Power Move for low users

Hello @AilitaV, Low users who are already struggling financially have my heartfelt sympathy. Today’s political climate in the UK has fostered a thoroughly inequitable energy burden on less well off folk. 

However, I do think OVO have come up with a good initiative in Power Move. I believe Power Move Plus is harder for low users to achieve (dropping usage by even a tiny amount of, say, 0.2 kWh for an hour is an impossible target if you’re only using 0.15 kWh anyway; let alone a target drop of 0.5 kWh or 1kWh, that really does not apply to low users). 
 

But Power Move is a different thing altogether, yes, difficult to meet for low users, but the proposition is that whatever your weekday usage is, be it small, medium, or large, ensure that during 4-7PM on a weekday (weekends and bank holidays don’t count, so we can relax a bit then!), you use no more than your average usage in any other 3 hour weekday slot. The “weekday” here means the 24-hour weekday, of course. So, if your weekday usage is, say, 1.2 kWh on average per day (which will be averaged out over the 19 weekdays of December…we’ve had 11 of them so far, 12 if you count today, Tuesday 19th), which is a phenomenally low usage, that averages out to 150 Wh over each of the 8 three-hour weekday periods, awake, asleep, day or night.  That is the target to aim for within the 4-7 slot to achieve the Power Move Target for December…in fact at 13.5% you can even be a tiny bit more generous and go to 160 Wh during that crucial 4-7 slot. So, even if you have such a really small weekday consumption (it doesn't directly matter for Power Move how much you use between midnight Friday and midnight Sunday), it might be possible to achieve the magic figure of 150-ish Wh over the 4-7 slot, say, 50 Wh per hour. There’s been some great advice here on the specifics of how to drop consumption even lower than that. My own feeling is that in modern times, a daily electricity usage of anything below 2kWh would be an impossibly big ask. Even with PV panels and a battery, dark UK winter days are, to say the least, difficult; something around 3-6kWh per day is more normal “low” usage I’m guessing. Don’t tell me you’re now going to say your daily electricity usage is below 2kWh?! Anyway, whatever your usage, Power Move works on percentages, not absolute values, so it’s for everyone.

Although weekend (and Bank Holiday) consumption doesn’t directly impact for Power Move purposes, indirectly it could have a bearing: if you’re doing tasks over the weekend, any electrical task no matter how small that could possibly be moved to a weekday (outside the 4-7 slot, obvs!!), then do that. Anything to make your 4-7 slot “look good”. 
 

£15 a month is a hugely important target for me to aim for, as I’m a low user and 50-odd free kWh of electricity a month is a major deal for me (or, put another way, cancelling out a month’s worth of the iniquitous standing charge). So I’m all for OVO giving me this chance. But, it’s not worth sitting in the dark or cold for, or risking your physical health and mental well-being over, and most definitely not during cold winter months when we can become debilitated and depressed without even noticing it. 
 

It would be great if you could give us, say, at least a week’s worth of your daily electricity usage (in kWh, not in £) including at least one weekend, and an idea of anything you might use 4-7 other than your one LED bulb you mention, your doorbell transformer (we used to switch off our doorbell transformer when we went to bed, but switching it off at 4PM might not be convenient), your fridge/freezer(s).  You mention a small electric heater, I hope that is enough for you to stay comfortably warm? If your heater is clicking in and out over your 4-7 period, that unfortunately would be enough to be a problem. Somebody also queried your kettle usage, is it an electric kettle you use or a gas hob kettle…you mention warming a hot water bottle. 
 

Finally, and I hesitate to say this, but mathematically if you were to spend an extra £5 monthly on electricity during a weekday (outside 4-7 of course), say switching your boiler back on from, say, 2 until 3.30 PM, then that would, financially speaking, be worth your while if it nudges your 4-7 weekday slot usage down under 13.5%. As you say, you’d have to be ultra strict in monitoring this or you’d just be spending an extra fiver for nothing. Except to be more comfortable of an evening, especially if you’re WFH! And yes, it’s counter intuitive to be burning more fossil fuel overall instead of less, and I am indeed lost in awe of your single-minded reduction in your usage (well done you), but the spirit of this exercise is to move usage outside the 4-7 slot weekday slot, which you wouldn’t actually be countermanding, If that’s the right word? Any rate, you wouldn’t be contravening the underlying rationale of Power Move, similarly for moving stuff out of the “invisible” weekends to visible weekday slots. 
 

We fellow consumers on this forum are rooting for you, if there is any way at all we can share experiences to help each other out, especially low consumption users, then rest assured we will do so…and all the very best of luck to you at this holiday time. Do let us know how you are getting on with that paper and pencil!  Your in-home display should help if you examine its daily, weekly and monthly figures using kWh (not £).  
 

