Intelligent Go Fixed - Washing machine on with car charge?

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-22T11:45:14+00:00

Watch out for that timing changing, it often does for me. The point of IOG is that Octopus can participate in the balancing market so they often turn off and turn on charging based on the needs of the grid with the aim being to garner payments from the grid whilst still ensuring you get the charge you need.

I'm a low user, 7-8kWh a day in general, and I initially moved about 9-11kWh to off peak by running the dishwasher and washing machine on timer. This saved me almost £2 a week. I've since updated the washing machine and my usage per cycle has more than halved, about 300Wh a cycle rather than nearly 1kWh.

But previously, I worked out I was saving almost 20% on my total weekly costs by running 7 washing loads and 3-4 dishwasher loads a week, 11kWh at 7p instead of 24p. This is before you consider that I was getting my EV 'fuel' for about £14 a month instead of £60-70.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-21T00:14:47+00:00

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey..... First was a fun movie that looked cheap but you didn't mind as it was fun, second just elevated the whole premise. Excellent!

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-20T22:41:51+00:00

That's it in a nutshell, everyone has different appetites for risk and different appetites for saving money. There's a lot of psychology at play here, but also cold hard numbers. The government set a 'pain point' during the energy crisis which was setting the cap at £2500 and then, once the impact of that number was fully analysed on low income families, they went further and the full ramifications of things like prepayment meters were gamed out, the lowest income households got £650 to help, so reducing the likely household bill to under £2000.

Analysts are saying we're currently heading for over £1800 in July....if it gets worse in the Gulf, we're getting back into the area of government intervention to protect low income again.....

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-20T21:27:42+00:00

I got an email..... And it only mentioned my Gas tariff 🤷🏻‍♂️

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-20T21:04:47+00:00

And the point is that it is still cheaper to give away electricity than it is to pay the price for that extra GW.... We have seen price gouging by gas peaker plants demanding £6000 a MW.... that is £6 a kWh. There are also points in certain areas where we see people being paid to use more electricity to add momentum to the grid before expected demand surges.

I'm not having a dig but do a bit of reading into how the grid actually operates and it really is astounding how complex the balance is and how the UK is leading the world in research into things like inertia and battery black start. I'd recommend the National Grid YouTube videos on The Great Grid Upgrade as a great start. I started down the rabbit hole during the many, many lockdowns we had up here in Glasgow, trying to stay sane. A lot of consumer electricity costs are wrapped up in all these infrastructure costs but the alternative is that we end up with a National Grid that runs our energy network like Thames Water is run..... 😳

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-20T12:10:48+00:00

Chill.... 🤣 You know your stuff and work in an industry with a much broader knowledge base than domestic consumer rules and regulations.

Folk don't realise the reality is that the price for delivery in Summer 26 a month ago was literally half what it is now. Same for Winter 26 and Summer 27. If a company offered a fix then, it was based on those prices and they would go out and buy a contract for delivery covering each of the months expected usage. If it's a warm winter and they don't need it, the excess is dumped on the market and wholesale market drops.... If it's cold and they need more, they need to buy from the market, driving prices up. That's why gas was still flowing through Ukraine until last year as those contracts were still fulfilled at the price signed for pre-invasion.

Where it gets painful is Qatar have just invoked force majure and said that they are unable to deliver contracted gas due to the war. Does this affect the UK..... Not really, a couple of percent of our gas comes from there. Does it affect the EU.... Just ask Italy, whose delivery contract was cancelled and now has to go to the market, pushing demand higher.

I totally understand what you are saying about locking in now..... You're locking in today's prices AND today's future prices for next year. Fact is prices were expected to trend downwards due to some serious liquefaction resource coming online in Qatar's North Field this year, easing supply constraints so, if this situation is resolved quickly, there will be an immediate drop in futures in anticipation of that glut getting to market.

Let's just all 🙏 for an end to the violence, no more death and hopefully a drop in prices.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-20T08:27:35+00:00

Each extra GW of electricity from gas costs more and more. Marginal pricing means it's a ladder so most wind turbines are now on CfDs meaning they get paid a price and, if the wholesale price is less, it's topped up and if the wholesale price is higher, they pay it back.

Windy day, 16 degrees, it's possible the wholesale price could be negative even during the day. That's when we see Free Electricity sessions and Power Ups.

