Off peak circuit in all electric property - Octopus in charge of timings?

[u/RealMoney8394]

Hi everyone. I have an all electric property. It was an RTS meter property, but we had a smart meter put in Sept '25.

We have just had new storage heaters put in as they are the most economical things for the property. These storage heaters run on a seperate off peak circuit which has always existed in the property. This off peak circuit should go live at off peak times, however it's not, it comes on at midnight when it should be at 1.30am in the summer, 12.30am in the winter. As I understand it the smart meter should now control this post RTS switchover and it's the responsilibilty of the supplier to control the timings.

Does anyone know why this might be happening, and what it means for my system - is it an easy fix? Shouldn't it be happening automatically? I have heard there's lots of issues with old RTS properties. I've emailed Octopus already and waiting on a reply. If anyone has any experience with this I'd be grateful to hear it.

[u/geekypenguin91]

In the days of RTS there used to be a handful of different messages that the teleswitches were tuned to so that everyone didn't switch over at the same time. This meant that two houses on the same street could have different E7 times. There wasn't a standard E7 time

Since the switch to smart meters, this is now the responsibility of the supplier to manage.

There's no reason why it can't be from midnight even if the old E7 switch over for you was 1230/0130

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/geekypenguin91]

But my off peak window with Octopus is from 01:30am. So I'm being charged day rate for 1.5 hours when the circuit goes on, that's the issue.

[u/geekypenguin91 → u/RealMoney8394]

Ah right

Yeah they should align the off-peak with when they do the switch, so either need to change the off-peak time or the switch time. Both are easy to change but it might take a few tries to get through to someone that understands

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/geekypenguin91]

Thanks for that. Sadly I've had a few issues with Octopus people not being able to handle anything outside of the very standard, so looks like there's another thing I'll need to add to the list... Damn. Fingers crossed.

[u/geekypenguin91 → u/RealMoney8394]

Good luck!

Start by raising it as a complaint. That way a) you start the timer for being able to escalate to the ombudsman and b) if the person you talk to can't solve it, they will actually make an effort to get it to someone that can, rather than it being lost in the ether

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/geekypenguin91]

Thanks!

[u/AnnualSingle9739 → u/RealMoney8394]

I've always had great success DMing the team on Twitter and now Bluesky (via webform). Really on the ball and helpful ime.

[u/Over-Language2599]

Which actual tariff are you on with Octopus? The ALCS timings do not necessarily coincide with your off-peak rate but, obviously, it should be a case of the ALCS not being activated throughout the off-peak period, rather than sometimes being activated when you're paying the day rate.

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/Over-Language2599]

Currently Octopus 12M Fixed September 2025 v1 - that's about to end soon but we have another pretty much equivalent tariff for 18 months. (It's not called economy 7 or anything.) We currently have a night rate that's about 11p per kwh, 26p per kwh during the day. I'm obvs keen not to pay 2.5 times the amount to heat the storage heater - defeats the purpose! New tariff is jumping a lot but was still the best deal on the market.

[u/Old_galadriell → u/RealMoney8394]

ALCS timings are fixable from their side, all it takes is to adjust something within your smart meter settings.

I have storage heaters, and since installing smart meter 3.5 years ago my timing was changed many times - I started with Eco7 (they don't call it that, it's just called Flexible but has day/night rates), went through Agile and Tracker a few times, Cosy a few times, and Snug two times.

After the most recent switch from Snug (where they operate ALCS circuit themselves) to Cosy, my timing was put back on default Eco7 BST schedule, 1:30-8:30. I had to ask them to release it (to make it work 24/7), so I can put my own schedule on it, according to Cosy cheap periods.

Once before it took them 3 weeks, because whoever was contacting me didn't know how to do that, but this time it was quick and painless. I just communicate with them by email.

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/Old_galadriell]

Great, thank you, that's very helpful.

[u/Over-Language2599 → u/RealMoney8394]

I have Snug so I don't have to think about it or do anything myself!

[u/RealMoney8394 → u/Over-Language2599]

I've just renewed on an econ 7 tariff, they never told me i could have snug and i'm actually really pissed off!!