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Power Move - spring challenge

Power Move - spring challenge
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Firedog
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March’s challenge is now over, since there aren’t any eligible days left. This was the result for me in graphic detail:
  

 

In case that makes no sense, this might help:

  • The red worm indicates the day-to-day peak period usage, rising to 3.2 kWh by yesterday.
  • The pale green line shows 11.5% of my total weekday consumption to date, while the dark line shows 14.5%, the ceiling above which no reward will be earned.
  • The green line shows how my performance (measured by the peak period’s percentage of total usage) changes from day to day. It fluctuates wildly in the first few days, because a change in usage for one day has a greater effect when there are only a few days in the calculation. It soon settles down to a gentle wobble as the month progresses. The arrowhead at the end of the line points to the final result, reproduced in the top right-hand corner of the image. 
  • The green line’s value at 15 March was 4.568%. The mid-month email told me “Your average use during peak times is 4.57%”, so spot on give or take a Wh or two.
  • The height of the curves stays at Friday’s level over the (pale blue) weekends, because there’s no change in weekday consumption.

 

Next quarter will be interesting. My consumption has hitherto leapt at 7PM, because (a) the kettle is boiled, (b) the laptop starts charging up again, (c) a couple more lights get switched on and (d) most significantly, the TV is switched on for the Channel 4 news. My aged TV is quite capable of drawing up to 100W, so it’s a major factor. I wonder if I can get used to not watching the news until 10PM. I’m quite happy to delay cooking until 9PM, if it happens to be a hot meal day.

Half-hourly weekday usage for the whole period looks like this:
  


It’s clear that the main driver of my low percentage is the daily (electric) shower between 8:30 and 10:30. Usage in the peak period isn’t much more than it is during the quiet hours of the night.
  

Excel is brilliant at producing visual representations of data like these:
  

PS A click on an image should reveal a larger picture.

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
waltyboy
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Nice clear charts…and impressive figures, too.  A spreadsheet is indeed invaluable at highlighting patterns and tracking goals, apart from happily munching data, and these charts demonstrate that brilliantly…cheers…

 

EDIT: Oh, and admirably low usage is clearly and reassuringly no bar in itself to achieving Power Move targets, given consistently low peak hours usage, plus stratagems such as that regular morning splurge of power

Walt. 2013 installation 3.2kW PV East/West + Fronius IG, >23MWh (18MWh exported). 2023 2.4kWh LiFePo4 battery
Firedog
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… these charts demonstrate that brilliantly…cheers…

 

Thanks! I’m willing as always to share the Excel file. If that’s not so appealing, then an alternative is just to pass the data to me and I can easily plug them in to produce similar charts for anyone interested. It’s easy enough to paste them (as plain text, e.g. CSV) into a PM to me at https://forum.ovoenergy.com/members/firedog-3673 

  

... stratagems such as that regular morning splurge of power

 

You might call it a stratagem, but to me it’s a natural common task in the daily round - I would rarely think of having a shower between 4 and 7PM, except perhaps if I’d got myself dirty during the day.

A shower like this is equivalent to baking a frozen pizza or a plate of oven chips, tasks which could be moved from the peak period but probably not without causing some hardship. If I were in that situation, I’d balance the value of the reward against the discomfort earning it might cause. For a household struggling with the electricity bill, the reward would undoubtedly be worth it. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to keep track of the percentage from day to day; it could well be that delaying (or advancing) oven activity would only have to happen a few times during the month to get the percentage into the reward-earning field. 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
waltyboy
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Thank you, that is an extremely kind and generous offer…

Walt. 2013 installation 3.2kW PV East/West + Fronius IG, >23MWh (18MWh exported). 2023 2.4kWh LiFePo4 battery
waltyboy
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I’d be surprised if nobody takes up this offer of @Firedog ? It could well amount to a “get a tenner with every offer” special, if it helps people achieve their target!  Noel will recall how, when he advised me via some kind PM exchanges back in November, I took him up on this very offer for November 2023. Without it I wouldn’t have had the first idea of how to go about attempting to cobble together my own (rather inelegant compared to Noel’s) iNumbers spreadsheet for iPad.  For example, at one time back then I what been attempting via Glowmarkt data to calculate Power Move based on my day starting at 0030 instead of 0000!  
 

