Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?
Discussion
Evanivitch said:
If the power saving hour is 5-6pm it works out like this:
Minimum energy consumption 12-1pm
Maximum energy consumption 1-4pm
Irrelevant energy consumption 4-5pm
Minimum energy consumption 5-6pm
The part of the above that I take issue with is the first bit. As far as I can see, there is no evidence that the hour before the three-hour “on day adjustment” period is relevant at all. So there is no need to minimise consumption between 12-1pm, except to avoid wasting energy obviously. But that one hour period has no effect on the points you score.Minimum energy consumption 12-1pm
Maximum energy consumption 1-4pm
Irrelevant energy consumption 4-5pm
Minimum energy consumption 5-6pm
I have found two sources that describe the calculation, both of which agree and neither of which says anything about the 12-1pm period in the above example. Here are the two sources, both from organisations that participate in the grid savings events (although they aren’t energy providers):
https://hugoenergyapp.co.uk/national-grid-eso-cash...
https://kb.loop.homes/turn-down-and-save-how-are-m...
It seems the calculation is based on an industry standard called “BSC P376 methodology”.
The Loop link above points out one of the absurdities of the calculation. If you take a hypothetical household whose consumption is, let’s say, a uniform 500 Watts (to keep the logic simple). And let’s say that this household goes above and beyond the required effort and reduces their usage to just 100 Watts - but they unwittingly make the mistake of doing that for the whole day (perhaps they’re going out for the day and think, “let’s switch everything off before we go”). Pretty good, huh? Well, no! Their baseline is 500W, but because they reduced to 100W during the on-day adjustment period (the 3-hour window from 1-4pm in our example), this is 400W below their normal usage. Therefore their baseline is adjusted downwards by 400W to just 100W. Then during the event window itself they use just 100W, which is a reduction below their adjusted baseline of… a big fat zero! So this household scores absolutely zero despite reducing their usage during the critical window and reducing for the rest of the day as well.
It really is preposterous!
Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Tuesday 21st February 13:30
Trustmeimadoctor said:
Could set both the ovens to the pyro cleaning modes and put the dryer on and boil some water for a few hours
Good idea about the ovens (how very PH assuming everyone has two 
) as they need a clean and would never normally use that setting given the cost.Instead of boiling some water I have put the immersion on instead as that will save a bit on heating the water via the boiler tomorrow morning.
Dave J said:
Looks like potentially good news from July onwards. Although all relative, and still expensive in comparison to a few years ago!
KTF said:
Washing machine done, tumble dryer on 
Do you think turning the electric oven on and leaving the door open between 1330-1630 is a bit too much
I got 15% of additional charge into my car, washed some towels at 90°, ran the dishwasher on some mad 2.5 hour cycle and even found a few shirts to iron.Do you think turning the electric oven on and leaving the door open between 1330-1630 is a bit too much
I’m now air frying something for dinner that I can sit down to at 5:29. I’ve got the special occasions candle out to light the table and I’ll watch something on my iPad. It’s like going back to the 70’s (apart from the iPad).
Here are the readings from my Smart meter...
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
[edit] Heading changed to avoid further confusion
| Time | Reading (kWh) |
|---|---|
| 1230 | 2.93 |
| 1330 | 2.93 |
| 1630 | 10.61 |
| 1730 | 11.15 |
| 1830 | 11.43 |
| 2359 | 13.55 |
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
[edit] Heading changed to avoid further confusion
Edited by pingu393 on Tuesday 21st February 20:56
Edited by pingu393 on Wednesday 22 February 21:27
KTF said:
pingu393 said:
Here are the readings from my Smart meter...
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
Half 5 to half 6 was the saving session. The usage should have been near zero, not 11.43kWh. | Time | kWh |
|---|---|
| 1230 | 2.93 |
| 1330 | 2.93 |
| 1630 | 10.61 |
| 1730 | 11.15 |
| 1830 | 11.43 |
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
KTF said:
pingu393 said:
Here are the readings from my Smart meter...
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
Half 5 to half 6 was the saving session. The usage should have been near zero, not 11.43kWh. | Time | kWh |
|---|---|
| 1230 | 2.93 |
| 1330 | 2.93 |
| 1630 | 10.61 |
| 1730 | 11.15 |
| 1830 | 11.43 |
We are on Octopus Tracker, so the rate is 24.17p per kWh for today.
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