Octopus Tracker?

[Crofter]

Just heard about this tariff. Very interesting.

According to the blurb on their website it offers low prices over the summer and higher prices over winter.

 

For most people this would be a problem, but I'm in an unusual situation with two properties used as holiday lets. They're predominantly occupied in the summer and nearly empty all winter.

 

Anybody on the forum using this tariff?

 

https://octopus.energy/smart/tracker/

[Andehh]

What are winter night time prices? If combined with a big battery I see it making sense. Same principle would work in the summer.

[Dillsue]

You only know the future price 1 day ahead so you'll not know what a particular nights rate is until the day before. Historically I believe the tracker tariff has worked out cheaper than their standard variable price capped rate, but you take the risk that it doesn't stay that way!!

 

I'm guessing that if the OPs use is only/mainly in the summer then there could be some quite low rates to be had??

[Crofter]

25 minutes ago, Dillsue said:

 

I'm guessing that if the OPs use is only/mainly in the summer then there could be some quite low rates to be had??

Exactly. The properties are generally empty over the winter months.

 

Where can I find historic rates for this tariff?

[Dillsue]

Google "Octopus tracker rate" and there's at least one website with the last year's rates.

[S2D2]

15 hours ago, Crofter said:

Where can I find historic rates for this tariff?

https://energy-stats.uk/

 

Choose tracker and your region from the menu.

[Crofter]

So I've had a look at the numbers and it doesn't actually look all that great.

Our property tends to be occupied from about 1st April to the end of October, and if I average out the tracker rates over those months I get the following:

2021- 22.5p

2022- 34.8p

2023- 27.3p

 

Some more research required but it's maybe not the easy win I was hoping for.

[SteamyTea]

20 minutes ago, Crofter said:

So I've had a look at the numbers and it doesn't actually look all that great.

Does not come as a surprise, not as if they are really offering a big discount to use off peak power.

 

Out of interest, if this a legitimate holiday let, should you not be paying commercial rates for your energy, and 20% VAT.

[Crofter]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Out of interest, if this a legitimate holiday let, should you not be paying commercial rates for your energy, and 20% VAT.

Don't know. I don't recall every being told that.

Accommodation-based businesses do tend to sit between two camps. In some respects it is treated as a house, not a one bedroom hotel.

[SteamyTea]

14 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Accommodation-based businesses do tend to sit between two camps. In some respects it is treated as a house, not a one bedroom hotel.

I think the government want to treat them as business.

If you get small business rate relief then it is clear cut.

[Crofter]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

I think the government want to treat them as business.

If you get small business rate relief then it is clear cut.

On the other hand, we don't need to have things like fire exits marked. It's recognised as being a house in which a business is conducted, rather than business premises. So probably closer to a home office than a shop or hotel.

[Dillsue]

9 hours ago, Crofter said:

So I've had a look at the numbers and it doesn't actually look all that great.

Our property tends to be occupied from about 1st April to the end of October, and if I average out the tracker rates over those months I get the following:

2021- 22.5p

2022- 34.8p

2023- 27.3p

 

Some more research required but it's maybe not the easy win I was hoping for.

Where did you get the 2023 figures from? I've just looked at the N Scotland graph for the last 365 days and they don't go above 24p/kwh and the average looks to be low 20s??

[Crofter]

51 minutes ago, Dillsue said:

Where did you get the 2023 figures from? I've just looked at the N Scotland graph for the last 365 days and they don't go above 24p/kwh and the average looks to be low 20s??

https://files.energy-stats.uk/csv_output/?_gl=1*18272gn*_ga*MjI2MDA0NzkuMTcwNDQ3MDA3Mw..*_ga_Z4Z11HYTZ1*MTcwNDU0MDgyNS4yLjEuMTcwNDU0MDkwMy4wLjAuMA..*_ga_M45TVRXZ04*MTcwNDU0MDgyOC4yLjEuMTcwNDU0MDkwNC42MC4wLjA.&_ga=2.196785900.1717887741.1704470074-22600479.1704470073

 

Maybe I've made a mistake, I just did a quick calculation on the excel sheet and that's what it returned.

[Dillsue]

Maybe you are looking pre 2023? Just scrolled through what I think we're the N Scotland figures for 2023 and I could only see one instance from 1/4 to 1/10 where it went just over 24p. If you go beyond 2023 then you've got all the turmoil of the start of the current energy crisis

[SteamyTea]

I had a quick look at that Octopus file list.  There are 3 relevant files for my area, one is gas daily price

 

Electric Daily Price

 

And hourly Daily Price

 

They look about right but I may be missing something.

[Dillsue]

The prices you've highlighted are 2018 and 2021 prices. May not be quite the same as we've got now??

[SteamyTea]

30 minutes ago, Dillsue said:

The prices you've highlighted are 2018 and 2021 prices. May not be quite the same as we've got now??

I just screenshotted the start of the files.

I now notice that there is Tracker and Agile in the file names.

So is Tracker based on a fixed daily price and Agile the more volatile hourly price?

I find Octopus has too many tariffs.

[S2D2]

45 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I just screenshotted the start of the files.

I now notice that there is Tracker and Agile in the file names.

So is Tracker based on a fixed daily price and Agile the more volatile hourly price?

I find Octopus has too many tariffs.

Tracker is a daily price. Agile has half-hourly pricing that varies over the day. Both have their rates set the day before or so.

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, S2D2 said:

Tracker is a daily price. Agile has half-hourly pricing that varies over the day. Both have their rates set the day before or so.

Right.

May be worth a little time to look at what is happening and how it could fit in with everyday life.

 

Biggest problem is that if the money that supplier makes goes below their usual tariffs, the tariff gets pulled.

[Crofter]

Does somebody fancy checking my homework? I'm trying to use Excel on a phone and something isn't adding up.

[SteamyTea]

47 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Does somebody fancy checking my homework

What information are you actually trying to get out?

 

Are you Northern or Southern Scotland?

Edited January 9, 2024 by SteamyTea

[SteamyTea]

Is this the sort of thing you are after?

 

[Crofter]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

What information are you actually trying to get out?

 

Are you Northern or Southern Scotland?

I'm in the northern Scotland region.

What I was trying to do was find the daily average price for the period 1st April to 1st November each year.

So I tried SUM(Ex:Ey)/z

Where X is r start date, y is the end, and z is the number of days in-between.

But there's something weird going because the cell numbers and the number of days aren't matching up.

[SteamyTea]

2021

 

2022

 

2023

 

Edited January 9, 2024 by SteamyTea

[SteamyTea]

21 minutes ago, Crofter said:

What I was trying to do was find the daily average price for the period 1st April to 1st November each year.

So I tried SUM(Ex:Ey)/z

I use =AVERAGEIFS(WhatToAverage,SortBy,TheCondition)

So in my spreadsheet I use something like

=AVERAGEIFS(Price,DayName,"="&$A7,Date,">="&$B$1,Date,"<"&$B$2)

 

Edited January 9, 2024 by SteamyTea