We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Octopus Agile
Options
Comments
-
Telegraph_Sam said:I fear some of these posts are coming through out of sequence ..
My point is simply that me running a tumble drier in a situation where the cost is low has got to be negative in environmental terms compared with a situation where I don't use it because the cost is higher.That's wrong. It is completely irrelevant what happens to the energy after it has been added to the system. If it spends a little time as electrical energy before ending up as heat energy, it makes zero difference vs passing directly from electromagnetic (solar) to heat, or electromagnetic to kinetic (wind) to heat.The only time it is negative in environmental terms is when the energy is supplied by burning fuels where the energy was previously locked up in chemical bonds. When prices are high, it is usually because at least some of the energy is obtained from burning gas that wouldn't have been burned if you didn't run your tumble drier.4 -
Telegraph_Sam said:I fear some of these posts are coming through out of sequence ..
My point is simply that me running a tumble drier in a situation where the cost is low has got to be negative in environmental terms compared with a situation where I don't use it because the cost is higher.
If the tumble drier is powered fully or partly by energy that was generated by a method that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere then yes it does.
(This is assuming of course that the tumble drier and wind farm is laready in place and we ignore the environmental impact of their manufacture).
It's the release of the carbon dioxide by chemical reaction that causes global warming.
Maybe a more simple example is - if you sit outside on a sunny day and your skin gets warm, is this causing global warming?
Or even - according to your argument, if you hang the washing on the line and it drys, the clothes got warmer as they dried so this is also causing global warming.
Using the similar arguments I guess you could also say - if we cover the whole world in giant windmills to generate electrical power, will we eventually run out of wind?5 -
I have a feeling that that is the opposite of how I see things.
If, in a marginal situation, I use the tumble drier in order to take advantage of an Agile price plunge, when otherwise I would leave off, then I am the dependent variable that reacts to the independent variable, the market price. The key point is that this is not a two way process. What I do downstream as a consumer is independent from and has no influence on the upstream energy generation process. The examples that you quote, clothes drying and sitting in the sun, are passive activities environmentally whilst me using the tumble drier is an active activity, hence the focus on energy ratings for appliances which discourage us from purchasing "G" grades in favour of "A" grades.The world can be thought of as a giant latent wind farm or PV panel which is there doing its thing regardless of what I do with the energy that feeds its way into my TD.
To revert to my original thought, the downside to an Agile price plunge is when it encourages an increase in energy consumption when we are being lead to believe that it is better for the planet if we did not. If the Truth is more complex then I fear that is above my pay grade.Telegraph Sam
There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know0 -
Telegraph_Sam said:
To revert to my original thought, the downside to an Agile price plunge is when it encourages an increase in energy consumption when we are being lead to believe that it is better for the planet if we did not. If the Truth is more complex then I fear that is above my pay grade.
If what the energy was used for had any overall effect, then energy usage for air conditioning would be a good thing and it would be encouraged for people to do more … !
But when prices are negative on Agile, there's an excess of renewable energy. We're not burning any extra gas to produce the energy being used.2 -
And on that happy note I fear we must leave it ..Telegraph Sam
There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know1 -
Fantastic day today, first time this has happened on a weekday for a long time, virtually zero or negative from now until 4pm.2kWp Solar PV - 10*200W Kioto, SMA Sunny Boy 2000HF, SSE facing, some shading in winter, 37° pitch, installed Jun-2011, inverter replaced Sep-2017 AND Feb-2022.2
-
Anyone know what's going on with Emoncms, seems to have stopped updating or is it just me.0
-
stopped for me4.8kWp 12x400W Longhi 9.6 kWh battery Giv-hy 5.0 Inverter, WSW facing Essex . Aint no sunshine ☀️ Octopus gas fixed dec 24 @ 5.74 tracker again+ Octopus Intelligent Flux leccy1
-
Perhaps an issue with the upstream forecasts from NESO? They look ok now, but were updated about half an hour ago, so perhaps they'll feed in to emoncms in due course.0
-
Some reasonable pricing tomorrow morning.It's been 90 days since I switched back to Agile and average unit price is under 14p. Happy enough with that.1
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.9K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.5K Spending & Discounts
- 243.9K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.9K Life & Family
- 257.2K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards