best energy tarrif for solar pv ?

asturdy2

what's the best tarrif to be on to make the most of solar panels ?

tunnel

That's an easy answer....the cheapest.


On a serious note I could image economy 7 as being advantageous. Free generated power in the day and cheap bought energy at night. You'd just have to be carefull of the periods "inbetween" when the days are short and the nights are long

asturdy2

I meant one with no standing charge ? its more difficult to put your usage in and compare tarrifs if you don't know how much you use ?

tunnel

May be better to ask about tariffs on the energy/utilities board


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13


I didn't change tariff, I just changed the way I use electric

asturdy2

just that one of the installers asked how much do you pay for electricity ? I pay 12p but have a daily charge on top. It would be interesting to know how to work out what the bet tarrif is if you have solar panels.

thenudeone

It doesn't make any difference at all unless you have Economy 7, in which case a tariff with a more expensive daytime rate and a cheaper night rate than average may be slightly better because your daytime usage may fall a little (nowhere near as much as you might think, though).

zeupater

Hi

The answer really depends on how much energy you're still buying after installing the pv system. If the usage is very low then you'll need to look for a zero standing charge offering such as what's on offer from Ebic0 - the cost/unit might be higher, but you could save a considerable amount (depending on usage & usage pattern), but you'll need to keep an eye on whether the usage rises for any reason or you could possibly lose out ....

Use one of the price comparison sites and select the option to show offerings which you can't sign-up for through them ....

HTH
Z

mac2008

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

The answer really depends on how much energy you're still buying after installing the pv system. If the usage is very low then you'll need to look for a zero standing charge offering such as what's on offer from Ebic0 - the cost/unit might be higher, but you could save a considerable amount (depending on usage & usage pattern), but you'll need to keep an eye on whether the usage rises for any reason or you could possibly lose out ....

Use one of the price comparison sites and select the option to show offerings which you can't sign-up for through them ....

HTH
Z

Spot on - it still depends on overall import. That is affected by how you use your PV system (immursun or similar fitted?, home all day? electric heating? etc etc.) and of course the weather!

I would imagine however, that in the summer months a zero standing charge tariff would probably make sense unless you've got electric heating, then switch to a lower unit cost tariff over the winter months? Could anyone be bothered with this though?

zeupater

mac2008 wrote: »

Spot on - it still depends on overall import. That is affected by how you use your PV system (immursun or similar fitted?, home all day? electric heating? etc etc.) and of course the weather!

I would imagine however, that in the summer months a zero standing charge tariff would probably make sense unless you've got electric heating, then switch to a lower unit cost tariff over the winter months? Could anyone be bothered with this though?

Hi

We have a very low energy import requirement which contributes to a ridiculously low carbon footprint (Act on CO2). Electricity purchases are around 1200kWh/year, with gas being closer to 1000kWh. Both are very seasonal and it's possible (/likely?) that we will have no need to purchase any more gas until Oct/Nov this year due to solar thermal DHW provision ...

Directly related to usage, usage pattern and location, there will be a cut-over point for each fuel at which paying the standing charge becomes cheaper than paying the higher unit price, but we're well below that, therefore the zero standing charge offerings are (by far) the best option for us ....

HTH
Z

silverwhistle

That is low: how do you manage it? I'm probably heading for similar electricity, and still tweaking as I've only been back in the house 8 months. My gas is a fair bit higher, but still worth going to Ebico.

I've stacked pallets of wood in my back garden as I'm going to treat myself to a wood-burner (probably a Contura) for next winter so gas should go down, so I suspect similar in your case as 1000kwh is impressive. :-)

zeupater

silverwhistle wrote: »

That is low: how do you manage it? I'm probably heading for similar electricity, and still tweaking as I've only been back in the house 8 months. My gas is a fair bit higher, but still worth going to Ebico.

I've stacked pallets of wood in my back garden as I'm going to treat myself to a wood-burner (probably a Contura) for next winter so gas should go down, so I suspect similar in your case as 1000kwh is impressive. :-)

Hi

On top of our gas usage we usually have a ~3cubic meter/2tonne load of decent hardwood logs (mostly ash/oak) which should provide somewhere around 8000kWh.t - with this winter being mild we've only used about half of this to date. Apart from that we get a lot of our heat from solar gain and, importantly, use high thermal mass to store/regulate temperatures and high levels of insulation to prevent energy leakage.

Our log-burner was last used a week ago, but, thanks to the recent run of days with high solar gain, the room I'm currently sitting in is comfortable enough to be wearing a T-shirt and the rest of the house is cooler to varying degrees, but not really cold. We maintain a philosophy that it's only really necessary to heat a room that you sit in to a temperature which is comfortable to be sat in.

It's taken years of incremental improvements to achieve the levels of efficiencies we currently enjoy and one of the major savings which almost anyone can achieve with very little outlay is to address the relative temperatures for different parts of the house and learn how to effectively maintain what you decide. Once this is done, whatever future energy efficiency improvements are made, their impact will need to be addressed. Failing to do this simply leads to increased 'comfort' levels as opposed to energy usage reductions .....

To give an idea where we came from ... even considering that the house was built with very high insulation, 20 years ago the average gas usage was well in excess of 40000kWh, there was an open fireplace (used mainly at weekends) acting as an extractor for a good proportion of the GCH heat and it was normally so hot upstairs that the windows needed to be opened to get a good night's sleep .... it's amazing how determination, time, incremental changes & the shock of rising costs can help ...

Anyway, coffee-break over - so back out into the garden ... :cool:

HTH
Z