New Feature: Optimiser Tool
I've some exciting news to share on my my energy saving journey. The key to making the most of the Octopus Agile tariff is to shift usage away from times where energy is expensive (e.g. the evening peak), and towards times where energy is cheap.
In my household the main usage we can shift is for the washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher. I don't really mind if these run overnight for instance, and as I work from home I'm also happy for these to run during the day. All of my appliances have the ability to set a timer, where the washing or drying program starts with some configurable delay.
To find the best delay to set I would look at a table of upcoming prices and eyeball what I thought was the cheapest period. I could then calculate how many hours away this was, and set the appropriate timer. This is a bit tedious, somewhat error-prone, and not particularly easy to do. To that end I'd like to introduce the optimiser tool.
This tool allows you to define an appliance, and set a few preferences. The tool will then calculate exactly the delay to set on your device to hit the period of cheapest rates!
Cheapest Time
00:30-03:30
Effective Rate
7.2p
Finishes In
7 hrs
I provide a few options for customisation:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Time Calculation | Shows either the time until the appliance should start, or the time until it should finish. I found this useful for my washing machine which allows you to set a delay until completion. |
| Allowable Runtimes | Set the times of day where you can run the appliance. Useful if you don't want to be disturbed by a noisy washing cycle at night, or if you need to charge an electric vehicle at times where you tend to be at home. |
| Runtime | The expected number of hours your appliance will run. |
| Maximum Delay | Cap the amount of time you are willing to wait for the appliance to start. Useful for instance to avoid having wet laundry sitting in the dryer for too long. |
Try it out and let me know what you think!
