Have you checked out OVO Energy Tracker?

I’m finding it really hard to believe that with wall to wall sun for this 48 hour period there are 47 hours of moderate carbon intensity forecast!

In the past day there has been more electricity produced by coal than wind in the UK which is unusual but not unique. 

It is sunny but hasn't been that windy.

There is a lot of work to do to secure energy supply over the next few decades, even without phasing out gas central heating and the uptake of EVs

Lack of wind is more of an issue than lack of sun.

Really interesting point about the importance of different renewable sources, @Jeffus.

I was also unaware that wind powers us more than sun at the moment, @juliamc  - looks like by quite a margin according to this article which suggests 20% of our power was wind generated compared to 6% coming from solar (at the end of 2019 at least). These hot hot breezes aren’t cutting it at the moment it seems! 

The main bar graph "Your energy’s yearly carbon footprint"  on the app compares my carbon with a "home like yours" 

The bar graph on the website compares my carbon with the  "Average OVO home's impact" 

Why the different comparison? 

The more detailed info is "similar ovo home" on both the app and the website which i assume is the same as "home like yours" 

Some really detailed questions from both @juliamc and @Jeffus ! Good news is I’ve heard back from the team so strap yourselves in for some expert explanations!

juliamc wrote:

 

The daily usage graph for electricity seems to be one hour out, eg my hot water reheats at 14:00 but the peak on the graph is at 13:00 (poss GMT v BST?)

The Carbon Intensity Forecast is also an hour out, eg this is what’s shown today at 12:00… so it’s Moderate, despite the forecast showing Low from 11:30 ??? Which is it?

 

You’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of BST explaining why the usage graphs are an hour out (our smart meters run on GMT throughout the year). For the carbon intensity chart its gets slightly more complicated and this is what the team had to say - 

So the way the carbon intensity work's is that it chunks time into 30 minute segments. The current time in carbon intensity's mind is the last full 30 minutes which has passed, so if we are at 11:59am then the last full 30 minutes would be from 11am - 11:30am so this would be the value for the current intensity on the top

now the bottom slider is a forecast for the next 48 hours. So if we are at 11:59am again for example, we add two chunks of the forecast together to get hourly values so that means as 11:30am-12pm hasn't passed yet and we combine this with the 12pm-12:30pm chunk.

A bit complex but my understanding would be that as the carbon intensity now is based on one half hour segment (the last complete half hour period) and the forecast figure is an average of two half hour segments - these might not match but the current carbon intensity level will be the slightly more accurate figure as its based on a shorter time period, does that make sense?

Well spotted on this one too. You’ve noticed some changes were rolling out (starting on the browser version) which will be updated on the app in the next few weeks. The wording and the way we calculate the average usage which your usage is compared to have both changed slightly so you may notice a discrepancy between the figures shown on the app until we’re able to get the latest updates shown there too. In case you haven’t spotted it our community volunteer, @Blastoise186  has written a great guide to how we roll out these app updates using CodePush -

• Mobile Magic and Appy Days - What is CodePush and why does the OVO App use it? Blog

Yup, that’s spot on!

In some cases, it’s also possible that certain changes are only being rolled out slowly under particular circumstances initially, before being rolled out to wider scopes as time passes. For example:

1. Roll out Change X for 10% of members who access MyOVO on a computer running Chromium on Ubuntu for five days
2. Increase roll out to include a further 20% of members who use the OVO Energy app on iOS for three days
3. Further roll out to 80% of members who use the OVO Energy app on Android
4. Penultimate rollout to 90% of all members accessing either MyOVO or the OVO Energy app on any platform for two days
5. Full rollout to 100% of members

This is of course just one example of how a staged or phased rollout can take place and it doesn’t even scratch the surface of what magic tricks OVO uses to pull of the wizardry. I’m not really able to reveal the secrets because I’m a true magician. And a true magician never reveals the secrets of their magic...

Ours from the last couple of weeks.

Will be interesting to see the comparison difference in winter. I suspect it will flip to us using more energy than the average. 

Am hoping the half hourly readings should give us a better idea about how best to heat the house when we are working from home. Probably more useful for us than the Greenlight.

I found Greenlight useful in terms of prompting action rather than worrying too much whether the figures were accurate. 

I did find the weekly view in Greenlight vs the monthly view on the Usage page useful. A week feels like a good time period when seeing what difference small changes make. 

I tried the energy efficient mode on our TV for the first time but the picture was terrible. We do need manufacturers to do more. Perhaps more modern TVs are better than ours. 

Am I saving money by using my white goods when my OVO app is telling me it’s green?

I know environmentally it’s better but I want to know if it’s better on the pocket too ‍♀️

Hi @Charl13 . That’s a good question. The straight answer is no, not in your current bills unless you’re on Economy7 and use more power during the off peak time (on Economy7 your electricity charged is cheaper during those times).

The more complex answer is as we get a renewable energy network, it will become cheaper than it would have been as our wind, solar and other renewable power continue to provide power rather than us searching for more things to burn. 
It’s one of these ‘invest in the future’ conundrums really - as more people begin to invest in renewables, the power network becomes more sustainable, and that will provide a lower cost than if we don’t. 

 

Brilliant thank you

You could have a look at this

https://loop.homes/turn-down-and-save/#:~:text=What%20is%20Turn%20Down%20and,generate%20electricity%20at%20peak%20times.

The Hugo app is doing the winter cash back scheme as well.

https://app.hugoenergyapp.co.uk

I’ve not seen it in an active state yet though! Apparently the scheme started 21st Nov and you just have to wait for a notification of when the scheme becomes active so you can try and save energy (and get paid) in the activated energy saving time periods

hello, do you know when is the best and worst time for non essential use of electricity (and gas if that is not a silly question!) we want to try and use washing machine outside the the high use time if possible, charge phones and fill the kettle for the flask. Thanks!

do we have different prices during day and night or why are you asking this?

OVO show a little of this on their web feed

but there is an app from National Grid which has a whole raft of info and prediction forwards 

There's an app called "When To Plug In" that shows the carbon intensity of the UK's electricity generation. It shows when you should plug stuff in if you want to use the least carbon intense electricity.

Why OVO need the size of my house to “make OVO Energy tracker as accurate as possible”? Why can they not use my hourly/daily Smart meter readingS.

The Energy Tracker will compare your house to others of a similar size occupancy heating and other appliances etc to get a more accurate result. However it’s not  particularly accurate in my case, my heat pump heats my hot water yet the energy tracker tells me most of my gas use goes to heat water, which it impossible as my only gas appliance is the hob. I would only use it as a guide personally, and not expect too much more.

My SSE bills had a graph that showed last years usage for the billing period compared to this year. I can't find this on my OVO bill where can I find it? 

It is not on the bill its in your online account under compare to last year selection box

Yes @Clairesellars1 if you log in online you can see your energy usage 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=monthly

If you choose to look by month or year you can get comparisons. If you look by day that doesn’t offer this facility

Found it. But there isn't any data for last year there, and it's combined gas and electric

Hey @Clairesellars1,

Have you recently migrated? 

If so, it may be that we haven’t received all of your historic usage information yet. 

My account states that the most electricity used daily is for heating, but I have not had any heating on for months - how does the smart meter know and/or differentiate what you are using your electricity for ?

Thanks

Hi @Julia H , from what you set in your homes profile, the system examines bursts of power used and tries to match them to appliances. It’s not always accurate and not to be relied upon but it’s meant as a general suggested guide.