How do Weekend Happy Hours work if I have solar and/or battery storage?
Don't worry, you can still take part! However, some of you incredible seasoned load-shifters might find it tricky to save power during a Power Down because they generally happen at times you probably try to save power anyway. So here's how to get involved.
During Power Down sessions, try to export more than you usually would. 'Exporting more' counts the same way 'using less' does – meaning you can earn Octopoints and Happy Hours.
During your Weekend Happy Hours, whatever electricity you import will be 100% free. There’s no baseline to beat, so you don't need to use more energy than normal to qualify.
If you’re self-powering with solar, you’re likely not drawing much from the grid during the day anyway, so Happy Hours may not make as big a difference for you. However, it's a good idea to run your most power-hungry appliances, such as dishwashers and tumble dryers, or charge your battery during a Happy Hour because any energy that your solar can’t provide will be free.
You get to pick when to use your Happy Hours, which means you can save them up to use in cloudy hours when you're not generating much solar.
Feeling like you don’t get much value from Happy Hours?
It’s true that you may not benefit as much — but the daily savings and export earnings from your tech will already deliver far more value than an hour of free energy a week. Customers have earned £100 million from our export tariffs in the past year alone.
We created Happy Hours to introduce more people to smart energy; showing them how they can benefit by shifting and helping the system. As someone already using smart tech to balance the grid every day, you’re already ahead of the curve: so thanks for leading the way.
We’ve created a new way for some battery customers to save extra by helping the grid in Charge Pack — you might like to check it out. And if you want to spread the word further, you can refer friends to get Octopus solar, heat pump or EV charger and share a great cash reward.