Since I joined this tariff in July 23 ice saved £600 over the standard flexible tariff. Game changer for me. I now tend to do my washing etc on Saturday as seems to be a lot cheaper than the weekdays. 16p all day still works out much better than having to do everything overnight for 8p. And it's much easier with a small child.
Great news! Yeah, I suspect the savings would be more than I predicted with some load shifting added on top on cheaper days. I know what you mean about small children and washing. 😆 Good work!
Price formula changing soon by the look of it, just had a email Thanks for choosing Octopus Tracker, Britain's fairest energy tariff. I wanted to let you know about a few changes we're making to keep it current with UK energy regulation and the cost of supply. You don't need to do anything: we'll move you straight onto the new version of the tariff on Thursday 15th February. If you ever want to, you're free to move to another tariff or supplier without penalty.
Hi, even if you have Solar and Battery no EV for example, the Tracker might be a good option for both electric and gas usage. The Octopus Flux tariff at the mo is 17.7p import but this rate is between 0200hrs and 0500hrs, yet the average daily of your consumption was only 19p....very interesting. Thanks for sharing
Linking energy charges to wholesale prices, provided the formula for calculation is fair to the consumer, is definitely the right approach. If you don't have an EV or batteries or a heat pump or other form of renewable technology, the tracker is the right way to go. Don't be scared by the maximum chargeable rate. As Dan says, it seldom if ever happens. Instead, look at the average rate and use this as a guide. Keep some savings back just in case of a spike if money is tight. The savings overall can be massive. If you do have renewables, indeed, look at a package tailored to what you have. We have solar and batteries and took the tracker one stage further and went with Agile. This is the tracker on steroids - where the price is set at 30 minute intervals (and not daily) based upon wholesale prices. To make this work you need to be able to load offset, and this is where the battery comes in. Typically, our monthly electricity bill (we don't have gas) is between 50 and 60% of what it would have been on the SVR and this has been consistent since we have had Agile.
Still good for EV, more flexible than having to charge at odd hours of the night, life tends to not be so predictable. Also the more energy you use the bigger the savings. As someone with an all electric 3 bed semi, the savings are substantial.
My old gas smart meter went wrong quite quickly and shut off the gas supply to the boiler. Therefore no heating for a day or two in winter. So have been reluctant to get another smart meter but have been following gas tracker prices and am tempted to try again. Have been on electric tracker for a while and enjoyed some good savings,but like you say prices vary and could rise sharply so not for everyone.
Hi Viv. It’s a shame the early smart meters have been so flaky, although I’m not sure how a smart meter could shut off the gas supply? How did that happen? I feel like the experiences of the earlier models has put a lot of people off. If it’s any consolation, Octopus installed our latest ones and they have been flawless. Definitely an element of risk but easy to back out if prices do rise.
Hi I have also just switched to the gas tracker tariff been on it a couple of days now. Have been looking at the price history for the tariff and thought it was worth the risk. Keep up the good work on the very informative videos.
@@atulj71 when I switched on the Web site it gave the option to select gas or electric or both. It didn't happen immediately took about a week. You could email them and ask to transfer to the gas tracker they will get back to you.
I moved my gas tariff this week. Took two days and they backdated the change to the day i applied. There is a website called Octoprice (no affiliation i found out about it when i was looking to switch) which will tell you what your savings were (or losses I suppose) retrospectively. Dan it would be interesting for you to compare that with your worked figures? FWIW i didn't switch electric as I'm on Go and since half my consumption is for my EV at 9p, I don't think switching to that would work for me. Finally, as hopefully you already know the answer to this, what happens to electricity export rates on this scheme?
Thanks Joe. I’ll take a look at that. I’m the same. Currently on Intelligent Octopus Go so haven’t switched the electricity but the gas tariff makes a lot of sense at the moment. Regarding export on this tariff you can either be on the Outgoing Export tariff at 15p per kWh, Agile Outgoing or the standard SEG tariff at 4.1p per kWh exported.
