How to getthe best out of Octopus Flux

Welshman said:
New flux prices from today, will save me around 6p import, but will cost me around 30p on export……..bloody buggers
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you know.............. its costing me as well but i am still glad it is happening.

the profits of a few pence per day for those of us who are already in a massive position of privilege with our generation is a small price to pay if it means those less fortunate no longer have to choose between heating the house, using the TV or cooking dinner.

i hope it comes down more still. (at which point i will leave flux but it would still have been good whilst it lasted)
 
Got the export readings now. Interestingly, the smart meter and subsequently Octopus, are showing double the amount being exported for yesterday, 21.1 vs 10.1, compared to what the app for the inverter is showing (LuxPower). Not sure why that would be happening but I guess the smart meter is the more accurate one.
 
Jon20 said:
Got the export readings now. Interestingly, the smart meter and subsequently Octopus, are showing double the amount being exported for yesterday, 21.1 vs 10.1, compared to what the app for the inverter is showing (LuxPower). Not sure why that would be happening but I guess the smart meter is the more accurate one.
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Work colleague has his Octopus usage stats showing double what he's actually exported but Octopus seemed to bill it accurately, so maybe it's duplicating data or something.
 
HungryHippos said:
Work colleague has his Octopus usage stats showing double what he's actually exported but Octopus seemed to bill it accurately, so maybe it's duplicating data or something.
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That would make sense, as we didn’t even generate 21kWh yesterday, assuming the inverter is correct. Would have been impossible to export 21kWh with household usage and the battery charging. I probably should actually check what the smart meter is saying for export. I just assumed what Octopus is reporting would be correct ha.
 
On my Octopus page it's now saying "Enrolling Export MPAN" and that it should only be a couple of days. How long did it take for people to be fully up and running from here?

It's been 5 weeks since the import went active despite already having my export MPAN so slower than I'd have liked. Hopefully it's done soon as before long I won't be exporting much!
 
reef said:
On my Octopus page it's now saying "Enrolling Export MPAN" and that it should only be a couple of days. How long did it take for people to be fully up and running from here?

It's been 5 weeks since the import went active despite already having my export MPAN so slower than I'd have liked. Hopefully it's done soon as before long I won't be exporting much!
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Well my own question got answered today. It turns out my export MPAN is incorrectly listed on the national database as "de-energised" so the switch to Octopus failed. Apparently only EDF can get the national database updated to get this sorted. Going by EDFs previous customer service I'm not confident and even if it is updated it can take a few weeks.

It has been a total nightmare all this. You just know it won't be sorted for ages and then it'll be pointless being on Flux by then! :rolleyes:
 
Jon20 said:
Got the export readings now. Interestingly, the smart meter and subsequently Octopus, are showing double the amount being exported for yesterday, 21.1 vs 10.1, compared to what the app for the inverter is showing (LuxPower). Not sure why that would be happening but I guess the smart meter is the more accurate one.
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Sent Octopus a tweet about this. It's something to do with the meter (Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1), a defect that the manufacturer and Octopus are working on, that causes the export readings to get doubled. Not quite sure why as it shows the correct reading on the meters display.
 
I recently moved to Octopus Flux and I have export enabled too. My SMETS2 meter seems usually to reflect the unit costs for Imports quite accurately, adding the daily standing charge at around 12:30am to 1am each day plus the odd few pence for energy my batteries don't cover.

With little sun in the last day or two I elected to charge from the grid from 2am to 5am today in the 18.54p window. This went as planned using 10.2kWh in that period including a small house load. The meter registered 10 units used.

Now using the meters cost output which read £5.67 at 2am and £9.12 at 6am the difference is £3.45. The actual cost at 18.54p/kWh should be £1.89 plus the odd 1-2p used between 5 & 6am not £3.45.
Even if the meter was charging me at day rate of 30.9p/kWh the numbers don't add up, so after all this, my question is do the meters indicated cost usually follow the import rate changes accurately throughout the day?

I was hoping to charge each night over the winter and sell back excess solar to pretty much cover my charge costs, but the metering needs to be accurate for that to work. I thought I would have more chance of a reply here than emailing Octopus who have failed to answer 2 emails from me sent 29th and 30th June, they are as bad as my previous supplier.
 
Oldman2 said:
I recently moved to Octopus Flux and I have export enabled too. My SMETS2 meter seems usually to reflect the unit costs for Imports quite accurately, adding the daily standing charge at around 12:30am to 1am each day plus the odd few pence for energy my batteries don't cover.

With little sun in the last day or two I elected to charge from the grid from 2am to 5am today in the 18.54p window. This went as planned using 10.2kWh in that period including a small house load. The meter registered 10 units used.

