Can I Convert Electric Slab Heating from Controlled Load to off Peak, and Save a Fortune

Clickbait on 29/09/2024 - 13:50
Last edited 29/09/2024 - 20:47 by 1 other user

I have a concrete Slab with electric Wires heated on Controlled Load rates and costing <>$500 per month in winter.
Have had to turn the temp down to save some money but I looks like everyone is trying to work out why the government says prices are going down when they are clearly going up.
Anyway Energy Locals are offering Off-Peak at $0.09 per Kwh which would just about make my grid electricity Nett, nett cheaper than solar…

So I read up a bit, and the "Regulator", (AEMO?) is thinking about turning off domestic solar when domestic output exceeds grid capacity, and that will include using it in your own house. So whats the point of getting solar in the first place??

They say the situation in Melbourne yesterday was the Domestic Solar was feeding back huge amounts, but grid demand was less the minimum supply, and their options were to ask large battery users to empty their batteries to take up the slack, or reduce grid supply (turn down the coal plants).
The problem with that was today, the weather change could destabilise the grid. Kaboom or something like that.

Question is can I convert Controlled load to Off peak, add a timer and heat my slab at the cheapest time. This would add to solar stability, and take a load off the Grid

• 

  cauilfield on 29/09/2024 - 14:37

  put RCAC instead and save yourself $500 a mon?

  • 

    brad1-8tsi on 29/09/2024 - 21:58

    Not the same as heating the slab. Our slab heater is knackered and I really miss it.

    • 

      mskeggs on 30/09/2024 - 05:09

      How did it die? Is there a break in the wires in the slab?
      I think it is great heating, but worry it might be impossible to fix a problem.

      • 

        brad1-8tsi on 30/09/2024 - 11:26

        +1

        It died 3-4 years ago. I can't remember what the error code was. It's my partners place so if I can fix it I get involved, if it requires a tradie, organisation and money I stay clear.

        I'm thinking "grid volt error" but maybe that was when the solar faulted.

        The place was renovated as a flip prior to her purchase in 2010 and this section of the house was a new slab on clay soil so who knows what corners were cut and how much movement is in the soil.

        She's about to put a tenant in there & I've finally found a decent sparky so I have suggested she gets it diagnosed/fixed when it's tax deductible.

        It was getting a hammering for 5 years before I arrived. She had the thermostat set on 22c so during autumn, winter & spring it was cranking with $2k/qtr power bills and she didn't question why.
        She has solar on the roof so if the controller can be set for off-peak and mid-day and the thermostat brought back to 15c (just to take the chill off the tiles) it might be OK.

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  freefall101 on 29/09/2024 - 16:17

  What did your power company say when you called them up and asked if you can switch from controlled load to off-peak?

  9c per KWh for off peak is great though. Why do you think power prices are clearly going up when that's incredibly low?

  • 

    theHMASfriendship on 29/09/2024 - 16:52

    +3

    What did your power company say when you called them up and asked if you can switch from controlled load to off-peak?

    They asked what is controlled load, and said that all this electrical stuff is really difficult and that they were so confused. They then suggested asking the professionals at Australia’s foremost bargains sharing community.

    They ended the call saying the electrons had unionised and were striking today so they had to go milk the coal themselves.

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  oscargamer on 29/09/2024 - 16:50

  For most working people, off peak is usually when you are not at home. Why heat the house when you are not there?

  • 

    battler on 29/09/2024 - 17:06

    -1

    you work the night shift and Sunday?

    • 

      oscargamer on 29/09/2024 - 17:07

      Which is why I said 'most'

      And yes, I do shiftwork and also weekends. Not sure how my work pattern relates to the OP's question …

      • 

        battler on 29/09/2024 - 17:26

        off peak is usually when you are not at home. Why heat the house when you are not there?

        Off peak is 10pm-7am (or thereabouts depending on your provider), which is when most people would be at home.

        • 

          oscargamer on 29/09/2024 - 17:34

          @battler: If you turn on floor heating at 10pm, it'll take until midnight to have any effect, which will be nice to wake up to. Not so nice when you get home after work/school etc…

  • 

    SBOB on 29/09/2024 - 17:27

    +2

    It's slab heating, it's not designed to be instantaneous heat. More long term retentive home heat, so the hours of operation would be less 'critical' than say air conditioning

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    brad1-8tsi on 29/09/2024 - 22:00

    For most working people, off peak is usually when you are not at home. Why heat the house when you are not there?

    Concrete is a heat storage device. Ideally you heat it during the day with direct solar and it stays warm into the evening but in-floor mechanical heating can be quite good.

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  SBOB on 29/09/2024 - 17:20

  is can I convert Controlled load to Off peak, add a timer and heat my slab at the cheapest time

  This would be completely dependant on your local switchboard wiring.
  Your slab heating (along with maybe your hot water system?) would be currently connected to a dedicated controller load circuit (which turns on/off based on signals from the grid, use to be pretty much the equivalent of off peak but can be variable times these days depending on your supplier grid area)

  You want to run it from offpeak, then you'll need to get a electrician to rewire your switchboard and move that device/circuit to your primary power/metering circuit and install a timer in-line, to allow you to determine when it operates.

  Work out the cost difference between whatever energy plan you are on for offpeak usage and controlled load usage.
  - Take the $500 you pay now and divide that by your controlled usage fee (eg 20c/kWh ) to get your 'usage' (eg if you're actually paying $500 a month for purely the controlled load circuit, that's 2500kwh)
  - Then do the equivalent cost for that usage at your plans offpeak usage (eg 9c/kWh, is $225)
  So per winter that's going to save you ~$275 based on the above made up numbers.

  Likely break even after a 2-3 years, after you factor in the electrician fee.

  (If this is the only thing on controlled load, you'd also probably want to investigate removing controlled load from your board as you may or may not be paying a controlled load circuit fee on your power bills, independent of the controlled load usage)

  • 

    knobbs on 10/10/2024 - 09:59

    If their MONTHLY bill is going from $500 to $225 and you estimate 2-3 years to payback, what kind of sparkies are scamming you for a metre swap?

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  Downvoter on 29/09/2024 - 20:39

  +2

  Kmart blankets are cheaper

  • 

    DingoBilly on 30/09/2024 - 09:29

    +1

    Yep. If you really want to save money just put on some clothes/blanket up. Heating is nice but it's easy to go without and use alternatives.

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  Euphemistic on 30/09/2024 - 10:08

  So I read up a bit, and the "Regulator", (AEMO?) is thinking about turning off domestic solar when domestic output exceeds grid capacity, and that will include using it in your own house.

  They will only turn off for excess export. They cant stop you from using it in your house.

  • 

    Clickbait on 30/09/2024 - 11:18

    They did it in Perth last summer

    • 

      Euphemistic on 30/09/2024 - 12:54

      Even so, thats not a reason to not get solar. Itll be rare that they need to do it plus inverters will get smarter to manage the load export.

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  Clickbait on 30/09/2024 - 17:46

  Beg to differ.

  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-27/solar-juggernaut-spar…

  And you can even read between the lines at AEMO
  https://aemo.com.au/-/media/files/electricity/nem/initiative…

  It looks to me like " inverters will get smarter to manage the load export" by turning off the load.
  And did I read that Feed in tariffs getting a haircut tomorrow?