I received an email, allegedly from Octopus offering free electricity tomorrow. When I try to agree to it, I get an error message:
Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later
Is it some kind of scam?
Octopus email:
Our first Free Electricity session is Thursday 15 August from 1-2pm.
To take part, all you need to do is sign up before 1pm tomorrow, then get ready to power up. If you're reading this email, you're definitely eligible.
Free Electricity... what's the catch?
During these super-green sessions, all the electricity you'd normally use will cost the same. Any extra power you use won't cost a thing. That means you can go to town on all those electricity-hungry household tasks, knowing you won't clock up a big bill afterwards.
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I got this. Clicked the link, was accepted.
Trouble is, there's not much I can do tomorrow between 1 and 2 pm to take advantage.
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No it isn't a scam, assuming you are an Octopus customer.
They are probably trying to reduce curtailment costs. The 30 min Agile tariff is bobbling around 3 - 5p a unit between 12 and 3, which is reasonably unusual ina summer weekday daytime and is an indicator that over-production is anticipated.
Do you use a VPN? That often causes he kind of error you are seeing. Temporarily disable it if you have.
Note the "free" only relates to usage over your "normal" usage during the same period (I think over the past 4 weeks).
At normal tariff rates, had I been here, I could have put about £1.20 worth of juice into the EV in an hour which would hardly make me a millionaire but without an EV you'd not really get a lot from it. Mind you, most days atm I'm only using about 80 - 90p in total so it's a free day effectively. Great headline for Octopus though!! :-)
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>> Note the "free" only relates to usage over your "normal" usage during the same period
>> (I think over the past 4 weeks).
Are you sure about that? I know that’s the inverse of the winter savings sessions charging model, but a cursory glance (I got the email too) made me think everything was free.
I signed up, thinking “this is odd, we usually get two to three hours free”, and then realised this is different to the “power hours” we regularly get. Sure enough, a few minutes later we got our power hours email, which runs from 1pm to 3:30 today. Everything in power hours is definitely free.
Might not be here to plug the car in, so I’ll put the dishwasher and washing machine on their timers at least.
I appreciate not everyone gets power hours. It started as just East of England, but they said it would extend elsewhere in due course. Dunno if they’ve done that yet.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 15 Aug 24 at 07:13
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I take it that you have to have a smart meter to get these free hours?
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>> I take it that you have to have a smart meter to get these free
>> hours?
>>
I guess so. I haven't had the offer, and I don't have a smart meter.
Anyone won a £1 or more on their Wheel of fortune?
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Yes i won £1 this year. My only win!
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This page says "The electricity you’d normally use will cost the same, any extra power you use will be free. "
octopus.energy/free-electricity/
I've won £1 too. Can't find the Wheel of Fortune, I think I must be due a spin or two!! EDIT: Found it and just another 8 points twice.
You need to be signed up for Octoplus which I believe depends on having a smart tariff.
btw this reminded me that I did read on another forum that it's worth submitting a manual reading once in a while even from a smart meter. Can help if your billing later goes into dispute apparently.
Last edited by: smokie on Thu 15 Aug 24 at 08:42
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I think I'll give the cannabis plants a bit of a treat....... ;-)
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>> I think I'll give the cannabis plants a bit of a treat....... ;-)
The pros hook it up to next doors supply.
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You need to be signed up for Octoplus which I believe depends on having a
>> smart tariff.
>>
>
Ah no good to me then.
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>> You need to be signed up for Octoplus which I believe depends on having a
>> smart tariff.
I've a smart meter, but I'm not on a smart tariff and was offered the free electricity. I've managed to sign up for it this morning (I think). Clicking on the link today took me to a different page.
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>>Anyone won a £1 or more on their Wheel of fortune?
All I get is a measly 1p each time.
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There are 12 segments on the wheel of fortune.
Half of the segments are for 8 points. I have been spinning the wheels every month for gas and electricity for about 2 years and have never won anything other than 8 points.
I smell a rat. :-D
Last edited by: zippy on Thu 15 Aug 24 at 13:19
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I won a quid a couple of months ago. I’ve been with them a bit over a year so have paid well over £2k.
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I've only ever had a quid too. It's £1 more than I've ever had off anyone else.
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Most I’ve ever won is 8p.
But then again, they chucked me £8 yesterday for accumulated power hour credits, actually during another 2.5 hour free electricity power hour session, and also immediately mailed me for another power hour session of 2.5 hours today, so can’t complain. I guess we get the sessions about three or four times a month, without looking.
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Managed to get 9 kWh out of them for free yesterday and then sold it back at 30p/kWh, so quite pleased with that. Been with them for two years and in that entire time I've never paid anything into my account, even with an EV, because the export offsets it all.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Fri 16 Aug 24 at 21:16
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There is another session tomorrow (Sunday) between 13:00 and 14:00
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And again tomorrow, Wednesday 21st August, 1 - 2 pm.
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It's cheaper than free on the Agile tariff again. Between 10:30 and 15:30 my most expensive elec is -0.44p and the cheapest is -0.62p :-)
Shame I charged the car to 70% at an average of about 5.5p om Sunday :-(
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25 kWh into the car for the princely sum of minus 0.12p :-)
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Pete @ Octopus has just informed me I used an extra 2p's worth of free electricity on Thursday 15th August.
Gives you a warm glow all over, doesn't it?
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Look after the pfennigs ...
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I was 2p too!!