So, apart from concentrating the mind on current Power Move for a particular month, it does provide a spur to thinking about how to play around at manipulating usage data tailored to one’s own preferences. Now I would find it hard to envisage monitoring my usage data (let alone attempting Power Move) without the ease and “instantaneousness” of my spreadsheet.

 

Highly recommended!

Walt. 2013 installation 3.2kW PV East/West + Fronius IG, >23MWh (18MWh exported). 2023 2.4kWh LiFePo4 battery
Y

I live alone and spent the winter with only one light and the TV on during the ‘critical’ hours.

I never wash/dry in the evenings, appliances are switched off at the wall (except for fridge/freezer), the oven is rarely switched on, if I spend any time away from home the gas is switched to holiday mode...yet I still did not hit the target.

I felt like someone living in poverty. 

Tron Burgundy
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I live alone and spent the winter with only one light and the TV on during the ‘critical’ hours.

I never wash/dry in the evenings, appliances are switched off at the wall (except for fridge/freezer), the oven is rarely switched on, if I spend any time away from home the gas is switched to holiday mode...yet I still did not hit the target.

I felt like someone living in poverty. 

Your telly might be like mine and uses loads of power.  Mine’s old compact fluorescent lit.  When I got my free Tapo plugs I found out it uses 130 watts and really messed with the figures for hitting targets.

In February I looked at how my progress was going and could see I’d get nothing.  I did a load more washing outside the peak time and the extra expense more than paid for itself because I got back more than what the washing cost with the £15.

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

waltyboy
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Hi @Yebrok, Good point that @Tron Burgundy makes about the telly…and of course in general if your consumption is consistently low and flat across all of the 24 hour weekday period, that’s no good for Power Move. It doesn’t reward low consumption, only low consumption in the critical 3 hour period. For example, if you’re (commendably) a low user anyway throughout the day (or, as you say, if you’re away from home anyway), Power Move will be unlikely to reward you.  The trick is to be seen to have clearly shifted consumption away from the critical period to the non-critical weekday period. 

You have to make your key three-hour weekday period “look good” compared to the rest of the 21 hours in the weekday. It’s all averaged out over the month, so one or two wobbly weekdays don’t necessarily matter as long as they’re compensated for at some point during the month…there are 21 weekdays in April (bank holidays and weekends don’t count) to have a good go at! So more than sitting in semi-darkness with just the telly and a single light which all helps of course, it’s just as important to run some tasks in the weekday (outside the critical period, of course!) that maybe you would have saved to the weekend. Or just grab the bull by the horns and run some extra hoovering or washing or oven jobs (in the weekday) just to make that critical period look nice and low by comparison: after all, if you get things right, those extra tasks will all have run on “free” electricity, paid for by Power Move. 
 

It is supposed to be getting into Spring now, hopefully, but don’t attempt to sit and move around in semi darkness and without heating, it honestly doesn’t save that much and probably won’t impact on Power Move, and is definitely not recommended for one’s comfort or peace of mind!

 

Loads of folk on here have been keen to come up with ideas, if you’ve got any particular sticking points or specific queries, do come back to us…for example are you checking your half hourly weekday usage stats every day or two in your OVO account pages? That’s one of the most important things, because just checking your in-home display (IHD) every now and again is not enough to spot usage trends.

 

And…don’t make yourself miserable over this, not worth it! But, if we can get a few pounds extra in the month, for helping Grid usage as well as ourselves, so much the better!
 

EDIT…Oh yes, and of course you’ll remember that the critical weekday evening peak hours period from April onwards is 6 - 9, (not the winter 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock period)…all the best…

Walt. 2013 installation 3.2kW PV East/West + Fronius IG, >23MWh (18MWh exported). 2023 2.4kWh LiFePo4 battery
Nukecad
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Dont forget that as well as the change of the 3 target hours from 4-7 to 6-9 the maximum that you can be rewarded has also reduced from £15 to £10.

