Off-Peak Smart metering

Scot_39

Does anyone know if any of the tou suppliers will configure meter alcs calander to match off peak times.

Like say Cosy for it's 3+3+2 split of 8 hours.

It can be the difference for those without own timers for switching to tou deals

QrizB

Fascinating!

It would be interesting (and valuable for anyone who is considering a similar change) if you could share details of your property )flat or house, size, age), of how much gas and electricity (how many kWh) you were using in a year before you switched to all-electric, and how much you're using in a year now.

bob2302

Starbuckle said:

 My old boiler was 22 years old so was likely to far less efficient than a modern equivalent

Efficiency is often a red herring because it wont even come close to the factor of 4 in price between electricity and gas. What you have may work if you are a very low user, but you have created a system with conflicting tariff requirements.

Agile might work well for you, if you can have the heating off from 4pm to 7pm. 

QrizB

As I understand it, this main advantage of a Sunamp is that it takes up a quarter of the volume of an equivalent hot water tank. So in a tiny flat you don't need an airing cupboard but can instead tuck your thermal store under the kitchen worktop.

The main disadvantage is that a Sunamp costs 3x as much as an equivalent hot water tank, so those few square feet of floorspace need to be pretty important to you.

Starbuckle

Considering what went before, Three diverter valves, a new fan, a faulty clock, and a motherboard, along with all the scheduled annual servicing, which I won’t miss. And, no standard charge for gas, I’m happy with my decisions - end of!

MattMattMattUK

Scot_39 said:

Does anyone know if any of the tou suppliers will configure meter alcs calander to match off peak times.

Like say Cosy for it's 3+3+2 split of 8 hours.

It can be the difference for those without own timers for switching to tou deals

I think ALCS switching on a variable ToU basis is only experimental, but that they do not program it for Cosy which requires a smart meter, they do sometimes ask for the MCS certificate for the heat pump, I know three people on it, one was asked, the other two were not, but they two that were not connected their heat pump to Octopus as a device so that might be the reason. I think in general they would rather smart devices rather than ALCS, isn't the aim to depreciate ALCS within a few years?

Scot_39

Octopus have introduced Snug - specifically to operate ALCS control.

Just not the historic fixed preset time version a la traditional E7 / E10 etc

But it's certainly not worked for everyone - the actual % I suspect only Octopus might know.

I havent even seen a figure here or elsewhere how many have signed up to it - anyone know if Octopus release that info for their tariffs ?

Newbie_John

bob2302 said:

Starbuckle said:

 My old boiler was 22 years old so was likely to far less efficient than a modern equivalent

Efficiency is often a red herring because it wont even come close to the factor of 4 in price between electricity and gas. What you have may work if you are a very low user, but you have created a system with conflicting tariff requirements.

Agile might work well for you, if you can have the heating off from 4pm to 7pm. 

If you heat the house for 50% of the year and gas standing charge is 30p, you can save 60p/day during heating period - which is about 3kWh of electricity. I don't really see much saving here, unless the maintenance of gas system was costly and you have a small flat.

Also would be good to know if you are in single tarrif or E7/E10 (cheaper nights, more expensive day) or pay the same rate 24p/kWh? 

The good thing is that there is a lot of room for saving £ here - like the mentioned Octopus Cosy (at least for the 6 months in the year when heating is on and back to SVR in summer). I have similar set up, no gas, making most of cheap ToU periods - 26*C at 6am and then that heat gets absorbed by walls and remains till evening - a bit like storage heater.

Agile is tricky, really, average price per year outside of 16-19 peak averages to something like 18p - so still quite a lot compared to Cosy, but it's great if you can be "agile".

Ildhund

Scot_39 said:

Octopus have introduced Snug - specifically to operate ALCS control.

There has been some discussion about how Snug copes with the meter's randomized offset, which could in theory mean a delay of 30 minutes - a whole data bucket. Perhaps their 'dynamic ALCS timing' in fact only involves a boost function, which is what's needed to keep Rosie1001 and others warm in the evening. The local Start boost command is instantaneous, and I suspect that service requests* 7.5 and 7.6 Activate Auxiliary Load and Deactivate Auxiliary Load are too. I think these commands simply override the ALCS calendar if it's been set. How long it takes such a request to travel from Octopus HQ via DCC to a random meter somewhere is anybody's guess, and any delay in transmission (is this the 'up to 15 minutes' we've often seen mentioned?) could end up being costly. 


[EDIT a few minutes later] I just realized that the doc referred to specifies that the target response time for these requests is 30 seconds. I wonder whether that's generally being met.
  

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*  SEC Appendix E - DCC User Interface Services Schedule

born_again

Starbuckle said:

Considering what went before, Three diverter valves, a new fan, a faulty clock, and a motherboard, along with all the scheduled annual servicing, which I won’t miss. And, no standard charge for gas, I’m happy with my decisions - end of!

As per @QrizB

As a money saving forum. The details of the set up & saving would be great advice for others looking at a set up like yours.