Free Octopus Electricity

[Rolfe]

Now if your Zappi had been wired correctly non of that would have bitten you.

I rest my case ma'am

Some bloke in Lincolnshire.

If the Zappi had been wired as you prefer it would have made almost no difference. The only thing it would have made a difference to was the point where the car started to charge unexpectedly at 10.30, but I noticed what it was doing at about 10.32 and put a stop to that, so no biggie. That was the least of it, by a pretty big margin.

I didn't actually want it charged anyway, I was merely prepared to let them charge it during the free hour.

 

[Rolfe]

Indeed, very complicated to remember so many settings!

As well as physically putting some things on at the start and off at the end (which Pebbles remembered to do as I was busy hoovering to use up some extra power)...

I had to remember to change the battery settings at the start and end of the period, otherwise it could have been very suboptimal.

I don't normally like to override the battery settings for the reason you gave - you have to remember to put it back on normal again.

As time goes on I expect things will get more automated.

I try to take a relaxed attitude to it all, and not run around doing things for the sake of a few pennies saved. My mistake was to forget to return the battery settings to normal at the end, just as you say. My second mistake was to imagine that meant it was a good idea to try to take advantage of the "free" three hours today, given the weather forecast. Although if I get three hours charging credit for that, it will have brought it all into reasonable credit.

I did actually swipe quite a bit of solar today that would otherwise have been clipped, because I had stopped exporting the battery in the morning to harvest that, as it's so late in the year. So overall, although I may have "wasted" as much as £1 (probably not that much) by being careless, I'll have made more than that. Four hours car charging credit is about £2 before you even start on the amount of free power I swiped yesterday evening.

 

[JohnV6]

I enjoy sometimes the small things. I did notice at 15:01 Octopus started charging the car to steal my export so I paused it.
I did put the batteries on charge from grid but they were full so I exported.
I see it as a game.

 

[Rolfe]

That's what my installer said when he put the system in!

 

[Bam Bam]

Yeah I managed to do TWO battery discharge cycles today, which I don't remember having done before.

Filled up cheap overnight on Go.
Discharged 1030 -> noon to make over a quid.
Recharged on the free three hour session.
Discharged 1730 ->1900 to make another quid and still had enough left to make dinner etc.

Got some solar generation in the afternoon (1500-1700) as well so that was a bonus after a very overcast morning.

I made a video about how little it costs us for energy so I've got an extra incentive as people might ask for follow up information about our credit and I want to continue to give a positive story.

 

[Rolfe]

Every time there is a "free" session during the day I have so much solar that all I'm doing is using up the solar. This is probably not a coincidence. The first time I tried it I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, and charged the car, and still lost money. So I don't do them any more. Today was just a reminder of why I don't.

 

[Bam Bam]

Every time there is a "free" session during the day I have so much solar that all I'm doing is using up the solar. This is probably not a coincidence. The first time I tried it I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, and charged the car, and still lost money. So I don't do them any more. Today was just a reminder of why I don't.

As you're in Scotland you are doing a lot more for the country by using up that surplus wind.

Possibly when we use more it just means our local gas power station (about a mile away) gets turned up more to meet the demand.

But in terms of your own usage it sounds like it is hard to make it work financially.

Realising that the dehumidifier is an option is another plus for us.

When we get a heat pump (hopefully next month) it will be even easier to use up more energy. Our electric immersion heater is broken so hot water isn't an option for the time being.

 

[GaryMG4]

Didn't go to plan this weekend. Both cars were fairly low, 4 hours free plus I thought I'd see how the greener nights worked out. Friday night had car plugged in but IOG decided not to charge until midnight, but got dishwasher and washing done. Car charge failed, ended up doing 10mm battery reset and Zappi reboot to get them talking again. Saturday was sunny so got some sunshine in then set up smart charge but again IOG declined to charge the car until 14:00 and then did a couple of half hour slots later on. Another wash and dry session plus I used the granny to put the other car on charge during the 3 hour session but the excess solar filled most of that usage so it will be interesting to see how that worked out.

 

[Rolfe]

Yesterday the sun was splitting the sky. Today, and bear in mind that it's "really" quarter to twelve now, nearly lunchtime, and the solar is still not supporting the house and the battery is discharging. Just happy the weather wasn't like this yesterday morning when the battery was flat.