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Anyone on this tariff? How's it working out?
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I was on it from 28 April till 21 October last year. It was much cheaper over that period but Agile rates started to rise, and almost every day since then has been more expensive for me.
Maybe not surprisingly to most I have a program on a Pi which each day downloads my half hourly electricity and gas usage/cost, which means I can compare and do "what if" fairly easily to compare costs. I lost interest in the minute detail of it a while back though :-)
Wholesale electricity (and therefore Agile tariff) is starting to come down again and I expect I will be back on it by about April - but there are number of factors causing the higher prices, not all of which will resolved particularly quickly.
The tariff means you really have to minimise usage between 4pm and 7pm, which isn't ideal for many, as the tariff is capped at 35p per unit at that time. It has been hitting it mostly recently too, though back in the summer it was reaching maybe 25p - I have the detail if you are interested.
Generally we didn't worry too much about when we used power outside that time, but we were previously (and are now) on the Go tariff which gives you 5p for 4 hrs overnight, so that's when the car gets charged and the dishwasher runs (and sometimes the washing machine and tumble dryer).
Of course having solar panels complicates it a bit as you may generate enough to have effectively free electricity during the day. And having some home batteries you could charge at the lowest rates to use at the peak rates.
So my real figures incl VAT but ignoring standing charges - 14 June - 10 November
Usage 2114 units - Agile cost £162.76 (7.7p per unit) - Go cost - £244.07 (11.5p per unit)
Usage since 10 November
Usage 1732 units - Agile cost £237.04 (13.68p per unit) - Go cost - £199.56 (11.5p per unit)
(Of course my usage profile changed a bit when we went back onto Go and were able to not worry at all about the cost at that time, which is good)
In the summer you get the occasional negative price when they pay you to take money from the grid. It happened in 208 separate half hours while I was on Agile resulting in payments to me of a whole £3.58 - but then I am just an amateur compared to those who heat their hot tub, boil kettles, charge the neighbourhoods cars, put electric fires in the garden etc :-)
Anyway that's enough to be getting on with...
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 8 Mar 21 at 19:28
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Very interesting. Thanks.
So I take it apart from the car, which I guess you get to put itself on at night (??) you don’t switch anything else automatically on or off?
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Overnight stuff like dishwasher, washing machine. They are on WiFi switches but are just set for 00:30 now I'm on Go.
But in Home Assistant on the Pi, someone has written a neat module to turn individual items off and on according to cheapest period. You define whether it needs a contiguous period (e.g. dishwasher) or can go on and off sporadically (e.g. car charging). Then you tell it how many 30 minute windows it needs, and it works out the cheapest contiguous window within your specified timeframe ( - rates are announced at 4pm each day), or cheapest x slots over the next y hours and turns your device on and off accordingly.
I tried it with the car but unfortunately the car beeps when the power comes on which is no good multiple times in the middle of the night. The SONOFF switches are not man enough to cope with the continuous heavy current used for car charging, so I wired it up to a contacter which actually does the switching of the circuit.
Of course on the Go tariff I just set stuff to not start before 00:30 and/or end by 04:30 ( - on my car the delayed charge is done by end time not start time - the tumble dryer is the same but the washing machine you set to start at a particular time).
Of course some devices will be in an Off state if the power comes on so it wouldn't work with them but I was lucky as all of ours come on in the state they were in when the power went off. So (e.g.) I set the dishwasher going then say "Hey Google, dishwasher off" and the Home Assistant turns on the WiFi switch at whatever time. I imagine more recent devices have WiFi built in - I recently bought a panel heater I could control from it if I wanted..
On the Go tariff you still see your consumption for each 30 minutes via the API (and on your bill, and on your Octopus portal). The API data to midnight is usually available next morning.
People have done some very fancy displays using Grafana and ?Influx?, but I'm not where I'd put a display of my live electricity tariff. Others also analyse it much more than I have -mapping the minute by minute power usage of appliances to optimise their use. Must only save pennies though.
You can't see you consumption live except for visually on an in-home display. No programmatic access till overnight data is available (though there is a Hildebrand product which I think gives something additional).