What does it mean for you? Changes to the formula will mean on average, daily electricity rates are generally around 2.3 p/kWh higher and gas rates around 0.38 p/kWh higher. Tracker is still incredibly good value: one of the UK's cheapest tariffs. In December and January, the updated Tracker electricity rates were typically 37% cheaper than our standard variable tariff Flexible Octopus, and gas rates, 40% cheaper.
I'm really curious as to what your gas usage pattern is. I thought I was a low user at around 8000kWh (I'm single so only need to provide heating for myself, out all day at work so it only goes on of an evening for 5 hours or so and smart radiator thermostats so only heat the rooms I'm using). But if I recall correctly, you have a family to consider. I'm amazed!
We did quite a lot last year to reduce our usage including reducing the flow temperature on the boiler, installing Nest thermostats, etc. There is a video about it on my channel if you are interested. Pretty efficient modern house as well so retains the heat well. 👍
That's interesting. My house is a 1998 4 bed detached so I would have thought it should be pretty efficient but maybe things have moved on massively. I reduced the flow temp on my boiler too so it peaks at around 55 degC. I'll check out your other video. Cheers.
@@pb871 you might find, depending on your insulation & installation, that you can reduce flow temp even lower - if it's a condensing combi. We have a 10 yo Worcester CDi in our 1937 large 4 bed semi; when we bought it 2 years ago it had no insulation and old, leaking, double glazing retrofitted into the original wood frames. We have insulated loft ourselves (170mm on unboarded sections; 100mm on T&G floorboards sections as it's too big a job to lift them at the moment - about 2/3rds of the 65m2 floor area of loft) and installed new A+ rated DG throughout. We can now reduce flow temp down to 45 Deg C in mild weather >10 Deg C, only needed 55 Deg C during the last cold snap when feels like -8 Deg C. We do have all the original lime plaster except for about 5% of walls, and the lime is very thick on external walls (approx 1.5"-2"). No cavity insulation yet though, waiting for LA grants to be opened. I use the Octopus app with the Home Mini to see 1/2 hourly gas usage, Met Office, & flow & return temps to work out what flow temp to use. Basically we have found having gas usage as near constant as possible, IE minimising cycling (on/off periods) results in greater efficiency and therefore much reduced gas usage. Our yearly gas usage has gone from ~36,500kWh (EPC says ~40K) to 26,600kWh with just these changes, and I have to have the heating on 24/7 with room temps at 19.5-20 Deg C due to chronic illness, and the house is 217m2 with a heated internal (very draughty) garage (next job on my partner's DIY list 😅).
Its worth looking at the prices for early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine to see ‘how bad’ the prices could get on Tracker, then take a view as to how likely it is that such an event happens again. I agree, for a lot of people Tracker is a great tariff. I ended up moving to Agile for the winter; I very nearly went onto Tracker but the ‘can’t rejoin for 9 months’ would have put paid to going back next winter. Price wise Tracker and Agile are very similar for my consumption. Octopus did issue a new Tracker tariff in December 2023 which unfortunately was quite a bit more expensive than the previous November 22 Tracker. Still good value compared to the standard variable, just not as good
Yeah I was lucky enough to be on the early one at the time as the cap was essentially what the government price cap was anyway at the time and it’s done well for me. Since it’s now been over 12 months I’m on the later one but prices have remained low. Agree that a few years back SHOULD be about as bad as it gets, but it’s a crazy world right now. 😑
I'm considering this at the moment, is there any way to see what you are saving easily without having to get the calculator out and doing complex maths
Hmm the easiest way is probably to take an average price across the last 12 months and work it out from there. My Energy Stats website should be able to help here. Won’t be an exact science but should give you a good idea of the savings. Alternatively there are some apps available such as OctoAid which may do the maths for you.
Is there a service out there that allows you to set a wholesale price and then sends you notifcations if it goes above that? Would be really useful. Just googling around it appears the wholesale price isn't freely available which makes me feel nervous
You should be able to see the charges for the following day on the energy stats website. There probably is a tool out there somewhere, or if you are technically minded you should be able to do something within Home Assistant.
