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Power Move Summer Challenge announced


Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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Howdy!

This post was written by a Forum Volunteer.

The next Power Move Challenge has been announced. Please note the rules have been updated for the Summer Challenge. It starts on the 1st July and runs until 30th September.

The TIMES are the same as before - you need to shift heavy usage away from 6pm to 9pm Weekdays.

However, Weekends have now been added as permanent Off-Peak - any usage during Weekends (regardless of time) will now count towards your Off-Peak usage and help with the targets.

The goals are:

Monthly reward  
0 to 6.50% £10
6.51% to 7.50% £5
7.51% to 8.50% £2

 

The challenge may seem harder at first, but since Weekends now count as Off-Peak, it’ll actually balance out pretty easily.

We’d like to remind you NOT to deprive yourself however. Do not go without essential usage just to meet targets - it’s the big stuff that makes the difference, not the small things.

As a further reminder, please remember this is OVO Power Move, NOT OVO Power Shutdown. To get the rewards, you must move heavy usage outside of the Peak times, don’t just shut everything down because that won’t do anything - you’ve still gotta use that same stuff to hit the targets!

If you were already enrolled in the Spring Challenge, you’ll be auto-enrolled into the Summer Challenge so you won’t need to do anything. Otherwise, head to MyOVO to sign up.

Good luck!

15 replies

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  • Carbon Cutter*****
  • 54 replies
  • June 19, 2024

I am not sure if that is entirely clear. 

Are you saying that if I only use 0 - 6.5% of my total usage between 6 - 9pm on Mon - Fri, I will get £10 back.  If I only use between 6.51 - 7.50% of my total usage in these periods I will get £5 back and 7.51% - 8.50% gets £2 back ?


Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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  • Plan Zero Hero
  • 7929 replies
  • June 19, 2024

Pretty much, yes. It's averaged through the month though 


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  • Carbon Cutter*****
  • 58 replies
  • June 19, 2024

Do we know how smart car chargers fit into this scheme?

Tony 

 


  • Carbon Cutter**
  • 10 replies
  • June 19, 2024

Thanks for the alert Master - Blasteroise;  I’ll pop over to the app or website, and check if I’m signed up for the challenges (you’ll recall my earlier initial bafflement at being bombarded by Beyond and the multitudinous OVO dodges…  but then I was near delirious from recent major surgery!)

 

Anyway, as regards these offers, I have good news; 

Last month, I earned a Power Move credit of £1.43, presumably for my first part month!  OK that may seem small change to some of you, but that’s One Pound Eight Shillings and Sevenpence in real money.

Put another way, in the days when petrol for my Lambretta was five bob (25p)a gallon, it would have bought me 5.72 gallons of fuel; exactly 26 litres, or more than enough to take me to Brighton and back from Brixton to hang out with the Mods  

So still semi- mobile, but recovering , l am ready to face…

the CHALLENGE ! 
thankfully the weather has eased, so no need for wooly hats and brisk, frosty walks. All I have to do is persuade the family that dinner tonight will be… Salad! (No cooking required, eh?)

Then tomorrow, for dinner, we can have … pickled herring , with salad

and Friday; pilchard , with , yes , salad!

 And as we love Spain and Spanish food, over the weekend, we can have (yes, you guessed) “Ensalata Mixta”! (Which as you all know is salad with Tuna, boiled Egg, asparagus and onion!  Mmmm

 

 


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  • Plan Zero Hero
  • 107 replies
  • June 19, 2024

Interesting to have a “moving” target as the proportion of weekday peak hours to total hours in the month changes from month to month:

July: 9.27%

August: 8.87%

September: 8.33%

So the challenge gets easier through the period.


Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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  • June 19, 2024
tony1tf wrote:

Do we know how smart car chargers fit into this scheme?

Tony 

 

There’s a chance a Charge Anytime integration might now exist with Power Move, but I’m not sure - it’s definitely set up to play nice with Power Move Flex though. Otherwise, feel free to just set schedules up so that they avoid the 6pm to 9pm slot on Weekdays but go full power at all other times.


Nukecad
Plan Zero Hero
  • Plan Zero Hero
  • 746 replies
  • June 19, 2024

And now I’m kicking myself for not keeping a record of my previous weekend usages so that I could see how I would have fared in previous months if weekends had been included as all off peak in those.

(I can’t currently access my account, but I suppose I could use a 3rd party app or even work it out from the bills that I do have already downloaded).

I did get the mid way email this morning and I’m still on track for the top reward this month despite not checking my daily progress myself.

Obviously including weekends as all off-peak is going to bring down your PM percentage and so help towards the new lower targets, but by just how much will it lower them for each household will be variable depending on what they use at weekends..

One thing it does mean for those who have been marginal on the targets is that they no longer have to delay doing the washing, hoovering, using power tools for DY, etc. until off-peak on a weekday because it will all count as off peak all weekend..

As for the lower summer targets themselves.
Possibly I’ve been meeting the targets too easily up to now, and so a new challenge will push me to try that little bit more?

 


Tron Burgundy
Carbon Cutter*****
  • Carbon Cutter*****
  • 43 replies
  • June 19, 2024

Thanks for the update.  I’ll try and get the app I wrote updated to process things differently for July onwards by the time the new method kicks in.

