Octopus Saving Sessions

[NewBootsAndRanty]

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

I signed up for it today, turned absolutely everything off (apart from the smart meter) and sat in the dark - and Octopus gave me an error message to say that they couldn't read my smart meter 🙁 Anyone else? They have no problem reading it any other time - I've just been a nerd and have been looking at the readings downloaded from the meter to the Octopus website...

Argh - ignore me. MN has just now reloaded, and I see I am by no means the only one! Thanks @Gufo

DH is working so PC had to be on, I've had lights (energy saving) on and the power has fluctuated between 6p and 10p for the hour so not entirely sure how much we're going to be rewarded! Pretty usual usage for 5-6pm in this house as we don't usually start cooking until after 7pm.

@Flapjackquack I would assume Octopus will follow up with an email explanation but it can take time to do a large mail-out, whereas they can tweet very quickly (at least they can whilst Twitter is still up and running).

I don't think we've been successful this time.

Came home and DH was gaming with the house lit up like Blackpool illuminations.

He forgot...

I didn't get the notification but was out until 6pm so house was in darkness and only usage was the usual fridge/freezer. My usage is pretty low though, I'm militant about switching off lights since getting a smart meter, and have been away for 3 days in the previous 10, so not sure how much I'll have saved - probably about 10p!

I just got this by email

Hi there,

Thanks so much for getting involved in our first Saving Session! Your results will be available on your dashboard within the next few days.

We've been so chuffed to hear about how some of you spent your Sessions, reading, chatting and playing games with friends and family free from electronic interference.

Thanks to everyone for sharing the weird and wonderful ways you Saved in your Session, from candle-toasted marshmallows for dinner to thermos cuppas, driveway campervan staycations and Winter BBQs.

For now, here's what you should be able to see when you log into your Saving Sessions page:

Why aren't the results available instantly?

It generally takes about 12 hours for us to retrieve your meter readings after a Session, and then our boffins have to run the numbers to work out how much you saved compared to normal, which means you'll generally be able to see how you did online within a few days of each Session.

We'll email you again when your results are ready.

Love and power,

DH just confessed he didn't scroll down on the email to click "I'm in" as he thought just signing up to it was the agreement!
So we sat for an hour by candlelight for kicks 😂still ot probably saved us 50p or something.

Oh no @ilovebagpuss what a shame! Still, this was just a short session as a dress rehearsal for the real thing, plenty of opportunity yet this winter!

It looks from the email as if you can opt in any time until the session actually starts, so that can be on the checklist for next time ...

Yes we will definitely remember when they do the next one! Ah well it was a nice hour by candlelight.

Does anyone know how long the actual sessions are expected to last?

From the FAQs @Flapjackquack

There'll be at least 12 Saving Sessions this winter (but likely many more), and they'll be between one and four hours long.

Based on the grid’s performance in previous years, we’re expecting around 1 or 2 Sessions per week (so around 25 in total) lasting up to 4 hours each.

During the pilot the sessions were all 2 hours long, mainly in the 4-7pm window but there was one in the middle of the night and one morning one I seem to recall.

@tribpot - thank you, I don’t find their website the most user friendly. I am not sure if I could do 4 hours with a toddler by candlelight but we can give it a good shot, good practise for these rolling blackouts that could happen.

No probs @Flapjackquack . I wouldn't do 4 hours with a toddler by candlelight unless you actually have to, i.e. we have a blackout. Remember, the goal is just to cut as much electricity as you can manage, not throw yourself back to the Middle Ages (albeit a middle ages potentially with gas central heating?!).

We have a bunch of rechargeable camping lanterns similar to this one and that gives us a nice amount of light during the Saving Sessions. At minimum, though, you need to have some safe form of light, are the candles enclosed in something?

@tribpot - thank you, yes we have camping lanterns and candle lanterns and the candles are up on an unreachable surface. I was using it more as a description of general light levels/no other electronics rather than meaning actually sat next to a candle with my toddler!

Oh phew, that sounds a bit safer 😆But why no electronics? Just because Octopus say you can enjoy firelight board games doesn't mean you have to. Even if you wanted to turn your router off, you can use your phone as a hotspot and connect devices to that, having charged them before the start of the session? Or have content downloaded for offline use.

Has anyone had their savings in yet? We saved 48p according to dh and wasn't in! But we're EON but it was the same date and time

Yep!
6p/48 octopoints, apparently usage for that hour dropped by 75%.

Ours are still calculating - I assume they must be so vast that the website can't cope with displaying them 😂

67p!!!

I did the same session this week as an eon.next customer

I usually go into the office on a Tuesday so my usage 5-6 is minimal. My target was to get from 0.5kwh to 0.3kwh which I knew would be a stretch.

This week I was wfh on Tuesday but accepted the challenge anyway. Sat in darkness. Didn’t have a brew. Told DD she’d have to wait for food. Still failed 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣

They are still calculating mine, apparently. I think it will be about 1p as I don't use much electricity then anyway.

My smartmeter claimed I had had the heating on overnight when I got up this morning (ha bloody ha, as I'm not putting it on during the day). This afternoon, it had halved the total amount and was saying I'd used no gas. Hey ho.

So if we saved 48p, what's the reward amount? I'm hoping it's not 48p 😄 I want it to pay for some heating. Unless I turn the fridge and freezer off it could go lower

If you saved 48p, i guess that's about 1.4 kwh?

The opt in email for this session said the reward would be 1800 OctoPoints/£2.25 worth for every unit of electricity saved, so about £3.15?

The people that do the Loop energy usage app are running a similar scheme btw, their reward criteria is to use 40% less electricity than normal during the event, and pay £3 for each kilowatt hour less than normal that you use.
They pay in Amazon vouchers, not cash.
loop.homes/turn-down-and-save/ if anyone's interested (you can only use one scheme at a time though).