Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

I'm trying to get my head around why you wouldn't choose octopus' fixed outgoing rate of 15p vs their agile outgoing?

The 2018 data: https://octopus.energy/documents/12/outgoing_rates.xlsx doesn't seem all that compelling, but of course rates are a little different now.

Is there an obvious reason for going agile? I went for the fixed rate at 15p but I wonder if that was the right decision?
 
crazyDAJT said:
Input of tariff on the portal and run a report over a month or you bill period.

It will provided a within 5% value of imported energy.

Take house consumption and multiply by 0.34p to give you cost you would have paid.

For me I used 703kwh @ £239
Actual bill £62

Saving= £177

Edit: it will also tell you your export value as well.
Click to expand...
Similar saving for me on my first month -£186
 
Freefaller said:
Oh yes well spotted. I clearly can't choose a month correctly! :rolleyes:

Apologies for the inane questions. Although I can do the sums I like to get 3rd party verification!
Click to expand...

No problem!

Mine is a little more complicated to work out because I'm using Go and lately the battery charge does more than just the solar.

crazyDAJT said:
Input of tariff on the portal and run a report over a month or you bill period.

It will provided a within 5% value of imported energy.

Take house consumption and multiply by 0.34p to give you cost you would have paid.

For me I used 703kwh @ £239
Actual bill £62

Saving= £177

Edit: it will also tell you your export value as well.
Click to expand...

Yes this sort of logic can also work.

My Octopus Go bill from 27th September 2022 - 26th October 2022 was:

Total Days: 30
Total consumption: 238.2 kWh @ 9.29p/kWh = £22.12 (ex VAT). £23.23 (inc VAT).
Ignoring SC because everyone pays that unless off grid.

According to my Inverter stat for the same 30 day period:

Consumption: 468 kWh
Generation: 311.61 kWh
Less Export: 49.95 kWh
Generation Used: 261.66 kWh

Cost without solar: 468 kWh * £0.34 = £159.12

Therefore my saving is £159.12 - £23.23 = £135.89

I do see discrepancies between what the smart meter says and what the inverter says, but it seems like the inverter under-reports a bit, possibly missing data if is loses wifi periodically, but the numbers aren't miles apart.
 
Freefaller said:
I'm trying to get my head around why you wouldn't choose octopus' fixed outgoing rate of 15p vs their agile outgoing?

The 2018 data: https://octopus.energy/documents/12/outgoing_rates.xlsx doesn't seem all that compelling, but of course rates are a little different now.

Is there an obvious reason for going agile? I went for the fixed rate at 15p but I wonder if that was the right decision?
Click to expand...
I went for the fixed rate too…..i wanted certainty in price and agile wouldnt give me that.
 
Think i'm going to pull the trigger on Solar / Batteries tomorrow after a number of quotes, lots of research and coming close to throwing in the towel. The west roof has a dormer which serves no purpose and made arranging the panel layout a right faff.
Just wanted a sense check on the kit/quote

17 x Jinko Black N-type Neo 420w E/W split - 25yr warranty (7.14kw)
Solis 6kw invertor - 10yr warranty
9.5kw Givenergy battery - 10 yr warranty
Givenergy 3kw AC coupled invertor - 10yr warranty
Full G99 application
Fully fitted

£13200

This was the best of the quotes and the only one who when asked about the G99 advised they would applying for connection in full if possible.

I don't think i can get much better and the company have been really good with comms and tweaking the panel layout etc.

Thoughts?
 
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HungryHippos said:
No problem!

Mine is a little more complicated to work out because I'm using Go and lately the battery charge does more than just the solar.



Yes this sort of logic can also work.

My Octopus Go bill from 27th September 2022 - 26th October 2022 was:

Total Days: 30
Total consumption: 238.2 kWh @ 9.29p/kWh = £22.12 (ex VAT). £23.23 (inc VAT).
Ignoring SC because everyone pays that unless off grid.

According to my Inverter stat for the same 30 day period:

Consumption: 468 kWh
Generation: 311.61 kWh
Less Export: 49.95 kWh
Generation Used: 261.66 kWh

Cost without solar: 468 kWh * £0.34 = £159.12

Therefore my saving is £159.12 - £23.23 = £135.89

I do see discrepancies between what the smart meter says and what the inverter says, but it seems like the inverter under-reports a bit, possibly missing data if is loses wifi periodically, but the numbers aren't miles apart.
Click to expand...

I think that's the thing that was confusing me as teh discrepency between various readings and actual charges. As the app gives slightly different readings than the ocotopus charge period etc... I'm sure it all works out ultimately.
 
Freefaller said:
I'm trying to get my head around why you wouldn't choose octopus' fixed outgoing rate of 15p vs their agile outgoing?

The 2018 data: https://octopus.energy/documents/12/outgoing_rates.xlsx doesn't seem all that compelling, but of course rates are a little different now.

