The Big Power Off. Anyone doing it

[florentina1]

We are currently sitting in the dark with just our iPads. Is any one else joining in the Power Off. Also does anyone understand how the payments are calculated.?

You have to have a smart meter don't you? My house isn't eligible for one so, no I won't be doing it.

I don't get in from work until 6.30 so a bit useless for me

Surely it would be ideal if aren’t in.

I'd say you were an ideal candidate

I think you needed to sign up for it. We're with British Gas and from what I heard you had to be invited and agree to take part! We didn't get an invite.
Hope you enjoyed your hour of darkness OP!

Never ever heard of this, not doing it and probably wouldn’t bother taking part anyway, I just want to live my bloody life and not be beholden to energy companies for the sake of earning back £2.50!!! My washing machine, dishwasher and oven are all on at the moment along with various lights and TVs. Don’t even have one of those display things that tell you when you’re boiling the kettle at the cost of 50p! We had one but I threw it away after day 1 because it was making me miserable.

EDF are doing their own version of it - which I’ve been invited to take part in but it’s not linked to the national grid. I did it once & saved16p!! (I didn’t sit in the dark, I just waited 15 minutes to put the dishwasher on)

Yes and there's another one for 1.5 hours tomorrow night with Octopus at £4 for every unit saved. You do have to opt in for each one though (at least you do with Octopus).

We probably don't make much difference as we tend not to use any white goods during that time and cook a little later, but every little helps . . . . .

Ive literally just had an email from British gas asking me if I want to participate. We are high users so we might as well

"I don't get in from work until 6.30 so a bit useless for me 🤦🏻‍♀️"

Eh? 🙈🤣

Excuse my ignorance, but what difference does it actually make?
Surely if youre out, or everyone participating uses their appliances before or after the time, the 'peak time' will just get moved?

No

I have a Smart Meter but my provider is not doing this.

I did the 1st one I was invited to mid December with British Gas. 5-7pm I think the time was, anyway we earnt £4.54 and British Gas doubled it so we got £9.08 in credit on our account, was pleased with that, all we did was do tea half hour earlier and shower my ds a bit later, then all laid on my bed watched Netflix till it was done with, didn’t sit in total darkness just didn’t use heavy appliances during it,

they didn’t invite me to another until last week, and in 7 days I’ve done 3 more and got another invite for tomorrow night.

Might aswell, every Penny credited to my bill helps, British gas small print says they double each credit as a thank you.

Dont know what I’ve saved from last weeks sessions yet as they take a week to email you with the results.

@Ciri i would say worth doing (I’m with BG) was quite suprised how much they credited for 1 session tbh.

Nope because as usual they have excluded those of us who are all electric on time of use tariffs.

I mean we do this all the time to help the electricity companies but we just get price hikes above everyone else to thank us 😡

No, British Gas have to invite you but I probably wouldn't anyway if they did, I don't think it is available for many people to do so not that energy saving if most homes are exempt

Actually I don't think British Gas even know I exist in meter world as there are no readings or any usage details on their website from our meter so I wouldn't expect to be doing this anyway

I'm with EDF and got the email - I think this was about the 5th one plus Nother scheduled for tomorrow

I'm not an expert but there could be a number of reasons. Wind power is particularly low at the moment, supplying only 10% ish of our needs and it's often double or more.

I've just read on the bbc that you can contact your supplier and ask to be signed up. It might be worth it for next time.

We have been doing these with Octopus since they started a few months ago as trials. Honestly we hardly saved any money about 3 quid in total. But we did feel we were helping in a small way and it wasn't much hardship as we have a log burner and our phones.
Kids don't mind as it's just an hour usually.
There are regular threads under Octopus savings on here.
Some people posted decent credits of 9/10 quid if heavy users normally.

I literally don't have the headspace for another thing to think about.

Ah. Yes, I'm on economy7. That'll be why they've not invited me to do it.

Tbf at 49.38p per kWh I already try to use it as little as possible!

This made me laugh mostly because it’s more than likely to happen. I’m sticking with my traditional meter.

I don't really know why this is on the news when I've been doing it for months, so far I've saved about £8 and it hasn't inconvenienced me, its just helping stagger stuff - I still use lights just not dishwasher/washing machine/tumble dryer/oven.

Exactly. Variable charging is why I won't get a smart meter.