr figure) and get your annual estimated usage. For example 10,000 miles/year divided by 3.5 = 2857 KwHr a year usage. If charged solely at cheap rate (10p) = £285/year to cover this annual mileage. You then need to do the same for your home usage. Hope this helps.

Cocijo said:

What’s the day rate price cap at the moment?

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Cap rate may vary by region (or maybe that's the standing charge) but for me it is currently 33.76p per unit (kWh) with EDF. (Standard variable).

Ok thanks. Is that rate capped regardless of usage?
By my maths it is quite close to the GO tariff with my usage.
My usage is c7000kwhr/year of which c4000kwhrs/year is EV charging. Assuming I charge solely on the cheap rate.
On new GO tariff = 4000x12p = £480 and 3000x42p=£1260 total £1740.
If all on capped tariff 7000x33p=£2310. The standing charges are very similar.
I could also use some high-use appliances during off-peak like tumble drier, but it looks a close call.
Have I got this right?

I haven't checked your maths

That cap rate applies 24/7 (until such time that energy prices/cap rates change).

£1740 isn't that close to £2310, or am I misreading?

If you can shift other heavy usage that just ices the cake.

Yes. You are right. I guess I was just thinking in terms of if rates change - as the GO rates are not capped and are now variable. I think the new GO rates are still the way to go unless you are below around 30% usage to charge your car.

I believe you can change off Go to another non-smart tariff at no charge (haha) after 30 days

I did a spreadsheet before and posted it on here about the break even point at which your cheap rate usage becomes worth it.
It roughly worked out that if you know your weekly usage without car charging or any other off peak usage, that you need to use approx one third of that per week in addition for overnight use to make it worth while. Of course switching other stuff to overnight as well makes it easier.
I used per week as I think we tend to think of charging the car weekly rather than monthly, but the same fraction is still fairly relevant (not quite 4 weeks in a month), one third in addition.
Or put another way a quarter of your total usage needs to be at cheap rate.
That was with Go rates of 12p overnight, with Intelligent at 10p it alters it slightly.

See the thread here (odd title I know)

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks for your suggestions and comments everyone. It looks like the latest Octopus GO is the EV tariff of choice at the moment, although there isn’t exactly that much choice around. I’ll be swapping over next Month.

Cocijo said:

Thanks for your suggestions and comments everyone. It looks like the latest Octopus GO is the EV tariff of choice at the moment, although there isn’t exactly that much choice around. I’ll be swapping over next Month.

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Don't forget to use a referral code to get £50 credit if you do, there are several on here from members

Gomev said:

Don't forget to use a referral code to get £50 credit if you do, there are several on here from members

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Thank you. Great shout. I presume that the fact I’m with Octopus won’t matter as I’m changing tariff?

Cocijo said:

Thank you. Great shout. I presume that the fact I’m with Octopus won’t matter as I’m changing tariff?

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As you are already with them I doubt there will be any incentive

It may be worth considering changing this month rather than next, I think there is another Ofgen price review in January and Go prices as they are not regulated may change. I have no knowledge whatsoever about whether they will or not.
When I switched to Go I got in just before the price rise/cap last April, (switched 20th March) and although I fixed at a higher than the going rate at the time in April the SVR went to 34p (I pay 29.82p) then the off peak went to 12p in October (I pay 7.5p).
As it's a fixed rate tariff there are no caps, so maybe something to ponder on as there are no exit fees either.
I gambled and got lucky, at least until next March when I will get the shock.