- This topic has 20 replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 5 months ago by
.
- Topic
Morning all
We take delivery of our first electric car next week. I am a bit perplexed and confused by the different tariffs available.?
I don’t do a huge mileage, probably around 5000 a year and the two of us are at home all day. I was going to switch to intelligent octopus but now that the day rate is higher than the usual day rate.
Is there any way I can easily find out which tariff will benefit me? As we are at home all day the only thing I can easily switch to overnight without be the washing machine.
Help!
Thanks in advance ?
- Replies
No point changing to any cheaper overnight tariff with such a low mileage and being at home all day.
There’s some sort of tariff calculator on the Octopus website which tells you which tariff would be best.
The thing with Octopus Intelligent Go is that it is Intelligent, so it will often give you the cheap rate during the day if your car is plugged in, and all your household electricity is at the cheap rate too.
Some others doing a low mileage prefer Octopus Agile which varies every half hour. It’s usually well below the standard day rate all the time and occasionally pays you to charge you car!
I don’t agree with Rhodgie that it’s not worth swapping. Some research now will result in a suitable tariff which will drastically cut your running costs
2024 - BMW i4 Grand Coupe eDrive 35 Sport
2020 - Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription
2017 - Audi Q3 TFSi Sport S-TronicWe switched onto the Octopus Intelligent Go tariff from the 12mth fixed 9 weeks ago. Last overnight charge costs – 131 miles (37.2kwh) was £2.79.
Not had to increase our DD yet and have covered over 1000 miles. Savings on running the house on cheap rate (2 fridge freezers, + stand by appliances) have helped costs. Integrates well with the Ohme app so plug in and approve on phone set for cheap rates. Our 1st EV happy with how things are going.
2024 - KIA EV6 GT Line AWD
2019 - 2024 BMW X1 2.0d X Drive Sport Auto
2017 -2019 Audi Q3 2.0d Quattro Sport Line Plus
2005 - 2017 Honda CRV Exec 2.0dOctopus intelligent Go is the best tariff, once you link up your Ohme charger to the app you can plug in at any time of the day. The app will stop your charge after a few seconds and issue you with a schedule of times it will charge your car, this will all be charged at the cheap overnight tariff. Best thing is if you make a note of the schedules your whole house is also charged at the cheap rate so stick your dishwashers and dryers on at the same time to take full advantage.
----------------------------
Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
----------------------------
Scale modeller in my spare time
----------------------------@wildgoose2 Hi, I’m in a similar situation to yourself (two of us at home all day) although doing more mileage since getting an EV last September (probably will be about 9k miles per year at current rate) You may find you’re taking more day-trips out etc when it’s costing you peanuts compared to putting petrol/diesel into an ICE!
I couldn’t find an online tool that compared tariffs and took into account EV usage, or indeed your ability to load shift. I looked the main energy providers that I could switch to with EV tariffs individually (Octopus, Ovo, EDF, and EON) and got online quotes using my annual consumption figures from my current supplier to get the standing charge and price per kWh (for both electric and gas)
I’m currently paying a fraction under 20p/kWh for electricity (fixed for 3 years back in 2021 just before prices went crazy) My fix ends in September so I’m also looking to change tariff soon, and like you, want to save without having to load shift.
On my actual usage for last month, a 2 year fix with Ovo, worked out slightly cheaper for me, so for someone currently on the price cap, I guess it would be a more significant saving. A 2 year fix could prove costly however if prices continue to fall (and a 95GBP penalty per fuel to quit early)
I’m currently thinking about giving Octopus a try first as you can get a 50GBP referral bonus, and can switch between tariffs without penalty. They also have the “Agile” tariff which does offer some cheaper daytime slots so may work out better if you’re at home all day and can plan when you’re going to use your big appliances.
Hope that gives you something to think about.
Good Luck!
Sean
Current car Hyundai Kona Ultimate EVI am on Octopus Agile so this may help.
February average cost 11.12p kWh charging the PHEV 516 miles 161.6 kWh 2.7p per mile
March average cost 8.47p kWh charging the PHEV 338 miles 115.10 3.5p per mile
The downside of Agile peak rate 16.00 -19.00.
The standard tariff I believe is 24p kWh Octopus Tracker today is 16.47p kWh, it fluctuates Dailey following the market cost like Agile however it consistently being than the standard tariff.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally say the wrong thing.
Similar mileage to us, although we would add 2-3k more charging away from home. British Gas currently have Peak Save Sunday, electricity is half price at 12p per KWH between 11am and 4pm. It’s been going on for about a year, they keep extending it, they are currently guaranteeing it till August. If you switch to BG and they stop the offer, you can switch to any other BG tariff including EV tariff without paying an exit charge.
We put dishwasher on, do two washes in washing machine, 2 dryer cycles and usually cook a roast between 11am and 4pm on a Sunday. We’ll be hoping to charge the EV as soon as it arrives. You need a smart meter and you have to register for Peak Save Sunday.It is complicated, as taffifs and rates change every few months between Energy Suppliers.
You cant pick something that was historically a better deal, as the chatges are in constant flux.
You can only try and pick the best deal when you sign up. The whole energy pricing index is totally opaque. The charges change on your geographic location
I didn’t say it wasn’t worth swapping to a different tariff, I said not worth swapping to any cheaper overnight tariff as they only increase the day time tariff and for people who are home all day this doesn’t make sense.
