Which energy tariff for Solar?

Zarch

Which energy tariff do people find best to use in conjunction with their solar installs?

I've been looking at Octopus Agile where out of core hours unit prices can be less than 9p? Sometimes down as low as 5p.

https://octopus.energy/agile/#what-does-it-cost

My current EDF tariff is 13.76p across the board.

I suppose the concept is the same as Economy 7 where you pay more during the day and less when demand is less.

If you can cover the 'expensive' periods with PV generation and take the cheaper import price during the night would this help save more money?

Would be interested in hearing what other folk are up to.

Thanks.

pinnks

I am not sure this would make a massive difference.

Looking at a single typical day for me - about 2.2kWh of darkness use of leccy and add 1kWh of peak use for cooking and assuming I am paying 13p at the moment (would need to check the decimal pence) then the numbers for one summer day are pretty much the same, to within decimal pennies.

weekends look different on their pricing and of course over the winter months one would import a lot more during peak times and generally.

It would be quite difficult to work out a whole month, let alone the whole year but for PVers savings look marginal.

Sterlingtimes

This is very clearly what smart metres are really for! And it is the way of the future. Presumably, Octopus buys its electricity at different prices for different times, otherwise, their tariff would not work.

It would be difficult to model whether this would lead to a major reduction in the electric bill.

zeupater

Hi

There's no 'one size fits all' response as the answer depends on your particular total consumption & usage pattern - it's just a case of accurately working out what you use & when you use it & feeding figures into energy price comparison sites & individual supplier models for unusually complex offerings ...

HTH
Z

silverwhistle

As Z indicates, it can be a difficult calculation.

There's no mention in this thread of standing charges, which can also complicate matters. If you have low usage like myself (PV, retired or work from home and single) then the SC makes a significant difference.

Indeed, for my gas bill it's plainly advantageous to go for a standing charge free tariff as my total annual bill comes in under the cost of the cheapest annual standing charge.

Sterlingtimes

The standing charge looks to be around £77 a year. Without exceptional discipline, it would probably need high consumption appliances to be programmed not to work during the peak times.

I do like the approach because I think it is the way of the future. And I do agree that there will be a solar contribution in the summer, particularly for houses with rooves facing west of south. Nonetheless, it may still work out better to choose a low tariff provider.

Having just made a switch, my tariffs seem to be very low, in fact so low that I did question whether they were correct, for instance gas is priced at 2.13 per kilowatt hour including VAT with £80.48 standing charge. My incremental cost of gas is therefore very low.

zeupater

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

The standing charge looks to be around £77 a year. Without exceptional discipline, it would probably need high consumption appliances to be programmed not to work during the peak times.

I do like the approach because I think it is the way of the future. And I do agree that there will be a solar contribution in the summer, particularly for houses with rooves facing west of south. Nonetheless, it may still work out better to choose a low tariff provider.

Having just made a switch, my tariffs seem to be very low, in fact so low that I did question whether they were correct, for instance gas is priced at 2.13 per kilowatt hour including VAT with £80.48 standing charge. My incremental cost of gas is therefore very low.

Hi

On the gas side, at our current 12mth usage (which has been higher than normal), our bill would be >50% more on your 'very low' tariff with a unit price which is just under 5p/kWh, so over double! .... as mentioned earlier, with tariffs there's not a simple answer because everything depends on usage & usage patterns ....

HTH
Z