Yet another battery / no battery system

Screwdriva

70sbudgie said:

Up until now solar panels and batteries haven't added to the value of the house they are fitted to. I guess it may be related to them not being a permanent fixture as well as the market not really being interested in running costs. However, that may be changing, due to rising energy costs, so perhaps only considering the ROI will change too.

Ripple is too new to be a realistic alternative, yet.

This is factually incorrect - the financial value add as well as the increase in ease of selling/ renting have been documented below.

https://solarenergyuk.org/resource/the-value-of-solar-property-report/

Brimble

ABrass said:

At the moment I'm assuming 5p per kWh. The Agile tariffs do seem to make sense, but they complicate the calculations a lot.

If I can switch to one and improve the financial return the  great, but I think I need it to make sense on a conventional plan to go ahead.

This is the bit that I'm struggling with too. I'm almost there with my calculations based on standard variable (price-cap) tariffs and SEG, but am aware that 'those in the know' on here all seem to be on Octopus Agile. This morning I went on the Octopus website to see if I can understand it better, but before I'd even started to read anything else I saw this statement:

"Currently, soaring global gas prices have pushed wholesale prices to record highs: they've increased over 400% since the start of 2021. This means Agile's prices are consistently high right now, and it's likely you'll save more money by sticking to a standard variable or fixed tariff throughout the Winter."

How does this stack up against what is being said on here? Is that advice on the Octopus website aimed primarily at people who don't have a solar panel system? If so then might be sensible to say so...

Looking at the Octopus Agile graph for my area, the current price to 'buy' is 55p most of the time, and even off-peak is not much lower, considerably higher than the 29p current price cap. Even if the sell price is good, you'd presumably need to sell a lot more than you buy in order for Agile to be better than standard tariffs. (?)

Is all that correct or am I misunderstanding?

Mikeyboy01443

I am just on standard octopus import tariff i wouldn't go near agile. I'm on agile for outgoing which in some cases (these very hot days) pays me 10x what SEG would!
I just took an average of 20p per kwh export rate - the average price over a 24hr period may be different but most people will only be exporting at certain times during the day.

Brimble

Aha, 'Outgoing Octopus', I found it, thanks. Would I then be able to stay with my existing supplier (or any other) for electricity that I buy from the grid? Any other 'tricks' or is it simply a case of choosing them as your tariff for outgoing and nothing else is required or impacted?

Mikeyboy01443

Make sure it is agile outgoing not just standard rubbish outgoing.
You can stay with your current import supplier and go with octopus for export but you will need the right kind of meter for them to read it. 
I just switched everything over to octopus as British gas were the worst 

ABrass

Brimble said:

Aha, 'Outgoing Octopus', I found it, thanks. Would I then be able to stay with my existing supplier (or any other) for electricity that I buy from the grid? Any other 'tricks' or is it simply a case of choosing them as your tariff for outgoing and nothing else is required or impacted?

You'd only get 4.1p/kWh if you're with another provider.

https://octopus.energy/blog/outgoing/

Mikeyboy01443

Sorry i wasnt sure of the specifics of which tariffs you could go on if you had anothet supplier for import, thanks Abrass

Brimble

ABrass said:

Brimble said:

Aha, 'Outgoing Octopus', I found it, thanks. Would I then be able to stay with my existing supplier (or any other) for electricity that I buy from the grid? Any other 'tricks' or is it simply a case of choosing them as your tariff for outgoing and nothing else is required or impacted?

You'd only get 4.1p/kWh if you're with another provider.

https://octopus.energy/blog/outgoing/

Aha so you do have to be on one of their consumption tariffs - but which one? When I click to look at consumption tariffs, it only shows fixed ones, all about twice the price of the current price-capped SVR electricity rate...

Mikeyboy01443

I think when you switch to octopus they just put you on their standard tariff, give them a ring they are pretty helpful!

Brimble

Mikeyboy01443 said:

I think when you switch to octopus they just put you on their standard tariff, give them a ring they are pretty helpful!

Aha I think I've found it, or at least an iteration of it, given that the prices are same as the price-cap:

Flexible Octopus April 2022 

I'm still not quite up-to-speed with Octopus though - for example in the link for Outgoing kindly provided above, it seems to suggest that 10p is the maximum for selling, yet people here say they are getting much more. Not to worry - I think my best plan for now is to continue my calcs without considering Octopus, then I can make adjustments later when I understand everything better - it can only make my plan better obviously, it can't make it worse!