Free electric heating for an hour a day Mon-Fri when you come home from work?

mmmmikey

Here's something for you to ponder on if you have a smart meter and are opted in to the National Grid DFS savings system.....

I'm with Octopus who call them Savings Sessions, and I'm also on the Tracker tariff so I'll use my own rates as an example.

All you have to do to get your free electric heating is:

1. Set up a suitable electric heater on a timeswitch to come on for one hour at 17:00 each day.

2. Opt in to the saving sessions each time they are run.

3. Reset the timer for any day there is a saving session to run outside the session, e.g. at 16:00

Let's say you have a 1kWh heater and you do this every weekday, Mon-Fri. To keep the numbers simple, suppose there are 4 weeks in a month, i.e. 20 weekdays. If you are on the Octopus Tracker tariff you'll pay something like 20p/kWh for electricity (again, keeping the numbers simple). So the cost of the electricity will be 20 days * 20p/day = £4.00 total.

Now assume there is a saving session every other week from 17:00 to 18:00. Running the heater outside the saving session will reduce your comsunption by 1kWh, earning £2.25 if it's a test session. So over the course of the 20 days, if there are 2 savings sessions you'll make £4.50 - i.e. more than enough to cover the £4.00 you've paid, making the heating free.

Of course, the downside is that there is no guarantee there will be savings sessions, and if they are they will be between 17:00 and 18:00. But if you look at what's happen so far, although they might not be guaranteed it's a fairly safe bet. And if the session is from 17:30 to 18:30 you'll still get half the benefit.

Also, the numbers are simplified and you have to factor in things like the number of days you have to ramp up for to get started, but the principle should be clear.

On the flipside, if there is more than one session per fortnight and/or they are live sessions paying more than £2.25 you'll be in profit.

I've assumed a 1kWh heater for this example but it could be any sized heater, just scale up or down the numbers accordingly. (NB not all portable heaters are safe to use with a timeswitch - if in doubt ask!)

What do you think? Worth a try? Or am I just repeating something that has been said many times before and I'm the only person who hasn't thought of doing this?

 

bristolleedsfan

I have only skimmed read, assuming has not been included prudent to add following cavet

1. Some on Twitter today have been unable to opt in to todays saving sessions due to missing smart meter readings, Octopus have said they should now appear within 24/48 hours.

2. No guarantee Octopus will be able to retrieve smart meter readings for every customer for any particular savings session within timescale Octopus update accounts with outcomes, in those instances Octopus have been giving customer Octopoints worth £1

QrizB

mmmmikey said:

What do you think? Worth a try? Or am I just repeating something that has been said many times before and I'm the only person who hasn't thought of doing this?

If you're well-off enough that you don't need the money, it could be worth doing for fun.

The risks are:

1. You don't get enough savings sessions to break even.
2. You get a savings session but can't opt in.
   

If you can't afford the electricity bill should you miss the sessions, you shouldn't do it.

Andreg

There were six test saving sessions promised this year, and today's is the sixth.  So any electricity you use in the next week or so is unlikely to be included in the baseline for the next saving session.  Don't waste electricity, it's not worth it.

Also remember the CO2 impact of your wasted electricity, your unnecessary car journey, or your holding of bitcoin! 

mmmmikey

All good points, but to be clear I'm not proposing in wasting electricity to make money, I'm suggesting taking advantage of the savings sessions to provide some increased comfort over the winter months. As pointed out, there's no guarantee that this would even pay for itself, let alone make money. But there is a good chance that it will and even in the unlikely worst case when there were no savings sessions at the right time you would still have had the benefit of the increased heating even though you've had to pay for it. Makes sense for those of us with electric heaters but questionable (but still arguably with doing) for those with gas central heating.

MultiFuelBurner

From my spreadsheet of last year's 2022/2023 DFS events we took part in the following dates after Christmas.

I don't know if it's relevant to your idea or not except maybe don't use the "free" heat til we are into January a bit.

I do remember a couple of the session were early ones as well and some times after 6:30pm etc. 

19th Jan 

23rd Jan 

24th Jan 

30th Jan

13th Feb

16th Feb

21st Feb

15th Mar

23rd Mar

Krakkkers

Looks like there are going to be a lot more this winter.

QrizB

Thinking about this again, one sticking point will be having a suitable electric heater.

You don't want a fan heater, and even a convector is a bit of a risk. An oil-filled heater might work best.

Or, of course, there's that big water-filled heater that many people have - their immersion heater in the hot water tank. Rather than "free" space heating, how does "free" hot water for a bath or shower grab you?

mmmmikey

QrizB said:

Thinking about this again, one sticking point will be having a suitable electric heater.

You don't want a fan heater, and even a convector is a bit of a risk. An oil-filled heater might work best.

Or, of course, there's that big water-filled heater that many people have - their immersion heater in the hot water tank. Rather than "free" space heating, how does "free" hot water for a bath or shower grab you?

I have some high-quality German made electric radiators filled with special magic clay that gives out heat even when there's no power (wow - they must be good, or so the salesmen say) so no problems with the heaters for me. I'd like to make it clear I didn't buy them though - they were in the bungalow when I bought it :-) I also have a couple of air to air heat pumps which are designed so they're OK being left to run unattended.

I had the same thought about the immersion heater last night although as it happens the way the auto-scheduling works is that it comes on at the right time anyway.

I've programmed the electric heaters at the back of the house and bathroom to come on for an hour every day at 17:00 and I've got it set up so I can change them all to an hour earlier or later on savings days just by dragging a box on the Home Assistant app. I'll keep a spreadsheet with a running total of the costs and savings sessions income and see how it goes. I'm not looking to get rich but if I can keep the back of the house and bathroom a couple of degrees warmer for minimal or no cost thanks to the savings sessions I'll chalk it up as a success :-) :-) :-)

MeteredOut

I've had my smart meter for less than 2 weeks, shifted my EV charging and tumble loads to peak times, and have had a few pennies under £10 hit my EDF account today, from the 3 saving sessions I've taken part in.

No additional cost or CO2* emissions from me, as the net usage has not changed, and the load shifting was simple. Yet, some people still don't want smart meters.

(*I guess it could be argued that usage at peak could cause greater CO2 emissions than at other times)

Bendo

This thread highlights exactly how stupid a concept these savings sessions actually are.

Rather than people saving energy,  its tempting people to use more energy as a whole through the peak.