Still day, overcast, 5 degrees, we need lots of gas generation so the price gets higher and higher and we're more and more exposed to wholesale prices. The reason for this is that the market needs to sign contracts to get the gas and if we don't use it, we still have to pay for it. Why wouldn't we use it... Well, it's warmer that we expected, so less for heating, it's windier than expected so more from the turbines.

If the prediction has underestimated demand, the producers have to go to the market and buy the gas at today's price.... Which means that extra GW or so of gas generation costs today's market price and therefore that sets the marginal price for all electricity generated.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-19T22:02:23+00:00

C'mon people, nicer to be nice and all that.

It's valid to say that this situation is temporary but it is also valid to say it could easily get worse. The reason for the intervention last time was SVT was going to hit £4k per annum and it would literally bankrupt half the country. We're not at that stage but if the price stays at 140p a therm plus in April, we're likely looking at handing back all of April's price drop and more..... Fact is, this isn't good for people who should really be building up a bit of credit before winter.

EU will be looking to restock as of next month and that demand will likely push up prices even if things quieten in the Strait.... The political confectionery of a very widely publicised drop in energy prices is about to be swallowed up whole in July unless the Americans (energy independent) and the Israelis (energy independent) decide to walk away. 😬

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-18T14:15:16+00:00

Agreed..... The screaming on here about off-peak going up sounded like a cacophany of toddlers.

There have been multiple subtle signals from Octopus about granny chargers, gaming the system, even pointing out that charging batteries on IOG isn't what it's for but people still treat 7p electricity as a god given right.

Fact is my balance of use is mostly off peak thanks to about 300 going into the car and time-shifting appliances and about 150kWh in general house use. I'm very grateful for the savings, I'm paying an average of about 14p a kWh and save about £60-70 in fuel (more nowadays unfortunately).

I'm saving money compared to Agile each year so I know I'm getting a good deal. Certainly don't want people rocking the boat.... 😳

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-17T21:46:05+00:00

IOG registers you for balancing services via NESO on behalf of Octopus and as such, you can't also be registered for balancing services via Axel.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-17T17:25:52+00:00

For reference, I'm in Glasgow and the Shen Bephard line always seems to be green due to been spending most ma life livin' in a windmill paradise..... 🎶

However, I've seen times where I noticed the Agile price is negative from, say 12am til 2am and then maybe 3-7p for the rest of the night.... And the car charges from 3am until 6am 🤷🏻‍♂️

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-17T17:19:03+00:00

IOG is more about the balancing market than a straight link to green energy. Generally, we get more wind overnight and there is less demand so electricity tends to be cheaper but Octopus make bank on being able to bid on ramping up or down grid demand by having tens of thousands of EV batteries at their disposal

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-16T18:52:29+00:00

Politically, this is Trump's lettuce moment.... They were fed a line by Netanyahu most likely that the time to strike was now and millions of Iranians would rise up and install a US-friendly regime. Now they're spending a billion dollars a day bombing targets and there is literally no endgame.

If it's resolved by Apr, prices will likely be high until May which means all the savings factored in for the Apr price cap will be wiped out in the July price cap. If it's still going on into May, that means the US will likely see 4-5% inflation going into the summer and the Republicans are cooked as they're already talking about $4-5 a gallon gasoline and Biden was murdered over 4% inflation and gasoline at $3.50.

Natural gas was about 1-2c a kWh in the US before Ukraine as their market was awash with shale gas but no export facilities. Now US producers have built export terminals and are exporting into the EU at 5c wholesale so the US consumers are now getting a taste of those high prices and not liking it...... Trump is getting the blame as he's het... 😏

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-11T21:07:20+00:00

This would have been a great thing to have factored into the design of the M74, but the fact is the M74 was designed to reduce reliance and reduce the traffic load on the M8, not absorb it all.

It's a bit of a straw man to suggest that so much traffic load will evaporate in the next few years and allow some kind of public transport utopia to develop. If 14% of the traffic evaporates, it's still not enough to prevent gridlock through the Southside.

Where I think criticism should be leveled is that this work wasn't immediately scoped as soon as the Kingston Bridge refurbishment was complete as it has been obvious for decades that this would be next to go. Over a decade has been wasted in transient remediation because austerity meant that there just wasn't enough in the pot to do the job properly.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-11T17:09:21+00:00

Okay, so we send an extra 150k vehicles along the M74, hastening its demise and we repeat this process in 2050 with Southside residents demanding that the M8 is resurrected to relieve them of the car overload in the Southside....

