Smart Meters and Heat Pumps

EssexHebridean

From memory, Martin's only issues with Smart meters back in the day was that in the days of SMETS 1 meters they didn't stay smart once you changed supplier. That's all changed now of course with SMETS2 meters. 

Keep_pedalling

MultiFuelBurner said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Octopus have a tariff called Cosy Octopus which is for heat pump users but again you need a smart meter. It would be dumb not to get one in your situation. There are no down sides to this.

Do you have a heat pump and are you on this? As we have a heat pump/smart meter and are with Octopus so always interested what the average price per kWh other heat pump owners can get down to with the 6 hours cheap 3 hours expensive on cosy.

No, I have been investigating getting one but our current house needs a lot of insulation work doing first and the killer is the lack of space for the large hot water tank that would be required.

MultiFuelBurner

Keep_pedalling said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Octopus have a tariff called Cosy Octopus which is for heat pump users but again you need a smart meter. It would be dumb not to get one in your situation. There are no down sides to this.

Do you have a heat pump and are you on this? As we have a heat pump/smart meter and are with Octopus so always interested what the average price per kWh other heat pump owners can get down to with the 6 hours cheap 3 hours expensive on cosy.

No, I have been investigating getting one but our current house needs a lot of insulation work doing first and the killer is the lack of space for the large hot water tank that would be required.

When you do consider tracker first we reckon at the current price cap (until Jan 1st 2024) we could average 23-24p kWh on cosy shifting things around and turning the heat pump off 4-7pm.

But for ease of like a single flat rate on tracker has beaten all that faffing around at under 21p kWh all year (weighted average)

Keep_pedalling

EssexHebridean said:

From memory, Martin's only issues with Smart meters back in the day was that in the days of SMETS 1 meters they didn't stay smart once you changed supplier. That's all changed now of course with SMETS2 meters. 

Not all SMETS 1 meters were that bad we still have ours originally supplied by Scottish Power and still working fine with our current suppliers. 

MultiFuelBurner

EssexHebridean said:

From memory, Martin's only issues with Smart meters back in the day was that in the days of SMETS 1 meters they didn't stay smart once you changed supplier. That's all changed now of course with SMETS2 meters. 

Great knowledge and probably the detail smart meter naysayers neglect to mention 👍

QrizB

Markw said:

I have an Air Source Heat Pump/underfloor heating system in a very well insulated modern house.

That's good.

Markw said:

However, since electricity has increased in cost I have come to realise that they are VERY inefficient in low temperatures.

What has led you to this realisation? How (in)efficient have you calculated it to be, and by what method?

Markw said:

I am with Octopus Energy on a single tariff Analogue meter and considering changing to Economy 7.

What do you expect to gain by switching to E7?

Your questions about smart meters have already been answered, but it seems there remains some discussion to be had around ASHP efficiency and tariffs.

Markw

QrizB 

Markw said:

However, since electricity has increased in cost I have come to realise that they are VERY inefficient in low temperatures.

What has led you to this realisation? How (in)efficient have you calculated it to be, and by what method?

Markw said:

I am with Octopus Energy on a single tariff Analogue meter and considering changing to Economy 7.

What do you expect to gain by switching to E7?

Your questions about smart meters have already been answered, but it seems there remains some discussion to be had around ASHP efficiency and tariffs.

When electricity prices soared last year I tried to reduce our cost by reducing thermostats to maintain around 18°C which works when outside temperatures are above freezing, but when they dipped outside, the temperature in our hallway (which is open circuit underfloor) was rising to 22° and the Heat Pump was running continuously for 24 hours regardless of the thermostat setting. I had discussions with NuHeat who supplied the system and they confirmed that the only way to control this was to switch off but we then run the risk of the pipes freezing. 

With regard to E7, I thought this was the only option for a cheaper tariff, but thanks to this thread I now know there are other options which may be beneficial. i.e.Octopus Cosy

EssexHebridean

Keep_pedalling said:

EssexHebridean said:

From memory, Martin's only issues with Smart meters back in the day was that in the days of SMETS 1 meters they didn't stay smart once you changed supplier. That's all changed now of course with SMETS2 meters. 

