Octopus Power Ups and Free Energy Sessions

Beta is just a poor excuse, IOG launched in early 2022, over three years and still in beta, really???
 
Hi. I am not sure if this is the best thread for this question or if it should have its own topic - but i dont want to clutter. It also may be a stupid question but here goes...............

I have a solar system with battery. i dont have a switch to be able to run off grid (and as such i fear this answers my question however.
is there a way i can force all my house usage to be run off my battery and at the same time export my generated solar to the grid? . My thinking is, we have another free electricity session this afternoon.
if i could run the house off battery now and export all my energy, then when the free energy hr comes i could then charge the house battery again, that would be 1 way to make good use out of the hr.
 
bigmike20vt said:
Hi. I am not sure if this is the best thread for this question or if it should have its own topic - but i dont want to clutter. It also may be a stupid question but here goes...............

I have a solar system with battery. i dont have a switch to be able to run off grid (and as such i fear this answers my question however.
is there a way i can force all my house usage to be run off my battery and at the same time export my generated solar to the grid? . My thinking is, we have another free electricity session this afternoon.
if i could run the house off battery now and export all my energy, then when the free energy hr comes i could then charge the house battery again, that would be 1 way to make good use out of the hr.
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Yes and you can also force export your batter so it’s almost empty.

However, at this time of year, it almost certainly isn’t worth it if you are on an EV tariff which I assume you will be.

Your export is worth 15p and your imports are only really worth 7/8p. So you need to consume twice as much energy as you would normally export in that hour AND consume all your solar you normally produce in that hour at the same time just to break even.

Then on top of that you are only really saving 7/8p per kWh as you wouldn’t normally be using peak rate at this time of year.

I’m projected 3.5kwh during the free session today so I’d need to consume at least 7kwh plus the 3.5kwh just to break even on the lost export. Then I’d only be saving 7p/kwh so it’s not worth the effort.

If it was the dead of winter, limited solar production and your battery not expecting to last the day, then yes go for it.
 
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If you've got enough space in your batteries and the system can handle the power then you don't loose any exports.

I've been exporting since 9am to get my battery down to 65% SOC by 13:50, that should give me enough space to store all solar, and import for the hour.

Only bothering as the solar forecast isn't that great, and apart from setting it up, it's all automated.
 
Battery on schedule to be 100% by 15:00, was pushing 15kW into the batteries at one point, also boosted the hot water to 60°c
 
Took the free hour to:

Charge one car from the wallbox
Charge the other with a granny plug
Put the tumble drier on
Put some washing on
Put the dishwasher on
Boil the kettle (didn’t use it)

See if I can beat the record from last time…
 
Penfold101 said:
Took the free hour to:

Charge one car from the wallbox
Charge the other with a granny plug
Put the tumble drier on
Put some washing on
Put the dishwasher on
Boil the kettle (didn’t use it)

See if I can beat the record from last time…
Click to expand...

You filled kettle to the top. Made sure it was on nonstop until all the water boiled away didn't you? :p:cry:
 
I managed to pull 5.1kWh in the free power hour, at one point I had 15.3kW going into the batteries, which is 277.6 amps, which is 0.5C per battery, this was only a peak and not constant luckily, as the main battery rack breaker is 250A.

We had lots of peaks up to 12kW and a low of 1.5kW of solar generation in the hour.

If we get these in the winter months, it should give a nice boost, and be much more beneficial.
 
Penfold101 said:
Took the free hour to:

Charge one car from the wallbox
Charge the other with a granny plug
Put the tumble drier on
Put some washing on
Put the dishwasher on
Boil the kettle (didn’t use it)

See if I can beat the record from last time…
Click to expand...

The results are in - 11.6 KWh on Monday’s saving session!
 
I got a penny from the 1st September session I didn't take part in aswell.

I'm going to have a go at today's as I'm not generating that much at the moment. The battery has been slowly emptying through the day to be recharged during the hour. I'll plug the car in aswell.

I never did get the money for the half price charging on the 10th August. Did anyone else actually get it?
 
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reef said:
I never did get the money for the half price charging on the 10th August. Did anyone else actually get it?
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I've not had mine yet either. There was a post on the Octopus forum that said they were manually working it out, which if correct is ridiculous.

Not at home today, so not bothered with the free hour.
 
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