The Energy Crisis

[mumbles87]

Bloody will be post-2030 when every car sold is run off the 'leccy.

Not at all. People adapt their usage and charge overnight as it's cheaper

The grid has so much excess electric at night they pay customers to use the excess at times (recently they were paying agile customers 5p a kw to charge their cars and batteries) and they have octopus intelligent that they control the charger and charge when there is excess

All that rather than get the wind farms to turn off

The grid are on top on the situation

[mumbles87]

Were they feck.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64367504


That's why we are on the verge of being paid to avoid the peak tonight and tomorrow

[delbert]

I don't know about you Bubbles, but I'm beginning to think having the only 100% privatised 'National' Grid in Europe, owned and run for the benefit of Australian, American and Qatari owners isn't the smartest move we've ever made

Ideology trumping common sense it seems.

A statement that's equally accurate when applied to most other areas of our energy strategy / policy.......

[Friend or Foé]

Not at all. People adapt their usage and charge overnight as it's cheaper

The grid has so much excess electric at night they pay customers to use the excess at times (recently they were paying agile customers 5p a kw to charge their cars and batteries) and they have octopus intelligent that they control the charger and charge when there is excess

All that rather than get the wind farms to turn off

The grid are on top on the situation

Absolutely correct mumbles. As an Octopus energy customer I’m able to charge my car, do all the washing / dishwasher at over 5 times cheaper than the current price of electricity. I’ve checked with family and friends recently and my electricity bill for a family of 4 (with electric car) is easily on par if not cheaper than those of our parents with just 2 in a household.
It’s only until somebody actually owns an electric vehicle that they realise the enormous benefits. With charging at overnight rates you can easily drive at 2 to 3p per mile.
The newspapers only want to tell you about sky high motorway ultra rapid charging costs or about the odd story of ev owners that decided to return their vehicle.
EV’s are expensive but then so are most brand new vehicles. There just isn’t much of a 2nd hand market yet. Why ? Because owners aren’t selling them on. Batteries aren’t failing them after 4 years of happy driving, in fact tesla have tested a production car and its battery only finally gave up the ghost way over a million miles. There are also examples of taxi companies ( tesloop california) operating ev’s at around 17000 miles per month now approaching 500,000 miles on the clock.
Batteries are not failing en masse after a few yearsas the motoring journalists would have had you believe. In fact many of those old motoring journalists have now joined the ranks of ev owners just like Quintin Wilson.
They aren’t everyones cup of tea, but they aren’t going away, they aren’t any longer the radical choice of car and will continue to improve on range, charging speed, battery chemistry, efficiency and most importantly cost.

[Friend or Foé]

Yes. If it is too windy it creates too much supply and place pressures on the grid.

They paid £82m in December.

Just think how many electrical consumer items can be used / charged for daily use at this time. Cars, hot water immersion heaters, washing m/c, dishwashers, tumble dryers, battery vacuum cleaners, mobile phones, headphones, battery lawnmowers, power tools, tablet and laptop computers etc… to name but a few. Add in to the mix the possibility of a home battery that could be charged overnight for use at peak times. At current rates the payback on those things is becoming much more palatable.
The only thing that you will struggle to avoid using in the daytime during peak hours (4-7 pm) will be an oven. But even then, the most savvy amongst us are finding much cheaper but equally effective workarounds like slow cooking / airfrying and microwaving. It doesn’t really take much of a lifestyle change or major expense to continue to use everything you already have but use the grid in a more cheap and thoughtful way. It’s us that are the idiots not the grid or the wind !

[southbrishammer]

Is anyone signed up to the National Grid's Demand Flexibility Service, and if so have you achieved your savings and how much money have you saved?

I am with Eon, who are part of the scheme but don't seem very interested in it. If you search through their website you can find a blog which mentions it, and says that if a customer has a smart meter (which we do), Eon will contact them to invite them to join the scheme. We haven't been contacted and there is no way of contacting them to say "hey, I'd like to join".

I'm happy to do my bit if they will let me!

[Friend or Foé]

Is anyone signed up to the National Grid's Demand Flexibility Service, and if so have you achieved your savings and how much money have you saved?

