BG or Octopus EV tariff

[johnb80]

Ahhh okay thanks for the info! I am quite keen on the idea of getting batteries installed. Our use case for electricity is high. We have 4 kids (from two marriages), 2 of them smash PlayStation all day and the other 2 are PC gamers. It’s not cheap Plus leaving lights on, and general lack of common sense around energy efficiency.

Crikey you have a 'normal' family

Batteries are an amazing money saver, I still look at mine when the lights are on, heat pumps running, cooker going and washing machine etc and I'm in awe that it's all being powered from a little shed on the side of my house, it seems unreal.

 

[bobbarley]

how much battery do you have, and where did you get them from?

 

[Richard P]

We replaced our dumb wall box with the Ohme Home Pro and tried switching to Intelligent Octopus Go. Had loads of problems so instead opted for Agile Octopus and have found we can reliably save against the IOG tariff we originally wanted (there's a comparison app which gives you the figures) and we can even get paid to charge the car, run the washing machine etc (paying upto 8p per KWh used this afternoon).

 

[johnb80]

how much battery do you have, and where did you get them from?

I have 3 lots of batteries, 1 commercial solar PV system with a Growatt inverter and Growatt battey (7 kWh) and I then embarked into making my own powerwall. The batteries inside it 16 x 280AH LifeP04 came from Fogstar. The inverter used is designed for this purpose a Victron Multiplus II GX and a Battery Management system by Seplos. All of these items are top class items - the LiFEP04's are Evie, the Inverter is Victron and the BMS Seplos. The large item costs have come down a lot from when I built my system - Battery Cells £100 each, Inverter £999 and BMS £150 makes the total for a top notch battery system £2750 + incidentals such as wire etc, this makes a 14 kWh usable storage battery with a 5 kW inverter / charger (it will run for a considerable time with a huge overload eg 8kW plus). Putting all together is very straight forward and you save an absolute fortune on commercial systems and a fortune on energy costs. Win - win.

Apologies for the thread drift here (sorry Rolfe its your thread too as moderator, talk about playing with fire )

Batteries EVE LiFePO4 280Ah Prismatic Cell (Grade A)
Inverter Victron Energy MultiPlus II 48V 5000-70-50 GX Pure Sine Power Inverter Battery Charger - Low Energy Supermarket
BMS Seplos 48V 200A LiFePO4 BMS (V3.0)Seplos 48V 200A LiFePO4 BMS (V3) without Active Balancer

 

[welshwizard]

Agreed John but you need a smart compatible wall box in order to take advantage.

Just buy the wallbox . You can even get it on finance like I did.

 

[ronbest]

Just trying to gauge which people are using

We use Octopus with a Wallbox charger and works really well, only 7.5p overnight. My experience with BG has always been regrettable and would never use them again.

 

[Maggieroth]

MG4 Trophy - with Octopus fro last 9 months - intelligent GO via Ohme Home Pro charger.
Use Octopus gas too and switched to their recent 12 month fixed tariff.
all possible electrical power-hungry stuff (washer, tumble drier, dishwasher) all set to run from 11:30pm to 05:30 am. Clear savings all round.

 

[ger]

Interesting comments noted and about to look into changing as my fixed rate 2 year contract is up at the end of May. I’m going to miss my 4.5p 12.00 to 05.00
Rate with Goelectric. EDF. I believe that it’s almost double that now.
Thanks all

 

[bobbarley]

Just buy the wallbox . You can even get it on finance like I did.

Who through?

 

[Lovemyev]

Interesting comments noted and about to look into changing as my fixed rate 2 year contract is up at the end of May. I’m going to miss my 4.5p 12.00 to 05.00
Rate with Goelectric. EDF. I believe that it’s almost double that now.
Thanks all

I am in the same situation, my two year fix with EDF ends at the end of April.
The 5 hours at 4.5p / kWh is super cheap, based on current prices.
The new deal I have been offered by them, is only a one year fix deal and the same five hours of “off peak” is 8.99p / kWh.
So yeah, it’s double but the day time tariff has reduced by 10p / kWh and the price of the gas has reduced by 50%.
So it’s a bit of a loss on one front and gain on the other hand .
The new BG dual fuel deal has similar prices, but the off peak tariff is being offered for 7 hours and not 5.
Of course, you have to be able to utilise all of that 7 hours every day in order to benefit from the extra hours.
Great if you had a storage battery ?.

