Have you checked out OVO Energy Tracker?

I’m finding it really hard to believe that with wall to wall sun for this 48 hour period there are 47 hours of moderate carbon intensity forecast!

Really interesting point about the importance of different renewable sources, @Jeffus.

I was also unaware that wind powers us more than sun at the moment, @juliamc  - looks like by quite a margin according to this article which suggests 20% of our power was wind generated compared to 6% coming from solar (at the end of 2019 at least). These hot hot breezes aren’t cutting it at the moment it seems! 

Some really detailed questions from both @juliamc and @Jeffus ! Good news is I’ve heard back from the team so strap yourselves in for some expert explanations!

 

The daily usage graph for electricity seems to be one hour out, eg my hot water reheats at 14:00 but the peak on the graph is at 13:00 (poss GMT v BST?)

The Carbon Intensity Forecast is also an hour out, eg this is what’s shown today at 12:00… so it’s Moderate, despite the forecast showing Low from 11:30 ??? Which is it?

 

You’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of BST explaining why the usage graphs are an hour out (our smart meters run on GMT throughout the year). For the carbon intensity chart its gets slightly more complicated and this is what the team had to say - 

So the way the carbon intensity work's is that it chunks time into 30 minute segments. The current time in carbon intensity's mind is the last full 30 minutes which has passed, so if we are at 11:59am then the last full 30 minutes would be from 11am - 11:30am so this would be the value for the current intensity on the top

now the bottom slider is a forecast for the next 48 hours. So if we are at 11:59am again for example, we add two chunks of the forecast together to get hourly values so that means as 11:30am-12pm hasn't passed yet and we combine this with the 12pm-12:30pm chunk.

A bit complex but my understanding would be that as the carbon intensity now is based on one half hour segment (the last complete half hour period) and the forecast figure is an average of two half hour segments - these might not match but the current carbon intensity level will be the slightly more accurate figure as its based on a shorter time period, does that make sense?

Well spotted on this one too. You’ve noticed some changes were rolling out (starting on the browser version) which will be updated on the app in the next few weeks. The wording and the way we calculate the average usage which your usage is compared to have both changed slightly so you may notice a discrepancy between the figures shown on the app until we’re able to get the latest updates shown there too. In case you haven’t spotted it our community volunteer, @Blastoise186  has written a great guide to how we roll out these app updates using CodePush -

Ours from the last couple of weeks.

Will be interesting to see the comparison difference in winter. I suspect it will flip to us using more energy than the average. 

Am hoping the half hourly readings should give us a better idea about how best to heat the house when we are working from home. Probably more useful for us than the Greenlight.

I found Greenlight useful in terms of prompting action rather than worrying too much whether the figures were accurate. 

I did find the weekly view in Greenlight vs the monthly view on the Usage page useful. A week feels like a good time period when seeing what difference small changes make. 

I tried the energy efficient mode on our TV for the first time but the picture was terrible. We do need manufacturers to do more. Perhaps more modern TVs are better than ours. 

Hi @Charl13 . That’s a good question. The straight answer is no, not in your current bills unless you’re on Economy7 and use more power during the off peak time (on Economy7 your electricity charged is cheaper during those times).

The more complex answer is as we get a renewable energy network, it will become cheaper than it would have been as our wind, solar and other renewable power continue to provide power rather than us searching for more things to burn. 
It’s one of these ‘invest in the future’ conundrums really - as more people begin to invest in renewables, the power network becomes more sustainable, and that will provide a lower cost than if we don’t. 

 

You could have a look at this

https://loop.homes/turn-down-and-save/#:~:text=What%20is%20Turn%20Down%20and,generate%20electricity%20at%20peak%20times.

hello, do you know when is the best and worst time for non essential use of electricity (and gas if that is not a silly question!) we want to try and use washing machine outside the the high use time if possible, charge phones and fill the kettle for the flask. Thanks!

OVO show a little of this on their web feed

but there is an app from National Grid which has a whole raft of info and prediction forwards 

Why OVO need the size of my house to “make OVO Energy tracker as accurate as possible”? Why can they not use my hourly/daily Smart meter readingS.

My SSE bills had a graph that showed last years usage for the billing period compared to this year. I can't find this on my OVO bill where can I find it? 

Yes @Clairesellars1 if you log in online you can see your energy usage 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=monthly

If you choose to look by month or year you can get comparisons. If you look by day that doesn’t offer this facility

Hey @Clairesellars1,

Have you recently migrated? 

If so, it may be that we haven’t received all of your historic usage information yet. 

Hi @Julia H , from what you set in your homes profile, the system examines bursts of power used and tries to match them to appliances. It’s not always accurate and not to be relied upon but it’s meant as a general suggested guide.