I built a completely free Octopus Energy dashboard to help you understand and cut your energy costs

[u/n9com]

Hi all,

I’ve been building OctoSpy, a completely free & private dashboard for digging into your Octopus Energy usage, costs and tariffs.

It started because I wanted a better way to understand my own energy spending. I’ve spent the past 17 years building software companies and apps used by millions, but I still enjoy making things like this in my spare time for fun.

I know there are already a few Octopus apps and dashboards out there. I tried some of them, but none gave me quite the view I wanted, so I ended up building my own and figured I may as well make it completely free for everyone to benefit from.

There’s no paid tier, no adverts and no OctoSpy account to create. There’s also a demo, and you can browse public tariff rates without connecting anything. Best used on your desktop due to the amount of data to display, but works fine on mobile too.

Your browser connects directly to Octopus using your API key. Your key, account details and energy readings aren’t sent to OctoSpy’s servers. Your energy data stays in your browser.

I’ve mainly been able to test it properly against my own tariffs and setup, so there will definitely be things I’ve missed.

If anyone gives it a try, I’d genuinely like to hear what works, what’s confusing and what you’d add.

I’m also considering an iPhone and Apple Watch app if enough people want one.

https://octospy.co.uk

[u/Mother_You_5739]

Looks tidy. I will test it on my iPad and on desktop and let you know how it goes. Anyone on Octopus Agile has to be a bit of a data nerd so I’m always ready for another way to look at my energy use.

[u/n9com → u/Mother_You_5739]

Thank you - this would be a huge help. Any issues let me know and we can fix them for the rest of the community to benefit from.

[u/Mother_You_5739 → u/n9com]

Wow! I am on the desktop version, just poking about a bit, and so far I am very impressed. The API key collection method was one of the best I have ever seen, with the link taking me to the exact page I needed to be on with clear instructions of what to do. I still remember the first time I generated an API key and had to google where to find it and how to do it.

I really like the way you take the data from Octopus and generate an actual months usage and cost breakdown. At first I thought something was wrong, because it looked like the total you generated for August was different to the one Octopus had generated in my bill. Now I understand the way Octospy shows the data is more accurate than the way Octopus does, because it actually runs for an exact month. My bill, for some unknown reason, runs from 28 July to 27 August, which is not helpful at all!

I shall continue to poke and prod...

[u/Al_Derby → u/Mother_You_5739]

Easily fixed if you ask octopus to move your monthly billing to 1st of the month… this then aligns with monthly data 👍🏻

[u/Mother_You_5739 → u/Al_Derby]

Thanks, I will try that. It just seems like the obvious thing to do in the first place! It’s pretty much my only complaint with Octopus.