Free Octopus Electricity

[Bam Bam]

Looks like this scheme from Octopus is continuing into September.

I had already earmarked tomorrow for charging as I saw it was windy and sunny. Nice to know some of it will be free!

 

[Silver estate]

Looks like this scheme from Octopus is continuing into September.

I had already earmarked tomorrow for charging as I saw it was windy and sunny. Nice to know some of it will be free!

View attachment 30124

Shame mine will be in the dealers having a service ?

 

[mikgle]

Octopus do a Greener days forecast of 5 days which highlight those days worth plugging in, as those days usually give you a much longer period of off peak charging, if not a free session.
e.g. today it was from 14.30 with a break over the teatime period, then back on at 19.30. Its not easy to find on the octopus website tho.. I usually find it on their greener days emails..

 

[Bam Bam]

Octopus do a Greener days forecast of 5 days which highlight those days worth plugging in, as those days usually give you a much longer period of off peak charging, if not a free session.
e.g. today it was from 14.30 with a break over the teatime period, then back on at 19.30. Its not easy to find on the octopus website tho.. I usually find it on their greener days emails..

Good to know! Presumably that is only on Intelligent Go?

Also I think it should be called 'Greener Nights' because I believe it indicates windy nights, whereas the free sessions tend (for now) to be when there is sun and wind together.

 

[mikgle]

Good to know! Presumably that is only on Intelligent Go?

Dont know actually.. Im on OIG but it seems to be biased towards ev tariffs so may work on Oct Go too.

 

[DaevM]

Gone for it today - all the usual suspects + set the electric underfloor heating to 27°C - never normally goes above 16 - it's in the conservatory. That should help the grid out.... and doors open all afternoon in the conservatory ??
Briefly hit 13.5kW, levelled out at 11.65.
Wife put kettle on, 14.27 ? - going thermonuclear ?

 

[mikgle]

pulling a steady 13.4 kW over the full hour.. well they did say Fill yer boots!

 

[DaevM]

pulling a steady 13.4 kW over the full hour.. well they did say Fill yer boots!

Just been and checked cables from meter. Let's just say it's keeping the meter cupboard warm ?.
Feed is split between house and ev charger. Those cables aren't warm ?

Wifes begging me to turn the underfloor heating off early ??
Fused spur was running a bit warm so I have ?

...and done.
9.75kWh ??
Car took 11%

 

[Rolfe]

I went for it, although I still don't know how they work it out given that whatever you switch on swallows the solar generation first before taking any grid power. But the last time I tried it they credited me with more than the few pence I thought I might get, and it suited me to do it.

I returned from my three-night experiment in sleeping in the MG4 last night, and charged overnight, but I had a dentist's appointment in the morning (60-mile round trip) so there was room for more juice in the car. I also had dirty washing brought back from the trip, and the cat's automatic feeders need to go in the dishwasher.

Eariler in the morning I has set the Zappi to charge 1-2, and the Eddi to heat the water at the same time. (I don't think it got up to temperature during its 4.30 to 5.30 am boost, due to having been off for four days.) Then I remembered I had to set the home battery to charge too, or everything would take that preferentially to mains electricity!

I got back from the dentist at ten to one, really sore mouth and minus a back tooth, but a black cloud had just settled over the house and it was coming on rain so I thought, should be worth it whatever. I plugged the car in, chucked the dirty clothes in the washing machine, got the cat feeders into the dishwasher and started these at one.

Of course, at about five to one the sun came out and I had virtually maximum solar generation for the full hour before the rain came on again.

Checked MyEnergi, which said the car was charging but the water wasn't heating. Don't know what that was all about, but managed to get it to heat. Went to the hairdressers, mouth feeling better due to the Co-codamol the dentist said to take. Bloody miraculous.

Got back from my haircut at ten to two, turned on the kettle and made some cup-a-soup and a cup of coffee, about all I can ingest right now.

It will be interesting to see what I get back from this and whether it's worth the loss of about 4.8 kWh export.

 

[DaevM]

So, looking back at "Fill yer boots" - phone app graph.
More of an Empire State Building than boots but it really does demonstrate what you can do when you put your mind to it.
It also clearly demonstrates just how wasteful we used to be before the "careful energy usage" mindset became a thing and it was generally more affordable...

 

[mikgle]

Just been and checked cables from meter. Let's just say it's keeping the meter cupboard warm ?.
Feed is split between house and ev charger. Those cables aren't warm ?

I have pegged my zappi to not overload the grid coming in at 60Amps ie about 15kW. The zappi takes the biggest load, 7kW, so the zappi should throttle down if the total load exceeds 15kW, which it was touching once or twice. However I'm sure there is quite a tolerance on the mains fuse which will be fine for the odd minute or so.. in fact I have a feeling the fuse is 80A, not 60, its 16mm² tails, 25mm² is rated at 100A.

