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Is there somewhere that you can download an Excel with the price history by time and day for the last year? I’ve Found the info on different sites but is all by individual day. Import and export.
Is it Currencies or Stocks? If so, these are built in these days and you can access historical data using formulas.
If not, you can use Power Query to scrape data from websites into excel and manipulate from there.
RM.
Sorry octopus agile - electricity prices
@simon_g thanks - I can see September 2023. Can you get other months? Ideally trying to get a feel for a year or more.
Are you downloading the CSVs? For London I get incoming back to Feb 2018 and outgoing back to May 2019.
This link is for the West Midlands but you can select any region from “Download Data” in the header, you can get CSV files for Agile electricity, and Tracker electricity and gas.
My Smart Energy - Download Data - West Midlands
Thing is the prices have been all over the place since Corona. So not sure what you'll learn for the future by looking at data from the last few years. They plunged at the start of corona, then went sky high in late2021, now they seem to be starting to return to normal pattern (although not down to the same rates as 2019) ie significantly cheaper at night than during day. late2021 to mid2023 the price was just at max cap rate all the time even during the night, it seemed to me.
In terms of looking at patterns I'd be inclined to look back at 2018/19, Altho I doubt the actual prices will go back down to those levels, I think we might return to bigger gaps between day and night rates.
What you are doing is trying to steer the boat by looking at the wake. If you can load shift your consumption to outside peak hours octopus agile should be ok. We’re retired so easy for us.
I'm going to give agile a go when my what meters are fitted. I need to make sure they connect to the network as the electricity meter is in the cellar. If it works I think I'll be able to use a few cheap KW of electric when it's cheap or negatively priced for heating.
I have looked through last year's data and did see a fair few days where a KW of power was around 50p all day over winter.
I'll aim to report back if I do swap over to agile next month.
@simon_g - you're right I think the problem was I looked using a mobile device and it was truncating it.
@shinton - you're also right. I suppose I was thinking that the plunge pricing is presumably driven by excess wind and solar and so over the course of a year it might give some indication of what could be expected.
I'm trying to figure out if it is worth switching to agile, over my current flux tariff and getting a high current electric heater that I would use when the price of electric drops to 0 or below gas. Usage would be spring / autumn I think, assuming that in winter there wouldn't be much plunge pricing.
I've a small 4kwh battery and some panels so can use that to help load shift.
I don't have batteries or solar. But I do have some electric heaters and WiFi plugs!
I’ve just moved off Agile onto Tracker. Just couldn’t shift enough to cheap slots to mitigate the expensive bit between 4pm and 7pm every day. Which, incidentally, seemed to be creeping up to nearer 9pm most days.
If you’ve got a battery, then it’s likely doable, but otherwise Tracker might be a better bet.
the plunge pricing is presumably driven by excess wind and solar and so over the course of a year it might give some indication of what could be expected
An interesting hypothesis. Is Agile is the tariff that changes every 30 minutes according to wholesale prices? Might be worth grabbing solar and wind and wholesale gas prices to see how these correlate and in what proportion.
Is there something weird about U.K. wholesale electricity prices and how the price is defined? I vaguely recall that the price is not truly market-defined.
OFGEM’s site has plots on price but I didn’t dig deep into how the market works, only that there’s a sort of Markov approach to what the price for the next half hour will be. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-data-and-research/data-portal/wholesale-market-indicators
Good luck. Protons For Breakfast on Wordpress has done various analyses of energy pricing. These might offer some inspiration. In excel as well.
Average price per kWh for us based on usage since we switched to Agile:
September 20.13p
August 18.68p
July 18.64p
June 16.64p
May 20.63p
April 24.62p
March 26.47p
Current standing charge is 44.72p/day
We didn't really get into the load shifting until around May as the main reason for going Agile was Mrs S PHEV which has a range of 30m.
Interesting numbers there Shinton..... thanks.
Just got my smart meter fitted (thanks to the old one going out of certification, not because I actually wanted one!) and I'm now looking at Agile as an alternative to being on the Tracker.
Kids have basically left home so 4-6 is pretty low usage and I have solar but no batteries.
I'd like to run some electric UFH overnight at cheap rates if possible as that's probably our biggest single consumption device.
Just seen that my account is now linked to my meter so I can see when I'm using how much power - let the nerding begin!
Whilst past performance is no guide to the future it looks as if there aren’t that many occasions when elec is cheaper than gas on agile.
The weight up then becomes when solar yields fall does the benefit of lower prices on agile mean it is better value than flux.
