NSS

A measly 3.6kWh for us today. We'd have been better off with nano-hydro generators in the rainwater downpipes!

Very good. The eco+ mode on the Zappi requires 1.4kW surplus and we rarely generate that much at this time of year so just dump any excess into the Power Diverter. It will perhaps be different when there's more sun, but the current Go rate, the fact that we utilise so much of our PV already, and the relatively low mileage we use the Mini for, means battery storage is probably not for us (at least not until V2H becomes a possibility).

26 days (from collecting it on 28/09 until the last charge on 24/10) but under 3 weeks effectively as we were away (in the Macan) for a chunk of that period. As for any standing losses, they're negligible.

Fair play, but if I was doing 500 miles a week I'd be driving something different too.

To add a bit more info for anyone interested, the graph shows we used 57.2 kWh charging the Mini in October, and we used a further 6.6 kWh at the end of September (checking the Zappi was working). All of this was delivered in the cheap 7.5p rate so charging has so far cost about £4.80 and mileage covered for that input is 223 miles (say 2.15p/mile). This compares very favourably to the circa 30p/mile for my Macan 😳 Since the last charge we've covered a further 77 miles and remaining range is shown as 44 miles so comfortably over 100-mile usable range which is fine for the intended use. Oh, and no it's not a JCW but is still fun to drive - for short periods at least 🤣

Just completed our first full calendar month since the Zappi was installed and one of the major bonuses for me is the rather excellent reporting in the app. The following image is fairly self-explanatory but feel free to ask if anything is unclear.

We've been in our place for 5 years now. We still worked when we moved in but have both since retired, and yet our energy imports have also declined year on year. In the past 12 months we've imported less than 4,500 kWh, down from 5,300 kWh in the first year (we have no gas). In addition, we generate circa 3,600 kWh from the PV, and my gut feeling is the reduction in grid imports is due to a mixture of better PV utilisation and refining how best to program the ASHP, MVHR and SageGlass to most efficiently meet our needs.

Don't worry Steamy, I doubt anyone will trawl back through your 14,000+ posts to check whether you ever did 😉

Had an email invitation to participate from Octopus earlier this evening. Have signed up but not sure how likely we'll be able to benefit as we've already load shifted much of our use to the Go period in the night.

Just picking up on some of the points made. I was suggesting the incentives should benefit those in most need. Sure, wealthy people like a freebie, but I don't see why they should get one. If their energy bills rising from say £3k per annum (I have a friend who was paying that a year ago) to say £7.5k is not incentive to invest in better insulation and the like, what is. As has been mentioned, landlords are already on the clock to improve their properties, but that's no reason why low income tenants shouldn't still have access to incentives if the payback is almost immediate and worthwhile. Of course part of the long term solution has to be less reliance on imported energy, of any origin, but that can't be provided over night. Smoothing the peaks in demand is similarly desirable, but again won't happen in anytime soon. I actually see the sudden and huge rise in energy costs as a perhaps unique opportunity to do something to improve the energy efficiency of properties, something we've all been saying was needed since this forum existed. The question is how best to achieve that. And the window of opportunity may be brief. Once prices start to fall, even if such falls are relating modest, or once people get used to paying higher prices (at least those that can afford to), the motivation to fo something will diminish.

Much as some of those ideas would be useful, changing rules alone doesn't make efficency gains more affordable, at least not for those who can least afford to make such improvements. I was thinking more along the lines of... If your household income is under £X and you spend £y (up to say £500) on energy efficiency products (loft insulation, led bulbs, secondary glazing, etc), you'll get £2y deducted from your current year's energy bill. Edited to add, it could work on a sliding scale such that as household earnings increase the deduction from your energy bill reduces.

Article on the regional TV news last night talking to a WBS supplier who said demand is off the scale at present.

The big builders won't play ball on that front at present. They're share prices have taken a hammering and rising mortgage rates on top of increased material/labour costs mean their profit margins are already under pressure. Surely the biggest problem is the old and inefficient housing stock? How do you incentivise owners/landlords to improve those properties?

... how would you use some of the post-April '23 reduction in energy cap funding to promote energy efficiency improvements?

If your neighbour is a keen gardener, and you've effectively lowered the ground level your side if the boundary to the level his side, he may have legitimate concerns about moisture draining more easily from his garden than would have been the case had you not excavated the additional 90cm.

Email from Octopus last night confirms my expectation that we'll not benefit from the energy price guarantee as our average kWh rate (on Go) is below the capped rate.

We used Scandia Hus but completed our build 5 years ago.

One of the main reasons we chose the TF company we did was because they offered ESCROW account protection of stage payments.

Which translates to, we can't risk falling house prices in affluent constituencies.

Cracking good question from the Dorset West MP, Chris Loder, during PMQs today. Shame he tempered the impact by arris licking after the initial point. If you didn’t see it live, you can watch it at 16min 30secs into the following...

Hard to believe he built it for £1.7m, let alone that he thought he could do it for £700k. So many of the more extravagant builds featured on GD seem to involve characters whose egos are more inflated than their bank balance can support. And as others have said, talk about naive handing over €250k up front without any contractual or financial security in place 🤔

Second car as in for local journeys (solo or two-up). I had a JCW for a while and we've had other minis so appreciate they are fun to drive, but not for longer journeys, carrying grandchildren or towing our caravan.

The range isn't a concern for us, it'll be very much a second car.

Yep, our night rate has just changed to 7.5p from 5p. Day rate is now almost 40p but at least that is now fixed for 12 months. Should be possible to pretty much fully charge the Mini in 4 hours, though I doubt it will need charging much more than once a week.

Exactly what I thought when I heard that number 👍🏻