Octopus Tracker

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

My Meaco 20 L eco dehumidifier (type??) appears to show up well in the comparisons. The environmental room emperature is in the mid teens. These are currently retailing @ c. £250. Probably as good a solution as I'm going to get, but possibly not excluding some other if it was a matter of making a new outlay. Esp if compared with a new tumble drier.

It's a compressor type, and stated power consumption is up to 255 W "/h" (presumably typical usage in laundry mode, no data for standard operation, but expect this will be below 200 W). It gives extraction data for 30C @ 80%RH: 20 L/day and at 27C @ 60%RH: 12 L/day. This will be considerably lower when the temp is in the mid-teens. The below plot (general data, not your model specifically) gives an idea of the temperature dependence:

https://ionmax.com.au/blogs/resources/desiccant-or-compressor-dehumidifier

You could experiment and see how much water it produces from an empty tank at the start of your drying operation to the end, and divide by the number of hours it ran. If you have a plug-in energy meter you can even see exactly how much energy it used. Then you can work out the energy consumed per litre moisture removed, which is the best metric for efficiency.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Popped in for a look at everything tracker and it's all about dehumidifiers surely there are existing threads about these?

Anyway anyone think tomorrow will be cheaper for 3 loads of washing and 2 tumble dryer loads to do and can't wait for 10-11am and I am impatient.

masonic

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

Popped in for a look at everything tracker and it's all about dehumidifiers surely there are existing threads about these?

Anyway anyone think tomorrow will be cheaper for 3 loads of washing and 2 tumble dryer loads to do and can't wait for 10-11am and I am impatient.

There is a good chance it will be cheaper, but I think the difference will be small.

Slightly more generation from wind is forecast, fortunately things are looking up towards the end of next week:

QrizB

Tarquinius said:

If that is the case, then logically over the long term, the Tracker (market spot rate) average should equal the price cap (as the price cap is simply a historic average of market rates over time). Is my reasoning correct?

No, because you are comparing different markets.

Energy providers generally buy energy for the SVT (and for their fixed-rate customers) ahead of time, on the futures markets. This hedges their price and avoids the risk of a sudden price spike sending them into bankruptcy (as happened with a raft of challenger energy businesses in 2021). The Ofgem SVT cap is based on these futures market prices.

Buying in advance like this reduces risk but inevitably increases costs.

Tracker is based on the day-ahead price. This gives the price much more variability and transfers this risk to the consumer. In return the consumer saves having to cover the costs of hedging the energy price, so Tracker should work out cheaper in the long run.

This doesn't mean that there won't be a period of weeks or months where Tracker is far more expensive than the SVT, and where you might think you could do better on a different tariff.

Also, see for example February 2021 when Texas energy customers of a spot-price tracking tariff saw their electricity tariffs surge during a winter storm. Wholesale prices rose from 5c/kWh to $9/kWh overnight.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis

Telegraph_Sam

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

My Meaco 20 L eco dehumidifier (type??) appears to show up well in the comparisons. The environmental room emperature is in the mid teens. These are currently retailing @ c. £250. Probably as good a solution as I'm going to get, but possibly not excluding some other if it was a matter of making a new outlay. Esp if compared with a new tumble drier.

It's a compressor type, and stated power consumption is up to 255 W "/h" (presumably typical usage in laundry mode, no data for standard operation, but expect this will be below 200 W). It gives extraction data for 30C @ 80%RH: 20 L/day and at 27C @ 60%RH: 12 L/day. This will be considerably lower when the temp is in the mid-teens. The below plot (general data, not your model specifically) gives an idea of the temperature dependence:

https://ionmax.com.au/blogs/resources/desiccant-or-compressor-dehumidifier

You could experiment and see how much water it produces from an empty tank at the start of your drying operation to the end, and divide by the number of hours it ran. If you have a plug-in energy meter you can even see exactly how much energy it used. Then you can work out the energy consumed per litre moisture removed, which is the best metric for efficiency.

Tks for the in-depth research!

masonic

masonic said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

Popped in for a look at everything tracker and it's all about dehumidifiers surely there are existing threads about these?

Anyway anyone think tomorrow will be cheaper for 3 loads of washing and 2 tumble dryer loads to do and can't wait for 10-11am and I am impatient.

There is a good chance it will be cheaper, but I think the difference will be small.

...turned out to be a 6% reduction in my region, almost got it below 20p.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

masonic said:

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

Popped in for a look at everything tracker and it's all about dehumidifiers surely there are existing threads about these?

Anyway anyone think tomorrow will be cheaper for 3 loads of washing and 2 tumble dryer loads to do and can't wait for 10-11am and I am impatient.

There is a good chance it will be cheaper, but I think the difference will be small.

Slightly more generation from wind is forecast, fortunately things are looking up towards the end of next week:

Nice yep 20p I'll take that and max out tomorrow and cook a big roast.

Qyburn

masonic said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

My Meaco 20 L eco dehumidifier (type??) appears to show up well in the comparisons. The environmental room emperature is in the mid teens. These are currently retailing @ c. £250. Probably as good a solution as I'm going to get, but possibly not excluding some other if it was a matter of making a new outlay. Esp if compared with a new tumble drier.

It's a compressor type, and stated power consumption is up to 255 W "/h" (presumably typical usage in laundry mode, no data for standard operation, but expect this will be below 200 W). It gives extraction data for 30C @ 80%RH: 20 L/day and at 27C @ 60%RH: 12 L/day.

Meaco give performance data for a range of temperatures and humidities. For example 10C/60% gives 2.52l and 163W. Their equivalent dessicant model 3.9l at 351W (low speed) up to 7.5l at 663W 
https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-20l-low-energy-dehumidifier-and-air-purifier
https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-dd8l-zambezi-dehumidifier

Tarquinius

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Tarquinius said:

If this is the case, then it should not be possible to win (or lose) over time by choosing either the tracker or price cap, as it all would average out in the end.

I'd be grateful for any comments as to whether my reasoning is correct - or if not why ?

Thank you in advance !

I don't know why that is, though.  Your theory sounds to me, as a layman, like it should be correct, but so far it's not holding up unless the December increase would have wiped out a person's savings.

Maybe someone else knows, I'm just grateful it's been cheaper than the SVT for the vast majority of the time.

Thank you @Spoonie_Turtle - that is useful advice and good to know.   Given your experience I'll stick with the Tracker through the winter and see what happens !

Grateful if anyone does know the answer as to why Tracker appears cheaper than the price cap in the long run,   and how Octopus are able to supply energy, on average, at a cheaper rate than the price cap in the long term.   It sort of suggests to me that energy cos who charge the price cap (ie pretty much all of them) must be making quite a decent profit out of it,  if Octopus can afford to supply for less over the long term.

tlcgrantham

I’ve been on gas Tracker since April 22 and electric Tracker since July 23 and have not payed more than SVT any day since December 23 for either. The reason probably has to do with hedging as explained by QrizB above.