Uswitch 25 hours free electricity

masonic

goatfaced said:

It now says 8-4 everywhere, so that's a nice chunk of the day. 

My sister had to opt back in, like previous poster did. She did the 25 hours but is an octopus user so she had opted out of reduce and earn sessions. Weird. 

Opt back in? Everyone had to opt in to the Christmas day event as far as I'm aware. It is supposedly limited availability.

goatfaced

Yes, people who do octopus own scheme for electric savings had to opt out of 'reduce and earn' but were still able to do the 25 hours. And they are able to do this Christmas day scheme but were asked to opt back in. It's just a weird glitch, probably. It wasn't just the usual opting in for Christmas day, it was a different 'you've previously opted out' message. 

masonic

goatfaced said:

Yes, people who do octopus own scheme for electric savings had to opt out of 'reduce and earn' but were still able to do the 25 hours. And they are able to do this Christmas day scheme but we're asked to opt back in. It's just a weird glitch, probably.

What do you mean opt back in? As in, they opted in to the Christmas day scheme once, but there was a glitch and they had to do it a second time? I've only opted in to Christmas day once, wondering if I need to fire up my tablet to check.

lohr500

And the good news is, the Uswitch chatbot now says they have sorted out the problem whereby they couldn't handle the day and night time Economy 7 rates.

So I am definitely in for Xmas day and will disable our battery storage feeding the house from 8am until 4pm.

Spoonie_Turtle

masonic said:

goatfaced said:

Yes, people who do octopus own scheme for electric savings had to opt out of 'reduce and earn' but were still able to do the 25 hours. And they are able to do this Christmas day scheme but we're asked to opt back in. It's just a weird glitch, probably.

What do you mean opt back in? As in, they opted in to the Christmas day scheme once, but there was a glitch and they had to do it a second time? I've only opted in to Christmas day once, wondering if I need to fire up my tablet to check.

I've just gone to check myself because of the mention of that, all good thankfully. 

HorseWhisperer

Just so I understand how this uSwitch Christmas Day offer works with a home battery and Octopus Go tariff - is it best to charge the battery as normal 12.30am to 5.30am, then let it discharge until 8am and then put it into charge mode again until 4pm? If I don't put it in charge mode from 8am to 4pm I won't be importing anything from the grid until after 4pm as it will just draw from the battery. 

There's no ability to stop my battery discharging as it only has 3 modes - charge, "self use" discharge to meet house load and forced discharge. There is no "do nothing" option. 

I would also plug in the car at 8am for 8 hours.

But back to the conversation on TOU tariffs with this offer if you're on Go (not IOG) do they just use the Octopus SVR? This would mean that I get back 2p/kWh less than the Go rate. But if I charged the car during the 8am-4pm slot I would only be paying that marginal 2p/kWh so it's worth doing it just for that.

I "think" I've calculated that I should "earn" approx £16-£17, which is how much it costs to charge the car anyway, so quids in!

Please let me know if I've misunderstood/miscalculated how it works!

QrizB

I can't answer HorseWhisperer's questions, but it's prompted one of my own.

Is there a cap on how many kWh you can get for free on Christmas Day? Like the £25 cap on the November weekends?

Edit: lohr500 has answered this in the reply below, it's £10.

lohr500

HorseWhisperer said:

Just so I understand how this uSwitch Christmas Day offer works with a home battery and Octopus Go tariff - is it best to charge the battery as normal 12.30am to 5.30am, then let it discharge until 8am and then put it into charge mode again until 4pm? If I don't put it in charge mode from 8am to 4pm I won't be importing anything from the grid until after 4pm as it will just draw from the battery. 

There's no ability to stop my battery discharging as it only has 3 modes - charge, "self use" discharge to meet house load and forced discharge. There is no "do nothing" option. 

I would also plug in the car at 8am for 8 hours.

But back to the conversation on TOU tariffs with this offer if you're on Go (not IOG) do they just use the Octopus SVR? This would mean that I get back 2p/kWh less than the Go rate. But if I charged the car during the 8am-4pm slot I would only be paying that marginal 2p/kWh so it's worth doing it just for that.

I "think" I've calculated that I should "earn" approx £16-£17, which is how much it costs to charge the car anyway, so quids in!

Please let me know if I've misunderstood/miscalculated how it works!

I think you should contact Uswitch to determine what rate they will use if you are on OG.

The other thing to be aware of is that the maximum they will pay is £10. So as an example, if your day time rate with Octopus was say 28p per kWh, then you could only get £10/.28 =35.7kWh free.
If you use more than 35.7kWh between 08:00 and 16:00 from charging your car, topping up the battery usage from 5:30 to 8:00 and any other consumption between 08:00 and 16:00 then that will cost you at the 28p rate.  

goatfaced

masonic said:

goatfaced said:

Yes, people who do octopus own scheme for electric savings had to opt out of 'reduce and earn' but were still able to do the 25 hours. And they are able to do this Christmas day scheme but we're asked to opt back in. It's just a weird glitch, probably.

What do you mean opt back in? As in, they opted in to the Christmas day scheme once, but there was a glitch and they had to do it a second time? I've only opted in to Christmas day once, wondering if I need to fire up my tablet to check.

Sorry I wasn't clear. It was when she first opted in for Christmas day, they said she'd previously opted out, and did she want to opt back in to use this offer. But she's only opted out of reduce and earn.

HorseWhisperer

lohr500 said:

HorseWhisperer said:

Just so I understand how this uSwitch Christmas Day offer works with a home battery and Octopus Go tariff - is it best to charge the battery as normal 12.30am to 5.30am, then let it discharge until 8am and then put it into charge mode again until 4pm? If I don't put it in charge mode from 8am to 4pm I won't be importing anything from the grid until after 4pm as it will just draw from the battery. 

There's no ability to stop my battery discharging as it only has 3 modes - charge, "self use" discharge to meet house load and forced discharge. There is no "do nothing" option. 

I would also plug in the car at 8am for 8 hours.

But back to the conversation on TOU tariffs with this offer if you're on Go (not IOG) do they just use the Octopus SVR? This would mean that I get back 2p/kWh less than the Go rate. But if I charged the car during the 8am-4pm slot I would only be paying that marginal 2p/kWh so it's worth doing it just for that.

I "think" I've calculated that I should "earn" approx £16-£17, which is how much it costs to charge the car anyway, so quids in!

Please let me know if I've misunderstood/miscalculated how it works!

I think you should contact Uswitch to determine what rate they will use if you are on OG.

The other thing to be aware of is that the maximum they will pay is £10. So as an example, if your day time rate with Octopus was say 28p per kWh, then you could only get £10/.28 =35.7kWh free.
If you use more than 35.7kWh between 08:00 and 16:00 from charging your car, topping up the battery usage from 5:30 to 8:00 and any other consumption between 08:00 and 16:00 then that will cost you at the 28p rate.  

Ahhhhhh that's me misreading and thinking it was £20. In that case I'll leave everything as normal on home battery and just charge the car to ~35kWh/£10. Car charger is wired outside of the solar/battery system so won't be interfered with.

Thanks for the heads up - it could have been a very costly mistake!