These changes will make some decide that it is no longer worth the effort which is understandable.

By the same token the 6-9 target hours may be more achieveable for some.

But if you can't meet the PM targets then so what?

Think of it as a game - one that you don't have to take part in.

The new targets start tomorrow, so if you are taking part in the new game then on your marks, get set, ….

Today I have zero energy, I plan on going back to bed.
W
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I’ve just signed up for Charge Anytime.  Do you know if that will take into account the Power Move timings? i.e. if I plug my car in at 6pm, it definitely won’t start charging until 9 even if it’s a ‘green’ day.

I am pretty sure it doesn’t do this.  I have emailed a feature request to OVO to add a feature to the app to allow you to set times when you don’t want car to charge.  The way charge anytime works for me (using the Renault app as opposed to a charger app) means that the control over charging is confined to the Charge Anytime app so to stop car charging at peak time I need to ensure car is unplugged.  As I have previously posted, since December I have only not got charge once when putting in a schedule with a short timeframe say 1 hour 30 mins.  if I set a time window on the car it stops it charging as soon as I plug it in (if the time I set is not now obvs) but charge anytime over rides that timer and charges when it wants to, then sets a new timer if my target % < 100% I guess to prevent the car starting charging again.
 

 

W
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I’ve just signed up for Charge Anytime.  Do you know if that will take into account the Power Move timings? i.e. if I plug my car in at 6pm, it definitely won’t start charging until 9 even if it’s a ‘green’ day.

I am pretty sure it doesn’t do this.  I have emailed a feature request to OVO to add a feature to the app to allow you to set times when you don’t want car to charge.  The way charge anytime works for me (using the Renault app as opposed to a charger app) means that the control over charging is confined to the Charge Anytime app so to stop car charging at peak time I need to ensure car is unplugged.  As I have previously posted, since December I have only not got charge once when putting in a schedule with a short timeframe say 1 hour 30 mins.  if I set a time window on the car it stops it charging as soon as I plug it in (if the time I set is not now obvs) but charge anytime over rides that timer and charges when it wants to, then sets a new timer if my target % < 100% I guess to prevent the car starting charging again.
 

On a more positive note focussing on charging my PHEV on non peak hours Mon to Fri has got me rebates in January and February without doing any other time shifting.  The move from 4-7 to 6-9 will help us as any oven cooking of our tea will be off peak (we are retired so tend to eat at 5)

Biggest pain is getting car to charge at right time on Sunday night/ Monday morning and avoiding peak time - Hence feature request. It’s easy to use Friday up to midnight as my weekly 100% charge.  I guess I need to watch out for the BST issue to ensure I get the right time period.

 

Firedog
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A quick question for all those keenly tracking their usage by the half-hour: have you had the data for 31 March?

I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean to say they won’t arrive at some stage. Clock-change day is always awkward, because our meters and the entire energy industry stick to GMT all year round, so there’s a brief hiccup at the start and end of BST. The data table for these days has always been a bit of a mess, so perhaps they’re still trying to make it look right.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
W
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On a more positive note focussing on charging my PHEV on non peak hours Mon to Fri has got me rebates in January and February without doing any other time shifting.  The move from 4-7 to 6-9 will help us as any oven cooking of our tea will be off peak (we are retired so tend to eat at 5)

Biggest pain is getting car to charge at right time on Sunday night/ Monday morning and avoiding peak time - Hence feature request. It’s easy to use Friday up to midnight as my weekly 100% charge.  I guess I need to watch out for the BST issue to ensure I get the right time period.

W
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A quick question for all those keenly tracking their usage by the half-hour: have you had the data for 31 March?

I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean to say they won’t arrive at some stage. Clock-change day is always awkward, because our meters and the entire energy industry stick to GMT all year round, so there’s a brief hiccup at the start and end of BST. The data table for these days has always been a bit of a mess, so perhaps they’re still trying to make it look right.

as you can see I have two half hours which I guess will actually be from today if my reading of the BST/universal time issue is correct

Firedog
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I have two half hours which I guess will actually be from today if my reading of the BST/universal time issue is correct
 

That’s obviously unusual, and it’s anybody’s guess which day (or indeed which hour) those two half-hours belong to. We’ll give them a couple more days …

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
waltyboy
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A quick question for all those keenly tracking their usage by the half-hour: have you had the data for 31 March?

