All pages on this website are written by myself, (C) Peter Thomson. I am a real person, not AI.
Review Octopus Energy Calculators: Octopus Tracker, Octopus Agile and Octopus Go tariffs are the best value in the UK
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How to get the best energy prices in the UK?
I think it unlikely that Octopus Energy will fail in the UK. Octopus are a multinational company that also generate green energy themselves.
Customers from some of the small UK energy suppliers that have failed have been transferred to Octopus Energy.
Octopus Energy are also actively recruiting the skilled staff from these companies that have failed. This is a golden opportunity for Octopus to expand.
Once you are with Octopus Energy you can easily and quickly switch to one of their tarrifs that suit you.
Octopus Energy offers several fuel tariffs in the UK that have the potential for quite significant cost savings for both electricity and gas compared to any other energy supplier in the UK.
Octopus Energy are highly rated by WHICH?
I have written a couple of scripts that can do the analysis for you
Compare Agile and see graph of Agile rates
Compare Tracker and see graphs of Tracker rates for Electricity and Gas
See Octopus Tracker prices for Electricity and Gas for each day so far in 2020.
If you are running a battery electric vehicle then the ability to charge it with cheap electricity is a huge bonus! But all users can save money with these tariffs.
I initially moved to the Tracker tariff, but then to Octopus Go as prices started to rise.
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I have got my EV - a Kia Soul EV 2020, and I will be using a little more electricity, so it is time to review how much I pay for my electricity and gas and make sure I am paying as little as possible.
For those who only want to see the result - I have switched to Octopus Go, and you can get another £50 off your energy bill by using my referral link to sign up. I have cut my energy bill from £1500 to £1000 by switching. If that sounds too good to be true, follow through all the calculations and checks I made in the rest of this presentation, do your own calculations, and if you can get a better value tariff do let me know.
I keep a record of my electricity and gas meter readings every month, so I know exactly how much I used in the past year.
One year ago my electricity meter read 9926 kWh. One year later it is 14487 kWh. So in one year I used 14487 - 9926 = 4561 kWh.
One year ago my gas meter read 759 m3 , and one year later 2226 m3. So in one year I used 2226 - 759 = 1467 m3 of gas. I have to convert that to kWh, and can use an online calculator to do that. 1467 m3 is 16411 kWh of energy.
I drive about 9000 miles a year, although this year will be somewhat less with all my teaching and tutorials online. I get 4.4 miles per kWh on my electricity meter, so I will be adding 2045 kWh to my annual electricity bill. ( The Kia Soul EV tells me I get 5 miles per kWh from the battery, but charging is not 100% efficient )
My next year consumption of electricity will be about 4561 + 2045 kWh for the car = 6606 kWh
Now I can use those figures in a price comparison website to see what might be the best deal for me.
I use moneysavingexpert.com as it has a good reputation, and I have used it in the past.
Let us start by seeing what this site suggests is currently the best value.
The Cheap Energy Club displays the most detail, and I have already set up an account. I was using Avro Energy, and I could have saved a small amount each year by switching to one of the tariffs at the top of this list. Octopus Energy is not at the top of this list and the tariff shown here is much the same as Avro Energy, so that wouldn't be worth the switch. But note that Octopus Energy has a reasonable rating for customer service. It also uses clean renewable energy, and their are no fees for switching if you decide to move again.
On various forums about electric cars I learned that Octopus Energy was offering other tariffs that were very much cheaper. For two of these tariffs, Octopus Agile and Octopus Go , you need a compatible smart meter, and you need to be able to use the electricity for Agile when it is cheapest, or for Octopus Go, in the middle of the night, and the day-time rate is higher. Also Octopus will install these meters if you join them.
The third tariff, Octopus Tracker, is probably not the best to use when wholesale prices are high.
The tracker tariff follows the wholesale price of electricity and for gas on a day to day basis, and was consistently well below any standard tariff rate. However in October 2021electricity and gas prices are at record highs.
If we go to my account on Octopus we can see how much Octopus Tracker is costing me.
For electricity:
And for Gas:
I have created a web page that allows you to input your own figures for gas and electricity consumption, and then see how Octopus Energy estimates your costs for the month or year ahead. See the links at the top of this page.
Octopus Energy has an excellent reputation and has won awards from The Consumers' Association - Which magazine, Uswitch supplier of the year 2020 and REA company of the year winner 2019
My link to switch and get £50 off your energy bills: https://share.octopus.energy/metal-goose-114