Check Martin Lewis Web site for advice but don’t get too hung up on it, charging from home you’ll still be a lot cheaper than running an ICE
If you can minimise your usage between 4pm and 7pm Octopus Agike is well worth a look. I have the heating set to shut off during those hours when power is expensive and our bill works out to about 15p/kwh
Plus there are times like tonight when the price goes negative so tyrn everything on and your bill goes down.
If you want to compare Octopus tariffs Octopus compare app is brilliant.
Also with Octopus you can get their home mini for free that gives real time usage every ten seconds to the app so you see exactly what’s going on at any time.
We were with go faster for 2 years when it was 15p/5p but since switching to Agile it’s quite “fun” playing the game.
Got my Octopus Mini last week, spend every day so far trying to get it to connect tom my Smart Meter. Octopus support has been fairly constant, a reply evert 48hrs or so but not telling me anything I haven’t already tried.
Last but one email asked me to try again with a full step by step guide (same as I was already doing) I tried it 4 times with no result. Emailed them back yesterday and got a less than helpful reply this morning,
“Good morning,
Thank you so much for your reply and for letting me know.
Please let me know if you have any further queries. I’d be more than happy to help.
Sending you positive energy
Raman
Energy Specialist”
Well yes, I’d like to know how to get it to work please??? My meter connects to my IHD OK so I don’t think it’s that, how about sending me another mini so I can see if that one works?
Not impressed with their answer after a week of emails going back and forth 🙁
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
Maybe it’s faulty I’ve heard of others having issues. Try returning it for replacement? Mine connected immediately so can’t help there but it was essentially immediate and easy.
If its not working I’d suggest replacing it and see
You could try emailing greg@ octopus email domain and ask for help
mini is free? do you need to request one? Or is it only certain tariffs?
Im in the process of actually paying for a zappi install as I dont really like the ohme and although I can get free, Id need to wait until November. Im moving to Intelligent Go as soon as I can, but I benefit from having solar, and 15kWh battery system so I can charge cheap / solar and export at 15p so while its more expensive than waiting until November, its a lot closer than I thought it would be, and I get a charger I like the look of 🙂
There’s some sort of tariff calculator on the Octopus website which tells you which tariff would be best. The thing with Octopus Intelligent Go is that it is Intelligent, so it will often give you the cheap rate during the day if your car is plugged in, and all your household electricity is at the cheap rate too. Some others doing a low mileage prefer Octopus Agile which varies every half hour. It’s usually well below the standard day rate all the time and occasionally pays you to charge you car! I don’t agree with Rhodgie that it’s not worth swapping. Some research now will result in a suitable tariff which will drastically cut your running costs
That’s certainly a possibility. I couldn’t find their calculator though.
Four adults live in my house, three of whom work from home. We have a fairly large 4 bed over three floors so we use a lot of electricity during the day. I also do around 16000 miles a year.
Have done some sums and it appears Octopus Tracker is best for us. It was 10 and 11p over the weekend. Tomorrow is 15p. The 34p during the day on IO would really hurt us!
I’m with ovo on energy and gas. And also switch on their ev tariff. As the car not always be at home during night so I needed a cheap ent time tariff to charge when I need it for 7p/kwh without with to night off peak time. Will see how it will work once I will get my car. My energy and gas bill for 4bed are on DD for £122 and I am £550 in credit.
Octopus mini is free you just ask for one. Might take awhile as they’re done in limited batches I waited a few months but it’s brilliant for tracking usage without putting ct clamps on circuits. Obviously it’s just total load there’s no granularity but it’s good enough.
I’d love to buy one of the mukticlamp systems but they mostly seem made for the huge US style breaker boxes not our little units
I was thinking IO but that peak unit price is horrendous when they work put our unit price each month on agile it’s usually around 15p even with eV charging Octopus compare makes Agile at least £300 a year cheaper. I guess if the house is empty all day you’d do much better off on it than that. Maybe once solar starts outputting more it’ll shift the math but it’s those blue periods that really dent the bill.
I turn the target temp up on the ASHP and put everything on lol
We have switched to intelligent octopus go. I charge the car about once a week at the moment but make use of the off peak to run the washing machine, dishwasher and as we have solar, charge our solar batteries so that during the day we use the cheaper energy in them to run the house. Last night it was interesting- the house was pulling in from the grid over 14,000w of energy to charge the car, charge the solar batteries and power the washing machine. We are only paying off peak prices as a result because we don’t pull from the grid during on peak times. 7.5p per KWH is good for us. Any excess that the sun produces on solar in the day is sold back to the grid for 15p Per KWH meaning we sell energy for double the price we pay for it. Its the standing charge that I cant do anything about.
2024 Skoda Enyaq estate- 85x Sportline plus in Race Blue. Extras: Supernova 21 inch wheels, Maxx Pack, Transport Pack, Heat Pump and Pano Sunroof.
Ordered 31/10/23, Delivery 27/3/24We’ve been on Octopus Tracker since December 23 for both Gas and Electric, gas has hovered very closely around 4p/kWh – average 4p/kWh.
Electric has averaged out at 16p/kWh. Today’s rates are around 12p/kWh (location dependant) I always put the extra charge in on cheaper days like today.
Tracker changes daily, and you can see tomorrows rates by 11am.
So if I average 4 mile p/kWh – I’m looking at 4p/mile.
Current: 2023 MG4 Trophy (soon to get rid)
Ordered: VW ID4 Match Pro 210kw 77kWh [Blue Dusk] Expected August!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.