OT: meter needs replacing.......

Not quite - there is still a limit, on the maximum they charge per unit, and there is nothing to prevent you minimising your consumption, should it go high, and a last resort is always one of moving to the cap price.

Even if the Tracker cost went up to that capped cost for several weeks, which is unlikely, I would still be well in to saving.

Yep, but Octopus also have their own set cap, on the Tracker price.

Octopus, never seem to even attempt to persuade their customers onto the Tracker, and don't attempt to predict the cost of it. How can they anyway, the only constant - is that it varies unpredictably, from one day to the next.

We only find out what we will be paying, quite late, the day before when they announce it.

It's not a fixed time contract. You can change to another tariff at any time with the proviso that it may take up to two weeks for the change. Once you quit the tracker tariff you cannot change back to it for 9 months.

Yes, Octopus do have a cap on their tracker tariff but at around 4x the OFGEM cap.

It doesn't work like that.

You don't often use much of the power of your petrol engine for very long unless you're on an autobahn.

A hybrid can recharge the battery whenever you don't have your foot on the floor. And it will, so next time you want to accelerate their is energy in the battery.

(Of course they are damn heavy...)

They may also be seeing a burnt out airport carpark...

Back OT - my supplier told e my meter was out of calibration. When I told them (a) I don't want a smart meter and (b) it probably won't work around here anyway (which they were able to confirm) they lost interest.

I still have a meter which isn't smart.

Andy

I probably didn't say, what I was looking at wasn't a self-charging hybrid, but a plug-in one, yes they do recovery under braking, but no charging of the battery from the engine.

As mentioned before, they did this some time ago. But they seem to be renewing their efforts. There is no history of bad reception in the area, so I can't play that song.

I was wavering towards getting a 'smart' meter installed, until I saw how little the Tracker tariff would probably save me, and that is calculated by E-on, who would want to make it sound as attractive as possible.

I am still unconvinced that a 'smart' meter would be of any real benefit TO ME. To others, yes, no argument, but not to me, and there are plenty of people who still have trouble with them. I don't care if it's 'only' the In-House Display, it's all part of the system, and what is being sold. You only have to watch 'Rip-Off Britain' to see loads of folks who can't get their supplier to fix their displays, even after numerous promises.

Yes, your post certainly sounded as though you were talking about a self-charging hybrid. The concept of a non-self-charging hybrid stretches the mind a little.

Movin' on......

...

No. A plug-in hybrid is just like a "self-charging" hybrid but with a bigger battery.

It still does all of the charging from the engine when required, but you start off with a load of charge so for short trips you don't need the engine at all (if you're happy with in-town performance on EV only).

After you've done your 30 miles on electric only, it works as a normal hybrid. Or you can kick-down to get the engine to start anytime you need the full petrol+electric power.

Or at least ours does (Renault).

Ones that don't are things like the BMW i3 REx which is really a full EV with a tiny 2-cylinder get-you-home petrol generator built in.

nib

The Q5 (which was what I was looking at) isn't like that, charging is from mains or regen braking only.

When driving, it can choose between motor and/or engine, or you can put it into "don't use engine" mode, or "don't use motor" mode.

Wow - that's just weird!

The Renault system in our PHEV has the petrol engine and two motor/generators, one main traction motor and one smaller high-speed starter/generator directly coupled to the engine, the same as in the non plug-in Renault hybrids.

The generator does the charging from the engine, the main motor does the charging from regen.

That basically means that you get the same 165 HP performance from either petrol or plug-in, but every approx 3kW of electric you put in saves a litre of petrol plus you can run silently and smell-less for local journeys.

That means presumably the Audi has a high-speed direct-coupled starter, which is usually needed for a hybrid, and decides not to also use it as a generator?

nib

That's not how they work - or at least the one that we have as a courtesy car at the moment (MG HS).

It can be plugged in to charge and will then drive up to 32 miles in EV mode, if selected.

When ICE mode is selected, the battery gets low, or you use the heater, it runs on the engine, uses regenerative braking and sometimes engine power, to keep a small amount in the battery ready for the next accelerations.

When ICE charging mode is selected, it charges from the engine while driving.

I'm sure various PHEVs work in various ways, the one I came close to buying definitely doesn't self-charge (other than regen brakes)

It appears that outside the US, that did get the option to charge when driving (in 2021), but there are suggestions that the EU may be following the US's lead and the option may be deleted from newer cars.

Wholesale went to -£13/MWh today, so they happen. Tracker waa +14p/kWh so cheap but not free.

Highest demand was midday, aligning with peak solar. Coal is shut down (never to return?), gas never passed 4MW, the rest was renewables and nuclear. About 50gCO2/kWh all day.

Theo

We're talking about Octopus tracker, which tracks wholesale rates daily. Eon's Next Pledge tracker tariff tracks the price cap, ie it's always slightly less than the maximum they're legally allowed to charge and only changes every 3 months. Completely different animals.

Theo

By their formula, it should be about (1.2 * -13) + 10 = -5.6p

Local news ran a story this week on Ratcliffe, supposedly decommissioning starts in 3 months time.

Oh well, more complications for the poor customer to work through to decide on whom and with which tariff to go with. It would be just my luck that, if I changed to Octopus, and went with their Tracker, that would be just when the pendulum swung to the unfavourable side of things. Although Harry sounds happy with it.

But it was more expensive at night time so the daily average probably isn't negative.

I'm guessing they're burning through their coal stockpile, so they'll only fire enough to clear the site. When it's gone it's gone.

Theo

Not been past for couple of months, the heap was still quite big then ...