I am with Eon, who are part of the scheme but don't seem very interested in it. If you search through their website you can find a blog which mentions it, and says that if a customer has a smart meter (which we do), Eon will contact them to invite them to join the scheme. We haven't been contacted and there is no way of contacting them to say "hey, I'd like to join".

I'm happy to do my bit if they will let me!

Yes, in fact this is the 6th one that I’ve done along with other Octopus energy customers have been invited to take part in. You don’t tend to save much per session, maybe £1, but alongside the saving we get credited with points that also can be used to offset your bill. I haven’t cashed my ones in yet. But that £1 saving represents quite a decent chunk of your daily electricity usage. Add that to any credit that you may be given and it all adds up. Essentially we get dinner pre-prepared and switch off the telly for the kids and tell them to use their charged tablets for that session. Alternatively, stay on at work a bit later.

[mumbles87]

Absolutely correct mumbles. As an Octopus energy customer I’m able to charge my car, do all the washing / dishwasher at over 5 times cheaper than the current price of electricity. I’ve checked with family and friends recently and my electricity bill for a family of 4 (with electric car) is easily on par if not cheaper than those of our parents with just 2 in a household.
It’s only until somebody actually owns an electric vehicle that they realise the enormous benefits. With charging at overnight rates you can easily drive at 2 to 3p per mile.
The newspapers only want to tell you about sky high motorway ultra rapid charging costs or about the odd story of ev owners that decided to return their vehicle.
EV’s are expensive but then so are most brand new vehicles. There just isn’t much of a 2nd hand market yet. Why ? Because owners aren’t selling them on. Batteries aren’t failing them after 4 years of happy driving, in fact tesla have tested a production car and its battery only finally gave up the ghost way over a million miles. There are also examples of taxi companies ( tesloop california) operating ev’s at around 17000 miles per month now approaching 500,000 miles on the clock.
Batteries are not failing en masse after a few yearsas the motoring journalists would have had you believe. In fact many of those old motoring journalists have now joined the ranks of ev owners just like Quintin Wilson.
They aren’t everyones cup of tea, but they aren’t going away, they aren’t any longer the radical choice of car and will continue to improve on range, charging speed, battery chemistry, efficiency and most importantly cost.

As an example it's 7:30 and I've usages 23.9kw today (I'm a high user) but that will be my day usage now , included a tumble (heat pump) a washing machine, a dishwasher and 2 hours of HVAc heating downstairs to save the gas usage a bit as it has less to do if downstairs is preheated oh and ofc filled up my battery (13.5kw)

Now at the normal rate thats £8 at the night rate £2.8

I myself have signed up for the saving sessions but my battery means I don't use in thlse hours so have never saved

Few battery owner on FB moaning their not rewarded .. erm mate your reward is like mine £5 a day for using the cheap prices!

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

Yeah we've done all the trials and last night's session with octopus. Due to how our days are structured we don't tend to use a huge amount at prime times so our rewards have been quite small, even though we have cut 60-80% during the sessions.

On top of the savings we have been paid about £5 so far (with 2 sessions to be decided). Not a fortune but I'm trying to look at it as a couple of free days of electric use.

[Friend or Foé]

As an example it's 7:30 and I've usages 23.9kw today (I'm a high user) but that will be my day usage now , included a tumble (heat pump) a washing machine, a dishwasher and 2 hours of HVAc heating downstairs to save the gas usage a bit as it has less to do if downstairs is preheated oh and ofc filled up my battery (13.5kw)

Now at the normal rate thats £8 at the night rate £2.8

I myself have signed up for the saving sessions but my battery means I don't use in thlse hours so have never saved

Few battery owner on FB moaning their not rewarded .. erm mate your reward is like mine £5 a day for using the cheap prices!

Good show mate.
I’m really looking at some sort of home battery storage myself. I calculate that we only need about 5 kwh to save us our peak usage. Then look forward to an agile tariff to become useful again. It will pay for itself within 5 years.

[mumbles87]

Good show mate.
I’m really looking at some sort of home battery storage myself. I calculate that we only need about 5 kwh to save us our peak usage. Then look forward to an agile tariff to become useful again. It will pay for itself within 5 years.