EDIT:    And cheers @Nukecad, great post above…I’d typed my response here before I’d had a chance to read your post, exactly the sort of specifics that I was thinking of, expressed very well by you, with great advice from yourself…

Steve, I’m afraid you’re confusing the issue a bit. Your tricks for reducing consumption for an hour or so will certainly help to earn a reward for a Power Move Plus challenge. At the same time, you’ll be demonstrating that it is possible (a) to get people to reduce their demand for electricity at times when the grid might otherwise struggle to meet it, and (b) to get people to do this with just a few hours’ notice.

@AilitaV is having trouble meeting the Power Move target of getting her consumption between 4PM and 7PM below the (current) 13.5% threshold. This is a different exercise with a different purpose, and despite what several customers have written in this thread, it’s very much worth it for (particularly) low users. The £15 reward is enough to pay the standing charge for a whole household.

I’ve mentioned this often before: check how much electricity you’re using between, say, 2:30AM and 5:30AM on an ordinary day. This is likely to be a good indicator of your essential background usage, and it’s a good target to aim for for the 4-7PM slot. 

Not to forget, of course, that the Power Move challenge applies to weekdays only. It will be easier to meet if any power-heavy usage can be shifted from the weekend to, say, a weekday morning. That might be washing or hoovering, for example. It won’t affect your total consumption, but it would increase your chances of meeting the target for weekday 4-7PM consumption.

Last, a word about the hot-water bottles and electric blankets Ailita mentioned. To heat up 1.4l of water (the capacity of my hot-water bottle) to 60º takes about 80Wh of electricity. That’s enough to keep a small electric blanket going for four hours. You’d need less than a quarter of that just to get the bed nice and warm before crawling in. 

You haven’t mentioned hot water - where does this come from? Electric water heaters of any type are real energy guzzlers, to be used with extreme caution.

Sorry, if I’m confusing people.  I didn’t mean to!!!  I though was saying that I can get up to 95% savings for the odd hour long one off (Power Move Plus/DFS) events; it’s a little challenging, but for a couple of quid it’s just about worthwhile.   But, several of my techniques don’t work for much longer than an hour, and doing them every weekday would definitely be tedious, so achieving the Power Move target isn’t that easy for me, and I’ve never made it.  The situation and possible solutions for everybody will different.  I just hope that my techniques described in my previous contribution might be useful to others.  Is there any milage in people who have Smart Thermostats, slighting increasing their house and/or water temperatures from 3pm till 4pm (on weekdays), and returning to normal at 4pm, then no energy should needed to heat them for at least an hour???

Not too much hassle for me luckily, these are the things I always do by default. ^^; Which is why it’s so hard to lower it.

What’s Power Move Plus? And any reward is welcome!

I have an electric water boiling machine. I assume that’s a kettle? I don’t use it between 4 & 7. I use it twice a week to boil water for coffee - only exactly enough water for 1 cup! I also use it as needed to fill my warm water bottle, which is roughly 2-3 times per week (during winter only), after 11pm.

The tip about using during the week is good, I didn’t know it didn’t count weekends. I may sometimes randomly wash on the weekend, and I usually shower Friday night, so I’ll pay attention to do these things during the week instead.

What’s a heated throw? Is it more efficient than my heater? Is it cheap to buy?

After 11pm, evening tariff kicks in, which is much cheaper than daytime tariff.

In August, I had 120 kWh for the month, however that was before I turned off the boiler and started taking more extreme measures. In winter, unfortunately it’s much more. In October, I had 200 kWh. December is not looking good for me at all.. Unfortunately, I easily get cold. The heater is pretty much the main culprit I think. And any time I shower or use the washing machine, my usage spikes up for that day. £15 would help massively yes, since I usually pay £60-80.

What’s background energy use?

Thank you for your tips, I really appreciate it.

1. I don’t have a laptop, and I do make sure to charge my phone only at 11pm, only for as long as needed, which is once or twice a week for 10-20 minutes.
2. What’s a thermostat on the fridge? Is that to say how cold the fridge is? Are you saying I can safely reduce the fridge temperature without risking to spoil the food?
3. I only use my electric heater when it’s too cold not to, and I turn it off as soon as I start to feel comfortable. I try to have it on as little as possible during the 4-7 period, but unfortunately I still need it, I get cold easily.
4. Don’t have a television alas.
5. This I could consider. Is there no health risk with having a candle on next to you for an extended period of time? And a torch - like the little portable light? I do have a desk lamp that I use (instead of my main light), is there something more efficient than that?
6. I do use the bathroom & kitchen light from time to time. I’m pretty sure they’re all LED. I found the packaging, it says: Energizer LED GLS, 4.9v, 5kWh / 1000h. Is that good or nah?

When you say 30W, is that 30kWh used over the month? Sorry, I’m really bad with this sort of stuff. I believe it’s my heater, washing machine, and shower that use by far the most.

What is an EV?

I’m also electric only.

I suppose I should make sure to eat only after 7 when possible, that could help.

Don’t have a tumble dryer or dishwasher, and I only use the washing machine once every two weeks after 11pm.

I understand I’m not the ideal target for this offer, but £15 would be really nice, so I really want to try.