Octopus - Octoplus Rewards (points/money off/free electricity)

masonic

TheBanker said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

TheBanker said:

QrizB said:

M25 said:

liviboy said:

free electricity

No such thing what they mean is they'll not charge you but someone else will pay it for you.

No, there really is such a thing as free electricity. There's even electricity where they pay you to use it.

You should read the Octopus Agile threads.

M25 said:

Double speak has always been in banking and it's now rife in the energy sector.

People posting confidently on topics they don't understand, however, had been around since the bulletin board days.

I think free electricity is a bit like the NHS. It's free at the point you use it, but ultimately we all pay for it somehow. 

No in this instance the free electricity is either given away free or we actually all have to pay to give it away 👍

I do hope this has been a knowledge learning exercise and you pass on your new found knowledge to others rather than incorrect information.

Yes, that's what I said. It's free at the point of use.

This electricity still costs money to generate, and still has to be paid for by 'the system'. Because it's not needed, 'the system' then has to either pay the generator extra to turn off, or encourage use of the surplus energy by giving it away for free. But ultimately 'the system' is still paying for this energy and we all pay for 'the system' through our electricity bills. I don't think there's any way to avoid excess generation, so giving it away makes perfect sense, but it's still costing us money collectively. 

Ultimately, energy generation is a profitable activity, so the infrastructure is paid for by the proceeds from selling the energy. If excess energy is generated, and the company generating it is profitable, then that excess really is free if it can be disposed of for free. Periodically, the consumer has to be paid to dispose of the excess energy, which is an extra cost that must be borne by someone else.

It's the same logic for people with solar panels. Once the panels have paid for themselves through the energy they have generated, isn't the excess free? Who pays for the extra sunlight on a less cloudy day? Could we club together and raise some money to pay for a better summer next year?

EssexHebridean

I feel cheated! Didn’t get my extra “we love your smart meter” spin on my gas reading this morning - that’s a whole 8 Octopoints I have missed out on! 😆

baser999

EssexHebridean said:

I feel cheated! Didn’t get my extra “we love your smart meter” spin on my gas reading this morning - that’s a whole 8 Octopoints I have missed out on! 😆

No consolation for you I know but I had a spin for both utilities, 16 Octopoints for me 👍 Looking forward to next month

masonic

EssexHebridean said:

I feel cheated! Didn’t get my extra “we love your smart meter” spin on my gas reading this morning - that’s a whole 8 Octopoints I have missed out on! 😆

I had that last month. Logged in a few days later and it was there.

SuzeQStan

Trying to pop a screen shot of my battery export on here but it won’t let me for whatever reason.

battery is discharging nearly 3kwh rate but only 2.5kwh rate is being registered as exported on my IHD and solar battery app confirms this also.

everything is switched off at the wall except router, hardwired smoke alarms and about 20x smart bulbs on standby.  Or normal
nighttime background is usually about 150w (and that’s with nothing switched off at wall!) - so why are we only exporting at rate of 2.5kwh?  

Is that 400ish watts the energy required from battery/inverter to export to grid do you think?

MultiFuelBurner

SuzeQStan said:

Trying to pop a screen shot of my battery export on here but it won’t let me for whatever reason.

battery is discharging nearly 3kwh rate but only 2.5kwh rate is being registered as exported on my IHD and solar battery app confirms this also.

everything is switched off at the wall except router, hardwired smoke alarms and about 20x smart bulbs on standby.  Or normal
nighttime background is usually about 150w (and that’s with nothing switched off at wall!) - so why are we only exporting at rate of 2.5kwh?  

Is that 400ish watts the energy required from battery/inverter to export to grid do you think?

10% inverter loss is 300w then background load so within parameters from what I know.

SuzeQStan

Thanks @MultiFuelBurner

Alnat1

Our battery is in the garage and cold weather definitely effects performance. Inverter loss seems greater when temperatures in there fall below 10C.

Could this be happening to yours too?

SuzeQStan

Hi @Alnat1 😊 - I swear you have cctv on me - was just searching how to build an insulated battery box. 👍🏻

Our batt/inverter are in an integral but unheated garage, and have definitely noticed the battery doesn’t last us near as long these days once fully charged at nite on cheap tariff.

good shout - wil get back on my gen at some point but we are all of a usual result aren’t we on there lol 🤣👍🏻

Alnat1

Discussions ongoing with hubby here too about how to insulate the battery safely. We have the boiler and a fridge freezer in the integral garage which keeps the temperature a little higher, so I've not known it drop below 8C. 

Next winter it might be colder in there, going ASHP in spring