The wind power delusion

[Ashy]

Interesting to see that demand dropped significantly yesterday between 1800 and 1900 so people did sit in the dark to save the grid.



December 13, 2022, 07:40:22 AM
Mind you it wasn't our grid that was saved, as all they did was reduce direct imports.

[Diasi]

Interesting to see that demand dropped significantly yesterday between 1800 and 1900 so people did sit in the dark to save the grid.



December 13, 2022, 07:40:22 AM
Mind you it wasn't our grid that was saved, as all they did was reduce direct imports.

Apparently we were sat in the dark to help the French grid that was having a supply issue.

December 13, 2022, 08:43:58 AM

All we need is 100 times the number. Well until the delivered power drops further I guess. Perhaps we could set up a load of diesel engines with propellers to boost the wind...

Excellent idea, stick diesel engines in the wind turbine nacelles.

The tree-huggers will see the blades rotating & will be none the wiser.

[klondike]

The offer was from 1700 to 1900 from Octopus last night.

I put internet kit on my UPS, turn off fridge, cctv, CH (save the pump) during bribe periods plus only use one wall light. It saves next to nothing and earns me next to nothing. I only do it to get their results of how many joined and what the total saving was. I use either a tablet or chromebook or listen to an audiobook on my phone during the time which I may well have done anyway.

There is nothing to stop you opting in and doing nothing.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for being part of our Saving Sessions last week. Here's a quick look at the difference your efforts made:

You saved 0.399kWh on 30th November, and 0.372kWh on 1st December. That's earned you 1392 OctoPoints – worth £1.74.
Together, Octopus customers saved 443MWh of electricity. That's like all the homes in Leicester and Brighton going off-grid for an hour, saving around 111,122kg of CO2 emissions.
Go to Saving Session results
With many more Saving Sessions to come this Winter, you'll have plenty more chances to earn rewards and help make energy cheaper and greener for everyone.

We'll add your OctoPoints to your dashboard shortly, and soon after that, you'll be able to redeem them for energy credit in pounds and pence.

Super Saver Bonuses

Did you opt in to the last Session as well? If so, you're on a streak! You'll earn 100 extra OctoPoints for every Session you streak in. They'll be on your OctoPoints page really soon.

A streak also earns you eight more entries in the draw to win our £500 spot prize (your extra entries roll over for as long as you keep your streak up, so keep opting in for loads of chances to win). Speaking of which...

Congratulations to Geoff in Liverpool and Ian in Lancashire who won our spot prizes in Sessions #3 and #4: 400,000 OctoPoints — a cool £500 — just for opting in!

There's more results on your Saving Sessions dashboard, and for information on how we calculated all this, head to our FAQs.

That's all for now: stay tuned for your next Saving Session.   

Love and power,

Pete Miller

Head of Customer Experience

Octopus Energy

[Michael Rolls]

all that to save £1.74? No thanks

[klondike]

It amuses me and it is hardly any effort - just a few switches. No real inconvenience either come to that. I am waiting to see how long it is before nobody bothers. I doubt they would admit that though. The first email mentioned numbers. That one doesn't.

[Michael Rolls]

well, if I tuned my heating off for two hours I would be a very unhappy bunny. Incidentally, I have a feeling that the voltage is down - I'm sure my heaters aren't throwing out as much heat as usual

[klondike]

I doubt that the voltage is down. I have a plug in meter that checks consumption etc and that has never showed the voltage down. It's more likely the fact it's a lot colder outside than usual that you think the power is low.

If I felt cold I'd turn the CH back on. The pump won't use much anyway. All of the trials apart from the one yesterday were one hour. I didn't start on yesterday's til about 5:30 anyway thanks to the useless NHS. I had a a hospital appointment for 2o'clock and got called in at a quarter to five 

[Ashy]

Well don't spend all your £1.74 at once, save some for a rainy day. Can I also tell you how much CCO2 you lot saved? None, see the graph, nothing changed here.

I haven't noticed any change in electrical power where I am but this could probably vary from one  place to another. It's usually supplied at 240V but described as 230V and the permissible variation is something like +23 -13.8 volts without looking it up as per eu standard. It's also their stupid idea to have brown and blue wires.

[klondike]

Oh they are very keen to rabbit on about CO2 savings in the emails. I couldn't give a rats fart about that. I'm just keen to see when everybody gives up on this saving nonsense and I have to at least subscribe to it to get the info. I could just not bother with doing anything to save usage but I thought I'd show willing.

They pay £2.25 per kwh saved which is 6.8 times the capped charge. Farage said that yesterday at peak they were paying one of the gas generators £6,000 per megawatt hour (£6 per kwh) so they can potentially make a handsome profit on those customer reductions at the rate they pay.

Mine comes in at 240v give or take.

[klondike]

I bunged that meter in and in fact it has been all over the place during the day. I thought before it always showed 240 or thereabouts but today I've seen numbers between 230 and 245. I doubt that the big generators vary much in their voltage delivery so I'm guessing it must be voltage drops across the various cables at different levels depending on a varying local load. 

Not sure if it actually did that before as I've never taken that much of an interest.

[Raven]

I have caved and put the heating on the auto setting untill this freezing snap has passed. I turned them down from 3 bars to 2 bars in the hope It will save a wee bit but the radiators don't feel any cooler to touch. 

[Michael Rolls]

this is the sixth day in succession with hardly a breath of wind and temperatures below freezing. Can't see the windmills yet - still dark - but I doubt they will be doing anything.

[Ashy]

Monday's graph from Gridwatch showed a definite notch around 6 pm but yesterday's showed nothing similar so maybe everyone has given up already.

Relatively warm weather forecast for next week with some rain. Must be winter.

[Alex]

Monday's graph from Gridwatch showed a definite notch around 6 pm but yesterday's showed nothing similar so maybe everyone has given up already.

Relatively warm weather forecast for next week with some rain. Must be winter.

Bring it on  !!!

[klondike]

Monday's graph from Gridwatch showed a definite notch around 6 pm but yesterday's showed nothing similar so maybe everyone has given up already.

They don't run the self sacrifice every day. There have been 5 so far 4 of an hour each and one of two hours. I'm not even sure how many providers are running them. If they ran it every day there would be no savings to be made so no tiny bribe as you are measured against your previous 10 day average. Joining makes no economic sense. It is only greenies, the very hard up and weird sods like me who want to get the results data easily that participate.