Agile looks like it might be quite a lot of hassle to do if using a battery to load shift.
Using gas central heating I would have to heat up all the water in the system which might take 30 minutes and 15kw of gas, then the lowest my boiler will modulate down to is 8kw an hour.
I will use my gas central heating occasionally.
I want to pre heat my house with electricity when prices are low. If 1kw of electricity costs me a few pence using a few KW wouldn't be expensive.
I can load shift easily as well. Might get me out of the house at peak hours for some exercise?
Whilst past performance is no guide to the future it looks as if there aren’t that many occasions when elec is cheaper than gas on agile.
But for those of us without gas then it may make more sense.
I've just set up IFTTT to send me message when the cost falls below 5p/Kwh - I'm going to monitor it for now, but the Agile comparison page is showing that I would be saving just over £1/day on Agile. And that's with a helping hand from the solar - I expect that saving to grow as PV production reduces.
My main interest is running the electric UFH in the kitchen only when the price is right (<5p maybe) as the Warmup wifi connected thermostat allows IFTTT integration (I already use it to soak up spare PV generation in the summer). The floor would work like a storage heater.... charge it up on cheap power and it would then release it during the day.
I know it wouldn't be that often but I think it may be worth it. I could also push a few other things into overnight use and, who knows, we may even get an electric car!
Anyway, studying the data over the next few weeks will be interesting.
Sharkbait, have you got a battery with the solar? Companies like GivEnergy do kit that works intelligently with Agile, topping up the battery at the cheapest tariff times and switching the house over to the battery at peak tariff times. So possibly might supplement PV, worth investigating.
Sharkbait, have you got a battery with the solar?
No, just 4Kwp of PV but at the old FIT rate so I'm not messing with it. After 3 days data the Agile comparision page is showing I'd be 29% better off on Agile.
@sharkbait Where do you download your usage by time of day?
After 3 days data the Agile comparision page is showing I’d be 29% better off on Agile.
After the last 3 days I've not had to import anything been plenty sun. wait till a calm dull 3 days in February.
Where do you download your usage by time of day
It's on my octopus account.... broken down into half hour segments
I keep tabs on Agile with an app on my (android) phone. OctopusWatch is probably the best and gives you a notification summary at 4pm every day of the prices for tomorrow. OctopusTariff probably the simplest.
A fair bit of this afternoon is <4p/kWh ....... blimey!
The more I think about it the more I'm tempted to give Agile a try. Avoiding the 4-7pm peak rate shouldn't be too difficult and running the electric UFH on very cheap rates could be good.
Can always go back if it's not working out.
You could go on Tracker if Agile's not working for you, as bensales did above. Tracker is a daily single price and is calculated as an average of Agile prices, I believe. My Tracker v1 price today is 15.05p/kwh (Yorks/incl.vat)
sharkbait
Free Member
Just seen that my account is now linked to my meter so I can see when I’m using how much power – let the nerding begin!
Put your name down for an Octopus Home Mini. You'll then get live readings in your account.
Put your name down for an Octopus Home Mini.
Just done so.... couldn't find it before!
#manlook
Been trying the Octo-aid app but I think it's ios only, seems good for checking that your tariff is the best for your usage.
Agile saves us plenty just charging the car when it's cheaper and doing washing / drying / dishwasher out of the peak 4-7pm period. And that's with gas heating and hot water.
I'm watching the agile prices and awaiting my smart meter being fitted next week.
The electricity meter will be in a cellar so I'm not certain if it will get a signal to the outside. Do smart meters have a signal booster option?
I feel as if I could be sitting in a sightly warmer house at the moment if I could use some cheaper electricity.
Do smart meters have a signal booster option?
I believe there's a north /south divide, I'm not sure where the line is drawn tho.
The contract for providing smart meter Comms in the North is arqiva and is radio Comms based. There's no way to boost the signal at the smart meter as far as I'm aware. Some places like around fylingdales on North York Moors is a black spot.
The contract for South is Telefonica and is Tele Comms based (possibly 2g). I think they can install booster Ariels in your house and there is something like a mesh or grid that forms when lots of homes around you get smart meters. So there are a couple of possibilities.
I'm watching the agile prices and awaiting my smart meter being fitted next week
Although you can go back if agile isn't for you I'm still spending a couple of weeks comparing prices for my actual use before jumping in.
I believe there’s a north /south divide
I'm in the north, slightly north of Manchester. I'll report back in a week...
