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

ispookie666

My electric consumption seems to have gone through the roof!  I have added some security cameras and storage. 
Our A2A Mitsubishi heat pump has been contributing significantly to heating, which has consumed 118KWh with a COP of 3.4

March 2023 

Consumption: 764 KWh
Import: 487 KWh
Solar generation: 310 KWh (very poor month, approx 80% of PVGIs)
Export: 24 KWh

92% self-consumption for the generated solar and 90% of import is during E7 hours.  Setting up automation in Home Assistant for charging batteries depending on solar forecast has made life a lot easier.  

Oil heating run time (Hours)
Month   2021     2022       2023
Feb         128       108           89
March      101        85           68
All seem to be heading in the correct direction.  

mickyduck55

@ispookie666 I'm in the process of transferring to Octopus FLUX so not sure I will be playing this game much longer.  If I fully charge my batteries from 2 am to 5 am it will cost in the region of £1.80 if the are rock bottom SOC 10%. I will need to export 7 kWh a day at day rate to recoup this.  For the next 6 months all being well I will put less than £1 into the batteries overnight bringing the export required down to 4 kWh.  It goes a little against the grain but financially it makes sense to run like this, for me at least.

If I am still exporting between 16:00 and 19:00 the break even point for export is even lower.. early days but these are my thoughts ATM and I will need to re evaluate my tariff in winter when I think E7 may suit me better.

Today has been a good day, exported 12.8 kWh (so far) , 3 being 36p with 30  mins to go.. income IF I was on FLUX export would be Circa £3.50 Vs £0.80 import 

cm4ever

On looking back, this was the best week we've had so far, <1kWh import for the week 

House base load during the night, at it's lowest, is down to approximately 60W, during the day at quiet times it varies between 65-78W.

Stopped any form of manual battery charging intervention, purely down to house needs, activity and sunshine (Sunday's result was due to cooking the lunch): -

cm4ever

.... another decent week, slipping a little bit, again use of the oven is my downfall 

EcoScruples

Very nice, I'm averaging about 300w per day now the sun has appeared again.
Mainly because of the few seconds delay on my battery kicking in.
I can live with that.

cm4ever

EcoScruples said:

Mainly because of the few seconds delay on my battery kicking in.

Yes, that small but necessary inverter response delay and a patchy cloudy sky at times, can have a dampener on achieving even greater results.

ispookie666

For the month of April

Consumption - 722 kWh

Import - 242 kWh

Export - 110 kWh

Solar generation - 598 kWh

160 kWh has gone into Heating the house and hot water 

Givenergy EM115 meter is useless and seems to over read by anywhere between 16-20% compared to my electric smart meter. 

Coastalwatch

The months figures are now in and in response to the question "How low can you go" I'm afraid the answer is....Not very!

Import                  86 kWh's, split 16 day and 70 night.

PV Generation 1073,            Export  230,      SC 78%

Consumption     929

DHW                  146

ASHP's                98

EV's                   170            Ext Ch  83 kWh's,  1006 miles

EcoScruples

April.
Of the 350kw we used, only 12kw were from the grid.
I'm expecting the same pattern all through the summer

mickyduck55

Now I have moved to Octopus Flux my usage pattern has changed, I charge my battery to 90% at the less expensive period then allow it to top up during the day and export any excess for about the same price as import.  This clearly increases my grid import but not my costs so my figures are far from Impressive.

Total generation 405 kWh
Usage for April 282 kWh
Import from grid 124 kWh
Export to grid 230 kWh

My net bill should be negative. The graph below shows my philosophy change from April