Octopus Weekend Happy Hours

I mentioned in September’s unblogged post about Octopus Weekend Happy Hours. If you get your electricity from Octopus, and manage to use less power on certain weekday teatimes, then you earn a token. Then, at the weekends, you can redeem your tokens for one (or sometimes two) free hours of electricity on a Sunday daytime. It’s been running for the past few months, but has recently been extended to February.

Generally, you need two tokens to redeem one free happy hour of electricity, although there may be some weekends where three tokens are required in future. It essentially depends on the weather – sunny and windy days mean there’s more cheap solar and wind power, whereas dull days with no wind results in greater use of gas, which is more expensive and carbon-intensive.

The usual slots available are between 11am and 3pm. However, the weekend before last, when Storm Boelo was blowing, there was more wind power available than usual. So the Happy Hour period was extended, starting at 10am.

Charging our electric car during Happy Hours

Besides our electric shower, the biggest thing in our house that uses electricity is our car. So, provided that we’re not out for the day, or Christine isn’t working, we charge our car during the Happy Hours to make the most of the free electricity. Typically, one hour is enough to charge the battery by 20%, which is a range of 25-30 miles. We had enough tokens for two Happy Hours last Sunday, and so added around 45 miles of range to the car’s battery for free. This would typically save us around £3.50 of electricity; by contrast, in our old diesel car, current fuel prices would have meant that the same range would cost around £15. Suffice to say, we are very glad that we got rid of our diesel car before the recent massive spikes in fuel prices, which has affected diesel more than petrol.

Of course, we don’t just charge the car – typically we’ll have the washing machine and dishwasher on, maybe the tumble dryer and possibly even the slow cooker. And it’s a good opportunity to ensure all our devices are fully charged too.

How it works

In the run up to Sunday, you need to opt in to make use of your Happy Hours – it’s not automatic. You also need to opt-in to the energy saving sessions that earn you the tokens in the first place. However, Home Assistant automatically opts me in to the saving sessions using this Blueprint, so I don’t have to worry about that.

Once you have enough tokens, you can choose which slots, typically between 11am and 3pm, you want to use. Availability varies, and the nearer to Sunday you leave it, the fewer choices you may have. You don’t have to opt in, even if you have enough tokens; if you’re expecting to be out that day, then you can leave it and your tokens will roll over.

During the Happy Hours, your smart meter will still show your energy usage and costs as normal. However, within 1-2 weeks, you should get a credit on your account for the amount that you used during the Happy Hours. There is a limit to 16 kWh during each Happy Hour, although you would probably have to be charging multiple cars to hit this amount in an hour. It’s also worth noting that your eligibility to take part in the weekday energy saving sessions varies depending on where you live. If you live in Scotland, where there’s an abundance of cheap wind power, you may get fewer opportunities.

In all, we’ve probably saved around £10 in electricity over the past couple of months. Not a massive amount, but then we’ve not always been at home on a Sunday to take advantage. I reckon it’ll be more if we’d been home to make greater use of the Happy Hours.

If you’re already an Octopus Energy customer, here’s my referral link. We’ve been with Octopus for almost four years, and I had my first successful referral last month from someone called James – so, thank you James. The referral link gives you £50 off your first bill.