Greener Living

Our planet-loving community hub where members can connect and share ideas on topics like green energy and carbon-neutral tech

  • 66 Topic threads
  • 786 Comments
Shining Light Award

Are you "Shining Light" on greener living?

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Tutorial

Balancing the electricity grid - a guide

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66 Topic threads

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Carbon Cutter****
pjgriff100Carbon Cutter****
Posted in Greener Living

still no FIT payment

We are still with SSE Energy for FIT payment. No word of a  takeover or back payment.  No money or statement since September 2021 despite submitting readings and a photo of the meter as there has been no two yearly inspection, which is not our fault, as the meter is in an accessible outbuilding. There is no phone number that gets through to anyone who deals with this. It is a disgrace and being ‘part of the OVO family’ has seemingly achieved zilch! In some ways this is theft of green energy isn’t it…taking it and not paying the producer!

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P
Carbon Cutter****
2 days ago
R
Carbon Cutter*****
Rick HCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Greener Living

Finding the best export tariff to support my solar panels and reduce energy costs?

Hi,Below a copy of my recent email to OVO, Octopus and Tesla UK.Email Subject Header: Will I just be whistling in the wind, whilst drowning and/or being electrocuted trying to plug my extension lead into an offshore turbine? Well, let's find out... Re: Octopus, OVO and Tesla UK domestic energy and including UK domestic SEG export and fixed price duel fuel import. I'm currently on a UK fixed domestic duel fuel contract with OVO until October 2022 but because of the likelihood of another crippling rise in grid supply energy costs I'm looking ahead. This not just for the best UK fixed grid duel fuel import cost but also the best UK SEG export tariff. I am currently under no export contract with my existing supplier OVO, or anyone else.  I meet all UK SEG export requirements with a domestic total solar installed capacity of 2.64 kW.  I'm disabled, 65 years old, effectively medically retired and subsist on a fixed income. Therefore, unfortunately I'm unable to afford battery storage for eff

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Carbon Cutter*****
7 days ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

Share your story with OVO - and win a 3-day ticket for Fully Charged Live!Competition

Help us to raise awareness of the green tech in your home If you have solar panels, an electric vehicle, smart or vehicle-to-grid charger or an air source heat pump, we want to hear your story. How has a smart thermostat helped you to raise awareness of your energy usage? Would you recommend energy storage batteries? Help us to tell real life stories that might inspire others who are thinking about installing green tech. What does this involve? We’ll arrange a call to hear about your experience first hand. We might arrange a visit to your home to film your tech in action, and possibly get you on camera to tell your story.  We might even use your story as part of customer case studies that could be covered by tech and lifestyle press to help more people learn about and start their journey to zero carbon living! How do I win a ticket to Fully Charged LIVE? If we can use your story as a case study, we’ll send you a 3-day ticket to Fully Charged LIVE (worth £45) as a thanks for your time.

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J
Plan Zero Hero
15 days ago
Jequinlan
Plan Zero Hero
JequinlanPlan Zero Hero
posted in Greener Living

How do my solar generation stats compare? Discussion.

1 month on from solar and this is my stats of my 4kwp system with 3 6kw inverter and 10.2kw battery.  Was wondering how it fared against others of similar.  And total house usage (i have a nissan leaf pure ev) hence odd peaks. 

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
15 days ago
K
New Member***
KBnNew Member***
posted in Greener Living

Looking for advice on changing heating system from gas/oil to a more sustainable option - e.g. air source heat pump

Hi,I’m reaching out to learn from your experiences of changing heating system from gas/oil to a more sustainable option. To give you some context, we are currently based in Sweden and are in the process of relocating to the UK. As part of this process, we want to make sure that it will be possible to replace the current heating system with a more sustainable option. We are therefore keen to get a sense of price points and possible set-ups, as well as a a more detailed understanding of what is included/needed in terms of costs and activities/services/products when replacing heating systems.I have plenty of questions, but as a start I have specified two below: 1) We are most interested in an Air Heat Pump at the moment - what different actions/services are needed for this before, during and after the installation and what does each part cost? Does anyone have an example quote to share just for my understanding? How are the cost distributed among the different actions products? 2) I saw t

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A
Carbon Cutter****
16 days ago
R
Carbon Cutter*****
robot7Carbon Cutter*****
Posted in Greener Living

Who sets the 'Environmental and Social' charges on energy?

when did eco levy change to 23%  as sse was  12% and was not informed ?

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Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
17 days ago
S
Carbon Cutter*
Steve JCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Greener Living

Why can't my online account recognise my low imported energy following a solar PV/home battery installation?

