Octopus Agile

NedS

The ASHP has had a good workout overnight. Radiators are sat at 55C and house is toasty warm.

teaselMay

3 loads washed 4 nearly dried, the last in the dryer now. That'll do us till next week. Toasty house, which is pretty impressive from an 850 watt £6 ceramic heater thing and effectively 850 watt electric 'stove' because it's second element blew ages ago. And the oven. Two weeks worth of baked/roast potatoes for hound teas (they get pressure cooked if no cheap power) and jacket spuds for me.

Had to move the tumble drier back down stairs so that I could use it over night (it was in the box room but that's next to next doors bedroom) which was somewhat precarious for various reasons but it can stay there now til spiring.

It still feels wrong using lots of power when I spend the rest of time trying not to, but that little lot will save considerably on gas and electricity over the week, and they wouldn't make it negative if didn't want us to use it

greenbee

I think for most of us this is shifting use, not using energy we wouldn’t have used at all (with the possible exception of some extra heating). CH hasn’t kicked in here either - I think it may be related to rising external temperatures as well as the background electrical heat overnight. 27.5kWh imported so far, 5.7kWh exported at 15p each. I’m fairly busy today, but will certainly get more laundry, cooking, heating, water heating etc done while prices are lower than usual. I just need to persuade the battery to play ball… it may make sense to force a charge now and then put it on stop until just before 4pm

teaselMay

Definitely shifting it, or using it differently, I usually only use the drier to finish a nearly dry load off if it can't go on the line, but that needs the heating on to get to that stage when it's cold and wet out. Boiler turned off for the day

RavingMad

4 Oil radiators placed around the house last night and it was too hot for the wife who's going through the change  . Reminded me yesteryear when you could have the house nice through the night without worrying about costs

Tempted to leave them on until peak this afternoon 

Tomorrow looking good too? Going off tonight's 10.40pm rate and emoncms

EssexHebridean

Ours is mostly shifting use and using energy differently, although MrEH is more inclined to game the system a bit and turn stuff on that we wouldn’t otherwise. We wouldn’t generally heat the office at this stage in proceedings, but as it’s not really being used much at the moment it will definitely benefit from being heated here and there when that is possible. Heating the house with electricity rather than gas feels quite strange now, but makes perfect sense when in reality we are being encouraged to use the electricity of course! 

greenbee

I've worked out that anything under about 6p makes it worth switching from oil to electricity for heating. Obviously it doesn't have quite the same effect as I don't have electric heating in every room, but luckily the bathrooms and the utility room have electric towel rails which gets me off to a good start. 

Given that the weather isn't exactly ideal for doing things outside, it's not a bad day to be making the most of the cheap electricity until peak rate!

NedS

greenbee said:

I've worked out that anything under about 6p makes it worth switching from oil to electricity for heating. Obviously it doesn't have quite the same effect as I don't have electric heating in every room, but luckily the bathrooms and the utility room have electric towel rails which gets me off to a good start.

Yes, oil at current prices is probably somewhere around 6p per kWh for a 90% efficient boiler (we has an oil boiler before switching to an ASHP).

I have propane cylinders for our gas hob, and that works out around 13p per kWh, so in winter I boil an old fashioned whistling kettle on the gas during peak rate to make a cuppa, and benefit from the excess heating too.

EssexHebridean

We ended up yesterday on an electricity cost of 36p for the day, but that was for 35.4kWh, and included some oven and airfryer time during the afternoon as we had friends round so I was getting food sorted. Zero heating cost on gas though as the kitchen underfloor was on right until the unit costs rose above 5p and of course carried on releasing heat for some time afterwards, and the fire being lit yesterday evening meant that the house stayed wonderfully warm all day. 

Last night again we used the underfloor heating plus the oil filled rad, and the dishwasher ran again too. Again downstairs was almost too warm this morning, but that's fine, and again, no cost for heating via gas today to date, although that will change this evening. 

I think it's safe to say that the last couple of days will make quite an impact on our average unit rate... 

Slinky

OH was very happy we had negative rates this morning also, as it meant the oil fired radiator was on in the dining room and the room was toasty warm when he had his breakfast at 4.15am. He has to travel into the office on Mondays. I also boosted the heat on the heated towel rail in the bathroom for him. If only all Sunday nights were like that.