New Solar Panels SEG

codo

Petriix said:

codo said:

We are on a variable rate with Sainsburys. I checked before Christmas and Octopus were more expensive and I don’t think we will be exporting a lot. I’ll have a look at Octopus rates again to see what the difference would be now

The variable tariffs are basically the same across all suppliers. Octopus Agile is significantly cheaper than the variable rate at the moment. Plus there's a £50 switch bonus and the rather generous Savings Sessions. You'd be a lot better off... 

Having looked at the tarrifs there is very little between Octopus & Sainsburys variable rate. Do those on Octopus Agile need to keep a daily close eye on how much is being charged and shift energy usage accordingly?  I dont really want to be constantly having to check if it ok to use something.  The main reason I was thinking of switching was to avail of the 15p/kWh they are offering for export. 

Officer_Dibble

I'm not on Agile personally, 15p/kWh is a pretty good rate without any faff. Also unless you've got a battery all of your export will be when rates are relatively low. To take advantage of it you need a battery. However an easier way of using the battery is to have Economy 7 - the vast majority of what we use is bought at 18p in the night.

I am on their gas tracker rate though - just daily price changes and moving more slowly in line with the wholesale price. At the moment it's about 7p/kWh for gas, which is the kind of territory it's been in for at least a month. If wholesale prices rise you can change back to the standard rate at any time.

1961Nick

codo said:

Petriix said:

codo said:

We are on a variable rate with Sainsburys. I checked before Christmas and Octopus were more expensive and I don’t think we will be exporting a lot. I’ll have a look at Octopus rates again to see what the difference would be now

The variable tariffs are basically the same across all suppliers. Octopus Agile is significantly cheaper than the variable rate at the moment. Plus there's a £50 switch bonus and the rather generous Savings Sessions. You'd be a lot better off... 

Having looked at the tarrifs there is very little between Octopus & Sainsburys variable rate. Do those on Octopus Agile need to keep a daily close eye on how much is being charged and shift energy usage accordingly?  I dont really want to be constantly having to check if it ok to use something.  The main reason I was thinking of switching was to avail of the 15p/kWh they are offering for export. 

You can opt for the fixed outgoing Octopus @ 15p/kWh. Import will be at the 34p standard variable rate.

yp70479

Codo - do you have a battery? If so I would seriously consider moving to a time of use tariff - like economy 7 before next winter. You don't get much sun in the winter months, so production is only 20-25% of what you get in the summer, but if you have a battery you can charge it on cheap rate electric overnight and use that to help you through the day/evening. It is also worth doing a bit of investigating  with your in-house monitoring device (smart meter) to see just how much power each appliance uses, and for washing machines and dishwashers which bit of the cycle is the most energy hungry. Then you can time when you use your appliances to make the most of your solar and minimise drawing from the grid. You can just carry on using electricity as before, but you will make the most of your panels and battery if you just think a bit before throwing the switch and use things in series rather than in parallel!

codo

yp70479 said:

Codo - do you have a battery? If so I would seriously consider moving to a time of use tariff - like economy 7 before next winter. You don't get much sun in the winter months, so production is only 20-25% of what you get in the summer, but if you have a battery you can charge it on cheap rate electric overnight and use that to help you through the day/evening. It is also worth doing a bit of investigating  with your in-house monitoring device (smart meter) to see just how much power each appliance uses, and for washing machines and dishwashers which bit of the cycle is the most energy hungry. Then you can time when you use your appliances to make the most of your solar and minimise drawing from the grid. You can just carry on using electricity as before, but you will make the most of your panels and battery if you just think a bit before throwing the switch and use things in series rather than in parallel!

Thanks yp70479. We don’t have a battery unfortunately. We have been watching closely what appliances are using and trying to use them when production is at its best and it is making a difference. We won’t be exporting a lot at the moment but want to get everything up and going for the summer months. Hopefully the sun will shine for many hours 😃.  Like you say I t is definitely also a case of thinking when you are using washing machine, dishwasher etc and not putting everything on at the same time. 

Raxiel

I'm currently on the Outgoing Octopus Fixed tariff. I've been considering switching to Outgoing Agile, but having looked at sites like this one, if you were to plot my generation on that graph, the peak on that graph neatly lines up with the dip on the pricing, and is at or close to zero when it pays well.

Perhaps things will change as the days grow longer and there's plenty of light at 6 (am and pm), but for now fixed still seems like the better deal.

Alnat1

Agile worked well for me last summer with SW facing panels. My battery was filling up during the day while prices were lower and I was exporting well into the evening at peak rate times.

Doubtful that the prices will be as high this year though.

Magnitio

Also on Agile Export and have averaged 28p/kWh over the past 7 months, which is higher than our average import rate of 19p/kWh. Certainly not been as good over the past few weeks, but I've not had a great deal to export.

yp70479

May be check out the posts on the new Octopus flux tariff - it was set up specially for solar panel/battery owners