Octopus free electricity looks to of apeared today. Any thoughts. Basicaly the exact oposite of the saving sessions wanting you to use more for the period. You will get a credit to cover the price of any extra you use.
iforpowell
Octopus free electricity
5 reading
Yes I will be charging the car for the hour. I will also try and run down the battery and set it up to charge then so as to test if that is working as I have not tried it out yet. Problem is I am out in the morning and may not be back in time so if it's a sunny morning the battery may already be full.
I've signed up. We're on Octopus Intelligent Flux so they control our battery anyway; I wonder if it's clever enough that they'll set the battery to charge then?
If anyone is using HA and predbat, i've had to add the following to the apps.yaml
thats then got predbat not to fully charge the battery tonight and allow a max rate top up during the period. I'll manually enable my Eddi that's been sat around doing nothing for 6 months as well.
Code:
rates_import_override:
- date: '2024-08-15'
start: '13:00:00'
end: '14:00:00'
rate: 0
Worse if some of the energy going into the car comes from solar.
But just taking part gives a sense of well being knowing you did something positive.
Rather than being me and accidentally spray painting a spider, twice. I feel like I should cry.
Gaz
But just taking part gives a sense of well being knowing you did something positive.
Rather than being me and accidentally spray painting a spider, twice. I feel like I should cry.
Gaz
Meh, not in. Out rangering so not going to bother. Hit and miss whether the smart meter works anyway.
Signed up, although I can't see a way to 'know' that you have from the portal.
Given this time of year my daytime usage is bugger all. Today I used 0.37kWh of power in the 1-2pm period, but that all came from solar plus I exported a chunk as well. On poor solar days that usage comes from the batteries, but there'll be some grid-connected draw to maintain frequencies so perhaps 0.02kWh based on a quick view across some days.
So I think I will just plug the car in and set the Zappi to FAST for an hour to get some free charge (well credited later but should be free in real terms). This should mean, assuming things go to plan, around 7.4kWh of energy and hence a saving of circa £1.75 based on the daytime rates for IOG in my region.
Given this time of year my daytime usage is bugger all. Today I used 0.37kWh of power in the 1-2pm period, but that all came from solar plus I exported a chunk as well. On poor solar days that usage comes from the batteries, but there'll be some grid-connected draw to maintain frequencies so perhaps 0.02kWh based on a quick view across some days.
So I think I will just plug the car in and set the Zappi to FAST for an hour to get some free charge (well credited later but should be free in real terms). This should mean, assuming things go to plan, around 7.4kWh of energy and hence a saving of circa £1.75 based on the daytime rates for IOG in my region.
Yeah I’m car charging, battery charging and tumble dryer on (I’ve been meaning to do towels for a couple of months so they aren’t line dried exfoliators). Day off with the boy so I need to work around that but that is my only challenge to take advantage.
Remember that Octopus are not required to do this, or at least I don't think they are. So we should look at this positively for those that are willing and/or able to make use of the 1 hour for whatever purposes.
Despite having solar and batteries, I will do a load of high-temp washing in the morning which will eat into the battery store a little, which I'll replenish by having the battery charge from say 13:02 to 13:58 just to be on the safe side. At the same time, I will run the dryer to dry those towels, etc for an hour as well. Oh, and I'll bung in an hours worth of EV charge.
I'll probably also move my main hot meal to lunchtime instead of evening, just because I can.
Sure, it isn't a massive benefit to me. But it may be a benefit to the grid by ensuring they don't need to curtail any renewables or other generation at the peak of solar and given how windy it's recently been. The whole point of these sorts of reverse-saving-sessions is that we all eat up the surplus energy being generated and help across the industry, rather than pay out for 'unwanted' energy that is 'wasted'.
Despite having solar and batteries, I will do a load of high-temp washing in the morning which will eat into the battery store a little, which I'll replenish by having the battery charge from say 13:02 to 13:58 just to be on the safe side. At the same time, I will run the dryer to dry those towels, etc for an hour as well. Oh, and I'll bung in an hours worth of EV charge.
I'll probably also move my main hot meal to lunchtime instead of evening, just because I can.
Sure, it isn't a massive benefit to me. But it may be a benefit to the grid by ensuring they don't need to curtail any renewables or other generation at the peak of solar and given how windy it's recently been. The whole point of these sorts of reverse-saving-sessions is that we all eat up the surplus energy being generated and help across the industry, rather than pay out for 'unwanted' energy that is 'wasted'.
During that hour Octopus will be paying some solar users 15p/kWh to export their production. I can't see the flat rate export of 15p/kWh remaining in its current guise, seems too generous in the summer midday.