Is there an obvious reason for going agile? I went for the fixed rate at 15p but I wonder if that was the right decision?
Click to expand...
The fixed rate has recently improved from 7p to 15p, so that's made things closer, over the last summer Agile was definitely the way to go, my August to September payments earnt me £50.56 more by being on Agile than I would have done on fixed (80p per unit at one point, and regularly around 30p even in the middle of the afternoon), September to October was £3.71 more on Agile, October to November I would have earnt £2.02 more on fixed (only earnt £3.91 though), but certainly still way ahead on Agile, will depend what happens with prices next summer though (winter export is so small it doesn't really make much difference).
 
HungryHippos said:
My Octopus Go bill from 27th September 2022 - 26th October 2022 was:

Total Days: 30
Total consumption: 238.2 kWh @ 9.29p/kWh = £22.12 (ex VAT). £23.23 (inc VAT).
Ignoring SC because everyone pays that unless off grid.

According to my Inverter stat for the same 30 day period:

Consumption: 468 kWh
Generation: 311.61 kWh
Less Export: 49.95 kWh
Generation Used: 261.66 kWh

Cost without solar: 468 kWh * £0.34 = £159.12

Therefore my saving is £159.12 - £23.23 = £135.89
Click to expand...


Probably saving more than that, "GO tariff" is not covered by the 0.34p cap.
 
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Tavis75 said:
The fixed rate has recently improved from 7p to 15p, so that's made things closer, over the last summer Agile was definitely the way to go, my August to September payments earnt me £50.56 more by being on Agile than I would have done on fixed (80p per unit at one point, and regularly around 30p even in the middle of the afternoon), September to October was £3.71 more on Agile, October to November I would have earnt £2.02 more on fixed (only earnt £3.91 though), but certainly still way ahead on Agile, will depend what happens with prices next summer though (winter export is so small it doesn't really make much difference).
Click to expand...

I believe you can change at any time between them?
 
Mikolos said:
Think i'm going to pull the trigger on Solar / Batteries tomorrow after a number of quotes, lots of research and coming close to throwing in the towel. The west roof has a dormer which serves no purpose and made arranging the panel layout a right faff.
Just wanted a sense check on the kit/quote

17 x Jinko Black N-type Neo 420w E/W split - 25yr warranty (7.14kw)
Solis 6kw invertor - 10yr warranty
9.5kw Givenergy battery - 10 yr warranty
Givenergy 3kw AC coupled invertor - 10yr warranty
Full G99 application
Fully fitted

£13200

This was the best of the quotes and the only one who when asked about the G99 advised they would applying for connection in full if possible.

I don't think i can get much better and the company have been really good with comms and tweaking the panel layout etc.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
3kw AC coupled inverter seems like an odd choice for pairing to a 6kw inverter.

Why wouldn't they be using a hybrid inverter to start with?
 
Or location based, we have an ac coupled battery and inverter in the house near the consumer unit and the solar on a garage.


as a sidebar does anyone have solarEdge? how long did it take them to setup your account, its been a fortnight but our installer says it can take a while :(
 
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Ron-ski said:
I'd love to have smart meters, but my smart meters are now dumb meters once again. They are gen one, worked when first installed, then stopped working when I changed supplier, but started working last year, then stopped working again in July. Octopus are supposed to be getting them fixed/replaced but nothings happened so far.
Click to expand...
Octopus spent 9 months try to get ours sending the readings and then one day it just started working… since then they have never had any issues
 
Troop said:
Probably saving more than that, "GO tariff" is not covered by the 0.34p cap.
Click to expand...

It should be accurate.

It's raw consumption data pretending I was paying cap pricing £0.34/kWh VS actual billed data from Octopus where my average/kWh paid was £0.092 and solar covered the rest.

That made the difference, I paid £23.23 where a variable cap tariff would have cost me £159.12 (both options with no SC value).
 
HungryHippos said:
It should be accurate.

It's raw consumption data pretending I was paying cap pricing £0.34/kWh VS actual billed data from Octopus where my average/kWh paid was £0.092 and solar covered the rest.

That made the difference, I paid £23.23 where a variable cap tariff would have cost me £159.12 (both options with no SC value).
Click to expand...

Log into Octopus portal it will show the rates you are on, on the main page, as far as I know "GO" is not on the Cap.
I'm on "Go faster" not on the Cap, paying 42p unit for the peak rate.

Edit to add, just noticed the..."pretending I was paying cap pricing £0.34/kWh VS actual billed data" Doh!

CoHQfcb.jpg
 
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Troop said:
Log into Octopus portal it will show the rates you are on, on the main page, as far as I know "GO" is not on the Cap.
I'm on "Go faster" not on the Cap, paying 42p unit for the peak rate.

CoHQfcb.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes I know, but my own comparison I have to compare to cap pricing, because I wouldn't be on Go without having solar/battery to go with it.

Being on Go without that would cost me more full stop.
 
I have a challenge of trying to make my family learn how to exploit solar energy rather than just traditional behaviours. Whenever I'm at home even with a poor solar day and still using appliances like the oven etc we barely go over £2.50-£3. on good solar days we barely even reach £1.50

Every time I'm out (at work) we invariably end up closer to £4.... This is going to take a while... Especially when they're just not interested in learning or understanding how to change their behaviours.
 
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