Octopus are fine and you get daily updates of usage.
As far as smart meters go they can read SMET1's (the first version) as ours was installed 6 years ago and communicates to there system.
We use Octopus, we’re on the agile rate which changes every 30 minutes, depending on market demand, but they tell you what tomorrows half hourly rates will be the day before.
It’s really good because we can align our heaviest usage with the cheapest rates.
The maximum charge is 36p per kWh but mindful use means we pay an average of 30p per kWh.
Our kWh charges are actually skewed upwards by the fact that we’ve got a big solar array so often use electricity at the highest daily rate on the basis that we’re, for example, using 3kW but still use it at the highest half hourly cost (say 36p per kWh) because we’re drawing 2kW from the panels which means that we’re actually paying 12p per kWh at that point.
As the solar input isn’t seen by our incoming meter, it isn’t recognised in our average rates and it makes it look like we’re paying more for electricity than is actually the case.
If we didn’t have solar we’d move our high demand to off-peak where half hour rates can be very low indeed.
Our average daily cost for electricity, including standing charges, is £2.59 in winter months and we use a lot of electricity as we don’t have main’s gas so it’s electricity for our hob, ovens, microwave, air fryer, kettle, washer, tumble dryer, 3 freezers, 2 fridges, showers, instant hot water to some sinks, grow lights for the tomato, aubergine & chilli seedlings we’re cultivating & the cat’s heated bed etc. etc. ad infinitum.
In summer it’s considerably less because the solar really comes into it’s own in summer months, to the degree that we receive over £600 pa for the excess solar electricity that we sell to the national grid under a feed-in tariff.
