Solar panels , would you ?

[PJ87]

mine has hardly moved..

View attachment 51587

so i m going to push the envelop and do a round of washing & tumble drying tonight. I am also going to start charging the car outside of happy hours.

It's VERY inefficient to use a battery to charge a battery tbh. Whilst your getting cheap power yes you loss % charging up the battery and % discharging

Also on top of that your inverter won't handle the amount going out, so for example mine is a 5kw max inverter from the battery, so the 7kw charger is 5kw battery 2kw grid

 

[Mudball]

Every few times I get an error notification like this.. but when I get into the app or website there is nothing. I haven’t explored it properly but wanted to check if anyone knows anything. I m going to sign up to some solar forums

 

[Mudball]

Interesting situation for Solar in the US…. Ironically the U.K. is going down this route

Residential Solar Is In Trouble

Complicated financial products helped the U.S. rooftop-solar-power industry grow, but now put it at risk of implosion.

time.com

 

[PJ87]

January figures are in

Bill from octopus £90.58
Export £0.25
Total usage 849.2kw

Cost without system based on current price cap (£0.2922) £248.13

Savings this month £157.80

Year one savings was £1258.11
Year two (with 3 months left) £1742.48

I had been on course with my balance to have £6-700 left in octopus to take out April 1st

However a new driver was too temping so I removed £500 early

 

[Mudball]

January figures are in

Bill from octopus £90.58
Export £0.25
Total usage 849.2kw

Cost without system based on current price cap (£0.2922) £248.13

Savings this month £157.80

Year one savings was £1258.11
Year two (with 3 months left) £1742.48

I had been on course with my balance to have £6-700 left in octopus to take out April 1st

However a new driver was too temping so I removed £500 early

Why do you need a new driver… I thought the Kia was driving itself.

 

[PJ87]

Why do you need a new driver… I thought the Kia was driving itself.

Always good to have a spare

 

[larmen]

Are you getting billed on teh 1st? Octopus is billing us on a mid month date which I find really annoying.
I also ruined January a bit by changing tariff about 10 days in and got some bills for a couple of days here or there.


Today was an awful solar forecast, but intermittent we got up to 75% usage between clouds. Highest I have seen to date.

 

[PJ87]

Are you getting billed on teh 1st? Octopus is billing us on a mid month date which I find really annoying.
I also ruined January a bit by changing tariff about 10 days in and got some bills for a couple of days here or there.


Today was an awful solar forecast, but intermittent we got up to 75% usage between clouds. Highest I have seen to date.

I get billed on the 28th of each month, but my direct debit is the 1st

I dont overly look at the figures until the 30th when the solar app has updated the usage

 

[Mudball]

Got our MCS certificate.... what do i do next...
I am asuming I should give this to Octopus. Do they have a feed in tarrif which works alongside Intelligent Go?

 

[PJ87]

Got our MCS certificate.... what do i do next...
I am asuming I should give this to Octopus. Do they have a feed in tarrif which works alongside Intelligent Go?

Their octopus outgoing is outstanding at 15p a unit going out

So you pay 7.5p going in and 15p out you could charge your battery and dump it lol

Go your limited to 9p in 8p to just give you idea how good a deal it is

 

[Mudball]

Their octopus outgoing is outstanding at 15p a unit going out

So you pay 7.5p going in and 15p out you could charge your battery and dump it lol

Go your limited to 9p in 8p to just give you idea how good a deal it is

Will check it out..

I can see my battery is topped up by 3am.. then it starts discharging - some for load and some to grid.. gets down to 10% before 9. I think I need to find a way to delay the discharge to peak hours

 

[PJ87]

Will check it out..

I can see my battery is topped up by 3am.. then it starts discharging - some for load and some to grid.. gets down to 10% before 9. I think I need to find a way to delay the discharge to peak hours

Try to integrate it to home assistant I believe people use

Mine only supplies house from 0430

 

[cliveb]

Got our MCS certificate.... what do i do next...
I am asuming I should give this to Octopus. Do they have a feed in tarrif which works alongside Intelligent Go?

All you have to do is fill in an application form online. Start here:

Outgoing Octopus

The UK's most awarded energy supplier. We're doing energy better - for you and the environment.

octopus.energy

I'm on the 15p fixed rate (and Tracker for import).

Will check it out..

