How low can you go...Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Whatever... electricity grid import

mickyduck55

QrizB said:

Special cirumstances - we were away for the weekend! - but Saturday was my lowest import day ever. 8 watt-hours.

That's very good with a small array and no batteries, as stated previously with the solar and batteries plus a little "care" at this time of year my negligible import is almost entirely caused by the lag in inverter switching time rather than needing grid power.. so far this month import is 2.68 kWh.

QrizB

Over in the "... my generation" thread, @ABrass asked:

ABrass said:

A slightly cheeky question, but what is the typical utilisation you lot are seeing over a year? It'd be interesting to have some real data.

You'll find some examples in this thread, although we're probably not typical; this thread is mostly populated by people who are actively trying to increase their self-consumption.

My latest stats are here. For the 12 months to the end of June 2022, I:

• Generated 2571kWh (945 O's, average 2.6 O's/day)
• Imported 1636kWh
• Exported 1201kWh (approx.)
• Self-consumption was 2571-1201 = 1370kWh, 53% of generation.
  
• Total household consumption was 1636 + 1370 = 3006kWh.

I do have quite a small array, only 2.72kWp, due to the shape of the roof and the age of my system. A bigger array would almost certainly result in a lower % of self-consumption, even though the actual numbers of kWh would be larger (and the import commensurately smaller).

I do have a battery, although for almost all that period it was tiny; a little over 1kWh to begin with. It's now about 6kWh since I've added more cells.

Evan3020

My 4kwp system has produced 4168 kwh in the last year and i have taken 980 kwh from the grid during the same time but don't know how much has gone back to the grid, 1310 kwh has gone into my iboost (hot water) in the last year.
So i am using 31% of my total generation on hot water.

Coastalwatch

Import for this month the lowest ever at 11 kWh's. Bit of a cheat as we were away for 12 days.

Rheumatoid

From battery install date (12/4/2022) until solar inverter went down on 29/7/22 I had only imported 16kWh 

Frantically trying to get inverter replaced!

Magnitio

QrizB said:

You'll find some examples in this thread, although we're probably not typical; this thread is mostly populated by people who are actively trying to increase their self-consumption.

On the contrary, I am trying to minimise self-consumption and therefore maximise exports. Of course, also trying to mimimise imports. Figures for July:

• Generated 921.48 kWh (average 4.64 O's/day)
• Imported 2.75 kWh (£0.88 at average rate of 32p/kWh)
  
• Exported 667.15 kWh ( £172.34 at average rate of 26p/kWh)
  
• Self-consumption was 921.48 - 667.15 = 254.33 kWh, 27.6% of generation.
  

70sbudgie

Magnitio said:

QrizB said:

You'll find some examples in this thread, although we're probably not typical; this thread is mostly populated by people who are actively trying to increase their self-consumption.

On the contrary, I am trying to minimise self-consumption and therefore maximise exports. Of course, also trying to mimimise imports. Figures for July:

• Generated 921.48 kWh (average 4.64 O's/day)
• Imported 2.75 kWh (£0.88 at average rate of 32p/kWh)
  
• Exported 667.15 kWh ( £172.34 at average rate of 26p/kWh)
  
• Self-consumption was 921.48 - 667.15 = 254.33 kWh, 27.6% of generation.
  

When you say "minimise self consumption" do you mean by being efficient and reducing total electricity consumption, or is it kust because you've got an amazing export rate (is it Octopus Agile?)

Magnitio

70sbudgie said:

When you say "minimise self consumption" do you mean by being efficient and reducing total electricity consumption, or is it kust because you've got an amazing export rate (is it Octopus Agile?)

I believe it is important for everyone to minimise consumption. It does help to have an incentive and Agile Outgoing Octopus rates does provide that. There are many discussions on this board about maximising self-consumption, particularly for people on the FIT scheme. Whilst I understand the reasons for doing this, it doesn't always result in efficient use of energy. There needs to be good incentives for people to export excess energy that they don't need rather than trying to find ways in which to use it.

QrizB

Magnitio said:

There needs to be good incentives for people to export excess energy that they don't need rather than trying to find ways in which to use it.

I agree. I wouldn't run an electric heater outdoors "just because I can" but substituting electric water heating for gas seems both moneysaving and green (since, on sunny days at least, the carbon intensity of the grd is usually lower than that of burning gas).

ed110220

So we've had our first full calendar month with the solar + batts and have imported 44.91 kWh in that time. Last July we imported 311.5 kWh. We could no doubt get lower by not using the hob and oven at the same time etc but I'm pretty pleased with the reduction.

648.2 kWh generated, 135.04 O's or 104.3% of PVGIS estimate.