Now using the meters cost output which read £5.67 at 2am and £9.12 at 6am the difference is £3.45. The actual cost at 18.54p/kWh should be £1.89 plus the odd 1-2p used between 5 & 6am not £3.45.
Even if the meter was charging me at day rate of 30.9p/kWh the numbers don't add up, so after all this, my question is do the meters indicated cost usually follow the import rate changes accurately throughout the day?

I was hoping to charge each night over the winter and sell back excess solar to pretty much cover my charge costs, but the metering needs to be accurate for that to work. I thought I would have more chance of a reply here than emailing Octopus who have failed to answer 2 emails from me sent 29th and 30th June, they are as bad as my previous supplier.
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In home display is not your meter, it's just a display of your meter data.

Prices on these aren't known to be that reliable when it comes to updating on tariff changes. With solar I find the IHD kind of worthless. It's probably displaying the wrong unit rates.

If Octopus have your smart meter readings at 30 min intervals, then you will be charged at the tariff rate for the usage in the appropriate time window, no matter what value your ihd shows.

Never had much luck emailing Octopus, but they've been helpful over phone or twitter DM.
 
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@0ldman2 My IHD never shows the correct rate, check your cost using Octopus Watch app if on Android, or Octo Aid if on Apple, they can take some time to update, sometimes late into the evening for the previous day. These apps will accurately show you daily cost including standing charge.
 
I don't have an IHD guys, my data is direct from my meter display. I have an Octopus mini and the app for my PC but the display only shows kWh, the app on my android phone shows use to 5mins but against cost it says "sorry we dont support cost with this tariff or meter yet, but we are working hard to bring this too you soon"
That may suggest my meter cost readings my not be correct even though up to now they seemed to be (on day rate)
bill-cost.jpeg
 
IHD only shows what the meter see's, so therefore one can conclude that the meter doesn't have the correct rate.

My Octopus app shows the same as yours, it's ludicrous that they can't show the cost.

Get either of the apps I suggested, problem solved, although you'll still need to check the Octopus app to actually see when you used electric.
 
Octopus have really been a letdown admin wise, they took money to pay my bills on July 1st and I still don't have the bill listed on my account or in my email.
Well done Welshman on all that export, it cant always be raining in Wales can it ;)
 
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Oldman2 said:
Octopus have really been a letdown admin wise, they took money to pay my bills on July 1st and I still don't have the bill listed on my account or in my email.
Well done Welshman on all that export, it cant always be raining is Wales can it ;)
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Had this before was a problem with export data, but since I contacted them and they fixed it, bills been running like clockwork.

DM them on twitter or ring em up.
 
Oldman2 said:
Octopus have really been a letdown admin wise, they took money to pay my bills on July 1st and I still don't have the bill listed on my account or in my email.
Well done Welshman on all that export, it cant always be raining in Wales can it ;)
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no its not always raining, but when you use on average 5kwhs a day of leccy. then you can see why my export is around 78% of production
 
Just to disprove the myth its not "always raining in wales"

Wales has warmer temperatures throughout the year than Northern Ireland and Scotland and has milder winter minima than England, but cooler winter maxima than Northern Ireland. Wales is wetter throughout the year than Northern Ireland and England, but has fewer rainy days than Northern Ireland; meaning that rainfall tends to be more intense. Wales is also drier than Scotland in every month apart from May, June and December, and there are fewer days with rain than in Scotland. Sunshine totals throughout the year are more than that of Scotland and Northern Ireland, but less than that of neighbouring England. May is the sunniest month, averaging 186.8 hours
 
Welshman said:
Just to disprove the myth its not "always raining in wales"

Wales has warmer temperatures throughout the year than Neptune and Saturn and has milder winter minima than England, but cooler winter maxima than the North Pole. Wales is wetter throughout the year than The North Sea and the Pacific Ocean, but has fewer rainy days than the Amazon rain forest; meaning that rainfall tends to be more intense. Wales is also drier than the Sahara desert in every month apart from May, June and December, and there are fewer days with rain than in the Amazon rain forest. Sunshine totals throughout the year are more than that of Saturn and Neptune, but less than that of neighbouring England. May is the sunniest month, averaging 186.8 hours
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Fixed it for you ;)
 
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Oldman2 said:
Octopus have really been a letdown admin wise, they took money to pay my bills on July 1st and I still don't have the bill listed on my account or in my email.
Well done Welshman on all that export, it cant always be raining in Wales can it ;)
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This does seem to happen to me quite regularly.
There is clearly some issue.
They fix it very quickly if you let them know however.
 
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