There are different flavours of Go. the 4 hour cheap window is the original one but there are now 2 others, with longer windows (as I suppose car charging takes longer?). Their costs are a little higher. My own savings would be far greater if I were charging the car but as we're going nowhere that doesn't happen often.
You can switch between tariffs fairly readily but no further changes to different Smart tariffs within 30 days.
The gas tracker tariff was also VERY cheap over the summer but rose above the fixed tariff in the winter. I'll be back on that for summer.
A glance at tomorrow's Agile tariff tells me it's not really time for me to look at moving back. Overall it is getting better but the inconvenience of not having to minimise usage in the 16:00 - 19:00 period is worth a few bob to me. Easier to do in the summer.
If anyone wants to move to Octopus for Agile or an other tariff drop me a line as we would both get £50 intro fee :-)
On the Home Assistant - I've got maybe 20 device switches and 8 or 9 lights configured on the but I don't do a lot with that which you couldn't do with the manufacturer software or Google Home (or Alexa). I can display the Home Assistant control panel onto the Google screen in the kitchen but we mostly use voice control anyway, or a few automations (lights turning on 45 minutes before dusk, that kind of thing). I have some motion sensors and also a light measuring device but she isn't keen on any of them, and I've not yet really found a useful purpose for the humidity sensor. The door sensors aren't yet installed either cos I'm not sure what I want to do when a door is opened. Some people turn off the radiators in a room if a window is opened, and automatically water plants when the soil gets too dry. Can't be bothered :-)
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Hope this isn't too much of a thread drift...
If a supplier can switch tariffs so quickly, I wonder if it is feasibly possible to have a market where your meter is really smart and hunts for the best tariff from all suppliers at that time and switches you to that for the time you want to be on it.
It's no different in my mind to driving home and passing the petrol station where it's £1.30 a litre to go to the one where it's £1.10 a litre. Just because I had filled up the first station before, there is no reason to shop there again unless it is necessary - i.e. almost out of fuel or the price gets better.
It could be interesting if the home energy market worked in the same way.
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>If a supplier can switch tariffs so quickly,..
What, like switching bank accounts you mean?
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>> >If a supplier can switch tariffs so quickly,..
>>
>> What, like switching bank accounts you mean?
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Tariffs was the wrong word. Apologies. What I meant was the rate per kw/h. Octopus publish the rates daily at 4PM AIUI.
If the others did the same your smart meter could pick the appropriate supplier from the table for anticipate electricity usage for each half hour slot.
For example:
00:00 - 00:30 Octopus
00:31 - 01:00 SSE
etc.
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>> If the others did the same your smart meter could pick the appropriate supplier from
>> the table for anticipate electricity usage for each half hour slot.
>>
>> For example:
>>
>> 00:00 - 00:30 Octopus
>> 00:31 - 01:00 SSE
>>
>> etc.
ok so who bills you?
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>>
>> ok so who bills you?
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...if my general experience of changing suppliers is anything to go by - both of them......
(I've just renewed with Octopus, but on a fixed dual-fuel tariff. A year's experience of just about the cheapest quote for my area and (once it had settled down after a few weeks) very efficient, simple and informative billing didn't give me much incentive to change (given the new tariff is slightly more expensive, but still very competitive). The fact that there are no exit penalties helped to make it a no-brainer (quite appropriate in my case ;-) ))
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Being pedantic, the tariff isn't changing but the cost varies through the day. Economy 7 has been around for yonks but smart meters have enabled more granular cost changes. Technically what you are suggesting may be feasible, as it's effectively the same electricity whoever you pay*, and it'd be all fine and dandy for the consumer, but it's not a very sustainable business model.
*but of course fully green electricity companies have paid for an equivalent amount of green electricity to be supplied for their customers.
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I understood very little of that.
I light the multi fuel stove at night if warranted. My CH is timed to come on for an hour in the AM, and hour in the evening. When it’s cold I put on a long sleeved merino Base layer and close the windows. And wear a heavier fleece. Maybe a short session of star jumps and ‘fast feet’.
The washing machine is run when it’s full. 40C short wash for everything.
Smokie, I think I relate more to Fred Flintstone than you.
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When the time comes I have to use stop watches to use my domestic appliances and turn on lights, to save 30 quid a year, I am off to dignitas.
