OVO which tariff first before heat pump add on

[connick159]

Hi all,

Considering a switch from octopus agile to OVO with heat pump add on.

We already have a smart meter and E7 so wondering if any experience / advice here regarding the best tariff for the baseline OVO tariff?

Was looking at the "simpler energy" one via direct debit but notice they also have the PAYG tariff with day and night rates similar to the "simpler" one.

Any thoughts or things to look out for.

Anyone on this heat pump tariff with thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[JohnMo]

I moved from OVO to Octopus, would I ever go back NO.

 

Octopus - Not a single issue, that couldn't be resolved by picking up the phone and talking to someone in the UK, that was happy to help. You can change your direct debit easily with Octopus and see projected costs. 

 

OVO - I voted with my feet and moved.

 

 

[Dreadnaught]

I moved to Ovo from Octopus in October and am having problems with the "Heat Pump Plus" addon. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt for now but am not very impressed so far. I hope they will fix things soon.

 

My baseline tariff with Ovo is just their basic variable-rate one. No tie-ins. Given the problems thus far I am keen to be ready to depart at short notice.

[sharpener]

On 14/12/2024 at 09:02, connick159 said:

Considering a switch from octopus agile to OVO with heat pump add on.

 

IME Octopus Cosy is better - I have batteries and so can charge them three times every 24 hours and run the HP off them during peak periods. Off-peak tariffs are comparable.

 

The OVO HP integration AFAIR also potentially gives them control of your HP which I don't like the sound of even if they don't use it to begin with.

 

If you haven't got batteries Tomato is also worth checking, there is a thread about it.

 

 

Edited December 15 by sharpener

[Dreadnaught]

3 minutes ago, sharpener said:

The OVO HP integration AFAIR also potentially gives them control of your HP which I don't like the sound of even if they don't use it to begin with.

 

Ovo Energy sent me an invitation to be part of their "Heat Pump Plus trial", where they will indeed control one's heat pump, aiming to heat the home when the grid is greenest.

 

They don't control your heat pump with the vanilla 15p/kWh heat-pump add-on.

[sharpener]

8 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

They don't control your heat pump with the vanilla 15p/kWh heat-pump add-on.

 

I would read the Ts and Cs very carefully, you are giving them access to your HP's API in order to read its energy usage so they can credit yr account with the difference. The two schemes seem to be inextricably linked, the link says

 

" * You’ll also need to be signed up to our Heat Pump Plus tariff and be an OVO customer."

 

It sounds as though this is a necessary but also sufficient pre-condition for their "nationwide heat pump flexibility trial" as its web page name is actually "heat pump plus trial".

 

Octopus have something similar in the works, I shall study it carefully but am not sure it would be compatible with my battery setup.

 

 

[Dreadnaught]

27 minutes ago, sharpener said:

Octopus have something similar in the works

 

Based on my past experience of Octopus Energy, I'd much rather swap back to them from Ovo Energy. Perhaps in due course I will.

[connick159]

1 hour ago, sharpener said:

"Octopus have something similar in the works, I shall study it carefully but am not sure it would be compatible with my battery setup."

 

 

Good to know, thanks.

Is there any publicly available info on this?

[connick159]

2 hours ago, sharpener said:

 

IME Octopus Cosy is better - I have batteries and so can charge them three times every 24 hours and run the HP off them during peak periods. Off-peak tariffs are comparable.

 

The OVO HP integration AFAIR also potentially gives them control of your HP which I don't like the sound of even if they don't use it to begin with.

 

If you haven't got batteries Tomato is also worth checking, there is a thread about it.

 

 

Would cosy be worth switching to, from agile, without any batteries?

We only have the heat pump and nothing else.

Will have a look at tomato too.

Cheers 

[sharpener]

2 hours ago, connick159 said:

Would cosy be worth switching to, from agile, without any batteries?

We only have the heat pump and nothing else.

