Operation "Use Less Gas"

[Joeboy]

You've tried setting the slider to 11am in the morning with car still plugged in? Well done btw!

I ofter catch a 10.00 to 11.00 slot this way

[AGT]

Just wondering how to you get the extra slots again?

[Joeboy]

Just wondering how to you get the extra slots again?

In the evening I set my ready time to 04.00, I generally charge car at about 2kW and I then change my ready time in the morning to 11.00. This only works if car is plugged in and you are at home.

[Stinsy]

You've tried setting the slider to 11am in the morning with car still plugged in? Well done btw!

I ofter catch a 10.00 to 11.00 slot this way

I thought about doing that, but what with my cheap slot finishing at 0830 and my solar pulling in over 1kW, the house was still warm, and my battery was still nearly full so I'd not have had been able to put the extra slot to much use. However I have, from time to time, "gamed" an extra hour of cheap electric between 10-11 to help me get through from 0530-2330.

Currently the house is holding temp due to the solar gain.

Out with Son1 this afternoon at the football, keen to come back to a warm house!

[Stinsy]

Long may this continue!

[AGT]

Just wondering how to you get the extra slots again?

In the evening I set my ready time to 04.00, I generally charge car at about 2kW and I then change my ready time in the morning to 11.00. This only works if car is plugged in and you are at home.

Ah I can’t do that only have a 130 mile winter range.
So always set it to full charge every night

[Ken]

I live in a house with block walls internally. This thermal mass acts as a storage heater and temp only changes slowly.

I live on the south coast and yes the last 2 days we have had a frost.

The gas CH thermostat is set at 17C all yr round and the gas boiler can come on for 1 hour in the morning. In present conditions the house does not get up to 17C and this morning it was 16C avg. as the thermal store is running down (yesterday it was 17C because of passive solar gain).

If i was non gas and a TOU tariff i would be hammering the cheap tariff for a very large amount of heat and using the house as my storage.

In the evening we have a WBS in the lounge, no CH and get to say 19C .

3 layers of clothes do wonders.

[Stinsy]

Got home yesterday afternoon and plugged the car in for additional cheap slots and was granted something immediately. So only 10 mins between battery exhausted and cheap slot.

Today is interestingly, was below freezing all day yesterday and several degrees warmer today, however no solar-gain today so requiring a lot more energy to keep the house warm.

Luckily I “gamed” a 10-11 cheap slot to blast the resistive and charge the battery, will see if I can get a few more cheap slots later on.

[Stinsy]

A few lessons from the recent cold snap:

• When the outside temperature is above freezing my A2A does a really good job pretty much all on its own. Set to come on at 0500 with a target temp of 22℃ it runs until 0830-0900 ish and cycles off, at which point I set it to 19℃ And it doesn’t cycle on again until 1600ish when I set it back to 22℃ and it typically runs until I go to bed and turn it off. We use the resistive fan heater in the living room on 1kW for about an hour in the evening (a 500W setting would be better) but that is it.

• When the outside temperature is below freezing and it is sunny: the A2A runs all day (from 0400) consuming c. 500W and we use a little bit of resistive heating (half hour here and there) in the living room (1kW) and kitchen (2kW). I get considerable solar gain and ensure the south-facing rooms have blinds and doors open to maximise this. On Saturday my solar generated 6kWh and I consumed 47.4kWh.

• When the outside temperature is below freezing and it isn’t sunny it is a whole other story. No solar gain means the A2A and resistive need to run all day to keep the house temperature stable and the solar panels don’t do much either. On Sunday my solar generated 0.9kWh and I used 63.9kWh. Luckily I was able to be a little cheeky with IO to make this work.

I try to be sensible with the IO tariff and do things like “game” an hour from 1000-1100 to run things hard and charge batteries and then maybe try for a few extra hours in the evening if I need them. However I’m aware of people totally abusing the tariff. How long do we think they’ll tolerate that? Do they care? I could quite easily game 20hrs a day of cheap rate electric. How much “abuse” would get me booted off the tariff? How much “abuse” by how many users would get them to tighten the rules? I’ve noticed a “fair use” clause in the T&Cs but it is a bit ambiguous and doesn’t seem to be enforced. I don’t want to make suggestions but if I were Octopus I’d limit the number of additional slots per month, right now it seems to be unlimited!

[Joeboy]

I could not get 20hours charging every day. I think we've had that scenario once? We are settled at about 70kWh per day incl charging EV.



As to restriction on slots, I'm sure they know what they are doing. If the spare wasn't there neither would be the slots is my thinking?

I like slots.
Why so late on with the A2A Stinsy, is it a moral thing?

I noticed that gas and Electricity are up about max on trackers. That's 5.76p G & we are paying 7.5p E. Allow a 10% efficiency advantage to Electric 1:1 heating and I am paying only 14% premium to stay gas free.

If the heating efficiency of electricity compared to gas is higher then I'm doing even better. If the A2A has even 2:1 cop then you would be ahead of the game AND morally superior in gas.