Hi Gordon. I kind of did in the video ‘Is solar pointless’ before this yes and also against a few of the other Octopus smart tariffs. Makes for interesting viewing (hopefully!) 🙂
Hi Dan. Thanks for this informative video. I thought to be on Tracker you had to sign up for both electricity and gas and as I have Intelligent Go for electricity I didn't want to lose it. But you say you are on Tracker just for gas. How did you sign up for this?
Hi Steve. I'm pleased to hear you found it useful. Yes, I have only signed up for the Gas Tracker part and I am also utilising Intelligent Octopus Go for my electricity. I contacted Octopus via Twitter/X and they set it all up from there. Pretty straightforward. Good luck!
Some potential issues as a lot of gas smart meters are very unreliable. Ours goes offline for weeks at a time before popping up and giving proper readings for a week, and then disappearing again for a month or more. Not sure what Octopus would do in these situations.
The smart meter can hold something like 6 months of data locally so once it comes online again Octopus will get the data. Sounds like you may have poor connectivity to your smart meter. Mine didn’t work for over a year - when I got EoN out they swapped the meter for a new one with an external aerial and all worked perfectly. Apparently I should have had an aerial in the first place, Might be the same for you?
Yeah as Geoffrey says the newer smart meters do a good job of retaining the data. I believe, but not 100% certain that if they can’t get readings at all then they take averages and bill using that. It’s a shame the older smart meters were so flaky as they’ve put a lot of people off. My latest one has been great.
@@geoffreycoan honestly don’t know. The gas and electricity meters are both on the same corner of our house and maybe 2 meters from each other. The electricity meter is faultless but the gas is hopeless. Also it’s definitely not logging data because I also have the Octopus Watch app and almost none of the back data is available and certainly we don’t get a load populated when it does connect. I’ve even offered to pay to get it sorted without any success.
@@DanEVSolar7 it looks like ours are SMETS1 meters and have some issues. Good news is Octopus are arranging to swap out both for SMETS2 models which should solve the problem. 👍
I just moved to octopus fixed tariff which works out about £800 cheaper than variable however since then the price cap has dropped , I keep hearing about this tracker tariff , is there way to see if this tracker works out better than my fixed tariff that I am currently on? I can still exit with no fees and change so tempted...
You would need to compare the unit cost for the fixed tariff and standing charge against the tracker unit and standing charge costs. The tracker unit costs are averaging around 17p per kWh (for electricity) over the past year so gut feel tells me Tracker would be cheaper but best to calculate it yourself to be certain. 👍
@@DanEVSolar7 thanks for your reply. What's the standing charges for tracker? I've had a look on energy stats for North West and it seems like tracker is mostly under what my fixed charges are which is good news...however I can't see any information regarding standing charges for tracker. Here my fixed charges for my current fixed tariff Octopus 12m fixed March 2024 v1 Gas. Elec Kwh. 5.7005p. 24.4797p Standing. 29.5575p. 49.119p
I suspect you’d end up on the April tariff which looks to be around the same standing charge. Check here for more info under the tracker price tables. mysmartenergy.uk/Tracker/North-West-England
@@DanEVSolar7 thanks for that looks like gas standing charge is 2p less at 27.47 where electricity is the same , seems like tracker still is better overall based on last year's average than my current fixed.
It’s basically just to cover Octopus if something like the last few years goings on happens again. Unlikely to ever get that high now, but not impossible. Like you say though, it comes with a small element of risk that’s not for everyone, but potentially savings to be had as well.
Since I joined this tariff in July 23 ice saved £600 over the standard flexible tariff. Game changer for me. I now tend to do my washing etc on Saturday as seems to be a lot cheaper than the weekdays. 16p all day still works out much better than having to do everything overnight for 8p. And it's much easier with a small child.
Great news! Yeah, I suspect the savings would be more than I predicted with some load shifting added on top on cheaper days. I know what you mean about small children and washing. 😆 Good work!
Price formula changing soon by the look of it, just had a email
Thanks for choosing Octopus Tracker, Britain's fairest energy tariff. I wanted to let you know about a few changes we're making to keep it current with UK energy regulation and the cost of supply.