Usually I get my daily data from Glowmarkt, but there were some anomalous readings when I tried around 10 this morning (loads of 31 March HH readings showing 65 kWh!). But n3rgy data (energy import consumption) for 31st March download at around 10AM this morning seems to have worked fine :

 

024-03-30 23:300.0012024-03-31 00:000.0022024-03-31 00:300.0032024-03-31 01:000.0012024-03-31 01:300.0012024-03-31 02:000.0012024-03-31 02:300.0012024-03-31 03:000.0012024-03-31 03:300.0012024-03-31 04:000.0012024-03-31 04:300.0012024-03-31 05:000.0012024-03-31 05:300.0012024-03-31 06:000.0022024-03-31 06:300.02024-03-31 07:000.02024-03-31 07:300.02024-03-31 08:000.02024-03-31 08:300.02024-03-31 09:000.02024-03-31 09:300.02024-03-31 10:000.02024-03-31 10:300.02024-03-31 11:000.02024-03-31 11:300.02024-03-31 12:000.02024-03-31 12:300.0012024-03-31 13:000.02024-03-31 13:300.02024-03-31 14:000.02024-03-31 14:300.02024-03-31 15:000.02024-03-31 15:300.02024-03-31 16:000.02024-03-31 16:300.02024-03-31 17:000.02024-03-31 17:300.0012024-03-31 18:000.02024-03-31 18:300.0022024-03-31 19:000.0022024-03-31 19:300.0022024-03-31 20:000.0022024-03-31 20:300.0022024-03-31 21:000.0022024-03-31 21:300.0012024-03-31 22:000.0022024-03-31 22:300.0022024-03-31 23:000.0012024-03-31 23:300.0022024-04-01 00:000.001

 

and the Kaifa meter showed the time corrected for BST, when I looked last night at around five minutes past  midnight, which surprised me. So do we take it that the midnight “bits” of data are the “correct date”, so to speak:

 

2024-03-31 23:300.002

2024-04-01 00:000.001

 

EDIT Forgot to say, my 31st Mar figures not yet available from OVO, as at 8PM today 1st Apr

Walt. 2013 installation 3.2kW PV East/West + Fronius IG, >23MWh (18MWh exported). 2023 2.4kWh LiFePo4 battery
Nukecad
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A quick question for all those keenly tracking their usage by the half-hour: have you had the data for 31 March?

…..

The data table for these days has always been a bit of a mess, so perhaps they’re still trying to make it look right.

 

I didn’t have it yesterday, but it’s there today and the OVO portal handles/displays the hour change fairly well.

Firstly 01:00 and 01:30 are correctly ‘skipped’ and not there:
 

Then to keep that column length the same as usual an extra 12:00am and 12:30am are show at the bottom with no usage figures just a dash:
(I’d have just put a dash for the times as well rather than repeating the ‘12:00am and 12:30am’ times, but probably the coding doesn’t easily allow that).

The usage figures for 12:00pm and 12:30pm are at the top of the second column as normal:


 

 

Today I have zero energy, I plan on going back to bed.
Firedog
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it’s there today ...

 

Yep, I get just the same this morning (but no readings at time of writing, 1030A). This is just the same as last year’s presentation (26 March 2023) and indeed every GMT>BST change day for the past few years*, even before the switch (for me) from Apollo to Orion in 2020. So no change yet. Tomorrow will be interesting …
  

[OT I notice that the clocks also changed on 31 March 2019. However, the last time it happened the last day of the quarter in a leap year was in 1996, and it probably won’t happen again until 2052. I wonder where we’ll be then?]

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
K

Power Move is a complete rip off! I'm on only in my one bed flat during the evening and the only thing running continuously is my small fridge freezer. The TV is on for maybe an hour at most at night and I use my kettle and toaster in the morning.  No way does this use that much electric. My monthly bill is usually around £40, and most of that is the rip off standing charges!!

