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Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Octopus Saving Sessions

808 replies

NewBootsAndRanty · 01/11/2022 15:53

Anyone signed up for this? Payments for shifting your energy use away from peak times/within a given timeslot each day.

OP posts:
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WhatCanWeDoNext · 30/01/2023 18:20

Another 4p for us. Guess I’ll have to find another way to earn my fortune.

Reluctantadult · 30/01/2023 19:15

How do you know how much you earned? I expect the answer might be your in home display? Mine doesn't work. Eventually they'll tell me the points on the app but doesn't put a price on it.

Reluctantadult · 30/01/2023 19:17

The 24th was our first fail! Too hard to save for 1.5hrs early evening with kids and husband at home.

WombatChocolate · 30/01/2023 19:20

When I log into my account (not on app, but via website) and go to the Saving Sessions dashboard, it shows me the points and in rackets he amount of money it’s equivalent to.

Lizzim18 · 30/01/2023 19:29

We got 0 for the last 2 sessions.

We have solar and a battery so we tend to be exporting power to the grid during evening sessions so we are low users but occasionally we make a few pennies.

Over the whole time I think we have got to £6 so hardly life changing but we are working on the basis that any reduction we make means there is less chance of blackouts or use of coal power stations.

HundredMilesAnHour · 30/01/2023 19:51

Reluctantadult · 30/01/2023 19:15

How do you know how much you earned? I expect the answer might be your in home display? Mine doesn't work. Eventually they'll tell me the points on the app but doesn't put a price on it.

8 points = 1 pence

Lottsbiffandsmudge · 30/01/2023 22:00

£7.51 here for 24th. Evening sessions are usually high use for me (cooking on elec etc) so these are my best slots for saving. We are generally high users with an EV and a PIH.

Rainbow1901 · 30/01/2023 22:14

Missed it today as away for the weekend and DH didn't know about it!! But running total is £10.14 or so. Still think it's worthwhile though.

WhyCantPeopleBeNice · 31/01/2023 10:14

I've had some odd readings
23rd, finished work early, cooked tea so everything was off for the hour = 896
24th, was still working for the first half hour, had some things off but people kept coming home, turning things on, getting yelled at to turn off and somehow we get 6008

I'm not convinced my smart meter is overly accurate it it's reporting

NewBootsAndRanty · 31/01/2023 11:18

Don't forget the no of points awarded per kwh isn't always the same.

OP posts:
Switchingthingsoff · 31/01/2023 11:50

WhyCantPeopleBeNice · 31/01/2023 10:14

I've had some odd readings
23rd, finished work early, cooked tea so everything was off for the hour = 896
24th, was still working for the first half hour, had some things off but people kept coming home, turning things on, getting yelled at to turn off and somehow we get 6008

I'm not convinced my smart meter is overly accurate it it's reporting

I believe this also happens because they are looking at the % of energy saved over the same period averaged on the previous X days. So, potentially if you had one night when you had everything switched on between 5-6pm but that was a bit of an outlier, and that night had dropped off the average used for calculating the 24th’s savings, you could have saved whatever amount of energy, and taking into accounts NewBoots point above, to warrant 6008 points.

WombatChocolate · 31/01/2023 12:00

I guess they don’t tell us too far ahead of the date/time it will happen, so people can’t boost their usage in those hours if the days before, to then show a significant drop.

I understand they also look at the hours earlier on the day of the saving session. I’ve read it’s better to bring usage forward rather than delay, so your earlier usage gets registered for comparison. However, that might work for evening sessions, but less so for early mornings like yeterdays.

I think most people are in it for interest and also to help save energy use at peak times, rather than hoping for serious cash savings for themselves. However, it can be quite addictive to think about and work out how to boost the Octopoints. However, I guess shunting use around is what it’s all about really, so the nations usage is smoothed across the hours more.

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 31/01/2023 21:29

We earned over £15 for the 24th went from £31.78 to £47.43

HandbagsnGladrags · 31/01/2023 21:37

We got £2.29 for yesterday, with the oven on. Literally did nothing but register. Previously only got 50p at a time. Unexplainable.

Passportpondery · 31/01/2023 21:49

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 31/01/2023 21:29

We earned over £15 for the 24th went from £31.78 to £47.43

That’s crazy! I’ve done every session by turning off everything in the house, and only made £8.86 so far in total!

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 31/01/2023 21:52

Weve done every saving session

Octopus Saving Sessions
Salome61 · 31/01/2023 22:13

I only got 52 points for one session and wrote to Octopus as I thought it was a mistake. I've just had an email with a full explanation of the complex calculations they make. I'm glad to contribute by switching off.

Passportpondery · 01/02/2023 07:43

This is from 8 sessions.

Octopus Saving Sessions
BarbaraofSeville · 01/02/2023 07:55

We've got £6.36 for 8 sessions. We don't have the results of the last one yet, and for sessions 7 and 8 we got 48 and 0 points respectively.

But for other early evening sessions we did the same and saved 70 to 80% so couldn't do a huge amount more but not sure what changed.

We're not particularly low electricity users either as our shower and all cooking is electric and our annual consumption is just above the level the price cap is based on.

I'm hoping for a good result for the last one as I was the only one at home and the only thing on was the fridge freezer and WiFi as I was working on the laptop on the battery.

ChilliBandit · 01/02/2023 12:42

@WombatChocolate - I am not sure the energy companies know much sooner than we do. It seems to be very short notice depending on weather, what other European countries grids are doing etc.

Filterphobia · 01/02/2023 13:26

I’ve managed to earn just over £32 across 8 sessions. I’m still waiting for the most recent sessions results as well. But we barely got anything back in the previous 9-10am slot as we are all out at school/work during that time usually.

Reluctantadult · 01/02/2023 14:32

Crikey. We're on about £8. Not trying hard enough?!!

Oddbutnotodd · 01/02/2023 14:40

For those of you earning £15 a session how much electricity do you use in a normal day?
I’ve only earned £5.50 in total but am a fairly low user. I use between 4-8kwh per day.

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 01/02/2023 20:49

We're high users between 4.30 and 7pm as we have 3 young children that need dinner, baths etc plus several tvs or alexas going in different rooms. We barely earned anything in the morning sessions as im home alone during the day and dont use much especially between 9 and 10 as im walking the dog.

HundredMilesAnHour · 01/02/2023 22:32

I've saved £16.30 over 7 sessions. Everything is electric in my flat. The heating of the hot water every morning is the biggest expense but that's partly because I've avoided using the old electric storage heaters throughout winter as they're just too expensive - I'm on a flexible rate so the cost would be crippling at current prices. Being cold so often has been very tedious. I average around 10kw per day's usage (I work from home so am home most of the time).