Soldato
I never look at the tariff data……only look for the pylon.
How to getthe best out of Octopus Flux
- Thread starter Ron-ski
- Start date
Had a nice test of one aspect of Flux last night, had a poor solar day yesterday and hadn't charged fully the night before as the forecast was better than reality so my battery ended up going completely flat yesterday evening. Was set to charge to 100% overnight and reached it at 4:45, so good to know I can get a full charge in during the cheap period.
As mentioned, from now on I will be charging to 100% nearly every night to avoid the issue of inaccurate forecasts as Flux now looks to make that worthwhile..
As mentioned, from now on I will be charging to 100% nearly every night to avoid the issue of inaccurate forecasts as Flux now looks to make that worthwhile..
Man of Honour
I reckon mid April onwards you may not even have to do night time charging.
However I agree it been great topping up at night time other than that I have not need to import from the grid all week so far. So elected is costing me less than £1 per day at the moment!
However I agree it been great topping up at night time other than that I have not need to import from the grid all week so far. So elected is costing me less than £1 per day at the moment!
Yes, in the summer can get by without night time charging (just caught the end of last summer with my system), though with Flux actually paying slightly more for export than it costs to import wonder if it is still better to fully charge, guess it really comes down to whether the slightly better export price outweighs the extra inefficiency of charging\discharging, and obviously it is quite a nice feeling to be basically self sufficient for electricity!
It comes down to that and wear and tear on the battery, but at one cycle a day that's an awful long time.
It's certainly a lot easier than micro managing it, unless you can set up an automated system that's reliable.
The only other problem with Flux is that you now have to be careful with electric use, as each unit wasted now costs you 25p export even if you generated it.
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Soldato
Still saves you more money on the import though to be fair......by around 11p for me. Actually it bigger than that really.....if you generate and export you make 25p, if you dont generate and import it you lose 33p......
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It does, but some people were being paid nothing for export, or very little, so from a financial point of view if you used all electric you generated, it made no difference, now there is a meaningful export rate it does.
In my case I was thinking of adding air conditioning, the electric would be free in the summer, but now it won't be, as it will cost 25p or even 40p in lost export per unit.
In my case I was thinking of adding air conditioning, the electric would be free in the summer, but now it won't be, as it will cost 25p or even 40p in lost export per unit.
Soldato
i agree the export now is more meaningful indeed.....export will soon start to outweigh import and standing charge and may now make money per month, rather than possibly breaking even or losing each month against import cost.
i ran my AC pretty much 24/7 from 1st july through to end of august and still managed to export something like 300 units a month. The comfort far outweighs a few quid lost per month. I reckon if I only used it when I was in, rather than all the time it'd probably only consume about 100kwh per month.
Quick question - we've just had 10 panels installed for 4kW through a Solax inverter with 10kw batteries and finally an Eddi unit to heat the water with any spare power. We're lucky enough to be on an old Octopus tariff fixed until August at 18.78p/kWh which I figure it's best to stay on until it expires. Any recommendations for a newbie on an export Tariff to sign up for with Octopus short term with I guess a view to switching to Flux in the summer?
Any thoughts/recommendations?
Any thoughts/recommendations?
Soldato
Octopus export fixed at 15p.....or agile if your brave enough
Potentially you could benefit more from Flux due to the higher export rates. Best bet is get on the standard export with Octopus and then go from there. Export takes the time to get approved, swithcing suppliers for import is usually much quicker and simpler.
Soldato
Just about to start exporting in the peak window @1.6kw…... Show me the money
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Man of Honour
Starting to get into a rhythm now the night time top up even during poor solar days has been working well. Since that's only 21p import and during the day is 24p export it's only 3p but it's effectively netting out nicely.
Winter is going to be the biggest test I think. Although march has been so cloudy and rainy. I think ultimately you'll build up credit over the summer to try and coast through winter. It's going to be an interesting experiment at least.
Winter is going to be the biggest test I think. Although march has been so cloudy and rainy. I think ultimately you'll build up credit over the summer to try and coast through winter. It's going to be an interesting experiment at least.
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Soldato
I know it's been discussed here but no matter your opinion on exporting at peak rates being worthwhile or not, importing overnight for 3 hours during Flux rate always seems worth doing into battery.
If you over-import and have a great sunny day, the extra just goes to export, and if the weather is poor you have charged some cheaper units you can use.
Just my 2c anyway, I'm not totally convinced it's worth exporting at peak rates yet, because the delta on that is fairly small, but at the height of summer with some W facing panels, I think it's possible that you would naturally be able to export excess 4-7PM for the better rates without focusing on doing it.
If you over-import and have a great sunny day, the extra just goes to export, and if the weather is poor you have charged some cheaper units you can use.
Just my 2c anyway, I'm not totally convinced it's worth exporting at peak rates yet, because the delta on that is fairly small, but at the height of summer with some W facing panels, I think it's possible that you would naturally be able to export excess 4-7PM for the better rates without focusing on doing it.
Soldato
I was exporting at the the top rate for two hours yesterday, no thought in it all.
Soldato
In the high peak window of 4 to 7pm yesterday we imported 0.325kwhs and exported 0.625kwhs
But not having a battery means you have no choice if your generation exceeds consumption.
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Well, I'm liking Flux so far! Few decent days (including best generation day of the year so far) means I've been in profit on my electricity for three days and yesterday actually made a profit on total energy use including gas as well (a mix of low gas use and good generation) and would expect my generation later into the summer to be at least half as much again.
Also, actually looking forward to the clocks changing at the weekend as that should push more export into the peak window!
Edit - Have also noticed I seem to be reaching the cheap period with 35-40% battery remaining on these good days, so definitely the potential to force some extra export during the peak period, which seems worthwhile considering the price difference is about 14 pence per unit.
Also, actually looking forward to the clocks changing at the weekend as that should push more export into the peak window!
Edit - Have also noticed I seem to be reaching the cheap period with 35-40% battery remaining on these good days, so definitely the potential to force some extra export during the peak period, which seems worthwhile considering the price difference is about 14 pence per unit.
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