I can see my battery is topped up by 3am.. then it starts discharging - some for load and some to grid.. gets down to 10% before 9. I think I need to find a way to delay the discharge to peak hours

My daughter has a battery and after fiddling around trying to optimise things, discovered that just handing the scheduling over to Octopus gave the best results with no effort. I don't know for sure what tariff she's on, I presume Intelligent Flux as she has a GivEnergy battery.

 

[larmen]

Will check it out..

I can see my battery is topped up by 3am.. then it starts discharging - some for load and some to grid.. gets down to 10% before 9. I think I need to find a way to delay the discharge to peak hours

By 10% or to 10%?

We charge from 2 am and are usually full within 2 to 2 1/2 hours. By 9pm we are dow to 92ish percent.
Or are you charging the car from the battery?

Because we are on flux we charge at 17p, and if we generate during the day when the battery is full again we export at 18p. So we keep our settings ‘dumb’.

 

[Mudball]

From Octopus support team


If you're looking for a tariff to support your solar and storage battery, I would recommend either our Flux tariff or Outgoing Octopus. With Flux, this depends on the type of battery you have. For example, any batteries work with Flux but only Givenergy batteries work with Intelligent Octopus Flux. I have added Flux and Outgoing information below:

Octopus Flux is a dual import and export tariff optimised to give you the best rates for consuming and selling your energy. You'll get super cheap rates between 02:00-05:00 every day, which you can use to top-up your battery. A peak rate will be in place between 16:00-19:00. This is the optimum time to discharge your battery and export surplus energy back to the grid. more info here https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/

Outgoing Octopus is our most-popular export tariff and offers some of the most competitive rates on the market. Outgoing comes in two different versions, Agile and Fixed. Agile matches your half-hourly prices with day-ahead wholesale rates, helping you make the most of the energy you generate. Fixed Outgoing guarantees you 15p/kWh for every unit you export. More info here https://octopus.energy/smart/outgoing/

You are able to see all our available smart tariffs here https://octopus.energy/octopus-smart-tariffs/

 

[PJ87]

From Octopus support team


If you're looking for a tariff to support your solar and storage battery, I would recommend either our Flux tariff or Outgoing Octopus. With Flux, this depends on the type of battery you have. For example, any batteries work with Flux but only Givenergy batteries work with Intelligent Octopus Flux. I have added Flux and Outgoing information below:

Octopus Flux is a dual import and export tariff optimised to give you the best rates for consuming and selling your energy. You'll get super cheap rates between 02:00-05:00 every day, which you can use to top-up your battery. A peak rate will be in place between 16:00-19:00. This is the optimum time to discharge your battery and export surplus energy back to the grid. more info here https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/

Outgoing Octopus is our most-popular export tariff and offers some of the most competitive rates on the market. Outgoing comes in two different versions, Agile and Fixed. Agile matches your half-hourly prices with day-ahead wholesale rates, helping you make the most of the energy you generate. Fixed Outgoing guarantees you 15p/kWh for every unit you export. More info here https://octopus.energy/smart/outgoing/

You are able to see all our available smart tariffs here https://octopus.energy/octopus-smart-tariffs/

I find flux too expensive compared to intelligent octopus. If your battery could last all day you can make most of that 7.5p rate
Flux super cheap is like 17p or something

 

[larmen]

I looked at agile but that is a bit of a gamble. Last year February was really high so we went for save Flux for now.
If you get super involved and do mid day top ups, or your battery is large enough, the Agile might be one to take.

We save up to 50p on import a day, £180 the year. The big savings are hopefully start now with solar production.

 

[Mudball]

I looked at agile but that is a bit of a gamble. Last year February was really high so we went for save Flux for now.
If you get super involved and do mid day top ups, or your battery is large enough, the Agile might be one to take.

We save up to 50p on import a day, £180 the year. The big savings are hopefully start now with solar production.

Acc to Octopus, on Intelligent they can control only one device either the car or the battery. Also they need a specific battery which i dont have.
so our options are
1) move to Fixed outgoing and discharge at anytime for 15p OR
2) Agile Outgoing then discharge via manual setting between 4-7pm for highest price based on prev day avg

Currently my battery discharges at any point in time during the day, but i have now set it up for 4-7pm. let me see how it goes before I try to change my tariff. I have a feeling that we will end up with a fixed Outgoing tariff.

 

[larmen]

Have you made the decision that you want to push from battery? Or just exporting surplus once the battery is full?

 

[PJ87]

If it was me I'd charge my battery to full every single night then export anything my battery can't take

If it's going into the house at 7.5p and being paid to export at 15p it's a no brainer.