@retrorick BTW I'm in the North (arqiva radio Comms) and have a really poor TV signal which requires the addition of a TV antenna booster box to work, my house is tucked into a hillside. When my smart meter was installed in early 2020 it didn't communicate, the signal was too weak it seemed (I wasn't surprised TBH) and so I made a few calls to octopus about it asking them to sort it. The smart meter didn't work for many months possibly a year and then one day they contacted me and said it was communicating (I've no idea how this happened, possibly no smart meters locally were working so arqiva were forced to update their local infrastructure, who knows tbh). Anyway it's all now working, so if yours doesn't work initially, it might get sorted in a few weeks/months/years by one means or another.
Thanks for the antenna info B.A.Nana. it gives me some hope.
I hope it works for you. I gave up hope straight away because of my weak TV signal, but they fixed it somehow at their end (after several months).
Thanks for the antenna info B.A.Nana. it gives me some hope.
Just to be clear, there's no antenna solution for us in the North. As far as I understand it.
On the subject of smart meters I have now learnt that our old, but working fine, plasma TV uses 7x more power than our [bigger] LED TV!
(350w vs 50w)
I know this shouldn't really come as a surprise but it's not until you see the current power consumption on the meter that it really sinks in. I have to admit that I was a bit anti-smart meters until last week when we were forced into having one - I was wrong!
Just to be clear, there’s no antenna solution for us in the North. As far as I understand it.
Ah, I misread your initial comment about the booster! My TV works fine, gets a reasonable signal from a Freesat satellite 🤣. I think the digital signal is ok as well but I haven't checked for several years.
Smart meters fitted this afternoon. With success, so far.
Looks like the gas meter sends both readings to the outside world and my gas meter is closer to that world. The in home display works.
I'll make sure the connection is stable for the next few weeks before considering a switch to Octopus agile next month.
If anyone is interested in looking at Octopus Tracker tariff past data then google- gas tracker UK. Then select the tracker tariff you would be on, select electricity, region, and then lower down you can select the period of time ie 365 days. That will give you a graph of the last 12 months tracker prices (or what historic period you select) and at the bottom the average tracker price for the last 12 months (or what period you selected). No indication of the future but an indication of trend etc. My average price for previous 12 months is 20.22p/kwh (Yorkshire and I'm assuming probably incl vat). Sorry if this website has already been pointed to, I couldn't be arsed reading back thru the thread.
Switched to Agile last week. Looks like Monday peak times are the most expensive so far but switching the dishwasher, washing machine and plugin hybrid to cheaper times feels easy enough.
Tomorrow first thing the rates are actually paying me to use the electricity. Also had an immediate decrease in standing charge for the same electricity getting provided.
If anyone is interested in looking at Octopus Tracker tariff past data then google- gas tracker UK
Thanks for the reminder to take a look at this option. A potential reduction in gas prices is also a good option for me.
Also had an immediate decrease in standing charge for the same electricity getting provided.
What is the standing charge.... it doesn't seem to be listed.
49.43 for Northern Scotland. Was 54.60 on the standard Octopus tariff.
Ok it's a small amount but it's exactly the same electricity and infrastructure.
Handy info here with links to explaining what and why the prices are what they are https://agileprices.co.uk/?region=P You can change region at the top
Well I've made the jump to Agile....Could be exciting!
I'm even considering a colour changing bulb [or similar] somewhere to give a quick visual indication of when's a good time to use power hungry devices.
But for now I've handed control of the kitchen UFH to IFTTT 😬
.... also considering a few WiFi plugs and simple electric heaters.
When the price drops below [whatever] switch them all on regardless of the time!
Cheap electricity for the next 6hrs on agile. A few pence or around 0p/KW
I've not switched from eon to octopus yet so I'll be paying the 27p until then 😭
I've baked some bread, the UFH is on as well as 2 x tumble dryers and a heater!
The home display thinks I've gone utterly bonkers!
But for now I’ve handed control of the kitchen UFH to IFTTT 😬
Seems I was far too trusting!!
I've had lots of failed Agile Octopus triggers on IFTTT so, at the moment it's not very trustworthy.
Instead I've written a bash script that, every 30 mins, gets the current energy cost for that half hour - depending upon whether it's above or below my threshold it fires off a webhooks message to IFTTT which then adjusts the underfloor heating temperature to either 28c (so on all the time) or 12c (effectively off).
That seems to be working a treat..... or at least it would be if the wind was blowing and prices were lower!!