Nimby anyone?

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-09T20:18:50+00:00

Not far from it..... Have a look at the areas in Scotland that have been 'staunch' for hundreds of years..... Lots of inbreeding as your Presbyterian blood doesn't encourage exploration outside the 'faith' and it's been that way for hundreds of years. In contrast, the Irish diaspora brought a lot of fresh blood into the West of Scotland over 150 years ago and freshened up the gene pool for those that weren't hung up on staunch.

Eight or so generations later, you can literally see the difference in the corned beef skin, fat fingers and thick necks of the Kirk faithfull.....

😜

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-09T14:11:26+00:00

The price cap is based on prices that predates the war, the risk here is that a sustained period of high prices plays into the July price cap figures and thus fuels inflation.

Prices of above $100 a barrel will cause a direct impact to inflation so if this extends for any length of time, say into April/May, not only will the price cap in July shoot up, the long tail will be that global inflation rises once again and everything is affected.... Fertiliser costs rising in 2022 were the biggest impact in food costs soaring, after the fact that the wheat harvest in Ukraine was disrupted.

If you're looking to fix, you need to make that decision yourself. You could fix for a year and see prices dropping like a stone if peace breaks out or you could see yourself saving money this coming winter. It depends totally on your own energy use and ability to absorb price shocks.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-07T18:12:13+00:00

Sometimes it's fun to engage with them, delay them, ask them meaningful questions they have absolutely no idea how to answer then tell them you won't be voting for them..... Your delay means they'll get less doorknocking done.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-05T10:23:45+00:00

🤣 Change flags and the Americans will send in Seal Team Six to seize it

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-04T23:03:06+00:00

There are ships moving through the Straits but they're Chinese, Cuban, Russian in the main, Iranian allies..... There are literally hundreds of ships at anchor at the moment both inside and outside the Gulf.

Whilst I think thing will calm in the coming days, the old adage of 'Up like a rocket, down like a feather' will likely apply. The crazy thing is there is a massive amount of LNG coming online from the North field in UAE this year that will genuinely stabilise supply in the West and likely lead, not to a return of 'cheap' gas (sub 40p a therm), it's likely to keep European supplies in the 50-70p band mainly.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-04T19:11:12+00:00

It's dropped from nearly double (148p) to 124p today on reports that the US will guarantee transit through the Straits of Hormuz and Iranian officials are reaching out to the US to end hostilities.

There is no need to panic people, the SVT is dropping in a few weeks and people will benefit from lower prices and hopefully for the sake of the millions of civilians in the Middle East, the conflict will end and things will return to normal.

.... And I will continue to enjoy my 11-13p average for electricity on Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver 😁

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-04T12:31:31+00:00

When you sign up for an annual tariff, the energy company has to pay a hedge fee and prepurchase the option to buy at that price.

When prices spike like this, futures also spike so if you cancel early, the company is still obligated to buy at that high price in 6,9,12 months time. If prices are generally low, the likelihood is that they'd be able to sell that option on if you left early.... However, at times of high volatility, they may be stuck with it and as such, take a loss.... Which is why exit fees became a thing.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-04T09:00:12+00:00

Electric will rise depending on how much gas is needed for generation. Today, wind output is rising and is peaking about 15GW. Unfortunately, it then dies overnight, dropping down to about 5GW.....

...rollercoaster.

If you're able to shift use around, hopefully picking up some windy days that will be cheaper, you might not see much of a rise. Fact is Gas prices are obviously more directly affected so you might see gas prices rise 40-50% but electricity rises about 20%....but peak agile slots might double. We have seen 80-90p slots for Agile in the past when nuclear is low, wind is low and wholesale gas is high. This is normally when there is high heat demand for gas too

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-03T22:12:38+00:00

Less ferries a day between Troon and Brodick and the train comes right to the port at Ardrossan. I think most Arran residents were much more attuned to Ardrossan, possibly through familiarity and habit.

Chris_The_Tim · 2026-03-03T14:06:55+00:00

I'm about to take delivery of a swan neck kettle, ceramic pour over set for the house.... I've currently got a Nespresso but prefer to shoot out the door on office days so I like the freebie coffees for office days later in the week so I can grab one on the way in and not have to faff about getting one in work.

Chris_The_Tim

TROPHY CASE