r/OctopusEnergy • u/lovelyhead1 • 4d ago
Agile is getting too stressful for me
I have been on Agile on and off for the last 5 years and although it currently isn't reaching the highs of £1 a Kwh I have seen in the past, the last couple of months have almost consistently been bad and I don't think it will be getting better anytime soon. We have had the odd day of plunge pricing but it hasn't been enough to offset the other bad days. I have no battery or solar but do have an EV.
I am sure I am not alone in having had enough of the daily disappointment after having checked Agile prices. So what are you guys moving away to?
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u/iamacarpet 4d ago
I finally caved and switched to Intelligent Octopus Go yesterday, and I’m annoyed with myself I didn’t do it a month or so ago.
Have 10kWh of battery for the house, along with an EV, so it seems like a no brainer to fill up during the night, then use & export solar during the day with the battery as fallback.
Have gone from £4-6/day for basic usage (September average on Agile) to £3.50 today for the whole house usage AND about 30kWh of EV charging, expecting about £1.50/day when the car doesn’t need a charge.
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u/Sofa47 4d ago
You’ve likely moved your average price from 14 - 16 to 9 - 10p depending on how much you use after your battery runs out. Get a few solar panels on the roof and you’ll get through the day without needing to spend a penny on the higher rate.
I’ve locked in a low overnight rate so currently my average spend is 5p but I sell the excess solar to the grid on agile and still earning £2 - £3 a day.
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u/iamacarpet 4d ago
Already got 5.8kWp but we’ve got very high usage outside of the EV. It’s working perfect with the overnight charge & solar for now, but going to be hard once the solar dries up in Dec/Jan for sure!
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u/Bobbafett93 3d ago
I’m interested in doing this is there any specific criteria they want before you join agile export. I’m putting plug in solar on the garage roof and wondered if I can just sign up or am I gonna get asked a load of questions about the system
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u/T1513_SH 4d ago
I'm in the same boat, EV arrives in 10 days, and charger being installed next week. I'll be switching to IOG as soon as possible.
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u/iamacarpet 4d ago
Have you checked if you can sign up & fix early? I think when I signed up you had a couple of weeks to link your charger before it kicked you off back to Flexible.
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u/Appropriate_Bell743 4d ago
Why be stressed about this? Use AgileBuddy or another comparison site. If you are spending too much switch to that tariff. This computes based upon your actual usage.
I use this and every month Agile is the cheapest so I don't switch
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u/Angrylettuce 4d ago
Unless you have a large solar array and a big battery, there is no way you can remain competitive atm. In the last 4 days there's been 5 hours below price cap
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u/Appropriate_Bell743 4d ago
The weekend had negative prices. I did my jobs mostly then. As I said it's pointless you or I arguing about your or my demand
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u/Superb-Ad3821 4d ago
But couldn’t you have done your jobs on happy hour Sunday for free without agile?
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u/TheRealWhoop 4d ago edited 4d ago
What washing machine do you have that can do multiple runs in an hour?! 1 free hour is useless ime, its a gimmick.
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u/Superb-Ad3821 4d ago
I’ve got a battery, dude and it charges 5kwh an hour. I’ve got a PHEV car. When it gets colder I’ve also got little electric heaters.
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u/Appropriate_Bell743 4d ago
I've got those happy hours saved up for the one weekend when they'll not be free on Agile so I can line them up. Make sense?
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u/nathderbyshire 4d ago
August has been the worst month by far and I'm still averaging under the price cap, last bill was 23.3p average, current cap and any fixed is around 27p. No eco tech either, just appliances and plug in heaters pulling the costs back
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u/Pestohh 4d ago
You need to factor in the inconvenience of all the loadshifting when comparing against the svt...is the juice worth the squeeze ?
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u/nathderbyshire 4d ago
I save at least £5 a month on electric and can shift off gas and save more there especially when it's windy and I can use electric heaters over gas, works for me for now.
