Tomato Energy

[MG Madness]

Some great info there guys thanks. I’m picking the new car up this morning so all excited.

 

[mystreet]

Thank you for that information.
I was going to move my mum to but was waiting to see if you will be doing gas too?

Tomato only do electric, the gas will stay with the current supplier.

 

[Jomarkh]

Tomato only do electric, the gas will stay with the current supplier.

I know they do currently but will they at a later date. And can you confirm you don't need an EV to get the 5p rate. Thank you

 

[emmrecs]

I know they do currently but will they at a later date

Who knows? At the moment the answer seems to be, No.

can you confirm you don't need an EV to get the 5p rate.

You can confirm the exact price Tomato will charge you (and it does differ between users, it seems) by going to this web page, entering your details and you will then receive an immediate quote. If the quote "suits" you can then sign up to them!

 

[DB00nowthen]

Sorry if I’ve missed the answer to this question (I’ve read the whole thread):

I am on

• Octopus Intelligent Go
• Octopus Outgoing (15p/kWh)
• Flexible Octpus (gas)

I have Zappi v2 for my EV (MG4 first gen)

I have no loyalty to Octopus and like the sound of 5 rates and lower standing charge and would move to any supplier that offered the most competitive, including Octopus.

My question is that about the integration of Octopus app with Zappi through t the app — I find the scheduling and smart charging v useful. Not least because I usually keep my car charge no lower than 45 percent and usually charge in the morning outside of the nominal cheap night rate and use other appliances so effectively extending the cheap rate. Also I charge my house batttery overnight on the cheap rate, and stop it discharging while the car is charging on smart charge in the mornings. This way I get through most days, even in winter paying only the cheaper rate and never the standard day rates, while exporting practically all of my solar at the 15p rate. I also heat my hot water overnight on the cheap rate instead of using my gas boiler.

I am wondering if this all or similar can be achieved with Tomato?

I’ll understand if someone says, work it out for yourself, but hoping that someone who’s made the switch to Tomato from Octopus with similar use case to mine can share their experience. Thanks.

 

[johnb80]

Sorry if I’ve missed the answer to this question (I’ve read the whole thread):

I am on

• Octopus Intelligent Go
• Octopus Outgoing (15p/kWh)
• Flexible Octpus (gas)

I have Zappi v2 for my EV (MG4 first gen)

I have no loyalty to Octopus and like the sound of 5 rates and lower standing charge and would move to any supplier that offered the most competitive, including Octopus.

My question is that about the integration of Octopus app with Zappi through t the app — I find the scheduling and smart charging v useful. Not least because I usually keep my car charge no lower than 45 percent and usually charge in the morning outside of the nominal cheap night rate and use other appliances so effectively extending the cheap rate. Also I charge my house batttery overnight on the cheap rate, and stop it discharging while the car is charging on smart charge in the mornings. This way I get through most days, even in winter paying only the cheaper rate and never the standard day rates, while exporting practically all of my solar at the 15p rate. I also heat my hot water overnight on the cheap rate instead of using my gas boiler.

I am wondering if this all or similar can be achieved with Tomato?

I’ll understand if someone says, work it out for yourself, but hoping that someone who’s made the switch to Tomato from Octopus with similar use case to mine can share their experience. Thanks.

I too run only on off peak, I was a customer of Octopus for many years, IOG being my final tariff before moving to Tomato.

I have planned my systems around the midnight to 6am off peak times, that was the only guaranteed cheap rate 23:30 to 05:30 on IOG), Tomato does have two lower rate periods of 2 hours each at 13p which can be useful for some. Standing charges at 40p and the unit costs at 5p, 13.7p, 23.2p are excellent prices in my book and I was happy to change.

 

[PS70]

Just initiated a switch from Octopus Go to Tomato. However I then went to switch my export away from Octopus to Scottish Power (as I assume my export would drop from 15p/kWh to 4.1p/kWh) here: https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/surveys/seg/seg-intro and SP requires me to confirm that "You are not receiving SEG payments from another supplier” which is obviously not the case. How have others switched their export?

 

[emmrecs]

SP requires me to confirm that "You are not receiving SEG payments from another supplier” which is obviously not the case. How have others switched their export?

I asked SP at the time I initiated my switch and was told (by them) to "ignore" the question, which I did and the switch went through!

 

[Bam Bam]

Octopus are giving away two hours of energy tomorrow morning (its going to be wwwiiinnndddyyyy)

Do Tomato ever do anything like this?

 

[emmrecs]

Do Tomato ever do anything like this?

Not that I am aware of but with a 6 hour cheap rate of less than 5p, a peak rate of slightly more than 22p, and a further four hours at less than 13p every day, not to mention the standing charge of 38p per day, I doubt they would be able to afford it!

 

[mystreet]

Octopus are giving away two hours of energy tomorrow morning (its going to be wwwiiinnndddyyyy)

Do Tomato ever do anything like this?

It only free above your normal usage. When I did it I got 54p credit

 

[Bam Bam]

It only free above your normal usage. When I did it I got 54p credit

Is that with Octopus or Tomato?

Yeah, free isn't such a huge saving if the alternative is 8.5p.

 

[johnb80]

Octopus are giving away two hours of energy tomorrow morning (its going to be wwwiiinnndddyyyy)

Do Tomato ever do anything like this?

Yes, every night between midnight and 06:00, 5p kWh and of course, 20p per day less on standing charge. I'd much rather have these low prices than the veiled 'free energy' from Octopus, it's not what it says on the tin, it's marketing hype.

