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

mmmmikey

Bendo said:

bagand96 said:

Octopus have been pretty poor at getting notifications out this year (having been excellent last year).  Saving Sessions alerts have been sporadic at best on all channels - app push notification/WhatsApp/email and often quite late.  Can't speak for other suppliers.

For that reason alone you might want to run your hypothetical electric heater from a smart plug so you have control over its operation as you might not be at home when you find out a saving session is taking place.  So you might want to factor the cost of a smart plug into your savings, also considering whether you should/could run the electric heater from a smart plug.

No issues with the notifications coming via whatsapp, yes they come late but as MFB noted, thats by design.

Even better, you could run your device by Home Assistant automatically, the integration there knows when there is a session on so easy to automate. In theory I could run my space heating off its 6kW immersions, although out doesn't feel right to game the system that way and I'm not too bothered to set it up.

Yes, that's more or less what I'm doing. I already have the appropriate heaters and smart switches in place and I'm progressively automating things via Home Assistant. You still have to opt in via the Octopus app or website so there is some manual intervention needed. To keep it simple I've got myself organised so that when I log in to the app to opt in I also manually set the savings sessions start and stop times in Home Assistant, but everything else is now automated. The times are available from the National Grid ESO API but as I have to intervene manually anyway though it hardly seems worth automating that bit.

As far as notifications are concerned, I've signed up for the ESO emails to get the earliest possible notice before the session is formally confirmed, and I set an alarm for later in the day to remind me to check it's going ahead, opt in and set the times.

M25

mmmmikey said:

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

 

No such thing as free electric unless a theft of the service is happening.

People shouldn't be using that term on this serious forum it's a lie. Your supplier is choosing to not charge you but move that cost on to other people.

In the so-called energy market which in now a Ponzi scheme the term 'free' rubs my rhubarb the wrong way.

Maybe MSE could think of an accurate and honest term.

MultiFuelBurner

Maybe call it........Zero cost energy to those consumers with a smart meter..,......to please everyone, which we have to do these days of course 🤣

bristolleedsfan

Thread title is intentionally misleading and sensational, would have been more appropriate as a post within existing  savings session thread ( maybe commented on and quickly forgotten about)

With the exception of maybe power up scheme certain postcodes within South East/East England there is not an hours free electric heating Mon-Fri available from any energy supplier when most people come home from work, three pages of posts so far I have not read anyone who believes it to be the case.

"intentionally misleading"  thread title does not include the word "possible"

 

MultiFuelBurner

bristolleedsfan said:

Thread title is intentionally misleading and sensational, would have been more appropriate as a post within existing  savings session thread ( maybe commented on and quickly forgotten about)

With the exception of maybe power up scheme certain postcodes within South East/East England there is not an hours free electric heating Mon-Fri available from any energy supplier when most people come home from work, 3 pages of posts so far I have not read anyone who believes it to be the case.

"intentionally misleading"  thread title does not include the word "possible"

 

It was a proposal of an idea by the OP by using the National.grid ESO DFS saving events formula to garner an hour's free heat by utilising the 10 previous calculation days of said formula.

Slightly flawed but worth a go in the New Year and we will be boosting our 5-6pm slot to earn a few more pennies.

TheElectricCow

M25 said:

mmmmikey said:

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

 

No such thing as free electric unless a theft of the service is happening.

People shouldn't be using that term on this serious forum it's a lie. Your supplier is choosing to not charge you but move that cost on to other people.

In the so-called energy market which in now a Ponzi scheme the term 'free' rubs my rhubarb the wrong way.

Maybe MSE could think of an accurate and honest term.

Well it’s not quite as snappy but how about “Electric consumption prioritised over specific times of day with a view to take advantage of an ongoing initiative from the Electricity System Operator whereby a rebate of equal or greater value to the billed cost said energy may be granted by the aforementioned ESO in co-operation with the end consumer’s chosen participating service provider”

QrizB

M25 said:

No such thing as free electric unless a theft of the service is happening.

How would you describe it, then, when the wholesale price of electricity is negative and you have a wholesale tracking tariff?

"Free electricity" seems quite appropriate.

M25 said:

People shouldn't be using that term on this serious forum it's a lie. Your supplier is choosing to not charge you but move that cost on to other people.

Not a lie. If the wholesale price is negative, your supplier is being paid to use it. Your supplier is not moving the cost elsewhere.

M25 said:

In the so-called energy market which in now a Ponzi scheme the term 'free' rubs my rhubarb the wrong way.

Maybe MSE could think of an accurate and honest term.

Maybe you could spend less time rubbing your rhubarb and make an effort to understand what you are commenting on?

M25

'Free' is not factual a good term would be unbilled or uncharged (no pun intended)

Spoonie_Turtle

M25 said:

'Free' is not factual a good term would be unbilled or uncharged (no pun intended)

Neither of which are correct - it'll be on your bill, and you'll be charged for it, it's just (potentially) balanced out by the saving sessions rewards.

Maybe 'effectively free' would have been better than just plain 'free'.

Gerry1

M25 said:

'Free' is not factual a good term would be unbilled or uncharged (no pun intended)

'Free' is just shorthand for 'Free of Charge' !