Extra Uses For Off-Peak Electricity

[ME_UK]

Opening a thread for discussing additional uses for off-peak electricity.....

In the last few months I've been tracking our electricity use by each 30 minute increment (yes my family love me for it) and then working on reducing our electricity bill by shunting more and more of our usage into the off-peak times in our day.

I managed to cut the bill by 50% (in time for it to double up again thanks to the rate increase) - and thought I'd share in the hope that others can also benefit.

Key Info:
- We're on Intelligent Octopus - so have 6 hours minimum to play with
- Biggest savings were ensuring that the charge for the car never overruns into peak and setting appliance timers (dishwasher etc) so they delay.
- Extra bonus savings from adding smartplugs to other things to keep them from turning on at the wrong time

Bonus for conservatory owners - installation of a new, modern storage heater, which for an average of 56p per day is keeping our north facing glass icebox toasty at 19 degrees.

Our off-peak kw consumption is an average of 65% - and yes, even after sharing all of this geekery with my family, and training them in the way of electricity conservation I am (so far) still married!

 

[debrooker]

We now schedule the dish washer and washing machine for a cycle between 12:30 and 4:30

Every little helps

 

[ACarneiro]

I use my off peak power for charging Powerwalls, heating water (it’s now cheaper than gas, for the first time ever) and, of course, charging my car.
I guess others could also use it for underfloor heating, appliances like dishwasher or tumble dryer or even running heaters towards the end of the cheap period to “break the morning chill”.

My problem is that I can exceed the 100A available during those 5 hours so I’m now constrained somewhat by the supply.

 

[ME_UK]

I use my off peak power for charging Powerwalls, heating water (it’s now cheaper than gas, for the first time ever) and, of course, charging my car.
I guess others could also use it for underfloor heating, appliances like dishwasher or tumble dryer or even running heaters towards the end of the cheap period to “break the morning chill”.

My problem is that I can exceed the 100A available during those 5 hours so I’m now constrained somewhat by the supply.

I tried the underfloor heating in our bathrooms, found the thermal efficiency was good enough to take off the morning chill, but not sufficient to warrant conservatory installation. Went with a new storage heater which is so far proving to be wonderful. I guess with the powerwall you can just run heaters where needed - however the avg of 7.9kw that the heater sucks up overnight does work for us.

 

[thewishy]

My boiling water tap switches off at 8:30pm, has enough for about 4 cups of tea at a good temp, and then restarts at 4am. Plus dishwasher, washing machine and drier (Heatpump, so not excessive fire risk)

May look into running the office A2A HP for heating in the winter, but I suspect I'd lose too much by the morning

 

[phil4]

As mentioned, car charging dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier.
In addition:
dehumidifier (which also heats a little) in the garage.
underfloor heating set to 25C, we've a fair bit of it downstairs and seems to warm the house nicely come the morning. Was fun getting that schedule right.
phone charging, now on smart plugs so doesn't start until 23:30
Smart plugs on rest of things, so standby is reduced, eg. Main living room TV etc, only turns on when motion detector in hall senses movement in the morning.

My Sonos network has been decimated, all but one of them are now on smart plugs and turned off. How things change.

 

[robbieduncan]

My Sonos network has been decimated, all but one of them are now on smart plugs and turned off. How things change.

Is that worth it? We use Sonos Amps with ceiling speakers. The amps consume something like 6W on standby. Even with a good number it's not a massive amount (at least in our baseload draw)

 

[phil4]

Is that worth it? We use Sonos Amps with ceiling speakers. The amps consume something like 6W on standby. Even with a good number it's not a massive amount (at least in our baseload draw)

It'll depend on your use I'd guess. Sure they don't use a lot when not used, but with plenty of them, they add up (~50W). So that's 50W off our baseload, and we really really don't use them very often, so it's really the equiv of leaving an old bulb on day and night. Clearly if you use the more, and or have less, then that changes.

 

[spooksman]

For us it is:

• 2 EVs charging
• Tumble Drier
• Dishwasher
• Washing machine (when not urgent)
• Underfloor heating in bathroom, kitchen and hall (just keeps the chill away really)

The Sonos, Alexa, TV and Hue lights are active most of the time I guess - convenience over economy (for now) with my other half!

 

[Jason71]

I tried the underfloor heating in our bathrooms, found the thermal efficiency was good enough to take off the morning chill, but not sufficient to warrant conservatory installation. Went with a new storage heater which is so far proving to be wonderful. I guess with the powerwall you can just run heaters where needed - however the avg of 7.9kw that the heater sucks up overnight does work for us.

