Finding the chase and cutting to it

[Originally posted on the December 4th, 2016]

Three years ago, as part of my job, I was involved in the UK role out of smart meters, which are basically mobile devices metering your gas and electricity and sending the data back to your energy provider.  As a consumer, this is great because you can see your data really easily from anywhere in the world.  For the energy providers, they can immediately see what the demand is.  It’s one of those win-win situations.

So I signed up for one as soon as they were announced.  Up came the wait for the network supporting smart meters in my region got installed.

That was completed early this year.  Finally, we were getting our smart meter.  Wow

I’m guessing not all went to plan?

While smart meters are indeed available in East Anglia, they are not available anywhere in the UK where you have solar panels.

Which we do.

So I do a due diligence check and finally bit the bullet and got an Economy 7 meter installed by British Gas for the pricely sum of £43.75.  (Not quite that simple, having rung up British Gas I was put through to accounts so they could “help me work out if we would benefit from that”.  Sandra, the person receiving my call accepted that I did indeed know what I was talking about with my HNC in Electronic and Electrical engineering and my Maths degree and 20 years working in industry.  Thanks Sandra and I got through to the booking and payments line).

OOOKay…

It felt a little more fraught than it needed to be but given the fuss, I thought I’d share the outcome of this experience with you.

We’re moved from a 12.176p per unit tariff to a dual tariff with 16p per unit during peak and 5.5p off peak (between midnight and 8am).

One of the joys of doing this with the solar panels, is while we’re generating, we have free electricity.  So midday is effectively zero most days.

Well, of course we’re doing this for the first time during one of the darkest and wetness months during the year.  If it works now, we’re ahead over all…

So, does it?

According to British Gas, you’re ahead if you use 40% of your electricity during the off peak periods.  Since installation to 4pm today, we’re looking at 115kWh against 76kWh which is exactly 40%.  Actually, we break even against our old tariff at 32% if, and only if, we get some of our power from the panels.

Over this period, we’ve generated 52,335 Wh, or 52kWh.

So far, so good ✓.

Is that truly typical use?

We are making slightly more effort than normal.  As the photo shows, cooking more in the oven rather than using separate ovens makes much more sense.

On average, to do that, you need to adjust times.  Picking the coolest temperature for the focus of the meal and then adjusting times for the rest makes a lot of sense.  In this case, I cooked a whole roast dinner at 160°C meant the yorkies and roasties needed 20 extra minutes (partially boiled potatoes in this case).

This makes a lot of sense to keep consumption down and help make the most of the solar energy we’re producing.  As well as helping our pockets.

We’re also making the most of our Leaf’s ability to charge at a set time.  At home, we do everything against that timer.

To use a charger at work or else where during the day, simply use car wings or press the charge now button, ignore the timer, in the car.

Is it working, then?

Basically, yes.  Just now, our day usage is 240kWh and our night time usage is 138kWh, a total of 378kWh.

Under our old single tariff, that would have been £46.

Under the new, it is £45.75.  Not huge but some saving; it also makes changing to a different supplier more appealing.  Our day time rate is more than 16p per unit!
Interestingly, during the same period, we’ve used some electricity than that through the solar cells.

Today for example, I am cooking Sunday lunch while generating just enough to cover that cost…  Should be interesting during the summer.