[cj68]

Following a successful energy shift test, I'm curious to know the level of 'earnings' available.

My sign up specified:

40% reduction
Your typical use 0.24kwh
Reduce by 0.1kwh

you could earn around £0.52

When the results came through,

You reduced your energy usage by 77% which means you'll get £1.09 credited to your account.

So clearly it's somehow scaled, not just a fixed amount for reaching the target.

Any other successful participants care to share their results? If nothing else, it should give hope to those claiming 'con'.

[dpluxor]

Plenty of people on hear have had bad experiences with this so called ‘scheme’
We all saved more than EON requested when going by the relatively accurate (to 10 seconds or so) smart meter IHDs

But then we had emails saying we didn’t achieve the target so get nothing
The system is broken, no point trying again

You probably get lucky with your winnings, might as well play on a slot machine as try and get this money out of Eon

[JWillans]

I had the same experience. I switched off everything but my router and fridge for an hour and only achieved 39%.

The targets make no sense for people already making efforts to use less energy.

[meldrewreborn]

@JWillans

i just replaced my old freezer for a newer model and cut my total household consumption by over 30%. A few hours of downtime will not have any effect on the contents.

[meldrewreborn]

The payments are geared to the amount of reduction.

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by JWillans

I had the same experience. I switched off everything but my router and fridge for an hour and only achieved 39%.

The targets make no sense for people already making efforts to use less energy.

I completely agree with you. Saving energy is something we all need to be doing as a matter of course. Many of us already are, smart meters or not.

The incentives we already have are obvious. Use less energy, spend less on your bills.

If someone saves half a kWh of electricity over an hour, gets paid to save that amount at a premium rate, and then when the hour is over goes and puts the kettle or toaster on...?

Sure, it's 'shifted' a tiny bit of energy use, but not enough to make a blind bit of difference in my opinion.

Back in the day, where the normal working pattern was 9 to 5 and everyone came home around the same time and switched the telly, the lights and the kettle on in winter, then there would be times of peak usage. In this modern age, I think, with different working patterns, not so much. The peak is lower, but spread out a bit more, I think.

The days of six million kettles all coming on at the same time in the advert break in Coronation Street are behind us now, surely?

[Actual]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

If someone saves half a kWh of electricity over an hour, gets paid to save that amount at a premium rate, and then when the hour is over goes and puts the kettle or toaster on...? Sure, it's 'shifted' a tiny bit of energy use, but not enough to make a blind bit of difference in my opinion.

According to National Grid this is precisely the why they have introduced the Demand Flexibility Service Demand Flexibility Service | National Grid ESO

I don't consume energy needlessly because I don't want to waste money but if I can be incentivised to shift my energy usage to different times without being inconvenienced then I am happy to do so and the country may avoid rolling power cuts this winter.

My energy tariff is a flat rate and so all energy consumption costs me the same regardless of when I use it but I am acutely aware that even an electrical device which costs only 10p per hour to run continuously will cost £2.40 per day and £876.00 a year. I found the energy shift to be a useful exercise because it encouraged me to go round the house experimenting with different devices to understand what was the effect on consumption.

[Lee29]

My test period was 17:00-18:00, during this period my usage shown by my eon IHD never went above 60w and i still failed, how low do you have to go.
they do not say in the email by how much you missed it by or what you usage was during the period, could it be we are too good and eon will be paying out too much.
The sad thing is eon have not been showing hourly usage history on the website for over a year, the App for what it is worth only gives highest and lowest days kWh readings.

[JWillans]

Just received an email correcting the error about not meeting the target. I've now got a more accuracte 91% reduction, and my account is being credited.

Must have been some issues which didn't come up until the system was tested at scale, my trust has been restored!