Can someone advise how Smart meters are powered? I’d assume the electric ones are powered by the mains electric before the metering.
How about the gas ones? Do they need a socket/electrical connection or are they battery powered?
Did I ask this before?
The gas ones are battery, electric ones are pre meter.
Thanks.
Same here - although to be fair our old meter was only rated at 40 amps and after fitting a heat pump we needed 100 amps (said the network not Octopus). But Octopus fitted the smart meter and the engineer did very little to try and get a DCC signal from the O2 carrier, just a small aerial stuck inside the cabinet so little chance really. Octopus aren’t interested in trying further of case, but as we can almost see the mast I may try experimenting with a home made aerial. Same really as the new meter is harder to read and it would be nice to access some flexible tariffs. Still, rural areas have other advantages.
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Just done a one year fixed deal. This is the first time I’ve done a change since the energy prices went pear-shaped.
Predictions are that energy price cap goes down 7% in July, then up 12% in October, then stays the same Jan’25. So if you can get a deal of 2% or better, it might be worth considering.
I’ve gone with outfoxthemarket. Saving me a fair chunk and even if the predictions are slightly off, I can’t see me losing out. They have good reviews too.
Another reason I’ve changed from Octopus, is that I really don’t like their subtle manipulative manner of the direct debiting. Even if I lose out, I feel better not being with them.
I’ve been with them for a few years and I hadn’t noticed that.
I looked at moving, but found out that there is a problem with the National Database (ECOES) entry for my house. To cut a long story short, I have two records, one for Gas/Electric and the other for Solar Export. It turn out that the Solar Export record was entered as “Commercial” which means no-one will take me on. I have gone in a complete circle contacting various companies, and at the moment it’s back with the Solar Export company (Goof Energy)
In any case, I’ll probably wait until July for deals, as they will have to try harder to get your account when the prices all drop by the 7% (me thinks).
I put a 4k solar panels array on my last house and used ‘good energy’ as my energy supplier and they paid me the FiT as well.
But I don’t think I counted as a commercial supply to the grid!
You shouldn’t be - I think it was an error on their behalf.
Well that’s a tricky one. Like share dealing, you always need to be one step ahead when predicting outcomes. Once the prices drop 7% in July, they will start pricing in the 12% rise for 3 months time. I compared the actual gas and electricity costs per kw of the offer I’ve just taken compared to my current supplier and they drop 12% & 15%.
Since I took the offer, cheapest deal has seen electricity up 7% and gas 9%. So correct decision 
I have fixed ours. We are still on last year’s fixed tariff with Octopus. The new fix gives certainty over unit costs, if not consumption, until October 2025.
I don’t know if Octopus are the cheapest, but they have been good to deal with when I have had reason to contact them.
I did as well
Futures prices have ticked up a bit recently like many commodities but all things being equal will likely fall back again in coming weeks leading to lower prices in 2025. However energy trades do seem range bound so any moves are unlikely to be huge, until something happens to change that!
That said, there was a general reduction in domestic energy use across Europe last winter. If we see similar relatively low demand this time around that could lead to greater competition for your contract.
Here in New Zealand we have just moved to a fixed 5-year plan with a new provider after our current provider notified a price increase averaging 25% across our three import rates whilst keeping our export rate the same (for the forth time!).
The new provider is $500/year cheaper than what our current one will be with their price increase next month. They have a single import rate, a higher export rate and a low daily fee, so that suits solar use well. We also get a $300 credit for joining, along with fixed rates for the 5 years. That works out as a $2,800 saving over 5 years, before accounting for any price increases in the next five year with other providers.
The variation in prices here does feel as though there is some price gouging coming on.
We started a new Octopus fix last week. It’s 22.9p per kWh for electricity, plus standing charge.
Octopus Compare app is good for as the title suggests comparing today’s tariffs based off your own data. It’s quite useful, but it obviously doesn’t predict the future.
Octopus Agile works well for me, with an average import price of 15p/kWh
Do you have to be with them for a year to have that past data, or do they somehow ask for permission to access your data on the central database?