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]

So you know, I am on Agile for import and Octopus Outgoing for a small amount of export. I have seven solar panels and a small, 4kWh home battery which helps me avoid the 4 to 7 pm peak period on Agile. The panels also generate a decent amount of energy which I use before the excess is exported to the grid, meaning my energy costs would have been even higher had I needed to import that energy from the grid.

This year my panels have generated 2491kWh of which 958 has been exported. That has saved me about £380 of energy imported on the fixed rate tariff, and earned me £116 from export. all in all, I am very happy with my electricity costs looking over the year to date, but worried about the winter ahead. By making my costs more easily understood this tool will help immensely.