We have a 16.4 kWh battery storage system and in January tripled the capacity of our roof-top solar. Since March, with solar output increasing, we are getting more days where we inport zero or tiny amounts of electricity. OVO’s usage tracker doesn’t seem to be able to handle this. Our smart meter is set to half hourly readings and apparently readings are being sent. Only once have we been asked for a manual reading. If I don’t send regular readings, the account just estimates 8 or 9 kWh, when I do it corrects itself.At the same time, we are warned that our account is heading for £££ debit by August (contract start date) if we don’t increase our DD. It’s obvious the opposite will happen and we are likely to be in significant credit. I emailed customer services a while back telling them we had all this tech installed and our consumption woud fall but was just told the system would sort itself out. Any ideas?

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S
Carbon Cutter*
21 days ago
W
Carbon Cutter*****
waiwurrieCarbon Cutter*****
posted in Greener Living

What's the environmental benefit/impact of installing solar panels if I already get 100% renewable electricity from OVO? Discussion.

A thought as we plan solar panels for the house.  The big selling point is carbon reduction - after the break even calculation.  However all my electricity is carbon free care of Ovo.  So actually by commissioning the manufacture of more "stuff" and associated work to install am I actually increasing my carbon footprint?  Still going to do it for the financial benefits but pause for thought.

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
23 days ago
Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
Blastoise186Plan Zero Hero
Posted in Greener Living

How to find bugs in just about anything! The secrets of bug huntingBlog

A few months ago, I wrote a guide about how to report bugs on the OVO and Kaluza platforms. If you’ve not seen it, feel free to check it out here first.But today however, I’ve got something a bit more special to share… So special in fact, no-one knows about me writing this yet. In recognition of recent events and as part of a personal goal, I’m releasing some of my top tips about bug hunting and reveal some of the magic that I pull off behind the scenes. I hope you enjoy this one!Just as a heads up, this post is intended as humorous, so there might be a few jokes. Or not. And I know Tim will seek this out. So yes, this is totally part of my 10k points plan! The golden rule - never give up! Have you ever spent ages hunting for bugs, only to later realise that the only one you could find has already been reported by someone else? Yeah… I know the feeling. However, don’t let that put you off. The fact that you found a bug is a good thing, because you’ve actually helped to get it fixed. An

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Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
1 month ago
S
Carbon Cutter*
SabineCarbon Cutter*
Posted in Greener Living

How much should my energy supplier charge for a gas meter removal?

We want our gas meter removed.  Our supplier is bulb, they want to charge 430 pound for that. I know some firm remove for free or a charge around 100 pound . According to bulb it's a special job.  To me it's just a smart meter fitted around two years ago. Can that be right? They have been difficult being difficult with the whole situation from the start. 

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S
Carbon Cutter*
1 month ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

Are you "Shining Light" on greener living?Shining Light Award

Updated on 19/04/22 by Jess_OVO It’s more than just a new badge... If you’ve helped an OVO Forum member, by sharing your first hand experience as advice, or created valuable content for countless people to find, we think you’re a Shining Light of greener living.  A group of members shining light on complex topics around green technology is a powerful thing. To acknowledge great contributions and contributors, we’ve launched the Shining Light Award. Winners of this award will have the Shining Light badge added to their forum profile, and a prize will be arranged.  Watch out for members who hold the ‘Shining Light’ badge Do you have first hand experience with smart meters, EV chargers, solar panels, energy storage, heat pumps and the like? Then you’re perfectly placed to advise other households thinking about their options to cut their carbon and save energy.  Be a shining light. Be the change you want to see. Let’s do it together! 

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Jeffus
Plan Zero Hero
1 month ago
D
New Member*
design4pNew Member*
Posted in Greener Living

Why are renewable energy costs increasing due to wholesale gas prices?

OVO says that it uses 100% Renewable Energy which means that no fossil fuel is used -  So why is the astronomical price increase of OVO energy related to the wholesale price of fossil fuels.I can only assume that OVO energy is NOT 100% Renewable and as such been lying to all its customers.I have noticed that with so many energy companies claiming to be 100% renewable I understand that there is simply not enough green energy available.  So who is telling the truth?Any comments welcome - John 

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S
Carbon Cutter*****
2 months ago
W
Carbon Cutter*****
waiwurrieCarbon Cutter*****
Posted in Greener Living

Why is OVO's fuel mix not 100% renewable as claimed?

HiBrowsing the forum I found reference to the fuel mix OVO uses https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-fuel-mix When you follow this link it says OVO is 100% renewable.  Further down it says fuel mix includes 49.6% Natural gas.  At least that is how I read it.Elsewhere there is a lot of explanation about how the market operates (electrons don’t know what pushed them down the wire and pricing is for a kW irrespective of source). But ultimately the 100% and 49.6% seem to be contradictory!Can someone explain, please?