 

Cosy is fit and forget, you do not constantly need to seek out the best times. You can still use it to your advantage:

• Set target room temp 1 or 2 deg higher 0400 - 0700 and 1300 - 1600 and set back for the first couple of hours of the higher tariff periods.
• Make sure HW is heated 0400 - 0700 and/or 1300 - 1600 (higher OAT = slightly better CoP)
• Octopus have an online tariff checker based on yr recent bills which will advise which is better (but not taking account of the above hacks)

[sharpener]

2 hours ago, connick159 said:

4 hours ago, sharpener said:

 

Good to know, thanks.

Is there any publicly available info on this?

 

https://www.hvpmag.co.uk/New-AI-technology-signals-boom-time-for-heat-pump-installers-/18477

 

First of six paras near bottom of article says

 

"Octopus Energy’s Kraken software already provides optimisation for its Cosy 6 heat pumps, which it manufactures itself, and for Daikin models through that company’s API. Octopus says it is also working to integrate with Mitsubishi, Vaillant, NIBE, and Samsung and hopes to make a series of announcements by this winter."

[JamesPa]

Interesting discussion. 

 

Having recently got my heat pump installed, and possessing an EV charged from a 13A socket only, I am in the process of moving from Octopus to EON Next which gives 7 hrs at 6.7p/kWh without any requirement to have a dedicated charger.  I don't do that many miles but the negative comments about OVO influenced me away from them and my calculations suggest EON works out cheaper than Cosy or OVO, in the latter case at least in part because of their poor export tarrif.  Its also a lot less faff having a block of cheap electricity rather than 3 blocks. 

 

If anyone has any tips for 'getting on with' EON I would be grateful, otherwise I will report back in a few weeks.

[sharpener]

9 minutes ago, JamesPa said:

Its also a lot less faff having a block of cheap electricity rather than 3 blocks. 

 

Yes but that is what enables one to recharge batteries and thermal store several times every 24h. Admittedly it needs careful thought on how to program all systems to best advantage.

[mk1_man]

I was on Cosy previously and it does work well especially if you have batteries.  The three different periods allows you to spread the heat from your ashp over the day instead of trying to condense into a single cheap block.  A best of both worlds is Tomato energies Lifestyle tariff, gives you 6 hours at 5p/kWh during the night but also another 4 hours during the day at 14p and the rest of the time it is still less than the cap price unlike Octopus offering where you get penalized between 16:00 - 19:00  I have used 244 kWh in last 7 day at a cost of £12.34

[PhilT]

Tomato looks unbeatable in certain situations but, worth repeating if you have PV, Battery, Octopus Cosy and Fixed outgoing, still at 15p/kWh, run the finance numbers with care as that export can make a big difference, for example on my setup (6,000kWk pa, of which 3,000kWh exported, 5kW solar and 3kWh battery) I am £250pa better off staying with Octopus, and would need a much bigger battery and/or UFH batch heating to warrant a move to Tomato. Not sure there is a better tariff for my situation at the moment but interested to hear what others with a similar setup think.

[S2D2]

On 15/12/2024 at 13:43, connick159 said:

Good to know, thanks.

Is there any publicly available info on this?

At a very high level: https://octopus.energy/press/project-mercury/

[S2D2]

2 hours ago, PhilT said:

Tomato looks unbeatable in certain situations but, worth repeating if you have PV, Battery, Octopus Cosy and Fixed outgoing, still at 15p/kWh, run the finance numbers with care as that export can make a big difference, for example on my setup (6,000kWk pa, of which 3,000kWh exported, 5kW solar and 3kWh battery) I am £250pa better off staying with Octopus, and would need a much bigger battery and/or UFH batch heating to warrant a move to Tomato. Not sure there is a better tariff for my situation at the moment but interested to hear what others with a similar setup think.

PV + small Battery + fixed export + EV here, I'm with Cosy as I also export a hefty chunk of generation.

[Luke1]

On 16/12/2024 at 15:04, JamesPa said:

Interesting discussion. 

 

Having recently got my heat pump installed, and possessing an EV charged from a 13A socket only, I am in the process of moving from Octopus to EON Next which gives 7 hrs at 6.7p/kWh without any requirement to have a dedicated charger.  I don't do that many miles but the negative comments about OVO influenced me away from them and my calculations suggest EON works out cheaper than Cosy or OVO, in the latter case at least in part because of their poor export tarrif.  Its also a lot less faff having a block of cheap electricity rather than 3 blocks. 

