Energy price changes in April

[N2STY]

Not on new customer tariffs. The cheapest is Octopus at 44p and 12p as opposed to 34p std rate

Then look elsewhere you can join OVO right now on 2 tariffs
variable tariff 32.3pkw 41p standing and 10p charging all-day 0 exit fee

new fixed 31.8pkw 43p standing and 10p charging all day £75 exit fee

 

[Dstretty]

Looked interesting but on examination it's limited to certain EVs and certain chargers. Unfortunately neither my MG nor BP pulse charger are compatible. It is also a fixed tariff with a £75 exit fee (Octopus isn't) which means you can't leave without penalty when rates drop as they are expected to in summer. Thanks for info but not suitable for me.

 

[N2STY]

Looked interesting but on examination it's limited to certain EVs and certain chargers. Unfortunately neither my MG nor BP pulse charger are compatible. It is also a fixed tariff with a £75 exit fee (Octopus isn't) which means you can't leave without penalty when rates drop as they are expected to in summer. Thanks for info but not suitable for me.

My point is people are not bending the truth when they say

You wouldn't believe the number of posts and comments claiming that their EV only costs 5ppkWh or so to charge and therefore run. Simply don't understand the reality of their tariff.

Is It more you don't understand there tariff so they must be wrong? I had that 5p tariff for a year with flat rate for running the house

As for exit fee there is no exit fee on OVO variable tariff I'm pretty sure octopus will add a exit fee when they get round to offering under price cap tariffs

 

[Dstretty]

My point is people are not bending the truth when they say

Is It more you don't understand there tariff so they must be wrong? I had that 5p tariff for a year with flat rate for running the house

As for exit fee there is no exit fee on OVO variable tariff I'm pretty sure octopus will add a exit fee when they get round to offering under price cap tariffs

Not at all. Just been on Ovo website and this EV tariff has limited time use, limited applicability for cheap charging and states a £75 exit fee if you sign up to this. Check it yourself. Current Octopus GO tariff has no exit penalty, though they DG o also have a cheaper smart tariff that again is limited in apllicabilty. My setup is not compatible.

 

[N2STY]

Not at all. Just been on Ovo website and this EV tariff has limited time use, limited applicability for cheap charging and states a £75 exit fee if you sign up to this. Check it yourself. Current Octopus GO tariff has no exit penalty, though they DG o also have a cheaper smart tariff that again is limited in apllicabilty. My setup is not compatible.

Did just look £0 exit fee

Then free to add anytime charging

 

[Dstretty]

Ah must have misread the exit fee. That's good. Now i just have to pay £1100 to change my charger to one of theirs and buy a different EV. LOL. For my usage the Ovo rates would average out at 26p per unit plus of course the extortionate daily charge (why has that more than doubled since 2021?) but if I could go on it I would save over Octopus. As I said though Octopus have a similar cheaper smart EV rate but not compatible with my setup.

 

[N2STY]

Ah must have misread the exit fee. That's good. Now i just have to pay £1100 to change my charger to one of theirs and buy a different EV. LOL.

Just a charger (discount available) you can keep your car.
To be fair you would need a new charger for the best octopus rates anyway
(Ohme seems to be the only one that works with Octopus and OVO)

 

[Dstretty]

Hi folks. On the subject of tarriffs, I was on Bulb, Now on Octopus (Flexible rate) at 34p. Having just bought a used MG5 LR (delighted!) and have a Zappi home charger (excellent!), I did some maths to see if Octopus Go would be worth it. We cook with electricity, have gas central heating, no solar or battery storage and I do about 6,000 miles a year having retired a couple of years ago. Octopus Go quoted me 44p day rate and 12p night rate. Given my mileage and our energy use and the fact that we cannot program a washing machine or dishwasher to operate at night (old technology appliances) I dont see that it will be to my advantage. I would be interested in other folks thoughts on this. Thanks. Steve.

Yes my mileage is similar though I can use washing machine and dishwasher overnight. Doing 6k miles per year on Octopus 44p/12p my average rate will be 30p per unit as opposed to 34p on standard rate. Only just worthwhile. 6k se costs don't include daily standard charge of course,but you pay that on both yariffs

Just a charger (discount available) you can keep your car.
To be fair you would need a new charger for the best octopus rates anyway
(Ohme seems to be the only one that works with Octopus and OVO)

The whole EV revolution is just a complete shambles! Just another example of govt incompetence and the philosophy of letting the market rule. Goodness knows how we're ever going to achieve the green targets.

 

[Gomev]

The trouble with this is, that it is easy to confuse matters by trying to create an average price. That average is only applicable to that one persons particular usage and nobody else's, and even then only for that particular period in which you work it out.
The bottom line is are you paying less or more than if you remained on a flat rate, and basically the more you charge off-peak the lower your 'personal average' will be.

