Fix or not?

[Murdoch]

So I have an offer from our dual fuel energy provider to have a fix for 12 months - so should we fix or stay on a variable rate?

Just wondering what the collectives thoughts are

Thanks

 

[Phoenix]

Don't fix unless you really need the certainty, we have just had one fall in the price cap, prices are suspected to fall again a little in October. Of course anything could happen, but unit rates are on their way down atm, very likely you'll be paying over the odds on a fixed tarrif in a few months time, IMHO.

I'm looking into going completely the other way... going from a normal varible tarriff to one that follows the wholesale energy price market up and downs pretty much exactly.

 

[johnb2713]

It depends how good their prices are. I dont think energy prices are going to drop significantly in the next couple of years at least, what are your exit fees like?

I would certainly recommend having a look at Octopus and their fixed tariffs which dont have any exit fees if prices were to go down. I can give you a referral code that gets us both £50 each if youre interested.

J

 

[binky]

So I have an offer from our dual fuel energy provider to have a fix for 12 months - so should we fix or stay on a variable rate?

Just wondering what the collectives thoughts are

Thanks

My general thinking on anything fixed is they they only offer such deals if they expect prices to fall lower than the offered rate. Having said that, we secured a 3 year fixed rate just before prices shit through the roof. The benefit of having an insomniac wife is she spends many hours in the middle of the night reading up on where things might go

I would certainly recommend having a look at the Martin Lewis website.

 

[Murdoch]

My general thinking on anything fixed is they they only offer such deals if they expect prices to fall lower than the offered rate. Having said that, we secured a 3 year fixed rate just before prices shit through the roof. The benefit of having an insomniac wife is she spends many hours in the middle of the night reading up on where things might go

I would certainly recommend having a look at the Martin Lewis website.

I watched the Martin Lewis Money Show this week and his view is that it probably isn't worth it in most cases, unless you need certainty about your bills.

Not too keen to move suppliers as we still have a dumb meter

 

[johnb2713]

I watched the Martin Lewis Money Show this week and his view is that it probably isn't worth it in most cases, unless you need certainty about your bills.

Sounds sensible

Not too keen to move suppliers as we still have a dumb meter

7.5p kWh tells me it's a good idea

 

[Murdoch]

7.5p kWh tells me it's a good idea

not what octopus are quoting me for dumb meter or smart meter.

 

[binky]

not what octopus are quoting me for dumb meter or smart meter.

Off peak rate for charging batteries

 

[Murdoch]

Off peak rate for charging batteries

No batteries

 

[johnb2713]

No batteries

Come on Murdoch, get a grip, beat the system

 

[MikeJhn]

If like me you have no batteries, it's still worth operating the dish washer, tumble dryer, washing machine and heating the water during to off peak time, but I think everyone does that anyway.

7.5p/kWh for off peak, what is the on peak rate?

 

[johnb2713]

If like me you have no batteries, it's still worth operating the dish washer, tumble dryer, washing machine and heating the water during to off peak time, but I think everyone does that anyway.

7.5p/kWh for off peak, what is the on peak rate?

29.56p peak but i dont use any of that.

 

[MikeJhn]

As far as I can make out that 7.5kWh rate is only available as a car charging rate?

 

[johnb2713]

As far as I can make out that 7.5kWh rate is only available as a car charging rate?

7.5p is on Intelligent which is based on a car charging rate but of course I get my whole supply at that, charge the batteries and run all day!

 

[Phoenix]

But of course you do need a compatable car or EVSE to get the tarrif, the low off peak rate is sort of a reward for allowing octopus to integrate and bring in the car charging load at the time of least demand (they promise they'll get it to the level of charge required by the time you require it, and will even give you extra low rate periods if it needs to). But when the tarrif goes to low rate, thats everything you consume during the core hours (and any extra ones it gives you) not just the subset where it pulls in the charger. I expect they will soon start looking at ways to integrate with battery systems so that these can be charged at the best time.

(And of course no one would game the system by telling the app that they need 100% in the car for a half 4 start, so it throws you a few slots between 9 and 11 the night before to run the washer, would they? especially when the integration is with the EVSE rather than car and the app for the EVSE has you to manually enter state of charge of the car as it cant communicate with the cars app.....)

 

[Oldman22]

Playing devils advocate here.
So what's stopping you installing an Octopus approved EV wallbox (charger) for lets say £500 even though you don't own an EV to then make full use of the Octopus 7.5p rate to charge your house batteries like John does, in order to run the house all day.
You could even rent out your unused charger to EV's at premium day rates
Even if you only took 6kWh a night at 7.5p rate instead of the Flux night rate, your outlay (roi) is less than 2yrs. In practice it would work out considerably less than that.

 

[johnb2713]

Eventually a charging point will be needed anyway, just stay ahead of the game it works for me at every level.

 

[BorisJ]

Playing devils advocate here.
So what's stopping you installing an Octopus approved EV wallbox (charger) for lets say £500 even though you don't own an EV to then make full use of the Octopus 7.5p rate to charge your house batteries like John does, in order to run the house all day.
You could even rent out your unused charger to EV's at premium day rates
Even if you only took 6kWh a night at 7.5p rate instead of the Flux night rate, your outlay (roi) is less than 2yrs. In practice it would work out considerably less than that.

It is not a charger, wall box, you were right first time. You could possibly rent out your WALLBOX.

 

[johnb2713]

It is not a charger, wall box, you were right first time. You could possibly rent out your WALLBOX.

Well to be really pedantic, and you do deserve it, its really electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).

 

[Phoenix]

Playing devils advocate here.
So what's stopping you installing an Octopus approved EV wallbox (charger) for lets say £500 even though you don't own an EV to then make full use of the Octopus 7.5p rate to charge your house batteries like John does, in order to run the house all day.
You could even rent out your unused charger to EV's at premium day rates
Even if you only took 6kWh a night at 7.5p rate instead of the Flux night rate, your outlay (roi) is less than 2yrs. In practice it would work out considerably less than that.

When you first go through the set up process, they set up a connection to the back end servers of the wall box (only OHME currently supported), and your app for that effectivly has ties to your octopus app for the tarrif (thats how they control when it takes a charge). Sometimes OHME will integrate with the app for the car, depending on make, for others its manual and you'll enter the model, battery size and then input SOC (state of charge) each evening, along with how much you need, and by what time in the morning. They can also see what the car is taking (most/all wallboxes have CTs) along with obviously when the car is saying its ready to accept the charge. If you don't charge car for a while, they send you an email asking you if you are having trouble, and if you need any help, I would imagine that if you never did charge the car through the system, and its not due to a issue they are helping you through, then traffic might be cancellled.

Of course its probably not impossile to build a widget to fool the charge point and have your home batteries as the 'car' but I should imagine they'll bring out a proper solution for that long term.

Some makes of car, the tariff integrates diretcly with the car meaning the wallbox does not have to be compatable.

I'm looking at going to Agile when I get the smart meter installed next month, which means you get a different price for each hour hour slot depending on supply and demand, and they provide an API and activly encourage you to explore ways to automate stuff to use the lowest rate.

Because its very windy today, for much of the day the prices are actually negative: https://agileprices.co.uk/?region=B