We combined a powerwall with a 4.5kw solar system and it is paying for itself like you say

I mean it's 8 now. Battery took control at 06:30 and I'm at 80% .. but I've done toast, teas for 5 of us. Plus one tumble and one washing machine

The solar will kick in about 9-10 and will top me back up

I find if by 2pm I'm at 70% Ish that's enough to see me through entirely on the battery until 01:30 when the battery charges on the cheap rate again

I say cost £3 but it didn't. I'm still on the old octupus rates at 5.5p at night for another fortnight. Making the most of it!

Yesterday figures are in on my compare app

I paid (all these including standing charge) £1.80 , when I go on the new night rate I'd of paid £3.7 .. however on the normal rate £9.60 .. so again about £5 knocked off the day

[Friend or Foé]

We combined a powerwall with a 4.5kw solar system and it is paying for itself like you say

I mean it's 8 now. Battery took control at 06:30 and I'm at 80% .. but I've done toast, teas for 5 of us. Plus one tumble and one washing machine

The solar will kick in about 9-10 and will top me back up

I find if by 2pm I'm at 70% Ish that's enough to see me through entirely on the battery until 01:30 when the battery charges on the cheap rate again

I say cost £3 but it didn't. I'm still on the old octupus rates at 5.5p at night for another fortnight. Making the most of it!

Yesterday figures are in on my compare app

I paid (all these including standing charge) £1.80 , when I go on the new night rate I'd of paid £3.7 .. however on the normal rate £9.60 .. so again about £5 knocked off the day

That sounds great.
We have inherited both solar thermal (which i’d recommend) and a 3.24 kw solar pv array. We literally spend 10% on energy between march and october.
Whats the new night rate ? I’m on 7.5p now which is still excellent.

[mumbles87]

That sounds great.
We have inherited both solar thermal (which i’d recommend) and a 3.24 kw solar pv array. We literally spend 10% on energy between march and october.
Whats the new night rate ? I’m on 7.5p now which is still excellent.

Go is 12p now. So it's gonna be over double but hey it's still less than we were paying when electric was 14p all day

Intelligent is 10p for 6 hours .. my charger isnt compatible.. I refuse to pay £500 Ish to upgrade it (myself or £700 sparky but I have the cables all done) because solar will do most my usage summer it's only winter .. and more and more cars are becoming compatible each month so what's to say mine won't be soon? Or that my charger won't be compatible soon. Not throwing out a perfectly working bit of equipment to save 2p a unit

[Tenbury]

.
It’s only until somebody actually owns an electric vehicle that they realise the enormous benefits. With charging at overnight rates you can easily drive at 2 to 3p per mile.
.
EV’s are expensive but then so are most brand new vehicles. There just isn’t much of a 2nd hand market yet. Why ? Because owners aren’t selling them on.

Think you've answered your own question there. People are well aware how cheap EVs are to run, it's simply that the majority of people that have to run a car can't afford anything other than second hand. [BTW, that sort of milage is perfectly doable in a well engineered and well looked after diesel]

[EvilC]

Foe/Mumbles - were you separated at birth?

[mumbles87]

Foe/Mumbles - were you separated at birth?

Well ... My work colleagues plastered a picture of my doppelganger all over work (including my car rear window) when they found him (on netflix documentary apparently) scary

So could easily be another of my doppelgangers ..

[Friend or Foé]

Foe/Mumbles - were you separated at birth?

:lol:
If we were, he’s definitely the left side and I’m the right

[Friend or Foé]

Think you've answered your own question there. People are well aware how cheap EVs are to run, it's simply that the majority of people that have to run a car can't afford anything other than second hand. [BTW, that sort of milage is perfectly doable in a well engineered and well looked after diesel]

Not sure about that Tenbury. You’d have to be getting up to 200 + miles / gallon to make diesel 3p/mile.

[EvilC]

Lads, you made the press: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64261457

[Friend or Foé]

Lads, you made the press: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64261457

If only !
A bit like the ev, I’m not at the point of replacing my oil boiler so buying one for the sake of it would be a bit of an excess. But my next heating system will definitely be a heat pump. They do work when set up correctly.