 

[DaevM]

I have pegged my zappi to not overload the grid coming in at 60Amps ie about 15kW. The zappi takes the biggest load, 7kW, so the zappi should throttle down if the total load exceeds 15kW, which it was touching once or twice. However I'm sure there is quite a tolerance on the mains fuse which will be fine for the odd minute or so.. in fact I have a feeling the fuse is 80A, not 60, its 16mm tails, 25mm is rated at 100A.

We had a 100A label on the fuse. We acquired our battery ( sonnen) from Centrica who ran a local energy project down here for a couple of years. They came in and bought the feed upto spec, new cables throughout and put isolation switches in, bless 'em. Since then we've had a parallel feed put into a Wallbox Pulsar Max charger.
The fuse still has a 100A label on it but I'm not convinced following subsequent conversations I've had. More likely as you say, 80.
If only I understood more ( qualified 17th edition regs , 12 years ago- ahem ) .
This is one of the bigger problems I can see with trying to roll out electrical everything to the general populace. At least 90% has not a Scooby.
Verrrry potentially dangerous situation. ??

Octopus do a Greener days forecast of 5 days which highlight those days worth plugging in, as those days usually give you a much longer period of off peak charging, if not a free session.
e.g. today it was from 14.30 with a break over the teatime period, then back on at 19.30. Its not easy to find on the octopus website tho.. I usually find it on their greener days emails..

Had a quick look around, can't find anything. Any idea how I can subscribe to their green day emails please ? I'm on IOG

 

[Bam Bam]

Had a quick look around, can't find anything. Any idea how I can subscribe to their green day emails please ? I'm on IOG

I've just got a tab open in my browser that I find each time.

Greener Days but then followed by my account number, so it might only appear for those on certain tariffs.

If you are on IOG then Octopus make the decisions anyway, so I think you are just supposed to plug in every night and let them decide.

I can't yet get on IOG so I will switch over to dumb Go in the coming weeks.

 

[DaevM]

That's brilliant thanks. The link worked and I'm signed up for the notifications. I think I was aware of it at one point but didn't want ev charging discharging my domestic battery during the day, so have always charged the ev overnight during 2330-0530 window and charged the domestic battery simultaneously so it doesn't discharge to the car.
This could prove very useful over the winter months with the heating, so thanks again ?

 

[Bam Bam]

For a more detailed prediction, albeit only 2 days ahead, I use the Carbon Intensity tracker.

 

[DaevM]

For a more detailed prediction, albeit only 2 days ahead, I use the Carbon Intensity tracker.

Appreciated ?

 

[Rolfe]

That's brilliant thanks. The link worked and I'm signed up for the notifications. I think I was aware of it at one point but didn't want ev charging discharging my domestic battery during the day, so have always charged the ev overnight during 2330-0530 window and charged the domestic battery simultaneously so it doesn't discharge to the car.
This could prove very useful over the winter months with the heating, so thanks again ?

I did it all yesterday and simply set the house battery to charge for the hour.

Once I'd seen the slot and decided to go for it I just set the Zappi and the Eddi to boost for the hour, and the house battery to charge. Nearer the time I realised I had washing I needed to do and stuff in the dishwasher so I just set these ready too. Pressed start when I heard the one o'clock news start on the radio and went to the hairdresser's on my bicycle leaving the car plugged in. So not a huge effort, and the washing went out on the line once I was back from my haircut.

I'm still not convinced it's profitable once you consider the appliances are taking the solar before they take the grid, but the previous time I tried it I got more in credit back than I lost on the solar export so God alone knows how they're calculating it.

 

[GaryMG4]

Me too, cotton load in washer, fast wash dishwasher, car on charge and 'Sunday lunch'. Not sure how much solar was being generated but the bill for that hour was just over 5kWh or £1.29. Sae red on the IHD for the first time as it was drawing 9.5kW briefly. It will be interesting to see what the credit amount is.

 

[Bam Bam]

I'm still not convinced it's profitable once you consider the appliances are taking the solar before they take the grid, but the previous time I tried it I got more in credit back than I lost on the solar export so God alone knows how they're calculating it.

If you are shifting your usage from overnight to the free period then it is only gaining you 7p per kWh.

Still better than nothing, plus it saves a productive wind/solar farm somewhere being shut off from the grid and a gas plant turned on overnight.

 

[Rolfe]

My issue is that the appliances grab the solar first, so first I lose the solar export before I even start to use grid power. By my calculations it's extremely difficult to get into the black when you're exporting 4.8 kw. But the day I tried it in August I got a credit that was quite a lot more than the value of the export I lost, so I'm actually confused about how they're calculating it.