I'm going to use the same system to control electric heaters hooked up to Kasa wifi plugs in my office and in the bedroom - any 'very cheap' heat is good heat regardless of the time of day!
Agile thread resurrection!
I finally made the switch to Octopus which only took 2 days. Surprisingly quick, I then switched to the agile tariff which only took 1 day. I am now ready for the cheap power tomorrow morning. I should wake up to a few rooms that are in double didgets °c rather than mid single figures.
@retrorick sign up for the saving sessions aswell. Although you'll probably need to wait a while before they have some history for you.
I've saved a decent chunk each month switching our dishwasher and washing machine to cheaper periods. Hybrid car charger also scheduled when below a custom limit. Standard charge is also lower.
Only downside has been a lack of bills unless I request one and that for some reason some days are defaulted to normal tarrif as they claim they don't have the half hour readings from the smart meter, although they appear in my app for those days 🤷♂️
I have signed up for the saving sessions.
Usually I use minimal electricity but I think I will be using considerably more in the future rather than gas central heating.
This evening I went for a walk during the peak pricing, cost me a bag of chips, curry and rice so I didn't save much in the end. 😔
Only downside has been a lack of bills unless I request one and that for some reason some days are defaulted to normal tarrif as they claim they don’t have the half hour readings from the smart meter, although they appear in my app for those days
That's a bit concerning, have they charged you the full rate standard tariff that most people are on (I think it's approx 27p/kwh) or tracker tariff rate for that day which is supposed to be based on an average of the agile prices??.
I'm on the verge of switching from the original tracker v1 to agile. It's a big decision because I'd be throwing away the old daily standing charge of 18p/day for a new daily standing charge of 54p/day and I don't expect there'll be any going back onto old tracker v1 if it doesn't work for me.
I've also got an old dumb car charger, so I'm currently experimenting with methods of automation to try and make it work with the half hour rates, basically in the form of a smart circuit breaker in the consumer unit.
It gets flipped to the Flexible Octopus tarrif for the day(s) in question. About 26p a unit plus the standing charge goes up.
It's in the Ts&C's but is a little odd. Only happened a couple of times. I'm still pestering them for a solution.
I think you can download the CSV? file for your consumption for each day split into 48 half hour periods.
I will try and keep track of these details and see if I can work out an expected bill.
Last night's cheap power resulted in a kitchen that was 13°c this morning and a bedroom that was also 13°c. I also did a load of washing.
@retrorick check out the Loop app as this will do all of what you need plus more. You could also try asking Octopus for n In Home Display (IHD)
I think Octopus are now pushing their Home Mini rather than a IHD.
Well that was a busy night....
3 x heaters going
Kitchen underfloor on
Dishwasher run
2 x loads of washing
1 x big tumble drier load
2 x ovens cleaned on the longest cycle
Immersion on for 3 hours
🥵
..... And was "paid" for all of it!
How are you doing automation for agile? I've got a few smart plugs which I've set up on simple Philips hue 4pm/off 7pm/on but I'm looking at trying to automate my old dumb car charger to turn on and off at half hour segments depending on price. I've found smart circuit breakers for the consumer unit but not sure how to go about controlling it.
How are you doing automation for agile?
Home Assistant is the usual answer (as long as the switches have an integration with HA)
Well that was a busy night….
3 x heaters going
Kitchen underfloor on
Dishwasher run
2 x loads of washing
1 x big tumble drier load
2 x ovens cleaned on the longest cycle
Immersion on for 3 hours
🥵
….. And was “paid” for all of it!
I did the same. Yesterday I used 37kWh over the 24hr period and the app says I spent 40p (+ standing charge).
Up to 22kWh today after last nights house warming session. Worth it for 10 minutes scheduling smart plugs and washing machines.
It'll probably go expensive/wrong when the wind drops and the temperatures drop?! I'll be back to a cold house.
How are you doing automation for agile?
Can't be bothered with HA so I have a very simple script running as a service on a RasPi checking the price every 30 minutes and sending webhook messages to IFTTT, which switches Tapo wifi plugs for the heaters on and off accordingly.
Electric UFH has a Warmup wifi thermostat which IFTTT also controls.
Ovens, washing machine, tumble drier and immersion* are all set on timers manually.
We have another place that I would LOVE to put on agile but Octopus are not keen to install a smart meter it seems. If they did I could control both houses with the same Pi!
* We have PV and a solar diverter so run the immersion via the boost button - I'd like to change it to another make of diverter which allows remotely control the boost. I already have this ability in the other place.
