How didn't I meet the Power Move target when I wasn't even at home for 2 weeks?

Thank you all for tips, I'll move all my weekend tasks to the weekday mornings!!  

I clearly had not understood the finer details so have really appreciated these tips tonight!

Hi @Terryd 

As long as you shift heavy usage from the 4-7 slot into any other weekday slot you should be OK: no need to sit in the dark or cold, though, from 4-7, that really would be miserable!

I didn’t know they excluded folk with batteries from this incentive? Could you point me towards the relevant info?

all the best…

Well, it looks like you all managed to figure this one out while I was still eating dinner. For that, you have my thanks.

As for the battery thing, leave that with me and I’ll see if I can dig up those details. If I can’t do it myself, I can ask for help from the forum moderators. What I do know is that the whole idea is not to be using Power Move to make your battery soak up tons of juice and then splurge it out during the Power Move hours, which I think is being done as some kind of anti-cheat.

I can also reveal something to you all. If you keep helping out like this… Something good may happen...

Hi @Blastoise186 Yes, I’ve been thinking that charging a battery outside the Power Move critical segment, and then using said battery during the 4-7 segment could well be an effective way of shifting grid purchase away from the weekday peak segment into other segments of the weekday? 
 

OK, it might not be shifting usage of our machinery etc., so perhaps not changing habits as such, or at least not necessarily all our habits at peak times (but we probably wouldn’t want that anyway), but surely it would be contributing to shifting our peak-time grid consumption, which I’d considered the key aim of Power Move?

Makes me worry a bit now about my having suggested in an earlier post the usefulness of a battery…

Thinking about the “going away” problem it might be worth putting your freezer on a timer that turns it off for the 4-7 period. Since you are not there you won’t be opening the freezer so it should not defrost in 3 hours, and the extra work bringing it back up to full freeze again  ought to  reduce your consumption to 12.5% in the relevant period.

I would experiment before going away - turn the freezer off for 1, 2, 3 hours and check the temperature at the end to make sure you don’t loose a freezer-full of food.

This is only a theoretical solution - I’m not suggesting that anyone tries it!

That goes against the spirit of Power Move and probably won’t work. Remember, it’s about moving heavy loads away from peak times, not trying to make a quick buck by turning literally everything off.

I know it goes against the spirit, but then everything that seems to work for those of us who are already doing our bit  for the environment by reducing our grid electrical consumption does. And you can’t do much better at reducing your usage that by not being at home and therefore not using (almost) anything!

@saundersg21 

I am a really low user. Last night i did my usual calculation for Monday's data where i was out practically all day. I got home 6.30 so waited until 7 to cook my dinner and i had tv on as well as lounge light on in the evening, in fact the light went on at 6.30  but not tv and for that day i didnt make the new 13.5% target let alone 12.5% target. Just goes to show you how you being away for 2 wks wouldnt have always helped the challenge, you would still have needed to make less usage in 4 - 7pm compared to rest of the day, to meet the challenge. I will be monitoring my cumulative totals closely to get myself back under the 13.5%!! Im not dipping out on my £15 this month🤣

@saundersg21 

@waltyboy - thought you would like for info

I was home yesterday and decorating, normal day of no washing machine or hoovering. Had dinner in evening started cooking at 7pm. Tv didnt go on til after 7pm but i did have to put a light on at 6.15 which didnt really make much of a difference but my cumulative calculation has now gone from 13.73% to 10.44%

Mon as i said above i was out and didnt need dinner when i got back.  Total day 2.075% and 4 - 7pm 0.285% =13.73%

Tues 2.715% for day and  0.215% for 4 - 7pm = cum 4.79 for day and 0.5 for 4-7pm = 10.44%

Take 0.005 of the figs for the day and also the 4-7pm period (16.00 - 18.30 figs inclusive) then you will be spot on the Ovo email calculation as they work to 3 decimal places not 2.

So just goes to show the only difference in my 2 days was cooking my dinner outside the hours rather than no cooked meal at all, so even with my low usage you can achieve it.

Keeping track daily really helps.

If i wasnt on target i would move something that maybe i was doing at the weekend to outside the hours in the week. Its not that im using more its just that im doing it at a different time which is what the powermove challenge is all about.

Hope this helps

Hi @Ria , just caught up with your post, very interesting stuff: just goes to show how right you are when you say even small shifts from the 4-7 slot can make a really noticeable difference, in fact making the difference between meeting the PowerMove challenge and not meeting it: 13.7% to 10.4% in the two days you cite.

Hope it’s continuing for you? Plus, now the cold weather is just around the corner, we need, if we possibly can to eat warm food and stay warm.

all the best…