You don't need to do anything: we'll move you straight onto the new version of the tariff on Thursday 15th February. If you ever want to, you're free to move to another tariff or supplier without penalty.
Hi, even if you have Solar and Battery no EV for example, the Tracker might be a good option for both electric and gas usage. The Octopus Flux tariff at the mo is 17.7p import but this rate is between 0200hrs and 0500hrs, yet the average daily of your consumption was only 19p....very interesting. Thanks for sharing
Cheers Ian. Indeed yeah. Looks a very good tariff in general for everyone if prices stay low. 👍
Linking energy charges to wholesale prices, provided the formula for calculation is fair to the consumer, is definitely the right approach.
If you don't have an EV or batteries or a heat pump or other form of renewable technology, the tracker is the right way to go. Don't be scared by the maximum chargeable rate. As Dan says, it seldom if ever happens. Instead, look at the average rate and use this as a guide. Keep some savings back just in case of a spike if money is tight. The savings overall can be massive.
If you do have renewables, indeed, look at a package tailored to what you have.
We have solar and batteries and took the tracker one stage further and went with Agile. This is the tracker on steroids - where the price is set at 30 minute intervals (and not daily) based upon wholesale prices. To make this work you need to be able to load offset, and this is where the battery comes in. Typically, our monthly electricity bill (we don't have gas) is between 50 and 60% of what it would have been on the SVR and this has been consistent since we have had Agile.
👍 Great post and nothing more to add. Thanks!
Still good for EV, more flexible than having to charge at odd hours of the night, life tends to not be so predictable. Also the more energy you use the bigger the savings. As someone with an all electric 3 bed semi, the savings are substantial.
My old gas smart meter went wrong quite quickly and shut off the gas supply to the boiler.
Therefore no heating for a day or two in winter.
So have been reluctant to get another smart meter but have been following gas tracker prices and am tempted to try again.
Have been on electric tracker for a while and enjoyed some good savings,but like you say prices vary and could rise sharply so not for everyone.
Hi Viv. It’s a shame the early smart meters have been so flaky, although I’m not sure how a smart meter could shut off the gas supply? How did that happen? I feel like the experiences of the earlier models has put a lot of people off. If it’s any consolation, Octopus installed our latest ones and they have been flawless. Definitely an element of risk but easy to back out if prices do rise.
Hi I have also just switched to the gas tracker tariff been on it a couple of days now. Have been looking at the price history for the tariff and thought it was worth the risk. Keep up the good work on the very informative videos.
Thank you! Appreciate the feedback. Definitely seems worth the risk at the moment. Fingers crossed it works out for you!
How you can select to go with gas tracker only, Octopus website not give option to go with Gas only
@@atulj71 when I switched on the Web site it gave the option to select gas or electric or both. It didn't happen immediately took about a week. You could email them and ask to transfer to the gas tracker they will get back to you.
I moved my gas tariff this week. Took two days and they backdated the change to the day i applied. There is a website called Octoprice (no affiliation i found out about it when i was looking to switch) which will tell you what your savings were (or losses I suppose) retrospectively. Dan it would be interesting for you to compare that with your worked figures?
FWIW i didn't switch electric as I'm on Go and since half my consumption is for my EV at 9p, I don't think switching to that would work for me.
Finally, as hopefully you already know the answer to this, what happens to electricity export rates on this scheme?
Thanks Joe. I’ll take a look at that. I’m the same. Currently on Intelligent Octopus Go so haven’t switched the electricity but the gas tariff makes a lot of sense at the moment.
Regarding export on this tariff you can either be on the Outgoing Export tariff at 15p per kWh, Agile Outgoing or the standard SEG tariff at 4.1p per kWh exported.
What does it mean for you?
Changes to the formula will mean on average, daily electricity rates are generally around 2.3 p/kWh higher and gas rates around 0.38 p/kWh higher.
Tracker is still incredibly good value: one of the UK's cheapest tariffs. In December and January, the updated Tracker electricity rates were typically 37% cheaper than our standard variable tariff Flexible Octopus, and gas rates, 40% cheaper.