Yesterday I used 37kWh over the 24hr period
You can do better than that..... we used 44kWh yesterday before midnight - and we weren't even in the house before 5pm!
Lord only know what we used between midnight and 5am but I've used 46kWh up to now and I changed my threshold to not switch anything on until the price was below 0.5p/kWh so my total spend should be negative.
I really should go and buy a couple more cheap heaters 😉
I probably could but I err'd on the side of caution was drawing 5kw at one point and I thought that I might start tripping fuses for the sake of a few pence!
This morning I only ran heaters when the cost was negative or zero pence. I didn't have any washing to do, the dishwasher had its first use in over a year yesterday and pulling another 2kw on the tumble drier heating up fresh air did make me think about the electrical welfare of my house!
Balls! One of my WiFi infrared panels didn't turn off today 😭.
I had the wrong day in the 'off' part of the schedule.
Only 800w/h for 9hrs at reasonably cheap prices tho!
Probably the cost of a bag of crisps at the pub 🤔. Landing is warm though 🤣🔥
We have another place that I would LOVE to put on agile but Octopus are not keen to install a smart meter it seems.
And as if by magic I log on to Octopus to enter a meter reading and I'm given the option of booking a smart meter installation date!!
Obvs the system didn't work which was quite good as the only day available was when I was away next month (thought I'd book it anyway just in case I could persuade someone else to be there that day).
A quick email to octopus CS and they booked a day when I am available.... Excellent!
I've applied to go onto Agile Octopus today. I was seriously considering it beforehand, but my hand has now been forced as it looks like they are ending all old versions of Tracker tariffs (and maybe other old versions of wholesale price tracking type tariffs) and migrating everyone onto the latest versions. So I'll now be paying the extortionate daily standing charge like everyone else. I guess I will have to start getting creative with smart plugs and learn how to use the tumble dryer timer. At least the car has a reasonably good selection of timed charging options in it's app.
The previous few weeks on Agile have been good. I reckon I've halved my bill. Washing machine and tumble dryer timings are probably key to the savings.
I wonder if when the new lower cap price for energy comes in if there will be a reduction in savings that the Agile tariff generates?
My thinking being if the new rate drops by 5p from around 30p to 25p KW for electricity I think that the Agile tariff will be pricing the peak hours 4 till 7pm at nearer 30p 🤔.
That said I should be able to carry on avoiding peak power usage and the sun will be drying my clothes on the washing line over summer.
144 kWh used over the weekend. Total cost for me 0p.
Cost to Octopus for my exceptional effort £1.30.
Haha..... 206kWh used over Saturday and Sunday (Sunday was 108 which is a new record for me!) and I made 87p.
It was spoiled by MrsSB wanting to roast something on Sunday evening which made my Sunday cost +7p 😣
That said, the house was boiling and I got literally everything washed and dried!
I even resorted, in the absence of needing to [pyrolitic] clean the ovens, to running a 2.5hr washing machine drum cleaning cycle that heats the water up to 70c 😉
I see there's a price drop to 2-3p to his afternoon so I've got the electric heating set up to run at prices below 2.7p as it's cheaper than using oil and the weather today is crap.
Love Agile!
and learn how to use the tumble dryer timer.
The problem with ours is that it only allows 3, 6 or 9 hour delays which makes planning quite tricky.
We do have a dumb old TD (that's outside in the barn) which has an electric timer so you can turn the timer knob but it doesn't start [timing or drying] until the power is on.
So it can be controlled with a smart socket.
The [better] newer one that's in the house uses sensors rather than a timer and needs manually starting after power has been cut.
So it can't be controlled by a smart switch 😠
I'm unable to delay my tumble dryer start time. It needs a physical button press to start it.
My washing machine hits 90°c on the drum clean setting and uses nearly 3kWh. Takes around 3hrs to complete though.
26°c was reached in a bedroom. Way to warm for me. The residual heat held up for at least 24hrs.
Total cost for last week's electricity use came in at just below 70p for 158kWh plus standing charge.
My washing machine hits 90°c on the drum clean setting and uses nearly 3kWh. Takes around 3hrs to complete though.
Same here. I didn't know about the length of time so was marginally worried when I started the cycle with only 2.5 hours until prices jumped up - thankfully all the heating seems take place in the first couple of hours!
washing machine drum cleaning cycle that heats the water up to 70c 😉
Damn, didn't think of that and I've got some drum cleaner, I'll make a note for next time.
I did think to put the oven on to heat the kitchen (rather than the gas central heating), it's the coldest room in the house.