This is getting ridiculous (energy prices - Strictly NO referrals!)

[Nemiyen]

A silly question but how does the price cap work if you have a different energy supplier for gas and electricity? Is there a separate cap for each or will they combine both usages?

The energy cap is on the unit prices and the standing charge to some extent.

You can use as much as you want and your bill could be £30,000. Your cap will apply to both companies for gas and electric so you shouldn't need to worry.

I would check it to be sure but the cap is government approved / funded so unless your suppliers make a mistake, you'll be on the cap for both gas and electric.

 

[Azza]

Just had an email from Octopus re Tracker and I assume it's the same for Agile.

As an Octopus Tracker customer, the Energy Price Guarantee will reduce your prices whenever they are above the capped rates

From October 1, your dynamic unit rates will be discounted whenever they are above the Energy Price Guarantee rates. You don’t need to do anything — this will be handled automatically.

Now, this is going to get complicated, so you might like to grab a cuppa before reading on…

On fixed term tariffs, the Energy Price Guarantee discounts electricity unit rates above an average of 34p / kWh — the actual number varies in different areas — to bring them down to that price, but with a maximum discount of 17p / kWh (although that’s another average that varies by region).

Essentially, this means:

If your dynamic unit rate is less than 34p / kWh — congrats, you’re getting a better price than most

If your dynamic unit rate is 34-52p / kWh, it will be discounted to 34p / kWh automatically

If your dynamic unit rate is above 52p / kWh, it will be discounted by 17p automatically — so 78p / kWh will be reduced to 61p / kWh

The same applies for gas, but the average cap is 10.3p / kWh and the average maximum discount is 4.2p / kWh.

Now if they'd actually switch my gas to the tracker as I originally requested that would be very appreciated..

 

[dante6491]

Pretty much as expected. Even though my day rate is slightly above the cap at 35.05p on Go, with the night rate as well it still looks like I'm going to save between £70-90 over the year by sticking to it. Time to get the calculator out and figure out the payoff time for some batteries! (Edit: ~£1.5k/year saved if I managed to switch all my usage to the 7.5p overnight rate. That makes the payoff period around 3-4 years depending on battery size?)

Disappointing there is still no info about the Tracker tariff though, even if it was just a "we're not doing anything with it" so we can make an decision based on facts rather than a random guess >_<

Just looking at my daily usage when I charge my Hybrid (7kwh battery). I tend to use 14kwh a day of which half is the car. Car charging works out at 53.25p and other daily usage 281.1p - £3.37. If I was to use 14kwh on the 34p cap it works out at £4.76. These are at 34p cap, 7.5p overnight and 40.75p day rate.

As long as I charge my car twice a week, Octopus Go works out cheaper (by 42p)

 

[krooton]

Did my first bit of testing yesterday.

Turned all central heating on full whack, all radiators, for an hour.

Boiler set at the 'E' dial, which is apparently the economy baseline for 25ºC.

That hour used 12kWh worth of gas, roughly 80p.

Following on playing around with things more, and I fully accept it isn't 100% accurate due to outside temps and what have you.

Baseline hot water gas usage has averaged 8kWh per day so far this month, and my previous 'test' of the central heating being on full whack everywhere for an hour came in at around 12kWH.

This week I have had JUST the en-suite towel rad on, for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening (to help dry out the towels more), and that has added 2kWh per day on average.

Funnily enough, there are 12 rads in total across the house, so for this to use 1kW per hour (a 12th of the full-house usage), is rather coincidental, as the rads are various sizes.

 

[SaBBz]

I'm still none the wiser. Currently set for for Eon Next v19 to kick in on the 6 Oct, after customer services informed me to wait before switching to SVR. Now have multiple DD payments setup. Agree, seems sensible to submit readings today (if you can)!

I was on v17 and cancelled as the rates were more than the EPG reduction above the 1st October SVT pricing.

 

[BigChin1]

"The same applies for gas, but the average cap is 10.3p / kWh and the average maximum discount is 4.2p / kWh."

So for those on "Tracker July 2022 v1" with the 16p cap, the new cap is effectively 11.8p. Fair enough.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Following on playing around with things more, and I fully accept it isn't 100% accurate due to outside temps and what have you.

Baseline hot water gas usage has averaged 8kWh per day so far this month, and my previous 'test' of the central heating being on full whack everywhere for an hour came in at around 12kWH.

This week I have had JUST the en-suite towel rad on, for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening (to help dry out the towels more), and that has added 2kWh per day on average.

Funnily enough, there are 12 rads in total across the house, so for this to use 1kW per hour (a 12th of the full-house usage), is rather coincidental, as the rads are various sizes.

There will be considerable losses with heating the system up and from the pipes under the floors. When you have all your rads on, your towel rad will not be consuming 1/12 as they usually have pretty low heat outputs compared to a proper radiator of a similar size.

 

[Haggisman]

So for those on "Tracker July 2022 v1" with the 16p cap, the new cap is effectively 11.8p. Fair enough.

Hmm, so for me that's an extra ~£100 over the year if the rate stays at the cap... what to do?

 

[BigChin1]

Hmm, so for me that's an extra ~£100 over the year if the rate stays at the cap... what to do?

It's a toss up, I'm inclined to take the gamble. I might lose £100-£150. But I could win..

 

[jpaul]

but it's a gas tracker so it will have some variation, and hopefully be less than the (tracker) 11.8p cap ?

