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Saving Sessions / Demand reduction thread

Email came through just now.

The power hour thing sounds nice. If I'm able to save them, can use them in October when it might be more worthwhile.
 
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Just had a look at tomorrows free sessions and the first and last both have (Limited space) by them now, they didn't before
Won't be doing anything this weekend as will be out at session time.

I am going to be careful not to stack up too many towards end of Oct as if many people do I can see the slots filling fast.

I will have 3 free sessions by next weekend
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Just had a look at tomorrows free sessions and the first and last both have (Limited space) by them now, they didn't before
Won't be doing anything this weekend as will be out at session time.

I am going to be careful not to stack up too many towards end of Oct as if many people do I can see the slots filling fast.

I will have 3 free sessions by next weekend
Click to expand...
I thought about taking one tomorrow, but it looks pretty sunny until late-afternoon.

They'll be much more useful for solar/battery people in October/November. It shouldn't be too hard to get slots then as we're still very much in the minority I imagine. If you don't have solar installed, then whether you take it now or later probably doesn't make much difference.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Just had a look at tomorrows free sessions and the first and last both have (Limited space) by them now, they didn't before
Won't be doing anything this weekend as will be out at session time.

I am going to be careful not to stack up too many towards end of Oct as if many people do I can see the slots filling fast.

I will have 3 free sessions by next weekend
Click to expand...

Yeah that was my concern, end of Oct will come around quick. They also said that they may not be able to offer a free weekend - presumably if we end up in a cold spell and demand is suddenly high.

I've booked a 2hr window tomorrow. I think they had 3 sessions this week, if they do the same this week then could end up with another 2 hours banked by next weekend.
 
10 weekends left including tomorrow (last is 1st Nov)
You can only use 2 tokens per weekend as well.

Tomorrow now says 11-12 full, 2 of the other slots limited availability

Will see how the saving sessions stack up over the next week or two but I will be at 3 tokens already once they process what we have done.

1 hour session is easier to max than 2 hour for me I find and we have been having powerups for some time.
I use around 65% in the first hour compared to second hour. Things like dishwasher and washing machine have a front loaded demand, I wack the immersion on etc and some are hard to judge how low to "run" in order to gain benefit from 2 hours.

Think I will be happy to carry max 4 tokens into Oct but no more. Unless its super sunny at a weekend in Sept I think aim is to use 1 token per week to gain most benefit.
 
Actually a thought and a check (it works) you can book 2 sessions that are not consecutive

Selecting the first and last hours could work quite well especially if its a grim day (like today)
Drop overnight charge to (for me) around 50% by 11am by use and force discharge, charge batts, do dw etc in that hour they will carry on into normal once the hour is up
Can then use power from batts till 2pm and book the 2-3pm slot to fully recharge again
 
I've gone for the 2-3pm slot, as solar generation looks low, with only 4.5 kWh forecast, I'll dump the battery throughout the morning to get to about 50% SOC by 13:59, to make room for import and solar.

I've been busy modifying some of my automations, mainly Node Red on the Victron system, but also some HA stuff.

My free electric schedule will also turn the Zappi to Fast mode at the start of the session.
I've now got monitoring in place to stop importing and turn the Zappi off if I reach the 16kWh limit.

I also did some other under the hood modifications to improve things.

PS. I've also just realised I've got nothing to turn Zappi back to ECO+ mode at the end of the session, only if I reach 16 kWh, so I need to add that functionality.
 
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I find an hour isn't just quite enough - even doing the speedy cycle on the washing machine is about 1h 15/20. Anything less I find the pods don't melt. Admittedly I've never focused on the cycle to see when it draws most power though, as normally it does a cold rinse cycle to start with so may find the first 10 minutes or so it's only powering the motor for spinning rather than heating up water.
 
LOL, pulling nearly 18 kW here and dropped the local grid voltage by 6v :D

Automations have so far worked perfectly, got the batteries down to 50% in readiness at 14:00, Zappi changed to fast mode, I did have to manually boost the hot water, and I'll have to manually load the tumble dryer :cry: when the hot water finishes, which will be soon.

Not quite half an hour in and almost at 8 kWh

2026-08-30 Free electric.webp

2026-08-30 Free electric grid voltage.webp
 
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