Here if anyone wants to use it:
https://github.com/Tron-Burgundy/Ovo-Power-Move-Calculator


  • Carbon Cutter****
  • 66 replies
  • June 19, 2024

It really doesn’t get easier for those of us who use 1 or 2 wph per day. I only manage currently by turning off absolutely everything between the hours and flicking on the kettle a couple of times before bed gets me down to 6 or 7% less, the weekends are respite from that, even on the days I use my washing machine on high heat its less than 3. I only use the machine on a weekday to help me reach the percentage.  The only thing that would really help us low users would be the reduction of  rediculous standing charges which cost 50% to 70% of the  bill. 


Tron Burgundy
Carbon Cutter*****
  • Carbon Cutter*****
  • 43 replies
  • June 21, 2024

@Nukecad Just for fun I ran my calculator with what will be included from July and I included weekends as off peak.  The second row shows what the percentages that would create.  They’re dropping around 3%.  So for this month I’m under the !!% for the full amount but wouldn’t be for the July target.  Thing is I haven’t gamified for weekends which I will.  Be good to see a Sunday dinner pulling its weight rather than just putting it on us.

 

Month: June 2024, peak hours : 18 to 21
TOTAL = 10.59% [3.639 / 34.369]kWh - bank holidays: 0
TOTAL = 7.44% [3.639 / 48.927]kWh - bank holidays: 0
 
Month: May 2024, peak hours : 18 to 21
TOTAL = 9.20% [5.048 / 54.840]kWh - bank holidays: 2 Early May bank holiday, Spring bank holiday
TOTAL = 6.68% [5.048 / 75.564]kWh - bank holidays: 2 Early May bank holiday, Spring bank holiday
 
Month: April 2024, peak hours : 18 to 21
TOTAL = 11.87% [6.334 / 53.339]kWh - bank holidays: 1 Easter Monday
TOTAL = 8.42% [6.334 / 75.215]kWh - bank holidays: 1 Easter Monday
 
Month: March 2024, peak hours : 16 to 19
TOTAL = 8.69% [4.091 / 47.077]kWh - bank holidays: 1 Good Friday
TOTAL = 5.96% [4.091 / 68.614]kWh - bank holidays: 1 Good Friday
 


Nukecad
Plan Zero Hero
  • Plan Zero Hero
  • 746 replies
  • June 22, 2024

@Tron Burgundy  Thanks for doing that.

A drop of around 3% when weekends are included as being all off-peak does appear to tie in with the new reduced targets for the Summer PM.

If mine also reduce by that much then I should still be hitting the top target, and getting the £10.

Now all I need is access to my account online back so that I can check my own figures, and a change to my spreadsheet to include the weekends as from 1st July.
 

 


  • New Member***
  • 1 reply
  • July 1, 2024

What do you look for on your smart meter to know if your usage. Is low at peak times ? What should the usage be in Kwh. When I have most things off apart from the boiler thermostat and receiver. The IHD says 10w is that enough to meet the requirements. Or does it need to be lower. 


Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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  • July 1, 2024
MarkUk wrote:

What do you look for on your smart meter to know if your usage. Is low at peak times ? What should the usage be in Kwh. When I have most things off apart from the boiler thermostat and receiver. The IHD says 10w is that enough to meet the requirements. Or does it need to be lower. 

The short answer to that question is how long is a piece of string?

The long answer is more complicated.

Your targets are personalised to you so we can’t tell you what yours are from here since it’s also very dynamic. Remember that it’s NOT about simply killing the power to your entire property. You need to move usage around so that heavy loads like cooking are done outside the specified Peak hours. Small stuff like a TV won’t have much impact so you can leave those alone - it’s the big stuff such as things with heating elements that really count.


  • Carbon Catcher*
  • 64 replies
  • July 1, 2024
Sally123 wrote:

It really doesn’t get easier for those of us who use 1 or 2 wph per day. I only manage currently by turning off absolutely everything between the hours and flicking on the kettle a couple of times before bed gets me down to 6 or 7% less, the weekends are respite from that, even on the days I use my washing machine on high heat its less than 3. I only use the machine on a weekday to help me reach the percentage.  The only thing that would really help us low users would be the reduction of  rediculous standing charges which cost 50% to 70% of the  bill. 

Agree Sally I had level 2 for April & May and just scraped into level 3 for June. Even with weekend data added into off peak figures (bank holidays are still excluded totally) i would have achieved level 1 for April & May and level 2 for June. I can't see what else I can do. Dinner is at lunchtime and salads (no cooking) for tea. I only have scraped into the higher level in June because no lights required before 9pm with the longer nights, but light will start clawing back now we've had the longest day, so i might manage 1 more month at that level.

Agree my standing charges are more than my usage too.

 

Maybe there could be high med low usage brackets and appropriate tiers within each instead of lumping us all together. Low users don't have much usage in the 1st place that weekend make a difference when the % challenges are even harder.


Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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  • Plan Zero Hero
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  • July 1, 2024

Adding even MORE tiers would just overcomplicate the system - it’s already complicated enough as-is i.e. we get an absolute TON of people moaning about it.

I cannot support any plans or ideas to make it a game of 4D Chess - the 3D Chess is bad enough.


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