I just remembered during today's plunge pricing that I have an immersion heater so will use that next time (also when price is negative)
Last edited by: smokie on Thu 22 Aug 24 at 19:35
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"I just remembered during today's plunge pricing that I have an immersion heater..."
Damn!
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And again, as per this e-mail I received:
__________
Hi James,
It looks like there will be plenty of green energy in the system tomorrow, so you get a Free Electricity session.
Fill your boots on Saturday 31 August: 1-2pm.
During the hour, you'll only pay for the electricity you'd normally use at this time. Any extra you use will be completely free! See our FAQs for more info.
You don't need to opt in, or do anything else: just get ready to power up.
Within 14 days, we'll credit your account for any Free Electricity you used and you'll be able to check how much you got on your Octoplus dashboard.
Share on social tagging #FreeElectricity to show us how you're switching on and making the most of the green energy surplus.
Love and power,
Pete Miller
Head of Customer Experience
_______________
Must remember to switch on the immersion heater...
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What will you do with the money you save? I reckon it should almost be enough to buy a bag of crisps.
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I'm aiming for 3p this time.
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This is the future - green energy (solar and wind) is weather dependant and generation variable.
With smart meters it charges can reflect current demand and supply dynamics. The benefits will go to those who can fully optimise their own consumption.
Surplus energy at low cost could charge domestic batteries, switch on appliances to operate when prices are low, charge the EV etc.
A few pence saved here and there may seem trivial - but over a year the IT and systems literate may save a large part of their total energy costs - possibly £500+.
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The car will take about 6kw in an hour. my usually summer usage at that time is near zero but the cheapo tariff I'm on is only 9.3/8.16 for the two half hours involved.
And we have one load of washing to do. And I'll stick the immersion on, though that's not much of an earner when the sun is good (spare solar goes there). However I might make the bag of crisps!!
So maybe I'll save 6kWh
The other way of looking at it is it gives me a fairly free day as most days I only use 6 - 9 kWh tops at the moment (except when charging the car).
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Octopus have informed me I used £1.23 of free electricity over the four periods!
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Cos of the way it worked out I only saved about 80p. They average out your use over the same periods preceding the event. One week I had negative priced electricity so I'd maxed out on car charging which killed my average. And at the times of the events my eccy price was low (or negative) anyway so the payback was small.
Hardly worth bothering for me!!
Still my average cost per kWh for Aug is 6.99p which isn't bad (472kWh)
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Well, I managed a LOT more than 3p.
It was 22p!
I remembered to switch on the immersion heater this time.
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Confucious he say "Every little helps!!"
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Just won 2 x 800 points! Once for electricity and once for gas.
So I now have over 5000 points worth about £6! Champagne tonight.
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Presume on the wheel of fortune?
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>> Presume on the wheel of fortune?
>>
Yep! :-D
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Best put that £6 towards the 10% rise in your energy bill yesterday.
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Conversely, just won my usual 2p.
Ah well, there’s another three hours of free today, I’ll try to make the best of it.
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Isnt this all a little bit, err. autistic?
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I wasn't invited to the "free" session because my SMETS1 smart meter has gone dumb again.
It's a RPITA as it does this regularly.
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Greg's latest mail on power hours said they wouldn't invite each time, if you're already enrolled. As far as I can see the last free session was 14 Sept. I don't think a meter going dumb would prevent the invitation emails going out anyway, if they did!
However the session mentioned was 3 hours so maybe more likely to be a Power Up, which are regional and mainly only affect postcodes close-ish to generation AIUI.
What makes you think it's gone dumb? Can you not see your usage in your dashboard?
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 4 Oct 24 at 09:24
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>> What makes you think it's gone dumb? Can you not see your usage in your
>> dashboard?
>>
Three reasons:
The In Home Device isn't displaying any usage.
The dashboard on the Octopus website doesn't show any readings and hasn't done for a few weeks.
I have contacted them and they confirm that they are not receiving data.
The gas meter has never been sending data reliably and the electricity meter is now playing up.
Apparently there is no obligation to fix these issues.
Last edited by: zippy on Fri 4 Oct 24 at 10:08
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Fair enough. I think there are lights and things to look at on the meter to work out it's status but I don't know the detail.
I understand the meters hold a years worth of data. Some people feel they've been hard done by when this happens as if they really can't get any reading there is an industry formula to tell them how much to charge, not related to your personal use at all.
There is another site which sometimes seems to have data when Octopus doesn't - www.n3rgy.com/consumer/ - though it isn't working right for me for electricity. Unlikely to have yours either if your comms had really gone.
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Having been on the Smart Export Guarantee with Octopus since Monday, I've been credited with £3.37 up to yesterday. And apart from yesterday itself it hasn't been a particularly sunny week.
The Robin O'Reliant Energy Producing Company could be in line for a bit of a killing if we have a warm summer next year.
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Sounds like a lot, are you on the 15p export rate? Must be quite a large array. Also quite new?
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>> Sounds like a lot, are you on the 15p export rate? Must be quite a
>> large array. Also quite new?
>>
Yes, I chose the 15p fixed tariff. We have ten panels, installed at the beginning of August.
We are lucky here as being on the west coast we catch quite a bit of afternoon sun.
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I'm using the Loop app. Twice the data has stopped. At the same time my bills were being estimated. On each occasion I contacted Loop support and they got it working again.
I can't get out of them how they did it.
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Free electricity tomorrow 15/8/24 - James Loveless
