Solar panels , would you ?

PJ87 said:
Not familiar with the app tbh, what's the size of your system?

I've got 4.5kw system (12 panels) and this year apparently I've produced 892kwh which is just over double yours but that can be down to local area and of course size of system
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I’ve got 8 panels but live in Shetland so not so much generated in winter but high summer we have 20-24 hours daylight which helps.

My DD for electric has more than halved since installing panels so I’m more than happy with them.

I’ve never done anything about trying to get payment from exporting as I was told it’s so little it’s not worth bothering with.
 
Rlburnside said:
I’ve got 8 panels but live in Shetland so not so much generated in winter but high summer we have 20-24 hours daylight which helps.

My DD for electric has more than halved since installing panels so I’m more than happy with them.

I’ve never done anything about trying to get payment from exporting as I was told it’s so little it’s not worth bothering with.
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I would set up some kind of payment. As long as you are MCS system you will be able to get on anyone's export tariff. Whoever told you it's not worth it frankly ignore them. Whatever goes to the grid you are letting them have your electric for free when they don't do the same so anything is better than nothing

I'm with octopus, because of the car it's 7p into my house at night but their export is 15p so I make money if I export enough.. however for example you could go onto eon drive. They were (think still are) allowing anyone with a home battery onto that tariff. The tariff is simple. 6.9p a night for 7 hours. So you fill that home battery up cheap and use it to cover your day. Then anything you export with them (last time I checked) was 16p a unit. So you could easily make a profit. Especially with that 20 hours of day light.
 
Very much will I won't I going on this month

Didn't export yesterday as we hosted Easter so the oven burned all the export , that combined with 2 dishwashers

Anyways doing the sums at the moment my electric bill since 28th march, including standing charge then minus the export is £2.35.... (was £2.50 his morning but I've exported 1kwh already)

Now I've got until Sunday .. worst case I'd like a bill of sub £10.. £5 would be nicer..best case would be £0 or below!

Definitely glad I made the decision to go for the system. I've got many years warranty left on panels (20 years plus) and then the battery had a 10 year warranty so over 7 years left. We will break even by the time the battery warranty expires so if it did go I'd probably look into changing battery from a Tesla to something else.. depending if they can be kept outside
 
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Still keeping an eye on this month. Yesterday was so rainy but still managed a bit of export. At present the figures stand at

Usage bill £30.50
Standing charge £13.44
Total £43.94

Export as it stands £41.69

£2.25 needed to break even which is 15kwh.. yesterday I exported 8 with poor weather so if I can just get 12 or so today means I have until Sunday to break even.. which tbh is looking more and more likely.

In only April!

I'm setting a goal for August now.. i want to have a complete £0 bill including gas!
 
Well its 1044 on sunday and it looks like ( offical bill from octopus wont arrive until tuesday.. there may be errors depending on charges falling outside the cheap window.. should be mapped but never know)

anyways the figures right now stand at

import 481.4kwh at £0.07 = £33.70
standing charge (putting down at £0.48, now it dropped slightly but few days higher so just doing 48p) 31 days at 0.48 = £14.88

total bill £48.58

right now my export for this month is

324 kwh at £0.15 = £48.60 .. so that has me broken even

now the system is set to export all solar from now until 15:30 when the solar will then be diverted into the battery

so from now until 15:30 is all going to be paying me rather than covering the bill

outstanding for april

considering aswell ive used 690.1kwh total........ the bill will be paying me... thats outstanding
 
Figures are in

Bill cost £49.34
Export paid £49.81
Usage this month 695kwh
Cost without £203.61
Savings this month £204.08 (weird to see that higher for once)

Savings to date £5522
Year 3 complete so savings come in at £1981

Left to break even £9799

Reckon 5-6 years and it's paid off

New billing cycle started off strong.. extra £1.70 exported on top of use yesterday and last night's electric was half price 87p instead of £1.75. all adds up. Hopefully another month where they pay me (quick sums has My 2 days usage at just over £3. My export yesterday brings it down to 30p total so anything over 2kwh exported is profit, did 19kwh yesterday so looking at potential £2.55 profit by end of day which is useful position to be in, bearing in mind that 30p includes waking up to my car being full aswell)
 
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446 kWh in April. That's the highest we have ever seen. Higher than any month LY including the summer months which have a day extra. The year started bad, but it has turned around nicely so far.
 
