'Hours of free electricity' - maximizing the benefit

We have a slimline dishwasher that. since there are just two of us, we do not need to use every day. In its first hour, it uses just over 1kWh. So, we have tried to organise ourselves so that we run the it in the free hours. We have been choosing one hour during the week and one on Sunday. So far, we have managed to organise ourselves to use the dishwasher in the free hour slots, apart from the week when the slots were Sunday (from one week) and Monday (from the next week). We decided to roast a joint to take advantage of the Sunday slot (gammon, if anyone is interested). We, deliberately, decided to try to avoid doing something that we would not otherwise have done in order to take advantage of the initiative. 

… and the results of this morning’s exercise are in: epic fail!

10:00-11:00 - 0.887 kWh > 0.887 kWh free = 0.887 x 19.88 p/kWh = 17p reward
11:00-12:00 - 1.271 kWh > 1.271 kWh free = 1.271 x 19.88 p/kWh = 25p reward.

(I should have RTFM. The maximum reward is for 1.35 kWh per hour, not the 1kWh it was last year.)

I got the total quantity right: 0.887 + 1.271 = 2.158 kWh, which is just ~2 kWh for the shower and 0.158 kWh for the background usage. But I clearly started about 15 seconds too late - must do better, and use an extra 0.7 kWh over the two hours to get the full whack of 2.35 x 19.88 p = 47p. That means either an extra 4.7 minutes in the shower, or boiling water for 10 pots of tea. I wonder if the reward would cover the cost of the extra water - a calculation for another day. Not to mention the trauma of treatment for cutis anserina aquatica or bladder hypertrophy.

Ha but; that isn’t what it currently says on the app at all, although it is what it says in your link.

Perhaps ​@Abby_OVO  or another of the moderators could speak with the team and get us some clarification on just what the limit is?

BTW It appears from my bill credit that I used 1.082 kWh worth for May which was only the one week.

I haven’t really been keeping an eye on what I did use during the hours, but I assume that credit is mainly for cooking the meat on the Sunday.
Which is how I’ve been using the Sunday hours, and more or less forgetting the midweek ones as there isn’t anything much that I could switch to them.

But does that 1.082 kWh represent a max 1 kWh for Sunday and the 0.082 is for the midweek hour?

Additional-

Checking my online account for my selected 2-free hours in May, my usage was:

0.09 kWh for Tuesday 26th May 13.00-14.00
1.15 kWh for Sunday 31st May 11.00-12.00

A total of 1.24 kWh.

As the 22 pence of credit that I got was the equivalent of only 1.082 kWh that suggests that the cap is indeed 1 kWh on the Sunday usage. (With the difference between 0.09 and 0.082 being simply due to rounding to the nearest penny).

You can pick even smaller nits if you use three places of decimals instead of two 😉

Additional #2 -

I just noticed something else, ​@Firedog the T&Cs that your RTFM link goes to are for a previous Free energy offer that was only for those who’s tariff was renewing and not the current offer.

(I do vaguely remember it as being one with a very limited eligibility).

Check the dates in paragraph 1.

and the eligibility in Paragraph 3.

Thanks for checking! I had a look at the T&Cs both in the app and online. The app version is dated 25 April 2026, while the one on the web is dated 13 January 2026. 

Could it be that the web terms apply to an offer that was never made, but the app terms are for the offer currently available and underway? Sign-up to the web offer seems to have expired on 13 April and the period covered weeks starting 2 March - 20 April. I don’t remember ever having seen it ...

Back to square one - the reward is for 1.0 kWh/hour for the current offer until someone tells us it isn’t. I’ll check the calculations for my May reward to see how I earned my 33p. 

Talking of nit-picking, I said I had started my shower 15 seconds too late. That got me thinking:

1. Meter time is set in the communications hub on installation. It is maintained by monitoring the supply frequency supported by a battery-operated quartz clock during power outages. It can drift over time - my own is currently 41 seconds ahead of MSF time. 
2. The alarm I set to send me dashing to the bathroom was provided by my Samsung phone. I checked just now, and confirmed that it takes its time from the network. The phone clock is 3 seconds adrift from MSF.
3. My 15 seconds of tardiness wasn’t my fault at all, but the meter’s: it switched from 10:59 to 11:00 41 seconds early. 
4. SMETS2 says:
    

   5.5.1 Clock The Clock forming part of ESME shall be capable of operating so as to be accurate to within 10 seconds of the UTC date and time under normal operating conditions.

   
   I think I’m justified in asking OVO to put my meter clock right, assuming that my MSF radio-controlled kitchen clock is right. Vodafone being 3 seconds out is within limits acceptable to me, but the meter’s 41 seconds’ discrepancy is beyond the pale.

​@Ben_OVO et al. with a history of customer support, were you ever asked to set a meter (point) clock? Were you able to do it yourself, or would you have to ask the Smart team or someone to do it? It looks like DCC Service Request 6.11 should do the trick. 

​@Nukecad just to confirm, the team have come back and confirmed that the labelling of 1.35kwh online is outdated info, which is to be updated shortly. This round, during the summer, the limit is 1kwh as you suspected.

​@Firedog I can’t recall a time when I’ve reset a meter clock actually. I’ve asked a colleague in the Smart department about this one just to see what the normal process is. I’ll let you know 👍.

​@Firedog I’ve had it confirmed that it’s possible to reset the clock remotely.