At the time they were offering best export only product.
Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
Soldato
Fair enough, I can't use them as I swore of them when they took 9 months to sort out a bill at an old property and getting to speak to any one with a clue was a literal impossibility, ended up having to use the ombudsman too resolve it. So boo to SP from me!
Soldato
Octopus boasts their export has given 200p per unit previously. Probably not that often but I was thinking world cup is this year, thats a lot of kettles boiling at half time 
Soldato
Octopus Agile export looks like the best paying one as it pays more like market rates, but you can't use it if you have Octopus GO.
Soldato
Can you use it if you have Intelligent Octopus? The website doesn’t say you can’t, but I suspect they won’t let you.
Soldato
No, I said GO but pretty sure they actually specified all of the similar ones like GO Faster and Intelligent.
Basically not allowed to have cheap overnight charging and better paying export.
The fixed export is 7.5p/kwh.
Soldato
Soldato
You could try but I don't think they'd let you personally. They are all variants of GO really.
Soldato
Yeah I imagine you are correct. I quoted the Outgoing page rather than the Agile page but that’s even worse as it just goes on about needing a smart meter.
I had similar back in 2014, it took them over a year to produce a bill and I had to get the Ombudsman to get any traction with them.Fair enough, I can't use them as I swore of them when they took 9 months to sort out a bill at an old property and getting to speak to any one with a clue was a literal impossibility, ended up having to use the ombudsman too resolve it. So boo to SP from me!
Full month in for August, generated 856kwh and used 688 of those, pulled 15 from the grid which is about twice what the givenergy app reckons I used (7.46). I expected a bit of margin for error but twice as much seems high, is there something I should be getting checked for this?
Soldato
Great numbers there!
Please share any findings you get here as I have a similar system, so far it seems when short term demand is higher than a couple of kw it seems to dip into grid import.
Soldato
Isn't there a low parasitic constant consumption from the grid, ie the tiny draw that allows the system to see the grid is up and active and it doesn't need to shut down?
Associate
Oh guys, I'm loving this !
It's a tinkerers dream! Definitely need to work out how to get an extra inverter on as generating 6kw easily today, using 1.5kw, but battery only charging at 2.5kw, so rest exporting (boo! hiss!).
Waiting for givenergy to release this device that lets two hybrid 5kw inverters play together and I'm soooo getting it.
Question - to get money back from export, do I need to fill in a form or something? I'm moving to Octopus Go, but reading these posts suggests I need to do something to get money back?
It's a tinkerers dream! Definitely need to work out how to get an extra inverter on as generating 6kw easily today, using 1.5kw, but battery only charging at 2.5kw, so rest exporting (boo! hiss!).
Waiting for givenergy to release this device that lets two hybrid 5kw inverters play together and I'm soooo getting it.
Question - to get money back from export, do I need to fill in a form or something? I'm moving to Octopus Go, but reading these posts suggests I need to do something to get money back?
@katie279 I'd definitely look at the sums over the coming months to work out if getting a second inverter is actually worth it, yes you're exporting some on a good day, and you can obviously consume a bit more, but with sensible shuffling of usage you can balance this off, especially with a second inverter costing £1k +
As I understand yes, but I would expect the relevant software to pick this up and it not to be 7.5kwh of missed consumption in 30 days.
Soldato
I think Katies "problem" is too much storage to be able to charge from solar or from grid overnight due to the limitation.
If you zoom in as much as you can on a high generation time do you see any draw at all being picked up?
Its possible its below the limit it will detect?
Always possible the meter (I assume your supplier meter reading generated the 15kwh) has a minimum that it will register so could be in effect rounding up?
If you zoom in as much as you can on a high generation time do you see any draw at all being picked up?
Its possible its below the limit it will detect?
Always possible the meter (I assume your supplier meter reading generated the 15kwh) has a minimum that it will register so could be in effect rounding up?
Soldato
Yes I think it's adjusting all the time, but do see tiny usage for import/export but it's not real time.
How big was your system again with panels?
Associate
Come on Solid - how much RAM do you actually need and did you REALLY need that new graphics card.....
Yeah I do agree - although it was dense fog this morning and already by 9am I was producing excess, so currently sitting producing 6kw!
I have put the dishwasher and washing machines on though, so as you say it might be about shifting my usage. I'll also have a think about if I can get smarter with scheduling when the EV charges too!
Associate
18 X 410w so about 7.4kw
And 19.5kwh of batteries.
Definitely eyeing up other spots for more panels though .....