I signed up because I'm not at work so I will charge the car. As mentioned the saving is negligible really but I want to see the system work and be on the list for future hopefully longer sessions.
got an email but not sure whether to sign up or not. In theory I could force charge my car for an hour? but timing that means more like 50 minutes and maybe 6kwh? and it’d suck my battery and solar dry first.
any ‘normal’ usage during that time is likely to be me exporting as I assume free days will be high renewables days. and even pausing the battery so it fills on solar later doesn’t help as I’m getting more for export than it cost to fill the battery.. (actually I should look at that, if I need to stop my battery charging during the day or doesn’t make much difference)
so is there any practical reason if you have solar and battery and aren’t using a lot at that time of the day normally?
if you don’t have solar though this could be a nice addition on occasion
any ‘normal’ usage during that time is likely to be me exporting as I assume free days will be high renewables days. and even pausing the battery so it fills on solar later doesn’t help as I’m getting more for export than it cost to fill the battery.. (actually I should look at that, if I need to stop my battery charging during the day or doesn’t make much difference)
so is there any practical reason if you have solar and battery and aren’t using a lot at that time of the day normally?
if you don’t have solar though this could be a nice addition on occasion
I've signed up and will wash the sheets, ask the Mrs. (politely 🥴 ) to do some ironing, set the pyrolytic oven to clean and plug the car in. Unfortunately I can only do that for 45 minutes as we have an appointment at 2 pm, typical. I reckon I could save circa £3. So about 1/2 a pint. 🍺 This never happened when we used FF companies to supply us with electricity so it feels a very tiny bit like we are sticking it to them. Freedom (need a saltire emoji). 
This first session coincides with a Power-Up event. I've signed up anyway - the email sort of suggested that you just sign up once (we'll see when the next session turns up I guess). The FAQ says that if they overlap they'll do the maths to give the better rate (which is the Power-Up, always, as that's not based on normal usage... hmm... unless they take export into consideration maybe?).
I'm not sure why people here are saying they aren't going to bother. Even if you don't think you'll benefit there's no penalty for signing up anyway! Although this scheme does seem more targetted at non-solar households, you could still charge the car, charge the house battery, etc, to get your usage above normal levels - or above what the solar generates.
I'm not sure why people here are saying they aren't going to bother. Even if you don't think you'll benefit there's no penalty for signing up anyway! Although this scheme does seem more targetted at non-solar households, you could still charge the car, charge the house battery, etc, to get your usage above normal levels - or above what the solar generates.
Signed up but by 1pm we will probably be exporting about 6kW, battery will maxed in 1/2 hour and washing,dishwashing done by 11am,
The ampera only charges at 3.6kW so not that great at soaking up power.
Still we'll see, time to bake some bread and perhaps blackberry and apple tart as the wild brambles are in full production now, picked a couple of lbs this morning 🥧
The ampera only charges at 3.6kW so not that great at soaking up power.
Still we'll see, time to bake some bread and perhaps blackberry and apple tart as the wild brambles are in full production now, picked a couple of lbs this morning 🥧
Bear in mind these are also possibly data-gathering exercises as well. If it's like the recent 3-month 'plug-the-EV-in-whether -you're-charging-or-not-and-get-paid-£9/month' trial, then I'd say singn-up, even it just indicates your interest in this sort of tariff. In forming new tariffs, I imagine that Octopus might be at a loss to know just what the take-up will be, and this will help. Plus you get paid, albeit not a lot.
My workaround is to be charging the car anyway. (Started at 11 AM) I'm therefore losing a bunch of 15p so I looked to see what I'm currently exporting at, it's around 1.5 kW so I'll check again at 12:30 to look at an average.
Say it's an average rate of 2 kW so for 3 hours thats around 6 kWh which I can happily export from the battery during the evening peak to regain my 15p less 7p throwaway. The battery can then chug back up to 100% after 23:30 as per normal.
As long as I keep 3kWh back for this evening I'll be winning.
Gaz
Say it's an average rate of 2 kW so for 3 hours thats around 6 kWh which I can happily export from the battery during the evening peak to regain my 15p less 7p throwaway. The battery can then chug back up to 100% after 23:30 as per normal.
As long as I keep 3kWh back for this evening I'll be winning.
Gaz
I think it's an ESO thing; Axle Energy announced a similar scheme a while back where they would control GivEnergy batteries all year round in a similar way they do for Saving Sessions.
There are a few posts about it here:
There are a few posts about it here:
It's free electricity time.
![:D]( ":D")
Because it's the first time and works by refunding as credit. I don't want to be paying too much in case something doesn't work on their back end. So I'm just setting the car to charge at 8 amps and Leaf V2H to idle. Test it out by consuming about 1 kWh (due to solar) over my usual consumption of 50 Wh.
Because it's the first time and works by refunding as credit. I don't want to be paying too much in case something doesn't work on their back end. So I'm just setting the car to charge at 8 amps and Leaf V2H to idle. Test it out by consuming about 1 kWh (due to solar) over my usual consumption of 50 Wh.
Octopus are part of several different schemes. This is likely, as said above, an extension of the DFS or similar. However, Octopus also offer a balancing service. However, this is done much closer to the period, so works much better with automated systems like IO.
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