I have done all that except the conservatory heater ( no conservatory) and I am at 50% of my usage off peak in a 3 hour Go Faster window.
With Gas currently at 7p/kw and going up to 12p+ but my electricity still at 13.7/4.5p I have just started to take advantage of the immersion heater in my hot water tank and top that up in the evening as well. So that is likely to skew it further.
If I try to do any more I think I may exceed my 80amp main fuse


When the Gas does go up though I may do all my water heating with electrons, at least until my Go runs out in March.

 

[DenkiJidousha]

We charge the cars overnight, but that's it. The washing machine is too noisy (and has no delayed start timer), and we don't have any electrical heating or hot water as yet (but hoping to get off gas eventually). I'd seriously consider a home battery, was hoping capital costs would come down but instead the potential savings have gone up.

 

[ElectricPolice]

Oh boy, I'm gonna love this thread.

My name hopefully goes someway to qualifying me as that's what my wife calls me

We have 2 dishwashers and 2 washing machines (one a combi dryer), 2 fridge freezers, chest freezer, beer fridge, tumble dryer and 2 EV's (almost... 7 days to go). Our 2nd machine appliances came from a new kitchen install and I fitted the old kitchen into the garage along with both washing machines. House has 2 dishwashers.

Having 2 late teen kids we overfill one unit most days so the second works well for us. Plan is to keep them until one of them packs in. By then kids will be long gone...

Also have 4.5kW PV and 13kW battery.

My 2022 bills from Octopus show within 4h window of Octopus go I've used 80% off peak. Of course our peak use is offset by solar and battery. Whenever possible I run appliances on solar, but when that isn't possible it's all on the night shift.

Everything is set and shifted to run off peak where possible and I have had many smart plugs to turn off stand by appliances when not in use. I do have a couple of smart plugs with an inbuilt power monitor and did spend a couple of weeks seeing what standby appliances used per day. Was interesting but most were negligible. The biggest daily draw was/is our Samsung American fridge freezer which consumes 2.14kW per day just in normal operation. Can't turn that off unfortunately

Future plan is to fill battery overnight in winter and like others have said I'm likely to buy a couple of oil-free rads to warm the house in winter as the almost 300% rate rise for gas in 12 months (3.8p to 10.3p) should pay back a couple of units within a month or two.

I know I'm not an "average" user but I struggle to understand this capped number that hits the media headlines. The figures are based on 2900kWh of electric per year. That's just under 8kW a day (or 0.33 per hour) for an average household. When I was on holiday in the summer and the house was empty with just the appliances ticking over we used between 400/500w per hour. I'm not moaning about my usage, I'm just saying what do these average households have within them to get their figures so low?? It's worrying for many.

 

[phil4]

I know I'm not an "average" user but I struggle to understand this capped number that hits the media headlines. The figures are based on 2900kWh of electric per year. That's just under 8kW a day (or 0.33 per hour) for an average household. When I was on holiday in the summer and the house was empty with just the appliances ticking over we used between 400/500w per hour. I'm not moaning about my usage, I'm just saying what do these average households have within them to get their figures so low?? It's worrying for many.

Don't forget into your average mix includes single occupancy flats, OAPs and plenty of people that only have a fridge freezer as their base load.

In all fairness the whole "average" cap is next to useless, as most people don't know if they are average, and has been misreported/emphasised so badly, that far far far too many people think the cap applies to the total price they'll pay regardless of how much they use. It's a complete mess, and badly thought out. The flip side I guess is they could have quoted unit prices, and most people would have no idea if it'd gone up or down, and since it's "pennies" wouldn't worry about it.

 

[PITA]

Oh boy...

We're going to be an 'Octopus Go Family' 00:30 - 04:30

3 Phase... so thank that for capability...

- 27 kWh Battery Storage charging
- 11 kW Ev Charger
- Washing Machine and Tumble drying
- 4 Dehumidifiers
- 4 Heat Pump heaters or additional Dehumidifiers
- 4 Freezers, 2 Fridges
- Induction batch cooking

Then sleep between 04:30 until 00:30

 

[PITA]

Oh boy, I'm gonna love this thread.

....The figures are based on 2900kWh of electric per year. That's just under 8kW a day (or 0.33 per hour) for an average household.

Yeah... we're 18,000 kWh per year.

My best 'day' in December was 100 kWh... in a day !!

At one point, before Crazy WEF Truss stepped in, I would've been looking at a £20,000 annual bill from 2023 ... just for Electric. ... and we still have Gas as well on top of that...