 

[Chrisjk]

No one seems to have mentioned Agile Octopus
Rate changes every half hour, so not for everyone.
Today charged car up over 4 hours and rate was negative al the time
Today we have used nearly 40 kWh and the charge is - 68p ,!
Tomorrow’s charges are mostly negative again, with a few single figure charges between 11.30 tonight and 4pm tomorrow

 

[bobbarley]

No one seems to have mentioned Agile Octopus
Rate changes every half hour, so not for everyone.
Today charged car up over 4 hours and rate was negative al the time
Today we have used nearly 40 kWh and the charge is - 68p ,!
Tomorrow’s charges are mostly negative again, with a few single figure charges between 11.30 tonight and 4pm tomorrow

Is there a way to know what you’re going to have to pay so you can plan?

 

[Coulomb]

One problem I foresee with this agility is that it's dependent on so many factors beyond your control, like the economy, weather, how fast coal fired plants fall apart, how fast solar and wind gets installed, etc.

It's all very well to look at the best cases, but how common are they now, and how common will they be next year, and in five years time?

High risk and potentially high reward will appeal to some, but not to others.

 

[johnb80]

One problem I foresee with this agility is that it's dependent on so many factors beyond your control, like the economy, weather, how fast coal fired plants fall apart, how fast solar and wind gets installed, etc.

It's all very well to look at the best cases, but how common are they now, and how common will they be next year, and in five years time?

High risk and potentially high reward will appeal to some, but not to others.

There is only one remaining coal fired power station in the UK, Ratcliffe on Soar, that's due to close in September this year.

I have watched Agile for quite a while and month on month I would have saved over using Intelligent Octopus GO but not by very much. As you state agile as it's name suggests can rocket in price with little warning.

 

[Fokmg]

I recommend Octopus go intelligent and a battery storage. I have run my house on 7.5 p power since October! The battery holds enough charge to power the house when there is no cheap power.
I use the tesla power wall which is very easy to control and can charge and discharge at 5kW. The backup capability is great for power cuts. We also have solar panels so our estimated power cost which includes the car charging is working out at approx 4p per unit!

 

[johnb80]

I recommend Octopus go intelligent and a battery storage. I have run my house on 7.5 p power since October! The battery holds enough charge to power the house when there is no cheap power.
I use the tesla power wall which is very easy to control and can charge and discharge at 5kW. The backup capability is great for power cuts. We also have solar panels so our estimated power cost which includes the car charging is working out at approx 4p per unit!

Tesla powerwall's are very nice but soooooooo expensive plus you have very limited choice who can supply and fit them. Great product - terrible price.

 

[ger]

Following my last post, I am going to transfer to Eon as the costs are slightly lower and with a 7 hour cheap rate. Also with my father’s recommendation we both receive £50 each. But it’s only a one year fixed rate tariff.

 

[johnb80]

Following my last post, I am going to transfer to Eon as the costs are slightly lower and with a 7 hour cheap rate. Also with my father’s recommendation we both receive £50 each. But it’s only a one year fixed rate tariff.

On first sight it looks a decent price until you check out the peak and standing charge prices.

Off peak EON 6.9p Octopus 7.5p
Peak EON 28.56p Octopus 25.8p
Standing EON 67.44p Octopus 54p

Same offer with Octopus you can get £50 with a referral code, no exit fees etc.

 

[Lovemyev]

The top 3-4 energy players are offering pretty similar deals at the moment, which comes as no surprise really I guess, playing one against the other.
One of these maybe slightly better to one customer more than the next of course.
But taking the deal above and comparing the e.on rates to our friends at Octopus, then if your usage is not massive, then over the 12 month period of the fix, then the annual bill is not like to be massively different between the two companies.
Every little helps of course, but there is not one single standalone deal that is streets ahead of the next one TBH.
On my super cheap, due to expire 2 year fix of 5 hours, the off peak” rate is 4.5p / KWh.
Now that figure is going to increase very close to double that, who ever I go with.
But the price of my gas tariff has reduced by a huge 50%.

 

[Gomev]

On first sight it looks a decent price until you check out the peak and standing charge prices.

Off peak EON 6.9p Octopus 7.5p
Peak EON 28.56p Octopus 25.8p
Standing EON 67.44p Octopus 54p

Same offer with Octopus you can get £50 with a referral code, no exit fees etc.

That standing charge for Octopus is low, it looks like mine pre April. Mine currently on Octopus is 65.37p, still cheaper than Eon's but not by much (£7.56/year).