Power Move Autumn Challenge

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…

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I think I watched that documentary last year😁

Then again it swear it had David Tennant in it 👍

 Might have got my wires crossed somewhere 🤭 lol

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.

September 9.42%, October 5.27%, November 0.82% of your total daily electricity during the peak hours of 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday.

By fitting batteries and charging overnight, even with electric cooking. We still do dish and clothes washing and occasionally drying overnight. In September it was a higher % because we weren't generally buying our power from OVO, but from our solar panels. So what little we used was a higher proportion of a lower total. In early November we added another battery because there wasn't enough capacity for the full day. The panels from 2015 have now paid for themselves. The batteries from 2018 will take longer. 

Before the panels, batteries or the challenge we still washed overnight, because it saves money on economy 7. Sadly nothing like as much as it used to. 

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.