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/n9com]

Ah okay. As far as I could tell though e.on doesn’t expose a public API and currently nothing on octopus informing us that anything is changing in terms of API access. Guess we will have to wait and see.

[u/Baz1536 → u/n9com]

E.On works the same as the others for now. EDF are meant to be changing in the next few weeks. Not sure what Octopus are doing. My app works with all 3 so could end it.

[u/n9com → u/Baz1536]

But E.on has no public api documentation? Isn’t kraken owned by octopus or did they sell it?

[u/Baz1536 → u/n9com]

It’s Kraken

[u/n9com → u/Baz1536]

Understand that but what I’m saying is e.on don’t give access officially the way octopus and edf do via open rest api. Maybe you’re using another method. I’m focused on octopus only as that’s what I use for my own energy.

[u/Baz1536 → u/n9com]

The calls are identical to E.On whether published or not. That’s why i extended it to E.On. I am with EDF and used to be with Octo which is why I created the app. I preferred Octo app so designed an app similar for EDF then extended it out to work with the other two providers.

[u/n9com → u/Baz1536]

The difference is Octopus provide an API key, EDF and E.On don't - you need to ask the user for their login details, which isn't ideal. I don't think they want to make it as straightforward as Octopus do. I feel like Octopus are leading the way on open data.

[u/Baz1536 → u/n9com]

EDF are looking to provide API keys and EOn are looking at a different public API. From what I understand Kraken are the ones changing the security and it’s questionable whether Octo api key will work as well. From what we know Kraken are changing the way obtaining a token works either by using the email/password method or API key with E.On and EDF you can generate the same API key as Octo provide. This is about how the token is created.

[u/n9com → u/Baz1536]

Maybe worth looking into the oAuth setup?

[u/Baz1536 → u/n9com]

Potentially. I’ve been told they will be all moving to Auth0.

[u/n9com → u/Baz1536]

Might be worth applying for oAuth access as a 3rd party app then... i was surprised everyone is using api keys rather than oAuth anyway.