What's the biggest impact changes I can make to my usage to help me hit my Power Move target?

We have worked very hard to use only lights and make the odd cup of tea during the peak hours. I am not happy that we did not qualify for this month. How are others managing to do this? Has anyone actually achieved this target?

Hi @SiSi, can I ask what your total peak hours electricity usage for the month was, as a percentage of your total electricity weekday usage?
 

You understand that I’m not enquiring what your actual total kWh (“units”) usage was for either peak hours or for weekday usage, but rather the proportion of one to t’other, which is how Power Move is calculated.

If you’re only using lights and the occasional cuppa during peak hours, I admire your fortitude! Mind you, the odd cuppa can be hard on electricity consumption…and it also depends on what your usage is on weekdays outside that key 4 - 7 segment. 
 

As @Firedog says, loads of folk do attain the target and there are plenty on here who’re delighted to offer suggestions and ideas…don’t give up yet!  And of course, Power Move is not practical for everyone, but it sounds to me as though you’ve got your Peak Hours consumption well down….

So every month I don’t hit target for discounts as I only have tv and freezer fridge on and everything else is off it is impossible to reduce my usage!!! Big con 

As many people have said on here under the many Power Move conversations it is about MOVING your usage from the peak period, 4pm-7pm, to another time during a weekday. It’s not a con as I understand what is required and I’ve managed to reduce my usage during the peak to about 7-8% for every month since September last year by moving my heavy usage OUTSIDE of the weekday peak to another time on a weekday. Some people try moving their heavy usage to the weekend but this doesn’t help. Some people don’t have any heavy usage to move and for that reason it could be impossible for them to achieve the target in any practical way.

@TonyC I agree with a couple of comments. Solar power can make it more difficult to achieve the Power Move target as it supplies power mainly out of the peak thereby making the in-peak usage look correspondingly larger. A battery, on the other hand, can supply power in the peak period and help you meet the target that way.

Even better you could charge the battery out of peak (cloudy days or during the winter) to use in-peak because that helps you both ways to meet the target. In that sense it would be doing exactly what the Grid is trying to achieve; storing energy outside the peak to use in the peak.

Interesting point concerning the fridge. I wonder if it really makes any difference whether it's on or off for the 3 hours. If it's off then will it use up any energy saved when its turned back on again, or more likely, if it's left on but the door not opened, then it shouldn't need to switch itself on during the three hours. Same logic for a freezer. During power cuts my fridge and freezer stay cold for hours, but they are good ones (Neff).

One day I might experiment with my plug in power monitor. But at my age, life is too short.

We really tried to get our usage down between 4 and 7 but have always been just outside the % required. We have a couple from Ukraine who live in our annexe so we can't tell how much they are using. Also we have solar panels which generate most of the power we use in the morning so have now given up. We always do our washing either in the morning or overnight (economy 7) and have stopped using the oven between 4 and 7. Not much else we could do.

A comment about lighter evenings and warmer spring days:

1. This month (May), I can just about manage without switching any lights on at all until 9PM. And I’ve not missed not switching the television on until 10PM. This whittles away at my peak-hour usage.
2. On the minus side, warmer days and nights have meant that two changes in behaviour militate against meeting the PM target:
     
   1. I’ve managed without switching on the 2kW fan heater to defrost the bathroom before having a shower. It’s not as comfortable as I’d like yet,
        

      

        
      … but this makes a big dent in my offpeak usage.
        
   2. For the first time this year, I’ve tried getting into bed without having used the electric blanket to pre-condition it. The shock soon wears off, but again it cuts down my offpeak consumption.

These measures are good for my monthly bill, but they mean I have to try a bit harder to be sure of staying under the ceiling. My April result was 5.86%; so far this month, it’s crept up to 6.61% having peaked at 7.73%.

  
Moral: make sure that spring/summer reductions in offpeak (and therefore total) usage don’t increase the peak/total ratio too much.  
 

First thing power move ISN'T about reducing your carbon foot print or reducing your consumption. The clue is in the name it's all about moving consumption from the peak time, ie 6-9 to another time. If you have a relatively low but constant usage you'll find it VERY difficult to meet the targets. If this is you then I wouldn't even bother trying just to save yourself a max of £10 a month

Unless you can alter your lifestyle and cook dinner earlier there’s not much you can do - and even that might not be sufficient.  Maybe you should just accept that you are already doing all you can to do to save carbon and this scheme is not for you.

The only way I can do it without massive inconvenience is by timing the charging of my plug-in hybrid car, as our main meal is at 7pm and we do all our cooking on electricity.

The inclusion of the weekends in the total weekly consumption means I can charge the car on Sundays instead of waiting until the early hours of Monday morning, and we no longer have to defer clothes- and dish-washing tumble-drying etc on Saturdays and Sundays to weekdays.

Michael

That’s not strictly true. Sure, you can reduce your carbon footprint by using less electricity overall - but you can also reduce it by making changes to when you use it. Because most people in this country make tea, cook dinner and watch TV between 6 PM and 9 PM, the national demand for power is highest. This means that the electricity generators have to use more fossil fuels (primarily gas and sometimes even coal) in this period, so pumping up the carbon emissions. By reducing demand in this period and shifting it to earlier or later in the day, the amount of fossil fuels needed is also reduced and along with it our collective carbon footprint.

There you have it. Cooking (with electricity) and boiling the kettle use lots of energy. The TV not so much, but a significant amount nonetheless, depending on how big it is and how old it is - newer ones consume in general a lot less than older ones. 

If you can’t bear to do without a hot meal in this peak period, you could prepare it earlier and heat it up in the microwave (which uses a lot less energy than the electric stove) when your stomach tells you. If you could think of drinking instant coffee instead of tea, you could fill a thermos flask with boiling water before 6 - it will still be plenty hot enough two or three hours later. And you may be surprised to discover what you don’t really miss by not being glued to the telly for those three hours. 

@JoCarroll It's more about reducing peak demand rather than carbon footprint. If the wind is blowing there is plenty of green energy on the grid.

As a light user it is extraordinarily difficult to meet the target but also as a light user £10 will be a significant percentage of your bill. Perhaps the best advice is to reduce any non-essential use during the peak and see if you can meet the target.

Peter