I'm really curious as to what your gas usage pattern is. I thought I was a low user at around 8000kWh (I'm single so only need to provide heating for myself, out all day at work so it only goes on of an evening for 5 hours or so and smart radiator thermostats so only heat the rooms I'm using). But if I recall correctly, you have a family to consider. I'm amazed!
We did quite a lot last year to reduce our usage including reducing the flow temperature on the boiler, installing Nest thermostats, etc. There is a video about it on my channel if you are interested. Pretty efficient modern house as well so retains the heat well. 👍
That's interesting. My house is a 1998 4 bed detached so I would have thought it should be pretty efficient but maybe things have moved on massively. I reduced the flow temp on my boiler too so it peaks at around 55 degC. I'll check out your other video. Cheers.
@@pb871 you might find, depending on your insulation & installation, that you can reduce flow temp even lower - if it's a condensing combi. We have a 10 yo Worcester CDi in our 1937 large 4 bed semi; when we bought it 2 years ago it had no insulation and old, leaking, double glazing retrofitted into the original wood frames. We have insulated loft ourselves (170mm on unboarded sections; 100mm on T&G floorboards sections as it's too big a job to lift them at the moment - about 2/3rds of the 65m2 floor area of loft) and installed new A+ rated DG throughout. We can now reduce flow temp down to 45 Deg C in mild weather >10 Deg C, only needed 55 Deg C during the last cold snap when feels like -8 Deg C. We do have all the original lime plaster except for about 5% of walls, and the lime is very thick on external walls (approx 1.5"-2"). No cavity insulation yet though, waiting for LA grants to be opened.
I use the Octopus app with the Home Mini to see 1/2 hourly gas usage, Met Office, & flow & return temps to work out what flow temp to use. Basically we have found having gas usage as near constant as possible, IE minimising cycling (on/off periods) results in greater efficiency and therefore much reduced gas usage.
Our yearly gas usage has gone from ~36,500kWh (EPC says ~40K) to 26,600kWh with just these changes, and I have to have the heating on 24/7 with room temps at 19.5-20 Deg C due to chronic illness, and the house is 217m2 with a heated internal (very draughty) garage (next job on my partner's DIY list 😅).
Just about to get the smart Meter 🙏
Great stuff! Hope it works out for you and saves you some money. 👍
Its worth looking at the prices for early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine to see ‘how bad’ the prices could get on Tracker, then take a view as to how likely it is that such an event happens again. I agree, for a lot of people Tracker is a great tariff. I ended up moving to Agile for the winter; I very nearly went onto Tracker but the ‘can’t rejoin for 9 months’ would have put paid to going back next winter. Price wise Tracker and Agile are very similar for my consumption.
Octopus did issue a new Tracker tariff in December 2023 which unfortunately was quite a bit more expensive than the previous November 22 Tracker. Still good value compared to the standard variable, just not as good
Yeah I was lucky enough to be on the early one at the time as the cap was essentially what the government price cap was anyway at the time and it’s done well for me. Since it’s now been over 12 months I’m on the later one but prices have remained low. Agree that a few years back SHOULD be about as bad as it gets, but it’s a crazy world right now. 😑
I'm considering this at the moment, is there any way to see what you are saving easily without having to get the calculator out and doing complex maths
Hmm the easiest way is probably to take an average price across the last 12 months and work it out from there. My Energy Stats website should be able to help here. Won’t be an exact science but should give you a good idea of the savings. Alternatively there are some apps available such as OctoAid which may do the maths for you.
Please explain what does the Fuel Tax for that is on Octupus energy bills?
Apologies, not sure I understand the question?
Is there a service out there that allows you to set a wholesale price and then sends you notifcations if it goes above that? Would be really useful. Just googling around it appears the wholesale price isn't freely available which makes me feel nervous
You should be able to see the charges for the following day on the energy stats website. There probably is a tool out there somewhere, or if you are technically minded you should be able to do something within Home Assistant.
Hey Dan, have you looked at what the payback is like if you have solar?
