We have solar panels and battery but still find the target for 4-7pm impossible during winter months. Eating a meal with lights during this time is essential to our lifestyle and not worth trying to win the £20 discount. So this is no incentive! Reduction of total daily electricity usage would work better for our household and the planet!!!

The incentive is to reduce usage between 4 and 7 because that is when most electricity is drawn and the extra usage means that some of the electricity needs to come from non clean sources. So by moving use from those times helps the environment and help prevent power cuts during these times.

As long as you have LED light bulbs there is no need to sit in the dark!

We have solar panels, air-sourced heat-pump, loads of insulation so are doing our bit for “the environment“. I only use the washing-machine and dish-washer when the sun is up and don’t have a hope in hell of achieving  the target. However I recently started using the tumble-dryer and changed the heating to go off between 4 & 7, meaning. that it works overtime the rest of the day. This should allow me to get my bonus, but at the cost of being terribly environmentally-unfriendly!

Another example of governmental joined-up thinking!

I’m no fan if this (or most other) government interventions but this isn’t a government scheme. This and other peak reduction schemes are intended to explore how people react to the ability to reduce peak use as that is when high carbon generation is needed. 
I think eventually we will arrive at a time when energy will be priced depending on consumption which some already supply as ‘time of use’ tariffs

What size of battery @ian_harrow? we've a 10kwh and have no issues getting under the target. Even with eating dinner and small children. 

We just avoid using the white goods between 4-7 

Hi @Hundon19 the power consumption would have been measured as taken from the grid. It also compares to your normal use during that time

Yes, this would have skewed the figures. You will have been importing less during the day when you were generating even if you were actually using more. I have solar panels and had the same issue but it was fortunately counteracted as I have an electric car which charges at night time.  I missed out on my power move payment in February because basically I didn’t use the car a lot that month! 

Thanks for those comments.  It sounds like my suspicions were correct - whilst daytime use may have been subsidised or even nullified by the solar generation, any usage after dark (4pm to 7pm in winter) would almost immediately put us into the red, so to speak. I suggest a fairer gauge on people “trying to do the right thing” would perhaps be to incorporate and compare a historic usage pattern of this evening time period, rather than just daytime / evening time, if we were trying to shift the population’s consumption behaviour on behalf of the National Grid. Shouldn’t be that difficult if smart meter data is already being used for the daily calculation - surely a spreadsheet calculation. Though if this was to become a permanent national thing even this wouldn’t work after, say,  a year as you would be comparing this years’ attempt against last years already modified behaviour. Oh well.

I have a small 2.4kW battery (24 volt 100AH LiFePo4) which effectively means 1.8kW, and ten year old solar panels with Fronius inverter. Between 4PM and 8AM (winter darkness hours) we average 100Wh which the battery handles, so we buy a total of something under 0.1kWh for those 16 hours, effectively zero.
 

During the remaining 8 hours between 8AM and 4PM we recharge the battery (1800 Watts) and consume in addition an average of 150 Watts per hour (=1200 Watts). This extra average hourly consumption spread over the month is due to 5 or 6 wash loads at 0.6kWh per (cool) wash, electric cooker top oven 3 or 4 hours per month, a few hours microwave and air fryer, and a couple of sessions with the electric chainsaw and/or the table saw (we have a log burner for winter use). We never use a tumble dryer. The key thing is to avoid that crucial 4-7 segment every day and if possible move some weekend activity from the “invisible” weekend hours to the visible weekday hours (outside the 4-7 segment of course!).

Our total daily household consumption therefore equals around 3kWh. In winter, the solar panels make hardly any contribution, perhaps 20 or 30 kWh for the whole month, so we have to buy around 60 or 70 kWh of electricity per month in winter, depending on which winter month and how dark the daylight weather has been. In the summer months we only buy about 5kWh of electricity per month. 
 

Our winter and summer electricity consumption doesn’t actually vary by very much: we use maybe an extra 400 Wh of a winter evening on extra lighting obviously and perhaps a few extra hours telly, too. We rarely use our big old Sony TV in the living room with the surround speakers and DVD, being quite happy with our modest 32” LED in the conservatory. We are a pair of pensioners living in quite a small mid-terraced house in Sunderland, so I appreciate it’s easier for us to organise our consumption than it is for working folk, but the following are never switched off and the battery handles them fine: mains landline base unit/answering machine plus two additional mains landline handsets, 4 interlinked smoke and CO alarms and 1 additional CO alarm near the combi boiler (the boiler, too, is never switched off, nor its three mains-driven controls in the living room: room stat, timed stat, and timer), mains doorbell push (although not illuminated), router, cooker clock/timer, microwave cooker/clock, electric toothbrush base unit, the two inverters, small Curry’s chest freezer, mid-size Bosch fridge/freezer combination, the yard PIR which after dark operates its associated 4 LED floodlights and porch light when activated, one elderly mechanical timer on the battery charger, plus all the various neon indicators on switches, FCUs etc. and our two iPads and mobile ‘phones are always being charged up at some stage during the day or night.; we did ditch the mains clock years ago, horrified at what it was costing us every year. 
 

