New Octopus tariff for solar and battery users - Octopus Flux

Ron-ski

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

pensionpawn

400 kWhrs spare in April from a 7.1 kWs due east - west system, no battery. Would have been around £96 on Flux export.

94JDH

Ron-ski said:

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

What's your advice on getting the best out of flux - I've read all sorts of variations, currently charging the batteries on cheap fully then, any excess solar during the day exported and finally discharging batteries during the peak period.

powerful_Rogue

94JDH said:

Ron-ski said:

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

What's your advice on getting the best out of flux - I've read all sorts of variations, currently charging the batteries on cheap fully then, any excess solar during the day exported and finally discharging batteries during the peak period.

I do all of that except discharging the batteries during the peak period.

[Deleted User]

94JDH said:

Ron-ski said:

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

What's your advice on getting the best out of flux - I've read all sorts of variations, currently charging the batteries on cheap fully then, any excess solar during the day exported and finally discharging batteries during the peak period.

Getting the best out of Flux or the best life out of your battery? The two are not the same. I am on self consumption at the moment and I calculate that my battery cycles at a rate of c.1.5 cycles/per week as opposed to 7+cycles/week. 

In your income calculations, don’t forget round trip loss.

JKenH

94JDH said:

Ron-ski said:

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

What's your advice on getting the best out of flux - I've read all sorts of variations, currently charging the batteries on cheap fully then, any excess solar during the day exported and finally discharging batteries during the peak period.

I think that sounds the best in your case. It may not always be for others, depending on the size of battery and orientation of panels. If one has a west facing array with 4kW of panels and a 3.68kw export limit, then on a sunny day your export from batteries may be limited and you aren’t able to discharge all the battery in the 4-7pm window. Potentially on a sunny day you might only be able to discharge about 4kWh from your battery in that 4-7pm peak slot. 

In that case it might work out better financially to charge the battery to less than 100%.  There are only pennies in it, though. (Anything left in the battery can still displace import at a “profit” so depending what your other draw from the battery to run the house is for most people it is still worthwhile filling the battery.)

Having a battery discharge in the non peak period as the difference in cheap rate (2-5am) import at around19p and daytime (off peak) export won’t cover the cost of importing electricity after cycling losses are taken into account and it is just adding wear and tear/degradation to your  battery and inverter. A £3k 5KWh battery warranted for 6000 cycles costs 10p/kWh for its warranted life (I suppose around 20 years). Once you’ve bought it though you may as well use it but buying a battery purely to time shift doesn’t work out unless the saving between rates is at least 12p/kWh.

Ron-ski

94JDH said:

Ron-ski said:

For April I exported 650kWh, with 8.74kW of panels and 14.5kWh of battery.

What's your advice on getting the best out of flux - I've read all sorts of variations, currently charging the batteries on cheap fully then, any excess solar during the day exported and finally discharging batteries during the peak period.

I basically do the same as above:

Charge battery off peak (maximum charge circa 24kWh, 8kw x 3 hours)

Solar tops battery up to full - capacity circa 14.5 kWh

Excess is exported at more than we paid per kWh to charge the battery

Discharge some at peak rate down to 65% SOC, but keep some back to see us through to 2am and in case of a power cut.

Repeat the above.

I currently only have 14.5kWh of battery, but in a couple of weeks will have another battery, so will have circa 29 kWh of storage, and will lower the target SOC to reflect that.

thehullram

Anyone know how I get the figures from the Octopus website re exporting figures? Can't seem to find it anywhere. 

DougMLancs

https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/ Halfway down the page you can enter your postcode and get your local rates.

pensionpawn

2.6 kWhrs (15 in total, so far..) spare for Flux export from 16:00 - 17:00 and still waiting to move. Just like a toddler waiting for Christmas 😩