Agile with a heat pump

V3cash

So I had Agile in the summer months which definitely worked out cheaper overall, however, I got a bit twitchy about the winter as I have air source heating which we can’t quite work out. It seems it’s on all of the time, this is necessary with underfloor heating I’m told. It is complicated to work out how to set it so I think it’s probably on at peak times.
so I changed to fixed electricity over winter which is much more expensive.
i’m wondering wether to change back in March and just see as they are colder months usually?
my house is totally electric apart from gas hob which has separate gas canisters outside.

TroubledTarts

V3cash said:

So I had Agile in the summer months which definitely worked out cheaper overall, however, I got a bit twitchy about the winter as I have air source heating which we can’t quite work out. It seems it’s on all of the time, this is necessary with underfloor heating I’m told. It is complicated to work out how to set it so I think it’s probably on at peak times.
so I changed to fixed electricity over winter which is much more expensive.
i’m wondering wether to change back in March and just see as they are colder months usually?
my house is totally electric apart from gas hob which has separate gas canisters outside.

Agile for us with no solar or batteries or EV was 13.4p kwh last year but we swapped to cosy on 2nd Jan and since being on cost averaging 17.4p kwh. Agile will likely be worth it again inate spring/summer and early Autumn when solar produces a lot of energy and demand is less as well as a little wind.

Just wondering why you wouldn't try Cosy if you already got used to a little load shifting with Agile?

Newbie_John

Do you have full instructions to your heat pump? That would be a first thing ot figure out - how to switch it off during peaks.

Either Agile, Cosy.. or even Tomato Lifestyle - they all rely on TOU which requires yout to avoid peaks and make most of cheaper slots - otherwise satndard rate and you don't need to care.

Agile recently averaged above standard rate.. so better to wait before moving back.

matelodave

In the end, it depends on how much faffing you want to do. If you've got a heatpump and underfloor heating then they work best low and slow because heating the floor can take a long time. However that also has the advantage that it can take just as long to cool down as well which means that you could set the controls to slightly over heat the place during the cheaper periods and either turn down or shut off the system during peak times.

Only you can decide whether you can tweak the controls to do this (my 14 year old Daikin can schedule up to five flow temp/on/off adjustments a day) and whether you can maintain comfortable temperatures during the peak rate times when the system is shut down and achieve satisfactory reheat times during the off-peak times.

It really is suck it and see.

You obviously have a smart meter so should be able to do some data collection on energy consumption v times (ours gives 30min readings going back around three years using the Bright app). Its also pretty easy to get a couple of cheap wifi temperature monitors so you can log temperatures and correlate temps and consumption.

These are cheap from Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Temperature-Hygrometer-Thermometer-Compatible-Intelligent/dp/B0BMLMQ3RM?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Axse7KRgFcierrGKwVyNGcQ7X2I5Vcl8qd5wPF26TY8wMoWMr-Q9L4Vjn6qW-rjn7B8Y0GIA5XDdG6Yzdgbrp8_XmLBzvbqTuqBme4V0ckfJmPihJ6qmCnoDd3zDmV_exTotjqL4Wnzi_WuzrujC94ne2Ho8KlrCdkDf3IjEQP887ED93SHZz12btn5-irue0mhLZqO0mZgPDuOgpmvu6uiN2orumfjwOie_fRCEMFiJTXxZ2eqolpTvXug27PtQSbPj4vHZfSWeA6Bt4-0uVho-89JsS2ARqTLeNFoTCJndzfFHURRXgVditYtyoC13TPic37-jSkLlcOOSYtxtKGFG0x8hK0huezcfWV-vwrKlLxKKj2yADmGEfb-YT-RZZ9_CjekSyUTBEwdugkqUrsPaUjATKf7fuoKY-dQAk8HNCNEvrTZqFkuPLQvFUo9N.LQMJ0uG80SyhceZ0PDhT1siEf87SzU7_FYUoVn4bC2M&dib_tag=se&keywords=tuya+temperature+sensor&qid=1739189607&sr=8-15

or even cheaper from AliExpress( although you need to add VAT and possibly shipping) - https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007755890938.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.7e133f43Ztw4VY&algo_pvid=405941ec-d824-4592-b19b-b142064cc854&algo_exp_id=405941ec-d824-4592-b19b-b142064cc854-0&pdp_ext_f={"order":"5784","eval":"1"}&pdp_npi=4@dis!GBP!3.04!3.04!!!26.75!26.75!@211b80d117391900050398792ec9d4!12000042104302703!sea!UK!2377185888!X&curPageLogUid=W0G72fk2Mn9t&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:

