Octopus Tracker

Spoonie_Turtle

Telegraph_Sam said:

As I write this I am about to enter a "savings session". TBH I've come to the conclusion that these and other sweeteners are aimed at  EV people and above.  When I check the results for me they are in pennies only.  I really can't get motivated to participate - though I must recognize that overall they must constitute a plus in environmental terms.

???  Can I just clarify, by EV you mean electric vehicle, or have I misunderstood?

There is a reason 4-7pm is the peak time for electricity use, on a population level.  Clearly there are enough people using more at that time than throughout the rest of the day to make that so.  Some can shift their usage for savings sessions, some can't. 

We just can have a somewhat skewed view on this forum of what usage in the peak period looks like because so many people are on Agile or other TOU tariffs that have a peak, and/or have batteries that they charge up during off-peak times to lower the cost of most or all of the electricity they use.

Telegraph_Sam

Yes, I take it that EV owners is the accepted jargon as you have stated, though I don't belong to that elite myself (for reasons I could justify)
My point was that savings sessions and the like must have much greater effect on a macro than a micro level .. though one could include many forum members in the former category, but not myself

masonic

I don't think anyone can make much of a gain after taking into account battery wear and tear. EV owners would not normally be charging at peak times, so only those exporting are likely to make more than pennies.

Telegraph_Sam

Not to mention what you hear about depreciation with EV's.
I "export" myself but it will not have escaped your notice that savings sessions don't coincide with peak sunshine periods north of Watford. Export earnings go some welcome way towards redressing the balance but at my latitude will not rival  the costs of normal consumption (plunge pricing excepted if I was to go for it)

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

As I write this I am about to enter a "savings session". TBH I've come to the conclusion that these and other sweeteners are aimed at  EV people and above.

I'm not sure how you work that out. The majority of home EV chargers are set intentionally to avoid the evening peak period. It's part of the standard installation requirement.

Telegraph_Sam

Simply that you have to be in the high consumption league  for goodies such as saving sessions to offer some real significant benefit.

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

Simply that you have to be in the high consumption league  for goodies such as saving sessions to offer some real significant benefit.

But you need to be a high user in the 30-minute slots where the savings sessions are. And those are generally durittge 4-to-7 peak, when EV owners aren't generally charging.

EV owners aren't directly benefitting from owning an EV. Although I do know one EV owner who switches of this consumer unit and just uses V2L to run essential loads from his EV during savings sessions.

crumpet_man

From comments on previous saving sessions I think it's those exporting from batteries who can earn more than pennies.  
Charge them on cheap import or from solar then export in the session.

debitcardmayhem

crumpet_man said:

From comments on previous saving sessions I think it's those exporting from batteries who can earn more than pennies.  
Charge them on cheap import or from solar then export in the session.

95 points (11.875p) / kwh is still pennies, and filling up the battery to get you through, still costs. Most PV/battery users are capped at c4.8kW for export which still only adds up to 55/60p over a session.
Gone of the days(when NG was the NESO) of £3 or £1.75 per kWh, and it was still in the proof of concept stage. 

crumpet_man

Good point, not much incentive for anyone to be pro-active about these saving sessions.