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Jeffus
Plan Zero Hero
2 months ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

What type of events do you want us to run?Poll

Updated on 19/04/22 by Jess_OVO Have your say on OVO Forum events We’ve got our latest ‘Ask me anything’ event coming up on the 7th December, with Kaluza’s Robin Abraham. Check it out and RSVP here:  Ask Robin a question here:  You can see a list of all our previous events on our new Event widget here. We want to hear from you about these online events:  Do you like the ‘Ask me anything’ format? Do you want us to have a different format and approach? Member led sessions? Discussions, with break out rooms? What’s your preference? Let us know in the poll below. In this poll, it only lets you choose 1 option, so keep that choice as your favorite event type. What happens if you have more then one preference? Please leave a comment to let us know all the types of event on the list you like the sound of!   

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
2 months ago
Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
Blastoise186Plan Zero Hero
posted in Greener Living

A new OVO forum safety feature has been enabled...

Heya!Keeping the forum safe is a big priority for Tim and Jess, but it’s never been possible to report Spam PMs or other bad stuff that happens via Private Messages… Until now…inSided has agreed to enable a new feature for this forum while it’s still in Beta. Got a spammy PM from a spammer? Don’t panic! Simply use the three-dots menu, click ”Report this message”, enter a reason and hit Report. Done!Tim and Jess will be notified of your report and can see the contents of the reported message only so that they can handle it. All your other PMs will remain private as before. If you had lots of spam PMs, please report each one individually.This feature is still in Beta right now, so might not be perfect. If you have any trouble with it not working, please let Tim know and he can pass the feedback on to inSided. It’s enabled both here on the OVO Forum and also on the Boost Forum, so whichever side you’re on, you’ve got this protection in place.Hopefully you’ll never need this feature, but i

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Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
3 months ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

A reward for all your contributions!News

Updated on 19/01/22: New badges! As of January 2022, we’ve totally revamped our badge mechanic, to align with our forum’s community purpose: green tech knowledge sharing! This change follows similar updates in 2021 to our community member ranks, which are all about carbon emission reduction.  Why carbon related forum ranks and green tech badges? We believe that knowledge sharing can be a powerful thing. We believe that a community of members adopting green tech can help each other navigate the complexities, and help others on their green tech adoption journey. This online support and success forum is a perfect space to mobilise a zero carbon community. Ranks: Carbon Cutter: Contribute to our community, and you make it stronger. You’ll progress from a ‘Newbie’ rank, to ‘Carbon Cutter’. Carbon Catcher: Answer member questions, and you help us get one step closer to Zero Carbon. You ARE a ‘Carbon Catcher’! Plan Zero Hero: These are elite, super users. To get to this point, you need to pro

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Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
3 months ago
Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
Blastoise186Plan Zero Hero
posted in Greener Living

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, the date is now 1st January 2022, so that can only mean one thing…On behalf of the entire OVO Forum community, I’d like to wish everyone who reads this a very big Happy New Year!  I would do the sparkly text effects, but those got left behind when Microsoft Office Word 2003 stopped being a thing. Oh well. XDNormally, @Tim_OVO or @Jess_OVO would make a post like this, but I’m afraid they fell into my trap this morning and are currently… Erm… Unavailable… Yes, that’s the reason. They might be back later this year if they can escape my lair. Muhahahahaha!2021 has been a pretty strong year on the forum with a huge number of topics created, masses of comments posted and a ton of answers and advice given. But 2022 has some new plans being cooked up right now. I can’t reveal what they are just yet, but I will say this much. Look out for some new forum features coming soon.We’re also on the lookout for the next Plan Zero Hero as well. The way to earn it is a sekrit, but it’s definitely p

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
4 months ago
Fred Rick
Carbon Cutter****
Fred RickCarbon Cutter****
Posted in Greener Living

How renewable is my OVO energy? Maybe not as much as I assumed?

I'm alarmed by the report in todays Times. Dear OVO, please respond in detail. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/energy-firms-accused-of-greenwash-over-tariffs-phqpfkj9n

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M.isterW
Plan Zero Hero
4 months ago
Transparent
Carbon Catcher***
TransparentCarbon Catcher***
Posted in Greener Living

Balancing the electricity grid - a guideTutorial

The electricity grid in balance - guide We are more often hearing energy experts use the phrase “Balancing the grid”. It is an important concept and one with which we should try to be engaged as we accelerate towards a zero-carbon, energy-efficient future. However the term “Grid Balancing” is applied in various ways according to which part of the electricity grid is being referred to. A Government spokesman will use grid balancing in a very different way to a Network Planner working for a Distribution Network Operator (DNO). 1: National Grid Balancing - Supply and DemandThis is the concept of grid balancing which is most often being referred to, and is the simplest to understand. It is also one that has existed since the formation of the National Grid in 1926. To keep the electricity grid in balance, the amount being generated (the Supply) must equal the quantity required for consumption (the Demand).This is the task of National Grid PLC. However, they are only directly in control of t

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Jeffus
Plan Zero Hero
4 months ago
S
Carbon Cutter***
supertoaster2Carbon Cutter***
Posted in Greener Living

Does OVO Energy support Nuclear Energy?