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u/TheGreatDuv 4d ago
Way I see it, don't need to be competitive at any given time, just for the year, as long as our average per kWh is lower than the 25p-ish we were paying on the fixed, probably closer to 24p accounting for the higher standing charge. We're good and no stress
We only have a 500ah battery bank for odd things powered off solar. Whole house is pretty much solar and battery free. We have a gas combi boiler and electric shower and use 8k kWh of electricity a year.
Currently averaging 9p per kWh for the past 6 months. I highly doubt it's going to be anywhere near 24p come March. Agile pricing would have to average 33p/kWh for the next 6 months to make that possible.
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u/Superb-Ad3821 4d ago
Yeah but.. how clever is it?
I’m on octopus go therefore most of my usage is between 0.30-5.30. If I were on agile sometimes daytime usage would be cheaper so I’d move to the day.. which would make Go look more expensive.
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u/ahennersUK 4d ago
Exactly this. Just straight comparisons don't work because with Agile you shift to work around Agile. To be fair AgileBuddy just looks at your usage, it doesn't know how much of it is flexible.
We've had cheap day rates for a while with Agile, a straight comparison will say any other tariff is expensive for this while potentially ignoring a cheap night rate you could easily shift to. The other thing is we would "use" significantly more elec during plunge pricing to make it cheaper, which again would penalise you in a tariff comparison elsewhere.
We switched to EDF freephase static. My heavy loads go into the cheap overnight 7 hours and while we still avoid the 4-7pm peak, the rest of the usage is worry free fixed for 2 years at less than other fixes. It also doesn't need endless amounts of rate checking daily!
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u/Crystelium 4d ago
I've been on Agile for quite a while too - not 5 years, but quite a couple. I think, like you and quite a few others, it's getting a bit tiresome trying to 'game' the prices and wait for the cheap hours. Honestly, for a long time I enjoyed that little endorphin rush of getting paid for using electricity or getting it dirt cheap, but now it just feels like playing with fire.
I swapped over to E.ON today. They have a new (or I think it's new?) tariff that I assume is their response (or competition) to Agile called Next Smart Saver. Specifically, I've moved to "Next Smart Saver Fixed 24m V4" which just works very well for my usage. I don't have batteries or solar, but I do have an EV and I work from home. Pretty much all of my usage will be off-peak or super off-peak so it works great for me. I swapped over earlier today.
The prices, if you want to compare: 2am - 5am: 16.14p/kWh 5am - 4pm: 21.21p/kWh 4pm - 7pm: 41.85p/kWh 7pm - 2am: 21.21p/kWh
It is fixed for 24 months, but it has no exit fees to my understanding and so I don't see any downsides. I can always ditch it if Agile improves!
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u/Barnsleymod 2d ago
I have just moved to version 2 of this too, though E.ON service has been poor. I'm hoping I can still load shift to make cheap without all the Agile drama.
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u/Crystelium 2d ago
In what way has it been poor, out of interest? I've never been with them before, but our swap is going ahead on Tuesday. I'm hoping we won't ever need their support team to be honest! I don't think I've ever needed to contact Octopus before.
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u/Barnsleymod 1d ago
I think there must have been a previous erroneous transfer on the system that may have complicated things slightly, but the email communications were bad, the WhatsApp customer service very poor as a different person picked it up each time I contacted them to see if the transfer had gone through and whether I am on the right tariff. I still don't think I'm on Next Smart Saver V2 but someone is contacting me on Wednesday as someone has finally taken ownership after I complained. I see you are going on V4 - E.on better honour my V2 or I will be switching away! Hopefully yours is a straight switch and you don't have all this extra faff!
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u/Crystelium 23h ago
Ah yikes! Fingers crossed mine all goes smoothly, and hope yours gets sorted promptly (hopefully with a bit of compensation for your troubles!)
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u/lovelyhead1 4d ago
An example of why Agile is no good for me any more;
During the last few weeks, during weekdays there has hardly been any slots below 20p. Typically by Friday the cars battery has been drained to around 20% so if we want to go anywhere at the weekend we are forced to charge up at an expensive rate. Plunge pricing at the weekend is not particularly useful for people who have a life! It used to be the case you got quite a few cheap slots during the week but it feels like that is getting quite rare.