 

[mg4nick]

I'm waiting to see if Octopus (and the other suppliers) are able to save the "Saving Sessions" - which was worth about £120 for me last year (it makes Octopus Go + Outgoing equivalent to Tomato up to about an intake of 2500kWh at off Peak rate and 5 months of standing charge).
If they don't manage to save it I'll have to check Tomato again.
Does Tomato mention Saving Sessions anywhere? Are they part of the scheme?

 

[johnb80]

@gus - my view:
1. For the 0000-0600 5p period, that is 2300GMT - 0500GMT, and will be 12 30 min blocks (lines on your spreadsheet)
2. You have 10 green lines at the top but need 12. Change the first red line to green - since MyWatts' 0500GMT is for the end of the block.
3. You need to add a first green line from the previous days report (period ending 2330GMT = 0000BST-0030BST).
4. Remove the bottom 2 (green) lines - they are for the next day.
5. Change bottom green line to orange.
6. Work that logic through the day....

I am assuming your 5p (green) periods are 0000-0600BST and 2200-0000BST (I think some areas are different times?

Farouk Alhassan the CEO of Tomato Energy UK posted on Facebook yesterday:-

Hello everyone. My name is Farouk, CEO at Tomato Energy. I am really grateful that the admin team have allowed me to join the group. I have heard a lot about this group and I am grateful to be part of it.

We are fully aware of the issue affecting Smart Meter customers where consumption is recorded at the end of the settlement period instead of the start. This makes the comsumption get charged on the wrong side of the day for the first half hour of the day.

This error happened due to a subtle detail in the SMETS2 Specifications that we failed to notice. Traditionally, the Half Hourly Meters from which SMETS2 meters were derived had the settlement period recorded at the start.

But we have already implemented the solution which is being released over this weekend and early next week in a very carefully coordinated way. This will mitigate the issue for the November bills so the issue will be resolved. For previous bills, we have a program of work which will allow us to reverse the bills and re-bill customers to ensure no customer suffers any financial detriment.

The other issues are also being actively investigated. As you know, whilst we are not new to energy, we are new to the domestic market and with all the good intentions we have, we are learning lots of little details we would only discover by actually being in the market. But they will all be resolved soon. I am a software programmer myself and I actively participate in the fixes so I can assure you they are being addressed.

One of the issues is with SMETS1 meters who were botched into the smart metering program through a hack because of lobbying by some of the large suppliers. As a result, these meters don't work and yet we have to treat them as smart meters which is causing lots of issues. We are working very hard to replace them but that task is currently blocked because of the huge paperwork required to be able to start fixing meters yourself. But we will get over it.

Our smart tariffs are only a tip of the iceberg in terms of what we plan to do in the energy market but we are first learning how we walk, then we will do the run.
Sorry for all the inconveniences. If there are any issues affecting anyone directly, I am here. Raise it with me and I will look into it. We need a teeny tiny bit of patience whilst we go through this phase but I can assure you, joining Tomato Energy will be the best energy switch decision once things settle.

Also, we have been a bit of a victim of our own success as we didn't expect this to fly off so quickly. This has caused a lot of customers reaching out for various clarifications but we don't have that many people which has resulted in some bad experiences when customers try to contact us. We are hiring very aggressively to create the bandwidth needed. New starters are joining soon which dramatically help in answering customers' queries. Hang on tight! We will fix this!

Thank you soo much for being our customers and your support. Just being a member of this group shows you care. Together we can make sustainable energy and Energy-as-a-Service the norm not the exception of the energy market!

Seems down to earth, we will have to see if he fixes it!

 

[mystreet]

Is that with Octopus or Tomato?

Yeah, free isn't such a huge saving if the alternative is 8.5p.

Octopus

 

[emmrecs]

@johnb80

Many thanks for posting that info from the Tomato Energy CEO! I'm not on Facebook so would not have seen it but it actually answers a very big question I keep throwing at Tomato Customer Service, both by phone and email: although I have been with them since September 7th, I am yet to receive a bill!!

I think that message confirms what I believed to be the problem; my Smart Meter is a SMETS1, hence my consumption data is not being transmitted correctly to Tomato. (The myWatts app is "blank" for the whole of October and November.)

 

[johnb80]

@johnb80

Many thanks for posting that info from the Tomato Energy CEO! I'm not on Facebook so would not have seen it but it actually answers a very big question I keep throwing at Tomato Customer Service, both by phone and email: although I have been with them since September 7th, I am yet to receive a bill!!

Then you win!

I think that message confirms what I believed to be the problem; my Smart Meter is a SMETS1, hence my consumption data is not being transmitted correctly to Tomato. (The myWatts app is "blank" for the whole of October and November.)

In my business supply we have a 'half hour' meter, many energy companies cant read them (including Octopus), I enter meter readings every Monday morning into MyWatts. I've calculated this months bill, with EDF it would have been £1082 with Tomato £466, absolute result, I'm really happy.

 

[DaevM]

Considering it at the moment and definitely would've gone for Tomatopia if I hadn't already got all the kit.... Hhmmm, wonder if it's worth swapping to it and see if they'll replace my existing installation as it's all getting on a bit now (8 yrs+)

 

[Gadget Geek]

What I'm liking about Tomato Energy is that you get billed for the electricity you've used, and not an over inflated monthly set payment where the provider gets to bank it and get the interest on it.