We don’t have an electric shower, and apart from when we run the combi for DHW we don’t use its pump at all: we have the log burner in winter for heat and also for cooking on. So our winter and summer purchasing of electricity is differentiated only by how much contribution towards our daily 3kWh usage the solar panels make each day. In summer they can generate 2100 Watts during bright sunshine, maybe 18kWh a day, and in winter they can vary from a (fortunately rare) 0kWh daily to an average of perhaps 0.5 kWh in December to maybe 3.5kWh in February. This September we’ve only so far bought 12kWh in total, so the PV panels have contributed well.
 

I would heartily recommend anyone with solar panels to get a storage battery and a small secondary battery driven inverter to power their house at night if yiu can possibly afford it. It’ll cost a lot more than any £10 monthly Power Move dividend, but what a saving over time.  We’ve only been able to afford to do this 6 months ago, and my goodness me, what a difference.

But even without panels or battery, you don’t have to sit in the cold and dark between 4-7, not even eating! 4-7 is 12.5% of the 24 hours, so just using your hourly average in that segment is fine, saving big hitting stuff for weekday usage outside that 4-7 slot. Is there perhaps a Saturday washload you can do on a Friday around 7PM? Or a Sunday baking session you can do around 8PM on a Friday evening? Maybe iron the children’s school uniforms on a Thursday evening if you have spare uniform sets? 
 

And of course it’s nit a question of *increasing* consumption overall, that’d be totally counterproductive! Rather, for the purpose of the Peer Move exercise, moving consumption around a bit, time-shifting as it were.  And for the curious, we did experiment with switching as much as possible off at night,but our secondary inverter hates it when household consumption drops to zero, it appears to panic and keeps buying 20 or 30 Watts as if to reassure itself it’s still alive! Quite what it does with those Watts I have no idea! But we find it’s better to keep a constant “vampire” consumption going in the house for those periods when the fridge or freezer motors aren’t kicking in, and the inverter sensibilities aren’t offended! It seems to be happy to constantly buying 4 Watts to offset low usage rather than being randomly startled with sudden zero household demand. Must be something to do with the reduced sensitivity of its clamp-on CT at ultra-low consumption figures of less than, say, 20 watts.

Good luck everybody, and for goodness’ sake don’t even attempt to sit in the dark and cold during 4-7. It won’t actually help much towards your 12.5% target in any case, as you'll be doing little else than just mimicking your sleep time consumption! Similarly for being away on holiday, say, for a week: how would that mean that the 4-7 slot was using less than 12.5% of the daily slots?!

And remember the Autumn Power Move is more generous, at 13.5%. 
 

I shall carry on with my previous policy of using the washing-machine and tumble dryer after 8:00pm in order to get the reward DURING THE TRIAL, and revert to the more environmentally sound idea of using them during daylight hours because the scheme does not take solar panels into account.  So I am being encouraged to be less-environmentally-friendly!

@Jeremy_T i know exactly what you mean, such a shame not to be utilising your PV during daylight hours for washer and tumbler.
 

Mind you, up here in NE England I’m lucky now in late September to be getting any contribution over about 400 Watts from my relatively small array. In the afternoons, at any rate, this morning the panels were producing around one kW for a while, so I ran down the garden and wielded my little electric chainsaw for 20 minutes (had to buy 0.14 kWh for the session, but not bad). We’ve just done a wash load now actually 3.05 - 3.30 PM and, with the aid of 600 Watts from my small battery plus the 400-odd Watts from the roof PV we’ve only had to buy 0.22 kWh, so that’s not too bad and, being outside the 4-7 segment, will still “contribute” quite a bit to my 12.5% target. Of course, for the next hour or so (3.30-4.30 PM) I’ll now be racing to re-charge the few hundred Watts the battery has lost, before the already low sun sinks further, and preferably most of it before 4PM.  The total purchased today since midnight is 0.46 kWh as it’s been quite sunny (for Sunderland!) but I’m happy enough with that, and, as you say, gives me a bit of leeway towards achieving the 12.5% target. Swings and roundabouts! I suppose as long as one ensures that the 4-7 segment at the very least doesn’t exceed a customary “normal” 3 hour average for your household (my own “normal” daytime average is usage of 150 Watt-hours, so around 0.5 kWh for the 4-7 segment. Apart from Winter, though, I would expect a lot of that to be covered by PV and/or by batter); then any raised usage outside the 4-7 slot will help hold it down to 12.5%.