(OTOH Octopus Agile tarif must be dead in the water if that remains stuck over 40p Kw/h electric, unless you are offsetting with feed in)

Baseline hot water gas usage has averaged 8kWh per day so far this month, and my previous 'test' of the central heating being on full whack everywhere for an hour came in at around 12kWH.

This week I have had JUST the en-suite towel rad on, for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening (to help dry out the towels more), and that has added 2kWh per day on average.

Funnily enough, there are 12 rads in total across the house, so for this to use 1kW per hour (a 12th of the full-house usage), is rather coincidental, as the rads are various sizes.

seems like a massive heating energy consumption/hour for a house that is stabilized at 20C, or so; if you heated it from 9->20C maybe you need 12KWh

 

[krooton]

seems like a massive heating energy consumption/hour for a house that is stabilized at 20C, or so; if you heated it from 9->20C maybe you need 12KWh

When I did the all-rad test it was 16ºC outside, and had the rads all targeting 25ºC, which they never got to as we also had some windows open.

 

[robj20]

Doing well for this month £67.62 for September.

 

[Haggisman]

It's a toss up, I'm inclined to take the gamble. I might lose £100-£150. But I could win..

Yeah, that's the way I'm leaning as well, it's just considering whether it ends up stuck at the cap when demand picks up over winter.

 

[Electroshadow]

Does anyone else use way in excess of the average household amounts?
we seem to average between 21 - 27kw of electricity usage a day, now lights and goods are switched off when not in use and, to be honest, large electric usage has always seemed the norm.
I'm just interested to know how people manage these super low usages.

 

[HungryHippos]

Does anyone else use way in excess of the average household amounts?
we seem to average between 21 - 27kw of electricity usage a day, now lights and goods are switched off when not in use and, to be honest, large electric usage has always seemed the norm.
I'm just interested to know how people manage these super low usages.

21-27 is extremely high, what are you running?

That is the same as using 1KW all the time as a base load.

 

[Electroshadow]

pretty sure the base load of the house was 400 - 600w last time I tested a year ago.

to be honest just normal living:
daily showers
oven/ microwave usage, kettle, coffee machine (probably this lol)
Fridge/freezer (uses nothing practically)
washing machine every other day and likely along with tumble dryer (heat pump)
Computers are on a lot due to working from home
TV couple hours a night

now admittedly I do still have my hot tub running at the moment and I have done for years as its regularly monitored, with it off I only save 5KW of usage. Now even with that off i tend to have high usage.
possibly thinking the neighbors are connected up as they were connected to my water usage! £400 quarters on water anyone i practically paid for watering their new lawn and garden for a year after cutting them off £40

 

[Gixer]

I'm still none the wiser. Currently set for for Eon Next v19 to kick in on the 6 Oct, after customer services informed me to wait before switching to SVR. Now have multiple DD payments setup. Agree, seems sensible to submit readings today (if you can)!

I emailed Eon again two days ago for clarification of what my rates will be on October 6th when Eon Next V19 kicks in. I've heard nothing back as of yet. I read the below statement in one of Eon's blogs which I think does mean that our unit price will match that of those on an SVR tariff as it not only mentions the discount but goes on to state they will bring prices down to be in line with the £2500 average threshold. Have a read, see if you agree.

For the small number of customers who fixed at a high rate exceeding the October Ofgem price cap of £3,549 (£3,674 paying on receipt of bill), they will receive the full discount of 16.998p for electricity and 4.2p for gas. To make sure that those customers also benefit from the EPG we will bring their fixed price down to be in line with the government £2,500 average threshold.

 

[Surveyor]

I emailed Eon again two days ago for clarification of what my rates will be on October 6th when Eon Next V19 kicks in. I've heard nothing back as of yet. I read the below statement in one of Eon's blogs which I think does mean that our unit price will match that of those on an SVR tariff as it not only mentions the discount but goes on to state they will bring prices down to be in line with the £2500 average threshold. Have a read, see if you agree.

For the small number of customers who fixed at a high rate exceeding the October Ofgem price cap of £3,549 (£3,674 paying on receipt of bill), they will receive the full discount of 16.998p for electricity and 4.2p for gas. To make sure that those customers also benefit from the EPG we will bring their fixed price down to be in line with the government £2,500 average threshold.

If they're double discounting to get you down to the Energy Price Guarantee it's more than they're required to do. Perhaps it's less hassle than having everyone on Eon Next V19 switch to the SVR.

 

[HungryHippos]

pretty sure the base load of the house was 400 - 600w last time I tested a year ago.

to be honest just normal living:
daily showers
oven/ microwave usage, kettle, coffee machine (probably this lol)
Fridge/freezer (uses nothing practically)
washing machine every other day and likely along with tumble dryer (heat pump)
Computers are on a lot due to working from home
TV couple hours a night

now admittedly I do still have my hot tub running at the moment and I have done for years as its regularly monitored, with it off I only save 5KW of usage. Now even with that off i tend to have high usage.
possibly thinking the neighbors are connected up as they were connected to my water usage! £400 quarters on water anyone i practically paid for watering their new lawn and garden for a year after cutting them off £40

Look at getting a smart meter or something, so you can visualize usage through the day in more detail.

Hot tub will be chomping it, is it really necessary? can you mothball it?

5kwh for the hot tub per day and it's £620 for the year at £0.34/kwh.

You'd definitely be a good candidate for a solar install!

 

[Gixer]

If they're double discounting to get you down to the Energy Price Guarantee it's more than they're required to do. Perhaps it's less hassle than having everyone on Eon Next V19 switch to the SVR.

This is what I want confirmed. It makes most sense, for all, and I hope is the case.