General Chat

Did another session tonight between 18:30 and 19:30 again.
The average base load on which to save was lower than last time (? because it took in last time's saving?) but the graph on the panels app indicates that we drew practically nothing from the grid in that hour.
But as it is starting from a lower perceived average, which I believe is taken as the fortnight before the session, I am expecting a lower payout this time.

Sooo just received an email from British Gas for meter readings

Seems they have put in a new system and transferred old accounts over to a new system but it won’t pick up readings from old smart meters

So I had to get my granddaughter to read the meters cos I can’t get down to them in the cupboard under the stairs

We had smart meter put in so we wouldn’t get estimated bills or gas readers huffing to read meters after being asked to take shoes off to walk on our lounge carpet

The best I've saved is £2.30 and if I recall that was for between 9-10 on a Monday in the morning. My last Peak Save Session was last Wednesday between 18:30-19:30. Although you have Registered your interest in the Scheme you don't have to participate in each Session. You're invited to each Session the day before when they give the Peak Save time, if you want to participate you confirm this by returning the emailed invite. I've participated in them all so far as I can easily juggle things around :-)

Because the hours they want you to save are different every time, it's difficult to work out what to do for the best. Sometimes it's 5.30 - 7, or 4.30 - 6.30. One day it was in the morning 7-8. You just have to think about what you are doing during those times that uses a lot of leccy. So as cooking is heavy on leccy, we cooked earlier then reheated in the microwave, which is much less power. Sometimes we cooked in the slow cooker. Every time, we boiled a kettle beforehand and filled a flask, switched off everything we could, we have a number of lights on timers. No TV etc.

I'm on a smart meter but not part of this saving scheme some of you are participating in.
However I was thinking, where actually could I save? During the day, there is no heating on, no oven on just the fridge freezer. Apart from a shower at 8am, im not using anything else.
Heating may go on late afternoon early evening if its cold for a few hours.

Washing machine and tumble drier not on everyday but when I need them.

I certainly couldn't change my meal times aa daughter is diabetic and we eat everyday at 5.30, so I'm cooking between 5-5.30.

I read the meter halfway through the month, work out the units used from the last reading then work out the cost. It just gives me an idea if its up or down on the last month. If I divide the units used by the number of days, i can see the daily usage which varies from 8-11 depending on what utilities I have been using.

Florence in the hebrides

Early evening isn't a good time to save power in our house as we've finished cooking supper so we're only got lights, TV, two fridges and a freezer running. Consequently we would only be using half a kilowatt hour or less.
As Granny says, "not a lot of room for saving".

We've been doing sessions of this, about 1 per week or so. As OH gets the messages, we don't always get enough notice and have already planned to cook something that needs more time. The most we've ever saved is about £1.50, often it's as little as 5p, but we are fairly careful anyway so not a lot of room for saving. It's easier now it's lighter in the early evening, it was difficult in the dark.

We signed up and did an hour on Wednesday from 18.30 to 19:30.

Because the batteries had charged up from the solar panels during the day what we used came from them so we used 99% less power from the grid compared to the two week base period and have been credited with £1.44.

In fact we only drew 1.92kWh from the grid for the whole day.

Every little helps!

We did another session yesterday, no results yet. But it was only 4-5pm, so we started cooking afterwards.
We have solar panels, but no battery, so whilst the panels are producing leccy we get to use it for free. If they're not, we have to draw from the Grid.

Don't see how it would work for us on a day when the solar panels have charged the battery so we're not drawing anything off the grid teatime/evening anyway.

So far this month. in spite of the awful weather, forty percent of our usage has been self-generated.

Well done, grannyfranny :-) BG said they would let me know in about 5 days. :-)

Apparently we did manage to save, not sure how, but we gained our £1.67.

My OH has been keeping an eye on our usage ( no smart meter either). He thinks our usage is about 10% down on last year - but that is probably because our tumble dryer eventually died about 3 weeks ago.

I don't have a smart meter but my daughter has suggested I take daily readings of both gas and electricity and work out how much I am using and which appliances I have used that day. I am doing as I'm told! :-D

She reminded me not to forget the daily charge (grandmother sucking eggs came to mind). I used to check and work out the cost of my monthly (not daily) usage until I retired when I thought s*d it, I just want to feel warm and comfortable so I stopped doing that.

This week when I've read both meters around 8.30am the daily readings have been very consistent - I have not yet worked out the daily cost. That's something to do when I have time - but I'll have to work it out before I meet daughter as she'll ask!
:-D

Hope it goes ok grannyfranny :-)

I was just asked to try and save 30% of my average usage for that period; BG gave me figures :-). They said I typically used 0.57 kWh during 5-7 and my target was to try and reduce it by 0.17kWh :-)

Ours is tomorrow 4-6pm. They want us to save 1.67kh, but we don't use that much anyway during those hours.

It was fine, grannyfranny :-) No real hardship :-)

I had a fully charged Tablet, so I sat doing my Tree on that and listening to a battery operated transistor radio...the time just flew by :-D

How did you get on, LB? We've not been asked yet.

I'll be doing my first session this evening between 5 and 7 :-)

Looks like the National Grid could do with all help they can get as they have fired up two coal burning power stations :-0

I hope this trial works :-)

A few days ago there was no sun and no wind to talk of.
According to the Gridwatch website solar panels and wind turbines were producing the grand total of four percent of the UK electricity (2+2).
Nuclear was contributing fifteen percent, Hydro another two or three, coal had been reinstated, a little was being imported from the Continent but over sixty five percent was from burning gas.
Without massive investment in whatever form of electrical storage they can dream up zero carbon is a pipe-dream or days like that will see massive power cuts or continued reliance on fossil fuel.