The old version sounded sooo much better 
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Yes, they have a rather expensive dc charger that accepts vehicle to house charging.
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I don’t know about tariffs that include EV charging, but if you try to sign up to a variable tariff such as Octopus Flex or Cosy at the moment you see a message saying, “Energy prices are particularly volatile right now, so this tariff is temporarily unavailable.”
ok thanks - so those are two specific smart type tariffs - the normal flex (Flex Octopus and Agile ) and fixed term tariffs are there - and new ones came out for April.
Interesting times. I guess the above flex tariffs are based closely on wholesale rates and not hedged rates so are not affected.
I contacted by son in law who owns related businesses and GivEnergy are a supplier and it was the first he heard.. so he is making enquiries - but it is reported on the web this morning.
Their GivEnergy services and products appear available, and all cloud services are operating.
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Giv going bust or into administration has been on the cards for a year or so. Looks like they have made a move into administration earlier in march. What this really means, time will tell.
Installers have had a varied relationship with Giv for a year or 2. They have legacy products ( i.e. 2 years old) that they struggle to support either in the field or remotely. Design decisions taken to shave a few pennies have bitten Giv, their installers and ultimately the end users.
This is a fastish moving product, where obsolescence is coming home to roost.
yeah their recent products are good and have good tech/innovation and a good reputation and improved perhaps over the earlier ones according to the installers I know. Though the network commissioning process can prove problematic with some user’s broadband when wifi is being used so I understand.
From what I saw, Givenergy has given notice of the intention to appoint an administrator. But they haven’t actually done so yet and it would be for the appointed administrator to decide what services to continue to offer or to halt. Nothing is automatic at this stage, so it’s all speculation as to what is likely to happen.
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Indeed and it is a global business - so which parts might be affected… or is it just the UK operations?, but global HQ is currently in Staffs, UK. We’ll find out shortly.
Octopus Flux, Intelligent Flux and Cosy are paused it would seem if you try to sign up.
Nothing firm back, but given the close association with Octopus there is a view that some parts may come under Octopus, but that is speculation.
I have just cancelled out battery order as Octopus and Eon have suspended all time of use tariffs with no indication of when they might become available, and if so, whether the terms will be as attractive as they were. This seems to include EV tariffs, and will presumably affect those on existing deals as they come up for renewal.
I’ve seen nothing in the press about this, and energy suppliers are burying the information deep in their websites, so I could easily have missed it and made a commitment.
I’m still hoping that things will be back on track as I’m keen to get batteries to make effective use of our solar, but right now it’s a huge risk that payback times could be decades rather than years.
We are on agile and this weekend went rather well with negative pricing for much of Saturday and Sunday. In round terms the total net cost was 80p for 150 kWh imported. Generation added about another 50kWh for free (a gust of wind turned the wind turbine off on Saturday lunchtime which lost us generation probably around 100-150kWh)
It’s incredibly difficult to work out returns / payback as our imports vary wildly according to generation and I would need to work out what our oil consumption would have been. Also, the renewable heat incentive has already (with 18 months to go) paid for the air source heat pump ignoring the £5k saving from not replacing the oil fired boiler so do I need to deduct that £5k gain somewhere?
IOG is a variable tariff albeit with the need for a suitable EV charger. You get 6 hours of cheap electricity. As long as you are an Octopus customer you receive 12p/kWh credits for exports once you have a suitable smart meter and the necessary paperwork. Octopus GO is not as fussy about chargers.
We all live with possible contract changes.
Phil
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Having just moved to Octopus (thanks for the referral @davidhendon ) I’ve yet to explore fully the tariffs on offer. Events in the Middle East aren’t helping but it looks like a good move so far. Interesting times.
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Sure, but like all time of use tariffs, it’s unavailable, so if you’ve just bought an EV (or home batteries/solar) you’re not going to get any cheap off peak power, which might be a nasty shock for some.
Hi Chris, where are you getting this info about time of use tariffs being suspended from? The Octopus website is still offering IOG at 8p at night time, but only as a fix.
Try signing up to it. I guarantee you’ll get nowhere, on any Octopus or Eon time of use tariff. I spoke to both of them this morning. Octopus just said sorry, due to market instability the tariffs are suspended, with no indication of when or if they will return. The person I spoke to at Eon didn’t even know the tariffs were unavailable and had to go and speak to someone. Same answer, not available.
Well I will discover shortly as my install is going on right now. But anyway I’m not bothered about rate of return . At 76 I’m more interested in solar helping to reduce my bills and the battery helping to give me resilience against power cuts. If I don’t spend the money on this, it would just sit in the bank until my wife and I are no longer able to benefit from it.
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If you’re getting good solar generation you’ll be less dependent on a low off-peak tariff, at least in summer. For us, cloud cover is significantly higher than most UK locations, so we can’t expect as much solar generation as most, so without a decent off-peak rate it’s not really viable. As you say, there are other reasons to add batteries, resilience in case of supply problems being one which may become a higher priority if certain global situations continue to deteriorate.
As for solar reducing your bills, a time of use tariff is still key to making this work for most people.
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