Ronny

I am on Octopus cosy, with heat pump, solar and 2 batteries. There is 3 different charges depending on time of use and i use about 3KWh a month on the very high charge so not worth bothering about. My actual bill for November / December was for a total of 838.7 KWh. The average price i paid was 18.65 pence per KWh excl vat. Looking to add another 2 batteries so this will reduce the average price even more. I do not use the heat pump during the high rate between 16.00 and 19.00 hrs. I installed an air con in the sitting room and the batteries carry the load of the house until after 19.00 hrs. I have given up looking at different tariffs as there does not appear to be any which would give any worthwhile savings.

I have had a good look at the various tariff`s from octopus and it is very difficult to compare. My December bill was for 838.7KWh at an average price of 18.65 pence per KWh. I would need to find a tariff less than this to make a saving. What makes it impossible, i am looking for a big saving not a small one !!!!!. Unfortunately when we bought this house and were renovating it i did not recognise the back and front are covered by roof tiles (cape dutch style) and this means there is no insulation on the back and front of the first floor. To rectify that now i would need to remove all the plasterboard to insulate and still leave an air gap. Doing that would probably save more money than looking for tariff savings.

You are correct.

It is only suitable if you have batteries to carry you through the expensive times. The advantage is having "cheap" power in the afternoon as well as during the night. Lets face it there is no "good" tariffs available from any supplier as far as i can see.

I am on Octopus cosy with the high charge from 16.00 till 19.00. I also have solar and batteries and i make sure they are fully charged to see me through the expensive period. 16.00 and the heat pump is off and i have an air con in the living room which runs till 19.00. In my monthly bill i normally use a max of £1.50 at the expensive rate. The capital outlay for this is of course very high. I also have no gas as i had it taken out just after the heat pump was installed so i did not have two standing charges to pay. There is no tariff available as far as i know which is suitable for a heat pump, lets hope the tariffs eventually get back to close to normal. My panels are 8 east facing and 8 west facing and generate very little at this time of the year, so no help there.

I have the same set up as you if i remember correctly. The box with the contactor feeds to the heating element, and the way mine is wired, the thermostat in the immersion heater will limit the temperature it will heat the tank to no matter what temperature the controller is asking for. The thermostat incorporated with the element should be set to the highest you want the (for example) sanitation cycle. I hope i have explained this in a way it can be understanded easily.

The immersion heater usually has a thermostat, it would be worth while checking what temperature it is set at.

As far as settings are concerned i do take note of any changes i make. The settings from @reedrichards are working very nicely and maintaining a nice temperature all day. The settings i WAS using brought the house up to +-21.5 and by 16.00hrs had not come back on. I will say it again, if you are like me, the settings are so complicated and settings interlinked that i am lost.

I know it is always difficult to compare different settings when the outside temperature has an effect, and you (me) does not keep notes, but i am sure when i was using the LG controller with a set air temperature i was using more energy. Since using @reedrichards settings i have a nice warm house all of the time. I am using about 20Kwh a day at now, but that is the total for an all electric house. Anything with a standby setting is on as i find it a nuisance having to wait to use something, especially if i am in bed and want to print something.

I am using air + water with the settings you provided so I would presume they would work for you as well. I am very satisfied with the way it has worked today. The house has been nice and cozy all day. As I have said before, the way the settings work is beyond my tiny mind, so I really appreciate all the help I get..You live in a very nice part of the country and when we go to Edinburgh we pass through your part of the world.(Not very often nowadays)

Only the in home display works through wi-fi. I am also with octopus.

Thanks for the explanation. As far as radiators go i had already installed and increased the radiator sizes as we lived in Africa for a very long time and feel the cold. The radiators were replumbed when the heat pump was installed as they were 10mm microbore. Can i ask where in the north of england you are. We are in a small ex mining village called Thornley, near Durham, so unless you are on the west side i would imagine your temperatures are similar to mine. It is now 13,15hrs and the house is still 21.5deg thanks to your very welcome input.

Hi, I have read so much over a long period of time that i am probably more confused than ever. I have changed my settings to the same as yours, LWT temp auto mode 29 50, and Outdoor temp auto mode -4 18. Offset at +2 only gave a temp of 20 deg so i changed this to+3 and the temp sits between 21 and 21.5 which is fine. On the old settings the house went to 21.5 to 22 deg but it never came back on all day with the result the house dropped to 19 or 20 deg. Today the heat pump is keeping the house at a nice temp so thank you very much for letting me try the settings you are using. There are so many setting which interact with each other and this is where i am lost. I did try running on the "heat" settings a while back but the Kwh usage was much higher so went back to AI. These are the settings i am using. Air heat set temp 18 24 Water heat set temp 34 46 Outdoor temp auto mode -4 18 Indoor temp auto mode 17 28 LWT auto mode 29 50 The heat loss calculations for my house was also based on -3.7 and LWT of 50 c, so i assume this the standard worked to. Thanks again for your help as it is much more pleasant when the temp sits close to what you want. I have not felt cold this morning and this is a welcome change.

Just remembered about answering this. The unit is a myson high level unit i fitted as there was no wall space for a larger radiator. This has made the kitchen so much warmer. It has 3 speeds, the fastest i have locked out so i avoid too much noise. the other 2 speeds are automatic controlled until the room temp is within 1 deg of set temp, then it changes to low speed which is very acceptable in a kitchen, though i would not want it in a sitting room. The 35 deg is not adjustable, but i run the heating above this so it is of no concern. Like all these fan assisted units i think they are vastly overpriced for what you get.

No i have made no progress at all. This is not surprising given my knowledge of the system, and yes it has been abnormally "warm" here for the time of year. I have changed a number of the settings, but i do not really see much change. We will see what happens when the cold weather arrives.