 

[Dstretty]

The trouble with this is, that it is easy to confuse matters by trying to create an average price. That average is only applicable to that one persons particular usage and nobody else's, and even then only for that particular period in which you work it out.
The bottom line is are you paying less or more than if you remained on a flat rate, and basically the more you charge off-peak the lower your 'personal average' will be.

That is quite true. The point was that even though the car is charged at the cheap rate the increase in the day rate offsets to varying degree the night rate so the real cost of charging and running your EV is the average rate you are charged. Many people either don't understand this or won't accept this and continue to claim their EV only costs the night rate to run. This logic only really applies when the day rate is increased as part of the EV tariff.

 

[N2STY]

That's why it's nice to see OVO are giving anyone on any tariff a 10p charge rate (immediately with right car or charger) no increased day rates people can work out house usage on one flat rate do the washing and stuff when they want then if you add a EV it's is only costing 10pkw to charge
Obviously no one tariff is right for everyone people with battery storage are definitely going to be better off on a cheap night tariff for instance

 

[Cocijo]

It would be good to understand the value of the average rate, as it’s over complicated in many cases.
I get this quoted on my bills and my average last bill KwHr rate was around 22p KwHr.
This is the total cost of energy divided by the energy used in KwHr

I get electricity at 10p for 25% of an 24 hour day and for the other 75% it’s 44p.

As an example, If I use say 50 kWh over 24 hours but during the 75% of the day when it’s 44p I use 5.4 KwHr and the remainder of 44.6 kWh at 10p = £6.84p - so in this example over 24 hours the average cost is around 14p kWh.

So as you can see, depending on your usage over the 75/25 split (Octopus Intelligent Rates) your average can be considerably below the capped rate.
Standing charges are not included in this.
It’s well worth doing your maths and knowing your usage.

 

[smokie]

Yes, that's a good point, Octopus electricity bills show the blended rate in the grey panel, though it doesn't include VAT.

Last month, when there was no-one here for the whole month, my rate (on Go, 7.5p/35p) was 26.51p. Months when I'm here it seems to be somewhere between 16 and 18p. That is a good guide telling me Go is still worth my while. Once my decent rate expires I'll be checking Intelligent Octopus

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

I do about 7k miles a year and use about 7kwh per day in the house. I have Octopus Go (7.5p/39.5p). My average unit cost across car and home is 26p ie well below the price cap. So for me Octopus Go works well.
I need to maximise night usage - my washing machine has a delayed start button but the 4 year old Bosch dishwasher does not. However I plug the dishwasher into a TP Tapo time switch set to operate between 0030/0430. Then I switch the time switch to manual “on” and set the dishwasher going. After a second or two I switch the time switch back to “schedule” and it turns off the dishwasher until the programmed hours. By doing this I shift 1kwh to cheap rate every time I use the dishwasher. I wouldn’t do this with an old dishwasher in case it leaks. And note, this hack does not work with kettles or other appliances that have an electromagnetic switch.

 

[smokie]

During the time when my gas was higher than my electricity, I ran the immersion for the cheap four hour period which usually gives enough for day for the two of us. I read that electricity is much more efficient than gas for water heating anyway (less losses).

And I managed to get on the gas tracker tariff in January which has brought my gas price to between 5p and 7p (mostly be 5.xp for the past month or so) which is the cheapest it's been since last April (when it was only 2.96p).

 

[Gomev]

That is quite true. The point was that even though the car is charged at the cheap rate the increase in the day rate offsets to varying degree the night rate so the real cost of charging and running your EV is the average rate you are charged. Many people either don't understand this or won't accept this and continue to claim their EV only costs the night rate to run. This logic only really applies when the day rate is increased as part of the EV tariff.

The cost of charging is not the average rate of what you are charged overall as the sample sizes (kWh used) are rarely the same at the different rates.
You are effectively trying to average averages, even though you don't realise it, which doesn't work in a straightforward way. (the average price of daytime use is 41p the average price of off peak is 12p in varying sample sizes of 50 and 100 in my example below)

For an example in a given period your
daytime use is 50kWh at 41p total cost £21.50
charging at cheap rate 100kWh at 12p total cost £12.

The simple blended average would be total price / kWh = 21.66p at these prices for this sample size and will be different for anything else.

However we have a base we can use that is the cost of SVR electricity at 34p to create a better way of calculating the true cost of charging.

So in the above example at 41p we have overpaid by 7p for 50kWh compared to SVR total £3.50
If we add that to the cost of charging which was £12 gives us £15.50.
Now divide that by the 100kWh we charged and the actual cost of charging is now 15.5p compared to if we had been on a SVR.

This also highlights that the OVO offering of actually being on the SVR and adding the free anytime charging at 10p is an excellent offer, currently, if you can access it.

NB All figures will change based on differing usages and would need to be calculated each time but this is just an example

SVR - Standard Variable Rate