Hi Gordon. I kind of did in the video ‘Is solar pointless’ before this yes and also against a few of the other Octopus smart tariffs. Makes for interesting viewing (hopefully!) 🙂
@@DanEVSolar7 thanks I’ll have a look
Hi Dan. Thanks for this informative video. I thought to be on Tracker you had to sign up for both electricity and gas and as I have Intelligent Go for electricity I didn't want to lose it. But you say you are on Tracker just for gas. How did you sign up for this?
Hi Steve. I'm pleased to hear you found it useful. Yes, I have only signed up for the Gas Tracker part and I am also utilising Intelligent Octopus Go for my electricity. I contacted Octopus via Twitter/X and they set it all up from there. Pretty straightforward. Good luck!
Thanks, Dan
Some potential issues as a lot of gas smart meters are very unreliable. Ours goes offline for weeks at a time before popping up and giving proper readings for a week, and then disappearing again for a month or more. Not sure what Octopus would do in these situations.
The smart meter can hold something like 6 months of data locally so once it comes online again Octopus will get the data.
Sounds like you may have poor connectivity to your smart meter. Mine didn’t work for over a year - when I got EoN out they swapped the meter for a new one with an external aerial and all worked perfectly. Apparently I should have had an aerial in the first place, Might be the same for you?
Yeah as Geoffrey says the newer smart meters do a good job of retaining the data. I believe, but not 100% certain that if they can’t get readings at all then they take averages and bill using that. It’s a shame the older smart meters were so flaky as they’ve put a lot of people off. My latest one has been great.
@@geoffreycoan honestly don’t know. The gas and electricity meters are both on the same corner of our house and maybe 2 meters from each other. The electricity meter is faultless but the gas is hopeless. Also it’s definitely not logging data because I also have the Octopus Watch app and almost none of the back data is available and certainly we don’t get a load populated when it does connect. I’ve even offered to pay to get it sorted without any success.
@@DanEVSolar7 it looks like ours are SMETS1 meters and have some issues. Good news is Octopus are arranging to swap out both for SMETS2 models which should solve the problem. 👍
@@twelvebears1971 Excellent. Hopefully that sorts things for you! 👍
Rumour is the standing charge and calc is moving up on tracker. Boo!!
Small increases but yes an increase all the same.
I just moved to octopus fixed tariff which works out about £800 cheaper than variable however since then the price cap has dropped , I keep hearing about this tracker tariff , is there way to see if this tracker works out better than my fixed tariff that I am currently on? I can still exit with no fees and change so tempted...
You would need to compare the unit cost for the fixed tariff and standing charge against the tracker unit and standing charge costs. The tracker unit costs are averaging around 17p per kWh (for electricity) over the past year so gut feel tells me Tracker would be cheaper but best to calculate it yourself to be certain. 👍
@@DanEVSolar7 thanks for your reply. What's the standing charges for tracker? I've had a look on energy stats for North West and it seems like tracker is mostly under what my fixed charges are which is good news...however I can't see any information regarding standing charges for tracker.
Here my fixed charges for my current fixed tariff
Octopus 12m fixed March 2024 v1
Gas. Elec
Kwh. 5.7005p. 24.4797p
Standing. 29.5575p. 49.119p
I suspect you’d end up on the April tariff which looks to be around the same standing charge. Check here for more info under the tracker price tables.
mysmartenergy.uk/Tracker/North-West-England
@@DanEVSolar7 thanks for that looks like gas standing charge is 2p less at 27.47 where electricity is the same , seems like tracker still is better overall based on last year's average than my current fixed.
I stopped listening at smart meter......
@@laurencetitusoates6328 why?
@@DanEVSolar7 Because I don't want one.
@laurencetitusoates6328 I always like to read a well reasoned argument!
£1 cap sound incredibly scammy.. i wouldn't risk it.
It’s basically just to cover Octopus if something like the last few years goings on happens again. Unlikely to ever get that high now, but not impossible. Like you say though, it comes with a small element of risk that’s not for everyone, but potentially savings to be had as well.
@@DanEVSolar7 either way, great content as always and thank you for all you do 👍🏻
Thank you! 🙏 I appreciate that.