Not being very clear, but hope that makes some kind of sense?!

I guess as you say it’s a question of experimenting. I’m now sold on the idea of reckoning up at regular intervals during the month my rolling totals and getting a shrewd idea of how the month is progressing, and I’ll definitely be doing that for October.
 

Good that you look like you’ll come in nicely for September…good luck…

While Powermove plus seems great, I am interested to see how it fits with my solar PV. If peak sunshine is at hours of high consumption should I still time my use for these, or move it back to using the grid? Admittedly these are not likely conflicts this time of year, but in summer…

Hi @PhilHollington are you talking about solar PV plus battery? Otherwise I’m not sure how you can move your usage. 
Generally, those with solar and battery tend to combine usage in these events to minimise grid power at that time. 
We also don’t tend to see any power saving events during summer as overall demand is less. If you’re interested in helping to reduce peak demand and emissions, in my own view it’s better to utilise your tech mainly during peak times although you can also check the forecast emissions levels via NGC ESO

No, just the solar PV.

If you limit your solar PV feed, without any storage capability you are ‘losing’ that free energy

Should have added that I have a gizmo that diverts excess energy to the hot water tank

If it’s excess energy, then presumably the house is catered for and you’re not pulling from the grid at that point anyway. 

I have solar but no batteries, I work from home and my husband is retired

We do all our washing and dishwasher and hoovering when it's light outside

We have a hot cooked lunch and a later evening snack

We use about 25% of out energy during the relevant time, just living life no "jobs" so tv, lights, heating etc

There isn't anyway I can cut it as my big use (during the day) doesn't count

Am I right?

Hi @Katymac, Yes and No!

It’s extremely unlikely that your solar panels cover ALL your daytime usage, so you are probably still buying some electricity from the grid especially in the winter?  If that is the case, then you could well benefit from joining Power Move.

I have the sane problem as Katymac. We have solar panels but no battery. We use the dishwasher and washing machine either overnight or while the solar panels are producing electricity. We don't use the oven or kettle during the peak times and rarely use the microwave. All our light bulbs are LED and very often I avoid putting lights on to move around the house.

We don't seem to be able to hit the target and can't understand why.

Any tips would be very useful as I now feel why bother

I know nothing about solar panels I’m afraid but I’m thinking as its free to join and there's no penalty for not reaching the target you could give it a go and see. 

I have solar panels too so, particularly in Summer, it would be almost impossible for me to do it as I import virtually nothing during the day. Fortunately for me, I also have an EV which uses about a third of my total energy use and charges outside of the power move times so it brings me back in line. Even without an EV, you might do it during the winter.

Go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose so if you do it you do it, if you don’t you don’t. 

Sorry I am doing it and it's saying I use 25% of my energy then

It’s nigh on impossible with solar panels and batteries -  you are already switching what electric you use by having batteries. We managed it last month(just).  Solar gives a false impression. I never use washing machine, dryer or dishwasher between 4 and 7.  The boiler is on at that time and I had to use either microwave or Ninja for meals.  

We have solar panels with a battery & we’ve hit target every time so far. We joined power move part way through September & managed to get a credit. It was sunny & the battery helped. Now, it is cloudy or dull most of the time, the battery hardly fully charges, & the grid is supplying a chunk of our electricity. 
In October we got the full credit, with 7.5% power move switch, & we’ve just got the November credit, but with 12.77%. It’s taken a bit of juggling to achieve - but having a solar system battery has not really helped as the battery hadn’t been charging very well because the weather where I live has been pretty drab. It’s also been very cold, & having just had my gas central heating properly fixed I’m now making use of it so my usage is up a bit due to the electrical bits of it - pump etc. - that we obviously haven’t had to use until now. 

We do the things other people do - keep everything inessential out of the 4 to 7 slot. Hot dinners eaten at lunch time, washing machine used in the morning, phones & laptops charged out of the 4 to 7 slot, we have the heating on 3 times a day - getting up time, 2 to 4, then 7 to 9, if needed. Hot water we try to do 7 to 8 & wash up when it’s hot - we don’t have a dish washer. 
Showers etc taken in the morning. We use energy intensive things like the toaster & air fryer etc out of the 4 to 7 slot. I cook extra so each meal I cook lasts at least 2 days so I just have to use a heat cooking source once, or I batch cook & freeze portions. We make a flask or two of tea to drink during the day & evening so we’re not putting the kettle on. 
We don’t watch tv much at all - just streaming via a PlayStation & we do that from 2 to 4 (hubby works nights). The PlayStation is pretty power hungry. 
And I try to keep a rough idea of what my usage figures are as we go through the month.