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Bagsy first dabs on your Beemer please.
I know your comment was TIC, I think, we all have our interests and nothing wrong with smokies measurement of energy consumption, purchase etc.
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>> When the time comes I have to use stop watches to use my domestic appliances
>> and turn on lights, to save 30 quid a year, I am off to dignitas.
>>
>>
That made me laugh, very good :)
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>> When the time comes I have to use stop watches to use my domestic appliances
>> and turn on lights, to save 30 quid a year, I am off to dignitas.
>>
>>
Particularly when to save £30 you have spend hundreds of pounds on home automation and a new MacBook to run it all on ;)
Anyway, Octopus Energy are off my list since last week, when I got a sales call on my mobile from them.
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@LL ....but then it was written for someone who would understand it, not you!! :-)
Goes without saying for Zero (but I'll say it anyway) that it was a fun technical challenge for me, a new programming language with a real purpose, and a bunch of tech toys to play with. I grew out of caravanning years ago :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 9 Mar 21 at 09:17
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>> of tech toys to play with. I grew out of caravanning years ago :-)
But the multipurpose activity camping vehicle is providing a fantastic lab. It came with GPS and 4g module, environmental monitor, bluetooth all connected to a can bus, you can control heating and lighting and get environmental reports on your phone app.
It now has a mifi hotspot, automatic/remote controlled fridge exhaust fans, (proud of that little self designed conversion) security webcam, smart streaming TV (+ freeviw and satellite) remote tyre pressure and temp monitoring in the vehicle, loads of cool stuff.
Next mods are bluetooth water level monitoring for fresh and waste, and temperature controlled mood lighting - This is stunning seen it in use in a campervan, and it worked. As the temperature Vries you adjust the colour of the lights. Warm end of spectrum when its colder and the colder end when its warm - and it really fools the brain about how you view the environment.
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Impressive for a caravan :-)
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>> Impressive for a caravan :-)
I keep getting the title wrong. Officially its a "crossover camping vehicle"
Oh and did I mention fun with exterior decals?
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...one of these days, he might even go away in it....
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>> But the multipurpose activity camping vehicle is providing a fantastic lab...
Now we all know Walter White hangs out here on C4P hiding under the alias "Zero". i.e nothing to see here...
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>..a new programming language with a real purpose,
Python? Python!!?
A language that includes left-hand whitespace as part of it's syntax for Glub's sake!
I'd hoped never to see that again.
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If you’re going all technical, I’ve recently bought a phdesigns Minim 350 down sleeping bag.
Good down to -2C, Weight 620g with 900 fillpower European goose down, Ultrashell water resistant outer and packs down to 13x21cm. £393 in the sale...but paid extra for the short zip.
Perfect for my next backpacking & wild camping jaunt along another stretch of the Wales Coast Path. Top quality, very occasionally bought outdoor gear is my dirty little secret.
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...the difference being, LL, someone was interested and asked about Agile but no-one at all has ever ever asked about sleeping bags LOL
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>> If you’re going all technical, I’ve recently bought a phdesigns Minim 350 down sleeping bag.
>> Good down to -2C, Weight 620g with 900 fillpower European goose down, Ultrashell water resistant
>> outer and packs down to 13x21cm. £393 in the sale...but paid extra for the short
>> zip.
And the day I have to worry about how warm my sleeping bag is and how much it weighs will be another reason to book my premature appointment at Dignitas.
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...you don't intend really using it as a multipurpose activity camping vehicle, then......
(Just a base for your electronic experiments)
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>> ...you don't intend really using it as a multipurpose activity camping vehicle, then......
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>> (Just a base for your electronic experiments)
You can do both glasshopper........
to date it has 5 trips bopoked this year, and thats without any weekend dogs shows and only up till the end of august......who knows what autumn will bring.....
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...only 5?
I've got 31 nights booked before mid-July (though god knows whether any or all of them will end up being allowed).
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>> ...only 5?
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>> I've got 31 nights booked before mid-July (though god knows whether any or all of
>> them will end up being allowed).
Mine amounts to 30 nights, and if we stick to coming out of lockdown plan, all legal
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Octopus Agile Energy - smokie