Cosy Octopus for Heat Pump Owners

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

No idea what an MCS is but they could have photos of all the bits of the pump and cylinder and the ridiculously basic manual if they'd like.)

I doubt that will work. The supplier is wanting to see proof that the installer was MCS certified.

https://mcscertified.com/

The same requirement exists when installing solar PV when export payments are being sought.

Fair, I suppose to make sure it's not a DIY bodge-job. Our installer is on their directory at least, thankfully!

matelodave

I've just done the sums based on yesterdays hourly consumption and I would have saved around 49p but that's because the heatpump has been running overnight due to the extreme cold.

Generally it doesn't so I wouldn't often get much of a savings out of the 0400-0700 period, The neither the washing machine nor dishwasher have a timer function and wont auto-start with a time switch so, it means getting up everso early to benefit from the morning session.

I have more chance of getting on the next Apollo mission that I would trying to persuade SWMBO to do her washing etc before 0700 and would probably be pushing my luck to get her to do it in the afternoon as well. The sun shines on the front of the house in the afternoon, so the heatpump doesn't have to work as hard, so we actually use less energy at that time of day than average

We do eat between 1800-1900 so that when the cooker is on and also when the heat pump starts working harder as the outside temperature drops.

I'd really not want to be eating at either 3pm or 8pm, nor sitting in the cold for three hours in the evening (actually it would be more because the heatpump is pretty slow at reheating the place, so I'd have to wind up the flow temp to compensate.

Mstty

Reminds me of my parents and grandparents. Not willing to change in any way😂

[Deleted User]

Mstty said:

Reminds me of my parents and grandparents. Not willing to change in any way😂

It's called a routine. Routines are apparently very good for the elderly!

I love technology whereas my wife hates anything new. He jaw dropped when I told her that Apple is rolling out Passkeys as the new way of managing passwords.

Mstty

[Deleted User] said:

Mstty said:

Reminds me of my parents and grandparents. Not willing to change in any way😂

It's called a routine. Routines are apparently very good for the elderly!

I love technology whereas my wife hates anything new. He jaw dropped when I told her that Apple is rolling out Passkeys as the new way of managing passwords.

I know the stubborn so and so's lol

Really need others to see this as already put two neighbours onto this and they are seriously considering it. One thinks they may save up to £550 a year with very minor changes.

Roseybug

How easy is it to programme a heat pump to work a bit harder in the cheaper periods, and rest in the peak period? 

If anyone has experience, please share, e.g. which make of heat pump and/or external controllers?

Thanks

matelodave

Depends on the heatpump and controller. You need to study the instructions to see what's possible

Mines a 12 year old Daikin Altherma and the although the programmer is a bit clunky you can programme five different actions per day for each day of the week, so I can adjust the on/off times, weather compensation or flow temp for different times during the day. Similarly for the hot water and booster heater if I wanted to. I do reduce my weather compensation curve by -3 degrees from around 21:30  to 06:00 and it's quite noticeable how much extra energy the heatpump takes when it winds up at 06:00

However, that said, it almost defeats the object a bit if you have to wind up the heatpump during the cheaper period, thus using more energy to compensate for using less in the peak period. You'd have to do the sums to see if it would work for you.

You could certainly heat the hot water during the cheap period which could save you a bit and do some experiments to see if you could cope with the heatpump turned off or down a bit during the peak hours. Possibly uplift the weather curve by a couple of degrees for the period before peak time and then drop it down below nominal during the peak times. It's difficult to tell how much it would save without being able to monitor the heatpump consumption in real time but you could probably get a good idea by adjusting the flow temps at the appropriate times and checking the energy consumption by reading the meter before and after each tweak

Reed_Richards

Roseybug said:

How easy is it to programme a heat pump to work a bit harder in the cheaper periods, and rest in the peak period? 

Good question!  Heat pumps lose efficiency the hotter you try to make your room so typically you try to keep them running steadily.  I think of all the different forms of electrical heating, heat pumps are the least well suited to the tariff regime Octopus is offering.    

chris1973

Reed_Richards said:

Roseybug said:

How easy is it to programme a heat pump to work a bit harder in the cheaper periods, and rest in the peak period? 

Good question!  Heat pumps lose efficiency the hotter you try to make your room so typically you try to keep them running steadily.  I think of all the different forms of electrical heating, heat pumps are the least well suited to the tariff regime Octopus is offering.    

For several months, we've been told that the reason for the majority of our energy price increases is largely due to the trouble in Ukraine and the fact that energy companies are all pennies away from closing if the cap wasn't raised. But suddenly we are seeing an increase in concessions in the form of different tariffs rolled out aimed at certain products like EV's and ASHP, presumably in an effort to save consumers money.

How do owning EV's and ASHP's mitigate the two external factors responsible for the price increases in order to attract the lower prices. I can understand the offering of lower prices overnight which has traditionally always been the case with E7, but these tariffs also offer reduced prices at other times too outside of the more traditional overnight off peak.

Personally, I think if Energy companies have now found a way to reduce prices at certain times and still remain profitable, then these tariffs should be made available to every household who calculates that they can make use of them for other forms of heating, and not just be offered to owners of certain "appliances"

[Deleted User]

chris1973 said:

Personally, I think if Energy companies have found a way to reduce prices and still remain profitable, then they should be made available to every household who calculates that they can make use of them for other forms of heating, not just be offered to owners of certain "appliances"

Feel free to set up your own supplier, then you can offer whatever tariff you like to as wide a range of people as you desire.

Do you also wish to insist that time-of-use tariffs are offered to people with analogue meters?