Not all SMETS 1 meters were that bad we still have ours originally supplied by Scottish Power and still working fine with our current suppliers. 

Most SMETS1 meters are now smart again as there has been a huge national drive to upgrade them. 

matelodave

Markw said:

QrizB 

Markw said:

However, since electricity has increased in cost I have come to realise that they are VERY inefficient in low temperatures.

What has led you to this realisation? How (in)efficient have you calculated it to be, and by what method?

Markw said:

I am with Octopus Energy on a single tariff Analogue meter and considering changing to Economy 7.

What do you expect to gain by switching to E7?

Your questions about smart meters have already been answered, but it seems there remains some discussion to be had around ASHP efficiency and tariffs.

When electricity prices soared last year I tried to reduce our cost by reducing thermostats to maintain around 18°C which works when outside temperatures are above freezing, but when they dipped outside, the temperature in our hallway (which is open circuit underfloor) was rising to 22° and the Heat Pump was running continuously for 24 hours regardless of the thermostat setting. I had discussions with NuHeat who supplied the system and they confirmed that the only way to control this was to switch off but we then run the risk of the pipes freezing. 

With regard to E7, I thought this was the only option for a cheaper tariff, but thanks to this thread I now know there are other options which may be beneficial. i.e.Octopus Cosy

Markw said:

QrizB 

Markw said:

However, since electricity has increased in cost I have come to realise that they are VERY inefficient in low temperatures.

What has led you to this realisation? How (in)efficient have you calculated it to be, and by what method?

Markw said:

I am with Octopus Energy on a single tariff Analogue meter and considering changing to Economy 7.

What do you expect to gain by switching to E7?

Your questions about smart meters have already been answered, but it seems there remains some discussion to be had around ASHP efficiency and tariffs.

When electricity prices soared last year I tried to reduce our cost by reducing thermostats to maintain around 18°C which works when outside temperatures are above freezing, but when they dipped outside, the temperature in our hallway (which is open circuit underfloor) was rising to 22° and the Heat Pump was running continuously for 24 hours regardless of the thermostat setting. I had discussions with NuHeat who supplied the system and they confirmed that the only way to control this was to switch off but we then run the risk of the pipes freezing. 

With regard to E7, I thought this was the only option for a cheaper tariff, but thanks to this thread I now know there are other options which may be beneficial. i.e.Octopus Cosy

Have you got weather compensation activated and has it been adjusted to suit the temperature requirements of you house.

I've had a heatpump for over 13 years, coupled with underfloor heating and I would agree that the electricity consumption does increase quite dramatically when the temperature drops to freezing or below, but TBH it really doesn't happen that often that I get upset about it. Some days when its been everso cold we've chomped through 60+ kwh but generally its a lot less and our total annual electricity consumption average out at about 19kwh a day.

We are at home all day and I can't see that trying to wind the unit up to overheat the place so we can shut it down during the expensive periods for Cozy or E7 would actually save all that much money but it would definitely affect the comfort levels.

We want to be warm during the day and the evening and not so much overnight so E7 wouldn't work for us at all and I'm not convinced that closing it down during the peak time when we want to be warm and cook our evening meal would enhance our comfort levels either.

The advantage of a smart meter (ours is a SMETS 1, installed in 2017) and it works, we've always been able to extract historical half hourly readings from it, even when we changed suppliers and it wasn't communicating with the supplier direct. Since it was enrolled with the DCC about three years ago I can suck two years worth of half hourly reading from it if I so desire using the Bright app. which gives me the opportunity to evaluate my consumption to see whether a TOU tariff would suit us and so far I reckon they probably wouldn't. 

Reed_Richards

I got an ASHP in December 2020 when I had a single rate meter.  I got a smart meter in August 2023.  At the end of September 2023 I got an electric car and moved to an economy 7 type EV tariff.  Since then I have made sure that the water heating and more space heating is done during the cheap overnight period.  I don't see that a smart meter is at all necessary for an ASHP but if you have a smart meter you might be able to leverage a time-of-use tariff.