I may have mentioned before that we are on a quite clever electricity tariff called Agile - it is one of the smart tariffs offered by Octopus, and for us it manages to save us a lot of money.
Having spent 20 years in the flat on an economy 7 tariff with its lower rates overnight and higher rates during the day, a smart tariff was a pretty logical choice - load shifting is already in our skill-set so we may as well make use of that. As a general rule it means avoiding electric use between 4pm and 7pm, and prioritising things like doing the washing at weekends when rates are often lower. Sometimes though, weather conditions can mean we either get super-cheap prices, or better still, we get paid to use electricity- which is absolutely a win. Today was just one of those occasions with storms Austen & Boelo having battered the UK this weekend, and prices were negative from midnight all the way through to 2.30pm today!
We started by using electric, rather than gas, for our heating. No sense in running the boiler at a cost when we could be paid to use the electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathroom, and our two trusty oil filled radiators. Those last were set up on smart plugs to ensure that they turned off at the right time too, along with the dehumidifier which also ran all day. Before I trundled off to bed last night I also loaded up the slow cooker with some meaty lamb bones, plenty of veg, stock and some split peas and pearl barley to make a sort of scotch broth style stew. That fed us at lunchtime with jacket potatoes and will be repeated in the week at some stage. A load of washing ran during the night, and I put that on to tumble dry first thing when I got up - that was then followed through the machine by another three loads of washing during the day too- those were line-dried thanks to a nice sunny and breezy day.
More cooking - I got a pan of dahl on the go as soon as I got up - we had a couple of sweet potatoes to use up so I added those to a pan with some finely chopped onion that I had softened in a little ghee, a can of coconut milk and a cup of red lentils, plus some curry spices. That was all simmered until everything was cooked and the sweet potato was breaking down, then a couple of teaspoons of garam masala stirred in - three tubs of delicious dahl for the freezer. Meanwhile MrEH played his part too with two batches of lunchtime rolls being made, and a big pan of autumn chutney to use up the final green tomatoes and some of our home grown squash too. Finally on the kitchen front I roasted the chicken portions that will form the basis of some of our meals through the week, plus a pan of mixed veg that needed using up - that will likely be turned into a pasta sauce.
In addition we also ran the underfloor heating in the office - even though we weren’t going to be out there it is a good opportunity to give the building a warm through and be paid to do so - and any other devices that needed charging were filled up too, plus the dishwasher ran through to keep on top of the dirty dishes from the cooking.
We ended the day with meals for the freezer, a warm house, an empty laundry basket, rolls for our lunches for the week, and a row of jars of delicious chutney - oh, and £2 in credit against our electric costs for the month too - and of course none of the stuff we did through the day today cost us a penny either! What a bargain - and what a productive day!
Robyn.
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