 

[PDB33]

On Octopus Go:
2 EVs
dishwasher
Immersion heater for hot water (tops up heat from solar thermal panel)
e-bike battery, Stihl batteries for lawn mower, strimmer etc. on smart switch (small beer, I know)

Have not yet persuaded her indoors that clothes should sit in the washing machine from 04.30 to breakfast time, and the machine beeps incessantly when it's finished.

I am considering replacing the oil-fired central heating radiator in the bathroom with a storage heater, OP - can you give details of the modern storage heater you are pleased with?

 

[thewishy]

Have not yet persuaded her indoors that clothes should sit in the washing machine from 04.30 to breakfast time, and the machine beeps incessantly when it's finished.

Our washer and drier are in an unheated utility room. In the winter I can get away with wash on night one, 20 hours sitting there, then dry in the overnight spot. In the summer you get bacteria growth... Still, it can stay in the machine until it goes out on the line...
Probably helps that my wife insists on 95c washes for bathroom cleaning clothes, so there is a fairly regularly opportunity to kill off anything in the machine. The boil washes are like 2-3kWh and take place overnight or I get grumpy.

 

[scdoubleu]

Octopus Go here:

• 2 EVs. Though haven't charged overnight for much of the summer due to excess solar. We're semi-retired, so cars are at home most of the day.
• Powerwall fills its boots, if necessary.
• Immersion heater, now that price of gas exceeds Go off-peak.
• Dishwasher, but only if running it would drain Powerwall before 00:30.
• Bedroom air-con during the summer.

Tumble dryer is the heat-pump variety, so no point shifting it to the off-peak period. Besides, SWMBO doesn't like damp laundry lying around.

 

[ME_UK]

On Octopus Go:
2 EVs
dishwasher
Immersion heater for hot water (tops up heat from solar thermal panel)
e-bike battery, Stihl batteries for lawn mower, strimmer etc. on smart switch (small beer, I know)

Have not yet persuaded her indoors that clothes should sit in the washing machine from 04.30 to breakfast time, and the machine beeps incessantly when it's finished.

I am considering replacing the oil-fired central heating radiator in the bathroom with a storage heater, OP - can you give details of the modern storage heater you are pleased with?

We bought the Dimplex Quantum QM100 - conservatory is 3m by 3m, and so far so good.... not cheap but simple enough to fit to a fused spur and there's a 'hidden' menu feature to tell it when the off-peak electricity is there...... Dimplex Quantum QM100 | Quantum Storage Heater 1000W | No Wifi

 

[ME_UK]

Oh boy, I'm gonna love this thread.

My name hopefully goes someway to qualifying me as that's what my wife calls me

We have 2 dishwashers and 2 washing machines (one a combi dryer), 2 fridge freezers, chest freezer, beer fridge, tumble dryer and 2 EV's (almost... 7 days to go). Our 2nd machine appliances came from a new kitchen install and I fitted the old kitchen into the garage along with both washing machines. House has 2 dishwashers.

Having 2 late teen kids we overfill one unit most days so the second works well for us. Plan is to keep them until one of them packs in. By then kids will be long gone...

Also have 4.5kW PV and 13kW battery.

My 2022 bills from Octopus show within 4h window of Octopus go I've used 80% off peak. Of course our peak use is offset by solar and battery. Whenever possible I run appliances on solar, but when that isn't possible it's all on the night shift.

Everything is set and shifted to run off peak where possible and I have had many smart plugs to turn off stand by appliances when not in use. I do have a couple of smart plugs with an inbuilt power monitor and did spend a couple of weeks seeing what standby appliances used per day. Was interesting but most were negligible. The biggest daily draw was/is our Samsung American fridge freezer which consumes 2.14kW per day just in normal operation. Can't turn that off unfortunately

Future plan is to fill battery overnight in winter and like others have said I'm likely to buy a couple of oil-free rads to warm the house in winter as the almost 300% rate rise for gas in 12 months (3.8p to 10.3p) should pay back a couple of units within a month or two.

I know I'm not an "average" user but I struggle to understand this capped number that hits the media headlines. The figures are based on 2900kWh of electric per year. That's just under 8kW a day (or 0.33 per hour) for an average household. When I was on holiday in the summer and the house was empty with just the appliances ticking over we used between 400/500w per hour. I'm not moaning about my usage, I'm just saying what do these average households have within them to get their figures so low?? It's worrying for many.

We have a Samsung, and seems to be around the same kind of draw per day.......thanks for the extra tips - I dream of 80% in the off-peak.....