How low can you go...Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Whatever... electricity grid import 19 April 2021 at 5:23AM edited 4 October 2021 at 4:04PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 160 replies 5.2K views

mickyduck55

It has been the first week of the year when I have had little or no import from the grid so I am creating this thread so we can brag about how little energy we import in a week. I was surprised at this low figure as we were not deliberately time shifting energy usage.  It has been a normal week with cooking, baking , washing, dishwasher and showering (I did convince my better half to use the power shower instead of the 10 kW electric one as there was ample hot water heated by the immersion).

I think it will be difficult to get down to zero because of the inverter not being fast enough when certain electric appliances kick in and out causing some minor import, early morning toaster and kettle at the same time will require some import... so who will be the first to Zero ?

QrizB

Wow and I though I was doing well by only importing 4kWh on Sunday! Congratulations on getting so low

EVandPV

Can't beat your weekly figure Mick, that's seriously low !
Closest we came to a zero import day was 21st March with 0.211kwh.

mickyduck55

Lots of sun and biggish battery capacity...

mickyduck55

QrizB said:

Wow and I though I was doing well by only importing 4kW on Sunday! Congratulations on getting so low

I guess you don't have a battery so its unlikely you will ever get that low.. I bought the battery because it irked me that I was pouring power out to the grid all day then had to buy it back in the evening when I came home / the sun went down.  I know its not a good ROI.. but I like the idea 

Solarchaser

Yeah im at 14kwh, for the week so this is something I can't compete in.
The leccy shower is what kills it for me, its running 5 times a day on a normal day, so unless I can convince the family to shower when the sun is out (tried and failed) then it's not gonna happen.

I suppose the silver lining is that it's 2kw a day from an average usage of 30kwh a day (not sure why it's so high, it's usually 20-25kwh a day) so the solar +batts is working well.

Just need to fit hot water tank and ditch the leccy showers 

mickyduck55

A little effort this week time shifting so kettle and toaster not on together and zero 10 kWh electric showers, we used the power shower and the solar heated water via the Solic

Total generation for the week 166.87 kWh 

QrizB

I promised to post some monthly figures here, so here's what I've got to hand (going back further is impractical due to missing data).

• May - 105kWh imported, 324kWh generated export N/A (meter not fitted).
• June - 92kWh imported, 272kWh generated, export N/A
• July - 99kWh imported, 319kWh generated, 43kWh exported (from 26/06 smart meter installation).
• August - 62kWh imported, 256kWh generated, 183kWh exported (battery commissioned 16/08).
• September  - 75kWh imported, 238kWh generated, 146kWh exported.

None of those months get close to mickyduck55's <2kWh weeks but I'm pretty happy with them all the same, considering the size of my system and a 4-person household.

michaels

WE use about as much in a week as you do in a month and I thought our house was quite electricity efficient so I have no idea how you do it.

QrizB

michaels said:

WE use about as much in a week as you do in a month and I thought our house was quite electricity efficient so I have no idea how you do it.

It's odd, I look at mickyduck and think the same - how does he do it? Then I see he's got ~4kWp of PV and 10kWh of batteries, vs. my ~2.7kW and (until recently) 1.2kWh of battery.

December will be when we see how much energy we need in the dark and cold

greyteam1959

@QrizB
How much did your battery setup cost ?
If you don't mind me asking.