Blastoise186
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Power Move is a complete rip off! I'm on only in my one bed flat during the evening and the only thing running continuously is my small fridge freezer. The TV is on for maybe an hour at most at night and I use my kettle and toaster in the morning.  No way does this use that much electric. My monthly bill is usually around £40, and most of that is the rip off standing charges!!

It sounds like your usage is far too flat here. You need to move usage around rather than maintaining a flat profile all day.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
ChristopherS_OVO
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Hi @k1tto58,

 

The Power Move Challenge is designed to reward customers who work on shifting their energy usage outside of core times. It helps release pressure on the national grid during peak times. You can find more information in our frequently asked questions.  

If you typically have a very low daily usage, hitting the targets can be more difficult as you are already on the lower end. 

 

Sadly, when it comes to standing charges, we all need to pay for the upkeep of the energy infrastructure. This is similar to when a driver has to pay road tax to maintain the roads they drive on. We hope this changes one day! 

 

I hope this helps!

 

Tron Burgundy
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I’ve had no problems hitting all the previous Power Move targets because I understand it.

With the new shift it’s going to be so much harder for me to do it.  Yesterday I made fried chicken around 8pm and my total energy use in the peak was 39% and it took my overall peak usage for the month from 10% to 19%.

This might give insight into how to actually do the move.  Yes, it’s called Power Move.

I don’t think I’ll hit my target this month and I don’t mind and sort of feel like I’ll have a wee holiday from it.  So even though I won’t make it I’m not going to whine and moan about it because I’m doing nothing to get something for free. Because the rules aren’t what I’d ideally like I don’t feel the need to be a mewling child.

Firedog
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I don’t think I’ll hit my target this month ...

 

It’s early days yet. My month started badly, but I’m improving fast:
  

 

A big wash on Thursday morning was enough to halve the percentage. 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
G
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This Spring Power Move is kinda pointless for us. We were hiting the other ones mostly because we moved doing our washing (and drying since it’s been awful weather) from weekends to weekdays after 7pm. But due to working hours etc., no way we can move the washing to before 6pm since we’re not in, and after 9pm is too late to start a load and have it finished before bedtime. So we’re going to skip this one. The OVO reasoning of “we tend to use energy later” as we move towards warmer weather seems odd, since most people I know keep the same schedule all year round. Our working hours don’t change just because it’s getting warmer. Well, allegedly getting warmer. Not much sign of it yet.
 

I do have a question though. I remember late last year a big thing was made of if you sign up for one Power Move Challenge you’ll automatically be signed up for subsequent ones. Now we’re getting emails agin to sign up for thew challenges. What changed? And why?

Nukecad
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... after 9pm is too late to start a load and have it finished before bedtime.

I do have a question though. I remember late last year a big thing was made of if you sign up for one Power Move Challenge you’ll automatically be signed up for subsequent ones. Now we’re getting emails agin to sign up for thew challenges. What changed? And why?

 

Try changing the programme that you wash on.
Most modern machines have a ‘Min 30’ or simlar programme - 30 minutes at 30C -  that is quite sufficent for most loads. (Worn once or twice clothing, etc.)

It’s quicker of course, and you might be amazed at how much less electricity it uses not heating the water to a higher temperature and not doing it multiple times over a couple of hours.
Water comes in at about 20C, so it takes twice as much energy to heat it by 20 degs to 40C than it does to heat it by 10degs to 30C.

Only use the higher temperature, longer, cycles for when they are needed. Which I find is not very often at all and only for heavily soiled items.

Others have changed their washing cycle after I mentioned it here before and agree that a ‘Min 30’ wash is all that is needed for the majority of loads.
If you are sceptical then try it, if you don’t agree then you can always wash them again.

The planet, and your budget, will thank you for using less energy in the washing machine.

As far as the emails; yes I also got such an email, but yes I was signed up automatically anyway.
I think that the ‘Sign up’ emails are just sent out to Smart Metered customers whether they are signed up already or not.

Today I have zero energy, I plan on going back to bed.

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