I would like to know if there is any energy ownership of nuclear energy by OVODo you operate any nuclear facilities or buy energy from any nuclear facilities? What is the percentage of nuclear energy that supply your customers with each year? It would be useful to know your annual amount that you support nuclear energy or fund any projects related to nuclear energy?   

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S
Carbon Cutter***
4 months ago
K
New Member*
KingyNew Member*
Posted in Greener Living

Is OVO's claim misleading 'greenwashing' about supplying 100% renewable energy?

Uswitch gives OVO only a bronze level of renewable energy. In fact its its electricity wholesale from the market including coal, oil and gas - all the dirty fuels. It then buys surplus certificates from proper renewable energy suppliers - so that it can pretend its supplying100% renewable. Really sad I was taken in by their mis information. Its not a Green company despite the misleading marketing.

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S
Carbon Cutter***
4 months ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

Power to Change: OVO Plan Zero Report 2020News

Updated on 14/04/22 by Jess_OVO We’ve got the power! 2 years from launch, here’s our first Plan Zero progress report. Check out what we achieved in 2020 and how we’re getting closer to Net Zero!  If you look carefully, you might see an OVO Forum community member or two feature… In 2020… We turned Plan Zero from a visionary strategy into a business plan that sits at the core of our organisation. This will enable us to grow to become the UK’s zero carbon living partner in the home while reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. We have achieved a 23% reduction in our total carbon footprint – from our own operations and the energy we sell – compared to our re-baselined 2018 carbon footprint. This equates to a third of the 60% emissions reduction required to meet our science-based target by 2030. We moved all OVO Energy members to 100% renewable electricity as standard*, and increased renewables in the fuel mix for our 3.5m SSE customers. We cemented our role as a leading innovator in

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Tim_OVO
Community Manager
5 months ago
Jess_OVO
Community Manager
Jess_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

What’s your opinion on tree planting vs rewilding? Rebecca Heaton AMA

Updated on 19/04/22 by Jess_OVO Question posed by @Tim_OVO during our recent Ask Me Anything online event:“I’d also like to draw on Rebecca’s knowledge and experience with forestry: What’s your opinion on tree planting vs rewilding?”

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
5 months ago
Tim_OVO
Community Manager
Tim_OVOCommunity Manager
Posted in Greener Living

Ask Me Anything with Kaluza's Robin Abraham - submit your questions ahead of our December eventASK ME ANYTHING

Updated on 19/04/22 by Jess_OVO Get your questions in! I’m delighted to announce our upcoming ‘Ask My Anything’ event with Kaluza’s Robin Abraham. RSVP to this event here:  Here’s a little bit about Robin:  "Hi OVO Forum members, I'm really looking forward to meeting you and taking your questions at the upcoming AMA event in December! I lead product development for Kaluza's flexibility module, which provides the foundational technology to enable OVO's innovative propositions for electric vehicles and smart HVAC systems, like OVO Drive + Anytime.  Prior to Kaluza, I worked in a very different space - finance, primarily in algorithmic trading products in financial markets. Working alongside folks at Kaluza and OVO who are passionate about a net zero future, gave me the unique opportunity to use my knowledge and experience working in live markets to be at the frontlines of solving really exciting and challenging problems relating to managing demand in real-time on the grid. I'd love to ta

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Jess_OVO
Community Manager
5 months ago
P
Carbon Cutter*****
pendantryCarbon Cutter*****
posted in Greener Living

We all need to do whatever we can to combat the climate crisis - Link to member Blog

I maintain that governments and corporations must do much more than they are doing if we are to have any chance at all of coming out of this in a healthy way.Unfortunately, the big guns are failing us and ignoring the voice of the people (which in my view still isn’t anywhere near loud enough). So it’s left to individuals to do whatever we can where we can. Even small changes can make a difference.In my latest blog post, I’ve highlighted one such. As I was writing it, I was reminded of Ovo’s ‘Think before you Thank’ initiative, and this is along the same lines. I hope you don’t mind me offering you a link to it here:The green way to blog longevity via image optimisation

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Transparent
Carbon Catcher***
5 months ago
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