Power Move Autumn Challenge

Hi @NoelS Good that those sockets will come in handy.

But remember to meet these November and December PowerMove challenges, you don’t necessarily have to switch more and ever more usage from the peak weekday slot of 4-7. It sounds from what you say that you’ve already managed low usage in that peak period?  As this particular challenge is all about working out the 4-7 usage or consumption as a fraction of the consumption in the remaining 21 hours of each weekday, with the aim of hopefully achieving a fraction which works out to 13.5% or less, you may already be more or less there? If you’ve already in previous months switched usage from the crucial peak time, your fraction might already be there or thereabouts without having to take many further measures, if any?

it would be interesting for you to look at your half hourly figures for, say, 1st - 3rd November in your online OVO account usage page and work out the percentage?

Let us know what you think…

I too am a low user, we cook mostly on gas hob and on woodburner, there is nothing for us to move out of the 4-7 slot, as we refuse to sit in the dark without TV, lights, router, devices and ‘phones etc, but we manage to comfortably meet the PowerMove target.

Provided the fraction of weekday 4-7 usage over the remaining weekday 21 hours  usage equates to 13.5% or less, you’re home and dry.

But if we’re doing all we can to move heavy consumption out of the peak period, and still cannot quite achieve the desired percentage, then as @Nukecad says, it’s not worth worrying too much about it. It’s a goal is all, very difficult in the dark months, but any step we can take along that route has got to be a good thing. It’s definitely made me keep a sharper eye on my IHD! 

Here’s a tip for you Abby/OVO 

why not tell me before the autumn power move challenge starts, not over half way through it. 

We did the Power Move in October. What a waste of time!

We switched everything off apart from the fridge. No cooking, washing or anything..

And still ended up with 13.6% of power use 4-7pm

Have concluded its impossible target to meet and given up!

@pauly113 you seem to be missing the point of Power Move, don't  worry you are not the first or only one.

The idea is NOT to reduce your electricity usage overall.

You should use the same - but use less of it between 4pm-7pm and MOVE it so that you use it at other times of the weekdays. (Weekends don't count).

If you don't normally use much electricity between 4-7, eg. if you cook on gas, then yes it will be a struggle to hit the 13.5% target.

Or worse. IIRC Level 12 or possibly 17 of one of the emergency plans that National Grid has, is to basically blackout literally the entire country. I might be thinking of something else though, but I’m sure it was something on the cards last year...

We have given up now !

The 13.5% threshold is way too low

We had to sit in the dark and cold for a month just to get to 13.6%

For targets to be an incentive, they have to be realistic 

If just running our fridge between 4-7pm puts our house over the limit, we might as well all give up now!

We will just need to go to a loan shark to pay our Ovo bill

Yes @pauly113, I can sympathise with how you’re feeling, and as you say for some households it might not seem a realistic target. But not for all households.

I’m just so exercised by the frustrating fact of your being within 0.1% of the target in October!!  But I wouldn’t be happy about sitting in the cold or dark either, no way.  In fact I wouldn’t even consider it.  Anyway, it’s positively dangerous, especially to old geezers like me!  And certainly it’s not something anyone at OVO have advocated.
 

As the 4-7 peak slot represents only 12.5% of your total weekday 24 hours, then to achieve the 13.5% target (and it is only a target, granted, it’s not possible for every household) the aim is to use no more, or only very slightly more, in the 4-7 slot than the average of all the other 3 hour slots in the weekday. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a high or a low user of electricity, it’s the comparison between all the 4-7 totals and all the weekday totals in the month that’s the crucial factor.

For your ‘fridge to be throwing out your percentage, you must be a really really ultra low weekday user (enviably!), so extremely well done on that, and very well done you on getting down to that 13.6% figure in October. Maybe you could shift one or two “invisible” (for the purposes of this Power Move incentives) weekend tasks to weekday(s) if that is possible for you? Not into weekday 4-7, obviously! It wouldn’t be increasing your overall OVO consumption, but it would make your weekday 4-7 slot totals “look good” at month end when compared with overall weekday totals. Even better would be shifting any spare 4-7 weekday usage into the weekday outside the 4-7 slot, as it sounds like you have been doing in fact, but constant or routine basic background stuff like the ‘fridge, CH pump, some LED lighting, router etc. is not worth trying to shift or mess about with.

And you’re absolutely right: no more sitting in the dark or cold, nobody should ask us to do that.

All the very best to you…

Just to add to the good post from @waltyboy 

Obviously I don't know what you have already looked at.

You could investigate what is on during the shift.

There is a huge difference in the efficiency of fridges and freezers for example. Whether they are worth replacing is another matter. Modern routers draw less power, we have recently had our router replaced.

Also the standby power of some older devices isn't great as other posters have noticed.

Basically most new appliances have improved over the last few years when the energy efficiency ratings were updated.

Even those that don't quite make the target are helping longer term. If we can consistently reduce the peak load it has the potential to save billions in electricity infrastructure costs over time, hence reducing costs for everyone.

If the OVO target was too easy it would become unaffordable for OVO which wouldn't help anyone.

HI everybody ss someone new to tis part of the forum.

I have managed to meet the targets so far but I do find it a bit amusing.

This I have done by moving some of the jobs I used to do at the weekend and spreading them through the week eg I used to do all the washing on a Sunday and now do one load a day Monday-Friday.

The Tapo plugs were nice as they save me getting out of bed in the morning to turn the TV on. Not that they actully save me any electricity - instead of the appliances now being off at the mains when not used the Tapo plug/socket  is on.

One small saving I make on regular basis is boil to water before 4pm and put it in flasks for my hot drinks during 4-7. I also cook my meals before 4 and then just heat them up in the microwave when I actually want to eat.