Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!
Maximising Savings: Navigating My First Year with Octopus Energy and Heat Pump Running Costs
I am so relieved to find this thread and discover that I am not the only person obsessed with this - Like Steve, I have no issue with looking at the day ahead Agile pricing every day to work out when to schedule usage to get the most out of it.
Thanks @steve81uk for the detailed analysis. As mentioned in @toodles other thread, I too am now looking at the new Cosy tariff and wondering if it may now be better than Agile for us (12kW ASHP, 3.6kWp solar array. Great to have so many choices.
Samsung 12kW gen6 ASHP with 50L volumiser and all new large radiators. 7.2kWp solar (south facing), Tesla PW3 (13.5kW)
Solar generation completely offsets ASHP usage annually. We no longer burn ~1600L of kerosene annually.
Really interesting stuff. We're on the octopus cosy tariff and we have underfloor heating with screed... I'm experimenting with the set back temperatures, but it's hard to decide how hard to run the system during the off-peak period Vs the standard period. We've got the set back during the 3 hour 1600 peak period as minus 10 to ensure it coasts through. But for the 10am to 1pm period I'm not sure if it's best to run it with a bit of a set back, made up for by running it very hard during the half price 1300 to 1600 period. Or keep it pretty much on the curve until 1300 and then only need to bump it up a few degrees during the off-peak.... Any thoughts?
I suppose in a way the UFH fabric is effectively a heat battery. I use an electrical battery (27kW/h capacity) to ride through the 16 hours of Cosy that aren’t at the cheapest rate. Would your floor screed mass provide you with a large enough buffer to do do anything similar perhaps?
Obviously you don’t want to overdo the heating during the 8 cheapest cosy hours but might this go some way towards covering the rest of the day/night. The 16:00 - 19:00 is the real killer but if your heat battery can do those 3 hours, this would be a good start. Are these the lines upon which you are thinking perhaps?
I have a Homely controller in my system and that (unless instructed otherwise) will ‘stock up’ during the 8 cheapest hours of my Cosy tariff and had I not had battery storage, I would be making even more use of that then I do! I use the grid directly as much as I can as obviously I don’t suffer the ~10% AC-DC then DC-AC losses from using the battery. Regards, Toodles.
Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.
Posted by: @toodles
I suppose in a way the UFH fabric is effectively a heat battery.
Yes, this! Thermal mass is key. Ancient civilisations knew a thing or two about using solar reflecting lighter buildings, natural ventilation for cooling & high thermal mass to dampen the diurnal temperature swing in hot climes.
Seems we’ve lost the plot with timber framed buildings finished in solar absorbing colours with architects even scorching naturally light timber cladding to make it dark! They have very low thermal mass translating to very low thermal lag.
@allyfish If there is one thing we learn from history, it is that we don’t bother to learn from history! 😉 Regards, Toodles.
Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.
- 26 Forums
- 2,618 Topics
- 61.1 K Posts
- 949 Online
- 6,993 Members
Join Us!
Worth Watching
Latest Posts
-
RE: Indevolt Batteries UK Support & Info Thread
Thanks @editor , @indevolt-uk Subject to any comments ...
By JamesPa , 6 hours ago
-
RE: Share Your Experiences with Heat Pump Manufacturer Support
@seoras Sorry to hear that. I found Vaillant very help...
By JamesPa , 7 hours ago
-
The Watchdog That Watched and Waited
On 9 January 2026, Consumer Energy Solutions collapsed ...
By Mars , 10 hours ago
-
RE: GSHP Kaput After 16 Years: New Compressor or Switch to ASHP? Advice Welcome
Cool Energy in Grimsby sell ground source heat pumps an...
By DerekDeLeon , 11 hours ago
-
RE: Valliant Heat Pump Settings
Thats arguably a sign of a good installer - they unders...
By JamesPa , 12 hours ago
-
RE: Electricity price predictions
Well, we have so many cases where rain water mixes with...
By Batpred , 13 hours ago
-
RE: Two heating zones to one zone
@profzarkov They arent obviously wrong, but the only...
By JamesPa , 15 hours ago
-
RE: Towns water feed to air source heat pump system
The DHW circuit cant be separated (well it could, you c...
By JamesPa , 15 hours ago
-
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverter
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverterPylontech batterie...
By MartinRobinson , 21 hours ago
-
RE: My NIBE ASHP Nightmare: No Commissioning, High Bills and a Hostile Installer
As @transparent has observed above, this is not bad, an...
By cathodeRay , 22 hours ago
-
RE: The Grid Says Yes.. Until It Doesn’t: Why Britain's Net Zero Push is Stalling at the Plug Socket
As I was reading this article Mars, I was thinking that...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
RE: Tell us about your Solar (PV) setup
Installed in May 2011: 16*Sharp 245 W monocrystalline p...
By txmartyn , 2 days ago
-
-
RE: Say hello and introduce yourself
That doesn't sound 'right' to me. The national Smart ...
By Transparent , 3 days ago
-
RE: Growatt battery disconnected
I doubt this will happen, but I will try and suggest it...
By Eliuccio , 3 days ago
-
Understood. That's why I decided from the outset on a ...
By JamesPa , 3 days ago
-
RE: My experience with 3 heat pump surveys: Heat Geek, British Gas & Octopus
On the litigation, I would not go there and definitely ...
By Batpred , 3 days ago
-
RE: Recommended home battery inverters + regulatory matters - help requested
I suppose if your pv inverter packs up, you have a plan...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: New Vaillant aroTherm Plus in black - When will it come to the UK?
Firstly check you are using sound power not sound press...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
-
That’s the solar up and running, I don’t think it’s the...
By David999 , 4 days ago
-
RE: Seeking ideas / information / commiseration - Pure Drive
I agree with @colinc that you can reuse some of it. A s...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: Solar Power Output – Let’s Compare Generation Figures
@toodles Im trying me best to ignore orangeman, I figur...
By Papahuhu , 4 days ago
-
@toodles That’s way better per kWp performance than our...
By Papahuhu , 5 days ago



