Posted by: @jamespa

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Posted by: @editor

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I’d be interested to hear the feedback and consensus on the tariffs we discussed recently and if you agree:

I watched it.  I found it an interesting discussion but Im not sure how much sense it would make to someone coming at this from a 'standing start'.  Thats largely, I think, a feature of the format.  An unscripted discussion between several people is not particularly good, in my opinion, at conveying the comparative information between different tariffs and for whom they may be good/poor.  Obviously thats just a personal opinion but I could imagine coming away confused rather than enlightened.  It might be worth trying to get some feedback from some people who havent given lots of thought to the matter in advance.

In answer to the question in the title I'm currently on EON Next Drive.  This gives 7 hours Midnight - 7am at 6.7p/kWh in return for about a 10% uplift on the day rate.  Its fixed price for one year until Dec 2025

The reasons for choosing this were:

• I dont have a battery (and cant make the business case pay to get one) but I do have solar panels
• I do have an EV.  The cheap rate period applies to whole consumption but they reserve the right to check if you have an EV
• The tarrif is simple so I dont need complex automations, special hardware or a battery to take advantage of it - unlike the current Octopus offerings
• Because the night time import rate is less than the export rate, I dont have to consider using excess solar power to 'displace' consumption that otherwise could be postponed to night time.  So Year-round I can just put on my EV and high capacity items at night wherever I can and it will work out cheaper even though I am self-consuming less
• Although I could get my heat pump energy cheaper (15p/kWh) with the OvO heat pump add on, once I take into account the cost for charging the EV and OVOs very low export rate, the EON tarrif works out cheaper overall

My average unit rate excluding the energy used by my EV and ignoring the solar panels - ie assuming all electricity used is imported, works out at 19.3p.  To calculate this figure I first allocate all energy used by the EV to the cheap rate (because its only charged between midnight and 7am) and then work out the average for the rest.

So it works for me which doesn't mean it works for anyone else!

Im assuming that I may well have to switch suppliers every year until tariff patterns stabilise!

Interesting to hear how that works for you.

We have a heat pump and solar, but no battery and we are on Octopus Cosy.

We load shift as much as possible into the three cheap rate Cosy slots, and minimise usage at peak rate times. We operate an overnight switch off for the heat pump (and off between peak rate 4-7pm).

Our average import price over winter (Dec-Feb) has been ~19-20p so identical to @jamespa above despite our very different tariffs and approaches.

As we don't have an EV, the very cheap overnight tariffs are not available to use, but I don't think they'd work so well for us anyway. The heat pump is the major use for us, and I want less heat overnight when it's cheap, not more, so without a battery (or EV) I'm not sure we could make that work.

We had previously been on Octopus Agile, but moved away from that as prices increased in December. I agree with @jamespa point above about not needing complex automations, and have found the Cosy tariff far easier to manage with the 3 regular cheap rate slots.

We try to stay on top of tariff developments, as that seems to have the most affect on our bills, more so than any running tweaks or performance/efficiency changes we can make to the running of heat pump (assuming it's already running reasonably well)

Posted by: @old_scientist

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Interesting to hear how [EON Next Drive] that works for you.

We have a heat pump and solar, but no battery and we are on Octopus Cosy.

We load shift as much as possible into the three cheap rate Cosy slots, and minimise usage at peak rate times. We operate an overnight switch off for the heat pump (and off between peak rate 4-7pm).

Our average import price over winter (Dec-Feb) has been ~19-20p so identical to @jamespa above despite our very different tariffs and approaches.

As we don't have an EV, the very cheap overnight tariffs are not available to use, but I don't think they'd work so well for us anyway. The heat pump is the major use for us, and I want less heat overnight when it's cheap, not more, so without a battery (or EV) I'm not sure we could make that work.

We had previously been on Octopus Agile, but moved away from that as prices increased in December. I agree with @jamespa point above about not needing complex automations, and have found the Cosy tariff far easier to manage with the 3 regular cheap rate slots.

We try to stay on top of tariff developments, as that seems to have the most affect on our bills, more so than any running tweaks or performance/efficiency changes we can make to the running of heat pump (assuming it's already running reasonably well)

 

I haven't yet bothered optimising the heat pump cycle, I just leave it on 24*7.  I did my calculations to get to 19.3p per kWh from mid Nov - mid Feb.  The night time usage is slightly depressed when its very cold by the fact I have 'quiet mode' in operation during the period, but it nevertheless worked out OK.  Im now getting the (slightly unexpected) bonus that the solar is taking up some of the daytime heat pump load, thus tipping the balance towards the cheap rate.  

I do think its rather difficult to be certain what the optimum tariff is, but for sure the standard tariff isn't optimum for me and several others are an improvement, to the tune of several £100 per annum.  When I did the calculations that I based the decision on, Next Drive was the one that worked out cheapest and, when combined with its simplicity, the choice became easy.  I will re-run them in December when the fixed price period expires, although I could exit this import rate without penalty, it would reduce my export rate to 4p for the whole year, so its not worth considering a mid-term switch unless something extreme happens.