Octopus Energy Saving Sessions

[Stranger Dings]

Does anyone know how the Octopus ”Power Hour” energy saving sessions are actually calculated?

I’ve taken part in all of them, but the results just seem totally random.

I’ve had sessions where we’ve switched off as much as we can and gone out, only to be told that we didn’t manage to save anything.

Some sessions, we’ve made very small savings, Including one where virtually everything was switched off and the whole family was in another country.

One session I forgot it was happening despite signing up, only to be told I’d managed to save 93% of my normal usage and be credited with over £16 off!

I’ll continue to sign up for them and don’t really do it expecting to save much as we are already quite energy efficient. It all just seems so random.

 

[ACarneiro]

Gentle-them's start your storage options...

Gentle-or-not-gentle-whatevers, start whatever you'd like....

 

[Pink Duck]

I left the house with the consumer box master breaker off and battery scheduled to discharge into the live window. Also unplugged the in-home device, as its poor battery will run down otherwise. The cunning plan… stay in the office until 17:45

(still ineligible to opt-in, but why break the habit)

 

[PITA]

I dunno... all seems very weird.

I look outside and it's a cold crisp Sunny Day. Our Solar Array is sunbathing, and then at 16:30 we'll be selling that sunshine back to the Grid at £4 per kWh.

Somebody pinch me...

I'd never have guessed this in a million years.

Pity the Water Board doesn't do the same, I'd be flushing those toilets like mad...

 

[phil4]

no solar here, solcast reckoned 15kWh, we've only managed 1.89kWh so far, and it's not cleared up.

 

[Js1977]

Bugger all sun here either but my car is charging with a slot until 4pm... and so is my battery

 

[YYY2022]

Not bad at all for me for a December day.

Like you say PITA, somebody pinch me….on both saving session days this week my solar has done very nicely.

 

[PITA]

Go... go... go....

 

[yessuz]

 

[Lx2m3]

Thanks, very helpful. I have it on Time-Based Control, export everything and grid charging allowed. The only change I made for today was adding an additional rate period for the 5-6.30pm event today. I will either delete that later this evening or mirror the usual peak rates so it may be less steps for the next time they do one of these. I've always wondered why the powerwalls don't dump any excess beyond my set minimum in the lead-up to 11.30pm but it hasn't been a sufficient price spread for me to explore further. However at £4.00 per kWh for export I would like to participate!

We have a 3.5kW PV system on FIT and recently added a separate 2.4kW system that is not on FIT.

View attachment 994601

I don’t have the section in my app which says:
“Energy Exports
Solar
Everything
In Time-Based Control, your system will send solar and stored Powerwall energy to the grid during high-value time periods.”
How is that set up?

 

[YYY2022]

I don’t have the section in my app which says:
“Energy Exports
Solar
Everything
In Time-Based Control, your system will send solar and stored Powerwall energy to the grid during high-value time periods.”
How is that set up?

You need to contact Tesla and request that it is enabled. I did it a few weeks ago. It’s straightforward and they were pretty quick at getting back. They ask you to confirm your export limits as set by your DNO then they will enable it for you from their end. Their email is [email protected]

 

[barry.perfect]

For those that have Powerwalls, have any of you managed to get the Powerwall to export without messing with the tariffs for the saving session?

I can automate everything else in Home Assistant, i.e. the export everything during the session and turning it off afterwards, but I cannot set the tariff on and off, which is a shame.

I had assumed Export everything just did it, regardless of the tariff :-(

 

[ACarneiro]

For those that have Powerwalls, have any of you managed to get the Powerwall to export without messing with the tariffs for the saving session?

I can automate everything else in Home Assistant, i.e. the export everything during the session and turning it off afterwards, but I cannot set the tariff on and off, which is a shame.

I had assumed Export everything just did it, regardless of the tariff :-(

No, you can only give it the option of exporting and the the AI will “decide what’s best”.
This is the one drawback of the powerwalls, you don’t really have full control of their behaviour…

 

[ringi]

Can the Tesla API be used to set the tariffs?

 

[Js1977]

Looks like Octopus is expanding.

 

[ACarneiro]

Oh, God…..

 

[Bantam]

Looks like Octopus is expanding.

I had a horrendous customer service XP with Octopus when trying to get my smart meter working (emails left unanswered, long waits on phone and missed promises of call backs with updates) they blamed my poor service on them overworked onboarding Bulb customers. Let’s hope they have learned their lessons, doubt it!

 

[Js1977]

I had a horrendous customer service XP with Octopus when trying to get my smart meter working (emails left unanswered, long waits on phone and missed promises of call backs with updates) they blamed my poor service on them overworked onboarding Bulb customers. Let’s hope they have learned their lessons, doubt it!

I’ve been on the phone recently about a billing issue and also on email about missed readings and I’ve had a very good experience… but I digress. My post above was for FYI only

 

[btc1k]

For those that have Powerwalls, have any of you managed to get the Powerwall to export without messing with the tariffs for the saving session?

I can automate everything else in Home Assistant, i.e. the export everything during the session and turning it off afterwards, but I cannot set the tariff on and off, which is a shame.

I had assumed Export everything just did it, regardless of the tariff :-(

Not sure what you mean by turning tariff on and off.

I set to Export everything and it works flawlessly

 

[Js1977]

I can automate everything else in Home Assistant, i.e. the export everything during the session and turning it off afterwards, but I cannot set the tariff on and off, which is a shame.

If you are able to toggle the automation from everything to solar only , it should work fine.

 

[barry.perfect]

Not sure what you mean by turning tariff on and off.

I set to Export everything and it works flawlessly

I mean setting the export tariff to £4 during the savings session then setting it back to 15p after. Just setting Export Everything (from Solar) without changing the tariff didn’t result in any export.

Strange that it works for some people but not others, nor sure what is making it work/not work.