larmen said:
446 kWh in April. That's the highest we have ever seen. Higher than any month LY including the summer months which have a day extra. The year started bad, but it has turned around nicely so far.
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april was ridiculous. may so far been good. im £5 in profit already. im not expecting it to continue but would be good to build a buffer to see if I can bank about £7 profit before just breaking even for the month (may is 28th april btw onwards due to billing cycle)
 
larmen said:
446 kWh in April. That's the highest we have ever seen. Higher than any month LY including the summer months which have a day extra. The year started bad, but it has turned around nicely so far.
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Down here in sunny (for once) Devon we got 496 kWh in April. Last year it was 327.
 
Well Mays going along swimmingly

End of export window today from the 28th April until today I'm -£9.50 .. so 9.50 in the bank incase of days I don't cover import . Which is looking less likely by the day

Gas bill is £6 thus far

So I could potentially have a completely even month
 
PJ87 said:
Well Mays going along swimmingly

End of export window today from the 28th April until today I'm -£9.50 .. so 9.50 in the bank incase of days I don't cover import . Which is looking less likely by the day

Gas bill is £6 thus far

So I could potentially have a completely even month
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Update one week on. Exported more than I've bought from the grid by 9kwh which is outstanding considering I sell it back for twice the cost I buy it.

ATM I'm up to £16 in credit for the month including import , standing charge and export. The gas bill is standing at around £10 so on course to have a bill where they pay me after gas aswell

It's only may!
 
i got my last month bill thur.. it is about £72 in credit. so we are into positive months.
However on some of the best days, my solar has tripped at the RCB, isolating the invertor. No idea why that happened. So had to reset it. It has happened twice, no clue why. Unfortunatley, it meant that on some of the sunniest days, I have no outgoing. so missing out this month. So far showing £30 in credit.

Today we generated about 41kwh... good one
 
Mudball said:
i got my last month bill thur.. it is about £72 in credit. so we are into positive months.
However on some of the best days, my solar has tripped at the RCB, isolating the invertor. No idea why that happened. So had to reset it. It has happened twice, no clue why. Unfortunatley, it meant that on some of the sunniest days, I have no outgoing. so missing out this month. So far showing £30 in credit.

Today we generated about 41kwh... good one
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Nice. We top out at about 30kwh a day. Today is 25kwh

It's enough to turn a profit each day since I tweaked with the settings
 
PJ87 said:
Nice. We top out at about 30kwh a day. Today is 25kwh

It's enough to turn a profit each day since I tweaked with the settings
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we seemed to have evened out at 42.5 today... i think anything over 40 is a very good day. There is still plenty of light but unfortunately our panels are not in the best angle to pick anything. I would be lucky if we get another KwH out of it today. but i m not complaining. Also did 2 loads of washing and tumble drying + dishwasher

i am still wondering why we tripped the circuits twice this month..

1747241152022.png
 
Did anyone else have a weird Octopus bill this time around?

We got billed for gas on the 15th as usual.
Electricity import was ad ay late on the 16th.
We have not yet received anything for export.

Data looks normal in the app, just the billing page is out of sync with normality.
 
larmen said:
Did anyone else have a weird Octopus bill this time around?

We got billed for gas on the 15th as usual.
Electricity import was ad ay late on the 16th.
We have not yet received anything for export.

Data looks normal in the app, just the billing page is out of sync with normality.
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I routinely have to phone them up to tell them they've once again failed to credit my export.
They always claim it's due to a problem getting the reading from the smart meter.
When I point out it's the same smart meter that gives them my import readings and which never has a problem, it falls on deaf ears.
But they do immediately take a reading and credit my account while still on the phone.
 
cliveb said:
I routinely have to phone them up to tell them they've once again failed to credit my export.
They always claim it's due to a problem getting the reading from the smart meter.
When I point out it's the same smart meter that gives them my import readings and which never has a problem, it falls on deaf ears.
But they do immediately take a reading and credit my account while still on the phone.
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Anytime I have an issue I message them on twitter and it's done within an hour
 
PJ87 said:
Anytime I have an issue I message them on twitter and it's done within an hour
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I have never used twitter (and never intend to do so). Shame that it appears to be the most efficient way to communicate with Octopus.

As larmen says, they don't respond to emails in a timely manner, so it's the old fashioned telling bone for me.
 
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