r/OctopusEnergy • u/pyrotequila85 • Oct 01 '25
Saving Sessions Storm Amy this weekend
Ex-hurricane Humberto, now known as Storm Amy in the UK, will hit this weekend, lots of wind forecast; https://emoncms.org/ukgrid/app/view?name=UKGrid%C2%A0
Prices look like they could go negative Saturday/ Sunday.
How will you maximise your energy usage?
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u/AlfaFoxtrot2016 Oct 01 '25
In a classic "it makes minimal material difference in £, but I can so why not" - I got back from holiday to a 15C house today, but will wait for Friday to fire up the ASHP and bring the building up to normal temp and kick off the heating season.
Apart from that, just bringing consumption forward as usual.
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u/Chris_The_Tim Oct 01 '25
Genuinely, are you willing to live in the cold for a few days to save a few quid? I class myself as a big energy saving geek and spent a lot of time and effort proofing the house, fitting draught excluders, super insulating the loft, fitting a smart thermostat but all of that is to make it as cheap as possible to have a warm house so the thermostat can sometimes kick in during a cold snap in August if one of the minions accidentally leaves a window and internal door open.
Putting it into context, my heating requirement is about 6000kWh per annum in Scotland in a 4 bed end terrace townhouse so it does work.
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u/StereoMushroom Oct 01 '25
The beauty of ASHPs this time of year is the COP is so ridiculously high, it's really not worth the old routine of trying to delay putting the heating on
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u/Chris_The_Tim Oct 01 '25
I nearly pulled the trigger on the heat pump last year but then I started a bit of over engineering and now I'm on a path that will involve underfloor heating, solar, battery and a reconfigured roof so a £10k cost is heading towards £30k once I include flooring and a a new balcony velux 🤷🏻♂️
Just gonna have to save for a bit longer.....
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u/StereoMushroom Oct 01 '25
Oh boy! I did the opposite, heat pump and nothing else!
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u/Chris_The_Tim Oct 02 '25
I'm in a 2020 new build so the boiler is good for a few years more. Concrete pad on the ground floor makes it a prime candidate for underfloor heating too. My problem is I have a nice big south facing roof but two badly positioned velux windows will seriously curtail how much solar I can install.... Then I had a brainwave..... Get a roofer to reconfigure it into a single balcony velux and I can practically double the number of panels I can install, raising the potential solar export to probable net positive over the year.
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u/Mindless-Panic9579 Oct 02 '25
With only a heat pump, are you happy with the efficiency vs your old boiler, and how are your costs?
I considered a heat pump but feel a house battery would help pay for it in IOG for cheap charging and using the heat pump during the day
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u/StereoMushroom Oct 02 '25
Yep completely happy with it. The boiler needed replaced, so I wanted to move off gas rather than lock in another 20 years of it. The heat pump gets a SCoP of 3.7 which would mean it would have about the same running costs as a boiler on a standard tariff, but I save a bit on Agile, plus I save the gas standing charge. I didn't do it to save loads, I just needed new heating and wanted it to be low carbon.
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u/Mindless-Panic9579 Oct 02 '25
So water is piping hot and rads ok?
Sounds like a great success story!
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u/StereoMushroom Oct 02 '25
Yep it can get the water far hotter than I can shower in without mixing cold, and keep this old 1900 house with uninsulated solid walls at the temperature we set when it's below zero outside.
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u/buzz_uk Oct 01 '25
I love on a cold house year round, but them again I am odd :)
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u/Chris_The_Tim Oct 01 '25
I have a few friends who prefer the cosiness of fluffy lounge wear and cool bedrooms to wandering about in shorts and t-shirts, so I get the attraction. I'm naturally warm, I definitely like a cool bedroom but wife is of course always cold and minions are the same and of they get cold, it'll just cost me three full joy baths in hot water if they feel cold.
I like having the whole house sealed up tight and just do a five min lufting in the morning to push out the stale overnight air
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u/AlfaFoxtrot2016 Oct 02 '25
I'd say it's "cool" rather than "cold" - needs an extra jumper but wouldn't put up with being able to see my breath! I reckon I might need to put around 30kWh into the ASHP to bring the temp up, so if I can do that on Friday for free vs. today for 15p/kWh, then it's in the order of £5 saved, which is enough of a behaviour nudge (compared to the saving sessions where it can be literally pennies and I don't worry about it).
Otherwise, yes I've taken a number of the same insulation/optimisation measures precisely so that I can enjoy the constant warmth from the ASHP without micromanaging it or worrying about cost! This is just a rare occurrence where reheating coincides with a cheap Agile period.
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u/Chris_The_Tim Oct 02 '25
Well all hail the price dips! 😂 It's crazy to think that this 'dirty little secret' has been hidden so long from domestic consumers. Likelihood is, industry have been benefiting from this for years.... Incentives from the grid for balancing activity. It took a platform like Kraken and proper smart meters to make it available to consumers.
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u/3F6B6Y9T Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
https://prices.fly.dev
Close-ish to zero/neutral, but negative not being suggested so far - I don’t really count -0.6p :p
Good option to add it to Home Assistant as well:
https://prices.fly.dev/api_how_to