My ASHP Journey in Bonnie Scotland.

cannugec5

Having given Octopus a gentle reminder that I’m still waiting, they have offered me an appointment for the installation of a cellular Smart meter. Unfortunately it is while we are on holiday next month so I’ve had to decline. 

We don’t go away much, but it is our 40th Wedding anniversary and we’ve booked a few days away in Aviemore. 

I only hope they don’t hold this against me. 

cannugec5

Well, Octopus came good. They offered an alternative appointment- which was for today. 

Arrived about 10 am. Tried and failed to connect a comms hub to the existing meter. Then installed a new meter with a cellular hub and finally we have a communicating Smart Meter  
He gave me an Octopus Home Mini too! 

He was away by 11am. 

Now I need to work out the best tariff for us. 

NedS

cannugec5 said:

Well, Octopus came good. They offered an alternative appointment- which was for today. 

Arrived about 10 am. Tried and failed to connect a comms hub to the existing meter. Then installed a new meter with a cellular hub and finally we have a communicating Smart Meter  
He gave me an Octopus Home Mini too! 

He was away by 11am. 

Now I need to work out the best tariff for us. 

Congratulations!

What options are you considering, and why?

cannugec5

“What options are you considering, and why?”

Thank you. I’m looking for the cheapest option for us!
We have a heat pump, no EV and are both retired and at home all day. We have a Gas hob ( bottled gas) , electric oven, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer ( for emergency use only!)
We have 3 freezers ( all relatively new).
Dehumidifier with smart settings used for indoor laundry drying when necessary. 

For a ‘hobby’ I make and sell jam & marmalade. This means I use the dishwasher more than average and explains the excess of freezers. 

I am thinking we might stick with our Octopus fixed rate for a wee while so I can see actual usage on graphs and then swap to Cosy or Agile when the ASHP is needed more. 

I have signed up to the free savings events notifications if there are any more. 

I have just updated my spreadsheet of electricity data and note that the electrician has only recorded one of the two rates from the old meter on the sticker on the new meter.  I never understood why it had two rates on it. We only ever had a single tariff and I was submitting the cumulative total each month. If the electrician has only submitted one reading this is going to confuse Octopus. I did take photographs of all three readings the evening before he came so hopefully that will aid any clarification needed. 

QrizB

cannugec5 said:

I have just updated my spreadsheet of electricity data and note that the electrician has only recorded one of the two rates from the old meter on the sticker on the new meter.  I never understood why it had two rates on it. We only ever had a single tariff and I was submitting the cumulative total each month. If the electrician has only submitted one reading this is going to confuse Octopus. I did take photographs of all three readings the evening before he came so hopefully that will aid any clarification needed. 

If you have a sticker (maybe a jam label ) you could write all three readings on it, date & initial/sign it, and stick it next to the "official" label for future reference? 

NedS

cannugec5 said:

“What options are you considering, and why?”

Thank you. I’m looking for the cheapest option for us!
We have a heat pump, no EV and are both retired and at home all day. We have a Gas hob ( bottled gas) , electric oven, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer ( for emergency use only!)
We have 3 freezers ( all relatively new).
Dehumidifier with smart settings used for indoor laundry drying when necessary. 

For a ‘hobby’ I make and sell jam & marmalade. This means I use the dishwasher more than average and explains the excess of freezers. 

I am thinking we might stick with our Octopus fixed rate for a wee while so I can see actual usage on graphs and then swap to Cosy or Agile when the ASHP is needed more. 

I have signed up to the free savings events notifications if there are any more. 

I have just updated my spreadsheet of electricity data and note that the electrician has only recorded one of the two rates from the old meter on the sticker on the new meter.  I never understood why it had two rates on it. We only ever had a single tariff and I was submitting the cumulative total each month. If the electrician has only submitted one reading this is going to confuse Octopus. I did take photographs of all three readings the evening before he came so hopefully that will aid any clarification needed. 