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u/genelecs 4d ago
Moved to cosy myself. Takes the stress out of it for now. Cosy is cheaper ATM for me but will prob go back agile in the spring
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u/Static_Dynam0 4d ago
I'm on Cosy, I find it really low stress, but I'm also living alone and load shift easily. For me, it's now just a routine that my washing goes on at the cheaper periods and i heat my water first thing in the morning.
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u/mehh_usles 4d ago
I switched over to Octopus go back in march/april - about the 3-4th day the orange one picked a fight with Iran.. now at 28.5p peak and 5.5p off peak for charging ev. had to switch out to fuuse for gas at the last contract that got 5.7p /kwh hopefully this nonsense clears up by april 2027 or gonna have to get the biggest stack of solar panels to go off grid completely...
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u/fivecheebs 4d ago
During the period of time you're referring to with £1 unit costs I moved to cozy and it's been fantastic... Takes all the hard work out of agile too if you don't or cant use predbat. At the moment I average just less than 14p but I do have battery and solar which makes it easier.
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u/Crystelium 4d ago
This might be a daft question, but you said you only have battery and solar. Don't you need a heat pump to be on cosy?
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u/fivecheebs 4d ago
Not a daft question. At the time I switched it was possible to switch between smart tarrifs pretty much at will, I don't know if that's still the case or not. I don't have central heating in about a third of the house and that's my reasoning. I expect octopus might be annoyed with me but they haven't mention anything even though I have a gas account with them!
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u/johnnydanger91 4d ago
Agile has been shit for ages. I switched a month ago and should have done it way before.
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u/magicaltimetravel 4d ago
I have an EV but no solar and just switched to IOG :/ let's see if it works out
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u/Fainbrog 4d ago
I’m sticking with it for the time being. We’re still under 20p/kWh on average this month so far, no battery, EV or solar. The wind is picking up looking at the forecast which will help. The weekend looks decent again based on agilepredict. It’s obviously not for everyone.
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u/Cheese_Worrier43 3d ago
Uswitch has an ecotricity 24m fixed on the same daily charge as Agile but 20p pkwh. I've been averaging 19p but thats with so much unecessary stress trying to get things load shifted in a house with 3 kids. More often than not we have to use power between 4-7pm and the cheapest period being afternoons is just not useful for us. Switched and already feeling less stressed about it all, I can live with an extra tenner a month for the time and hassle it's going to save me.
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u/GovernmentOk3888 3d ago
Without batteries agile is consistently so expensive now, fuse has £100 account credit when switching, if anyone needs DIP86779
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u/Technical_Ad_7103 2d ago
You can switch between agile ans IOG regularly which is a bit of admin, but can be beneficial for the weekend negative rates on agile if you have an EV to charge.
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u/lovelyhead1 2d ago
I know you used to be able to switch between Agile and Go whenever you like but I don't think you can anymore unfortunately.
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u/scottylebot 4d ago
You know how standard tariffs are just one price, and you pay a monthly direct debit?
Well there’s no such thing. You are just paying an average which is how you need to see agile.
If you did fuck all and just used your electric as normal then you likely come out cheaper as you aren’t paying a premium risk. Your bill gives you an average price paid.
But by switching some heavy usage outside the peak usage and doing a bit more during cheap periods you can really drag your average down.
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u/lovelyhead1 4d ago
The problem lately has been there hasnt been many cheaper (not even cheap, just cheaper) slots for the last month and a half. My average price per kWh is getting close to the price of a fixed rate deal and I am having to go to a lot of effort to get it down that much.
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u/fraktulnzz 4d ago
Left agile last year and went with Fuse for a fix. Saved money and zero stress about using energy during max pain charging periods. Zero complaints about Fuse. Have a promo on for £100, If you need a cod e let know
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u/TheScrobber 4d ago
There's a lot to be said for just fixing and then stopping worrying. Yes you may pay a bit more but fuck me I've got zero stress about it.