Octopus or Ovo EV charging

[Babylon]

I know there are a lot of threads about tariffs but i'm so confused. Currently a Bulb customer but as they have been taken over by Octopus I have to switch to them for the EV Tariff. However from what I have read and if my understanding is correct. Octopus will give me a cheaper rate for 6 hours per night but will charge me about7p/8p more during the day???. So I have been looking at switching to Ovo their variable tariff is around the same price that I am currently paying but if I sign up to EV Tariff as and add on, my understanding is I can link this to the Indra charger, charge at anytime and they refund the difference so my EV charging is only around 10p per kwh, what I cannot work out is if I sign up to Ovo EV tariff will they charge me more for the variable rate tariff like octopus. Any advice would be most welcomed.

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi, you only get 6 hour with Intelligent Octopus at 10p and you need a compatible EVSE like the Ohme.
Octopus Go is 4 hours at 12p.
With both Octopus tariffs the whole house is at the cheap rate for 4 or 6 hours so you can timer your dishwasher and washing machine and even hot water immersion heater.

 

[N2STY]

I know there are a lot of threads about tariffs but i'm so confused. Currently a Bulb customer but as they have been taken over by Octopus I have to switch to them for the EV Tariff. However from what I have read and if my understanding is correct. Octopus will give me a cheaper rate for 6 hours per night but will charge me about7p/8p more during the day???. So I have been looking at switching to Ovo their variable tariff is around the same price that I am currently paying but if I sign up to EV Tariff as and add on, my understanding is I can link this to the Indra charger, charge at anytime and they refund the difference so my EV charging is only around 10p per kwh, what I cannot work out is if I sign up to Ovo EV tariff will they charge me more for the variable rate tariff like octopus. Any advice would be most welcomed.

OVO will not charge more for 10p 24\7 it is a free upgrade just on a side note OVO are now doing fixed under cap tariff again hopefully this will catch on

Once you're with OVO it's easy to add anytime just login to you account and go to upgrades then you can add you charger you will need you login information from you charger

 

[smokie]

£75 exit fee! That could be a downer on a fixed tariff, as prices are expected to fall later this year (I'm on Octopus Gas Tracker and it's about 5.2p at the moment, cheaper than before the war)

 

[Hatchett]

Octopus Go is 4 hours at 12p.
With both Octopus tariffs the whole house is at the cheap rate for 4 or 6 hours so you can timer your dishwasher and washing machine and even hot water immersion heater.

Exactly what I do. My average cost per Kw is £0.23.

 

[smokie]

Mine is around 17p. I had my immersion on for 4 hours when my gas cost more than my electricity but since moving to tracker my gas is about 5 - 6p at the moment and my Go rate is 7.5p - so not much in it really, what with losses, but I'll be getting enough hot water just from the solar panels shortly anyway.

 

[Gomev]

£75 exit fee! That could be a downer on a fixed tariff, as prices are expected to fall later this year (I'm on Octopus Gas Tracker and it's about 5.2p at the moment, cheaper than before the war)

Yep that's the real kicker. In a few months the cap is likely to fall below that anyway and signing up to that OVO deal could cost in the end day to day and a penalty to get out of it.

 

[N2STY]

Yes but it's still a good start if it wasn't for the government EPG set at £2500 until 31st March 2024 we would be paying From 1 April £3,280 for a dual fuel household a reduction of almost £1,000 from the current level, of £4,279
The next quarterly price cap update will be on 26 May 2023.
So OVO new tariff at £2,275 will save people money right now I agree jumping on it may not be a good idea but for people that like the reassurance that a fixed tariff give them
We need another company to join in OVO in new under cap tariffs to bring on a bit of competition

 

[Cocijo]

It’s worth hanging on at the moment if you can, rather than signing up to 12 month contracts with exit fees. You’ll see more competition return and prices drop. Go with Octopus if you need to shift now and review as others compete.

 

[N2STY]

Go with Octopus if you need to shift now and review as others compete.

Octopus is no good to me I prefer to charge whenever I want quite often the car is not at home on there off peak slot and all my energy usage is during the day so the lowest peak rate wins with 10p charging anytime really helps there is no one tariff that fits all

 

[BarryH]

I'm on Octopus Go and have been for about 3 years now. I've migrated what I can to the 4-hour off-peak including hot water since last summer when Go dropped below the price of Gas. I had got to a position that without EV charging 40 to 45% of consumption was off-peak and when I include EV Charging it's more like 55-60%. Then in January I installed a FoxESS 10 kWh (9 kWh usable) home battery and PV but given the time of year little contribution from PV so I charge the battery on Go in 2 hours. I consume 98% for my Grid Electricity at off-peak Go 12p and 2% at full 37.38p. Home Battery is definitely a winner. I think Home Battery without Solar PV is definitely worth anyone looking into (the downside of a battery without any PV is that you have to pay VAT on a battery-only install whereas it is Zero Rated if installed with PV). My non-EV daily usage is quite high I'm told at 9 to 16 kWh a day and yet most days I go to bed with juice in the tank. High demand of 5 kW is met by the FoESS for periods of 5 to 10 minutes then it will fall back to its nominal 3.8 kW output. The 5 kW Foxx ESS version can deliver 5 kW can boost even higher for short periods. FoxESS can support up to 8x 2.5 kWh or 2.6 kWh batteries for around 20 kWh of storage and would charge completely to 100% in 4 hours and be enough for most homes when you remember that consumption for Dishwasher and washing machine along with EV charging can still be done in the night hours of Quctpus Go's off-peak.

 

[smokie]

I keep looking at whether batteries are worthwhile and I'm quite prepared to use man maths to make it work for me, so thanks for that writeup, as our situations sound broadly similar.

In simple terms, how much did it cost and how much do you think you are saving?

 

[Babylon]

I'm not sure if pricing is per area???. So for our area my two options appear to be:
Octopus EV - which will charge us about 7p/8p more per kwh during the day, than we are currently paying but only 10p per kwh for 6 hours at night. I am not good at scheduling things so not sure I'd be great at using the dishwasher/washing machine timer and we don't have an immersion heater.
Ovo - which is the same rate as we are currently paying, my understanding is that I can charge anytime if I add the EV upgrade on we have an Indra charger which I believe can be linked.
When I look on both websites there are no other tariffs available to us
Neither of the options have an exit fee.
Also another quick question as new to all this car charging stuff, is it best to charge the car each day or just a couple of times a week, and do I charge to 80% or 100% we have aa long range MG zs.

Thankyou for all your comments so far.

 

[Jomarkh]

To get the 6 hour 10p octopus rate you need to be on IO as Go is 4 hours at 12p.
Your Indra might work with the OVO 10p add on but not with IO as it currently needs an Ohme EVSE

 

[tsedge]

I keep looking at whether batteries are worthwhile and I'm quite prepared to use man maths to make it work for me, so thanks for that writeup, as our situations sound broadly similar.

In simple terms, how much did it cost and how much do you think you are saving?

Yes, this is always the problem with battery storage: do the savings justify the outlay?

Let's say it is £7.5k for 10kWh storage installed (probably more), so that's £125/month over 5 years.

Will you save that much?
Will pay back actually be 10 years?
Will cheap off peak still exist then?
Will the battery last that long?
What return could you get on £7.5k invested for the same period?

 

[Robf]

Yes, this is always the problem with battery storage: do the savings justify the outlay?

Let's say it is £7.5k for 10kWh storage installed (probably more), so that's £125/month over 5 years.

Will you save that much?
Will pay back actually be 10 years?
Will cheap off peak still exist then?
Will the battery last that long?
What return could you get on £7.5k invested for the same period?

Home battery prices just don't make any sense for me just now, 7.5k for 10kw storage? so my MG ZS LR with say 60 kw battery using similar pricing would be 45k for batteries alone? I think home battery units are currently grossly overpriced and shall come down drastically as competition arises.

 

[tsedge]

Home battery prices just don't make any sense for me just now, 7.5k for 10kw storage? so my MG ZS LR with say 60 kw battery using similar pricing would be 45k for batteries alone? I think home battery units are currently grossly overpriced and shall come down drastically as competition arises.

Yes. There are two main reasons for high prices:

• A small battery has to do a very high number of charge/discharge cycles to last a long time, so these batteries are expensive to make.
• The market is small, little competition.

 

[Babylon]

Hi, you only get 6 hour with Intelligent Octopus at 10p and you need a compatible EVSE like the Ohme.
Octopus Go is 4 hours at 12p.
With both Octopus tariffs the whole house is at the cheap rate for 4 or 6 hours so you can timer your dishwasher and washing machine and even hot water immersion heater.

so with my indra charger I'm guessing this wouldn't be suitable ?

Hi, you only get 6 hour with Intelligent Octopus at 10p and you need a compatible EVSE like the Ohme.
Octopus Go is 4 hours at 12p.
With both Octopus tariffs the whole house is at the cheap rate for 4 or 6 hours so you can timer your D

We have an indra charger so guessing we won't be able to make use of the octopus EV tariff?

 

[Jomarkh]

We have an indra charger so guessing we won't be able to make use of the octopus EV tariff?

You can Get the Go tariff but not IO

 

[Babylon]

You can Get the Go tariff but not IO

thankyou spoke to octopus we can't switch as we are with bulb and have to wait for them to switch us to octopus. So our options are to either wait until octopus switch our account or go with OVO which after speaking to them and reading online I don't feel that confident in their customer service. Thankyou for your help its made things a bit clearer.