Last winter was our first with our ASHP and we had a similar setup to yourself. I started the heating season on Agile but switched to Cosy in Dec when Agile peak pricing when through the roof.

Dec-Feb will be the highest three months for usage with the heat pump. We averaged an import price of ~19-20p on Cosy last winter by shifting as much usage as possible to the 3 cheap slots and avoiding the peak rate slot as much as possible.

We use around 10kWh per day in summer, 20-30kWh/day in spring/Autumn and 35-40kWh/day in winter, all highly dependant on how cold it is and how much heating we need.

Cosy is a good choice for winter. Agile is a risk, but at least you can switch instantly if the pricing gets nasty.

cannugec5

Now I am seeing usage data in the app, and I’m getting confused. 

As previously stated I’ve always been on a single rate tariff but noted the removed meter was recording 2 rates. 

The graphs I’m now seeing show one live usage graph, but two graphs each for the day and week view. On “day” one graph indicates a power consumption ( approx 0.3kWh) at precisely midnight for 10 minutes. That is all. Nothing for the rest of the day. The same for both days in the 2 days I’ve had it. The other graph shows a normal pattern of use but also including that first  10 minutes of each day. 
 In “week” it shows 2 graphs with identical use on both. 

As I feared my meter reading on my account has been updated to include the reading from the installer. I believe it should be 7400, he has given them 1400! ( The meter concerned was installed in November 2024). 

Assuming that there was, and perhaps still is a two rate usage going on, what is the lower rate recording? What would it be set up for that runs concurrently with the other rate? I thought multi rates swapped between rates 1 & 2, not used both together? 

I know it’s early days. I’m expecting ( hoping) the second graphs disappear and revert to a single one once they get it together. 

Edited to add; the meter itself is only showing a single rate. 

cannugec5

The graphs persist with this daily midnight usage, which then converts into two identical graphs later. 

matt_drummer

We are on BST at the moment but the meter doesn't really know it.

The data for the last 24 hours is pulled once a day.

The last hour at the moment forms the first hour of the current day.

What is shown as the two 30 minute slots from 00.00 to 01.00 is really 23.00 to 24.00 on the meter, it's just that we are on BST.

It changes when the clocks go back an hour in October.

So today when you look, you will see all of Mondays usage plus the first hour of Tuesday.

Later today, when the data is downloaded, you will the rest of Tuesday and the first hour of Wednesday.

My data is usually updated late afternoon/early evening.

I won't be able to see what I used yesterday until much later today.

Once a week there is an even longer delay and you will see a message saying they have no data.

It is to do with comparing this weeks data to last weeks, it takes longer to update.

cannugec5

matt_drummer said:

We are on BST at the moment but the meter doesn't really know it.

The data for the last 24 hours is pulled once a day.

The last hour at the moment forms the first hour of the current day.

What is shown as the two 30 minute slots from 00.00 to 01.00 is really 23.00 to 24.00 on the meter, it's just that we are on BST.

It changes when the clocks go back an hour in October.

So today when you look, you will see all of Mondays usage plus the first hour of Tuesday.

Later today, when the data is downloaded, you will the rest of Tuesday and the first hour of Wednesday.

My data is usually updated late afternoon/early evening.

I won't be able to see what I used yesterday until much later today.

Once a week there is an even longer delay and you will see a message saying they have no data.

It is to do with comparing this weeks data to last weeks, it takes longer to update.

Thank you. However I’m not sure that this is the issue here. 

The graphs I’ve shown are from the mini. I should have made that clear. The two ‘blips’ on the first graph cover 2x 5minutes. So I don’t think the clock change would explain it. 

Since reading your explanation I logged into my account through the web, rather than the app and each day thus far is as I would expect. A single graph each day and half hourly data. I appreciate this is the info that is used for billing so the app graphs created by the mini are pretty irrelevant. 

But I’m still wondering why the mini is creating two graphs each day. This is not me putting graphs together for comparison this is how they show on my screen. Does everyone else with a mini have two sets of simultaneous graphs for day, week and month view?