V3cash

matelodave said:

In the end, it depends on how much faffing you want to do. If you've got a heatpump and underfloor heating then they work best low and slow because heating the floor can take a long time. However that also has the advantage that it can take just as long to cool down as well which means that you could set the controls to slightly over heat the place during the cheaper periods and either turn down or shut off the system during peak times.

Only you can decide whether you can tweak the controls to do this (my 14 year old Daikin can schedule up to five flow temp/on/off adjustments a day) and whether you can maintain comfortable temperatures during the peak rate times when the system is shut down and achieve satisfactory reheat times during the off-peak times.

It really is suck it and see.

You obviously have a smart meter so should be able to do some data collection on energy consumption v times (ours gives 30min readings going back around three years using the Bright app). Its also pretty easy to get a couple of cheap wifi temperature monitors so you can log temperatures and correlate temps and consumption.

These are cheap from Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Temperature-Hygrometer-Thermometer-Compatible-Intelligent/dp/B0BMLMQ3RM?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Axse7KRgFcierrGKwVyNGcQ7X2I5Vcl8qd5wPF26TY8wMoWMr-Q9L4Vjn6qW-rjn7B8Y0GIA5XDdG6Yzdgbrp8_XmLBzvbqTuqBme4V0ckfJmPihJ6qmCnoDd3zDmV_exTotjqL4Wnzi_WuzrujC94ne2Ho8KlrCdkDf3IjEQP887ED93SHZz12btn5-irue0mhLZqO0mZgPDuOgpmvu6uiN2orumfjwOie_fRCEMFiJTXxZ2eqolpTvXug27PtQSbPj4vHZfSWeA6Bt4-0uVho-89JsS2ARqTLeNFoTCJndzfFHURRXgVditYtyoC13TPic37-jSkLlcOOSYtxtKGFG0x8hK0huezcfWV-vwrKlLxKKj2yADmGEfb-YT-RZZ9_CjekSyUTBEwdugkqUrsPaUjATKf7fuoKY-dQAk8HNCNEvrTZqFkuPLQvFUo9N.LQMJ0uG80SyhceZ0PDhT1siEf87SzU7_FYUoVn4bC2M&dib_tag=se&keywords=tuya+temperature+sensor&qid=1739189607&sr=8-15

or even cheaper from AliExpress( although you need to add VAT and possibly shipping) - https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007755890938.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.7e133f43Ztw4VY&algo_pvid=405941ec-d824-4592-b19b-b142064cc854&algo_exp_id=405941ec-d824-4592-b19b-b142064cc854-0&pdp_ext_f={"order":"5784","eval":"1"}&pdp_npi=4@dis!GBP!3.04!3.04!!!26.75!26.75!@211b80d117391900050398792ec9d4!12000042104302703!sea!UK!2377185888!X&curPageLogUid=W0G72fk2Mn9t&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:

Thanks will take a look at those 

V3cash

TroubledTarts said:

V3cash said:

So I had Agile in the summer months which definitely worked out cheaper overall, however, I got a bit twitchy about the winter as I have air source heating which we can’t quite work out. It seems it’s on all of the time, this is necessary with underfloor heating I’m told. It is complicated to work out how to set it so I think it’s probably on at peak times.
so I changed to fixed electricity over winter which is much more expensive.
i’m wondering wether to change back in March and just see as they are colder months usually?
my house is totally electric apart from gas hob which has separate gas canisters outside.

Agile for us with no solar or batteries or EV was 13.4p kwh last year but we swapped to cosy on 2nd Jan and since being on cost averaging 17.4p kwh. Agile will likely be worth it again inate spring/summer and early Autumn when solar produces a lot of energy and demand is less as well as a little wind.

Just wondering why you wouldn't try Cosy if you already got used to a little load shifting with Agile?

To be honest I never even knew it was a thing, will take a look and see if it’s worth shifting to that