 

If anyone has any tips for 'getting on with' EON I would be grateful, otherwise I will report back in a few weeks.

Having recently moved from Octopus to E.On for exactly the same reasons I only have good things to say so far.

 

My smart meter had stopped communicating with the DCC just before transferring across. 
E.On booked an engineer to come in a week later who switched it out for a new one. 
 

A couple of days later the new readings were coming through onto their website. 
 

They agreed to back date the Next Drive tariff from the date I transferred over to them which was a nice surprise too, as I was expecting to pay at their variable tariff rate as per their T&C’s. 
 

If you haven’t already started the process, and would like a referral code for £50 off your bill (I would also receive £50) my link is https://share.eonnext.com/topaz-crane-1929

 

 

[joth]

45 minutes ago, Luke1 said:

Having recently moved from Octopus to E.On for exactly the same reasons I only have good things to say so far.

 

My smart meter had stopped communicating with the DCC just before transferring across. 
E.On booked an engineer to come in a week later who switched it out for a new one. 
 

A couple of days later the new readings were coming through onto their website. 
 

They agreed to back date the Next Drive tariff from the date I transferred over to them which was a nice surprise too, as I was expecting to pay at their variable tariff rate as per their T&C’s. 
 

If you haven’t already started the process, and would like a referral code for £50 off your bill (I would also receive £50) my link is https://share.eonnext.com/topaz-crane-1929

 

 

 

This is very interesting. I'm on Octopus Go, which recently increased from 4 to 5 hours, but 7 at a lower rate again would be very useful. I can almost certainly stop driving the heatpump so hard during cheap rate and still meet daily requirement from the cheap window.

 

How strict are they about EV ownership, and how do they verify it?  I fully intend to get one someday but it never seems a priority or justified.

 

[Luke1]

For V4 it was a ‘requirement’ to have either an EV or battery storage. 
They have just updated to V5 which again states the requirement for an EV but excludes battery storage as they have a new tariff due shortly for that. 
 

You have to declare that you have an EV, but they do not check.
I think some people had said they were looking into EV ownership and they were still accepted onto the tariff. 

 

 

[Dreadnaught]

On 15/12/2024 at 07:30, Dreadnaught said:

I moved to Ovo from Octopus in October and am having problems with the "Heat Pump Plus" addon. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt for now but am not very impressed so far. I hope they will fix things soon.

 

 

To be fair to Ovo Energy, they are now fixing the problems I reported with the "Heat Pump Plus" addon. And it appears that the underlying issue was not their fault (a component of my system had been swapped by Vaillant under warranty, which interrupted the connection to them).

 

I will likely stay with Ovo Energy now as I think its the best tariff for my circumstance (no battery, no PV), at least until Octopus or someone else launches a tariff that integrates similarly with my Vaillant heat pump as rumours suggest they will.

[joth]

19 hours ago, Luke1 said:

For V4 it was a ‘requirement’ to have either an EV or battery storage. 
They have just updated to V5 which again states the requirement for an EV but excludes battery storage as they have a new tariff due shortly for that. 
 

You have to declare that you have an EV, but they do not check.
I think some people had said they were looking into EV ownership and they were still accepted onto the tariff. 

 

 

OK super useful to know. I'm about to pull the trigger, but want to confirm that i can get export with them too. Looks like I should be eligible for the 16.5 "Next Export Exclusive" which is 1.5p better than I have with Octopus 

https://www.eonnext.com/electricity-and-gas/smart-export-guarantee

 

clearly EOn on a major customer share land grab; I'm sure these prices will revert in a year or so, but seems worth making use of in the mean time.

 

I've looked at the EV again... about 10k£ to upgrade for a similar estate car to our ICE (well, definitely downgrade in performance, 280 down to 160bhp, and lose AWD and a foot of boot space) which will take 8 years to payback, as we only use it ~5000mi per year. Hmm

 

 

Edited Thursday at 12:36 by joth