How are you using your appliances with solar?

BossBob

SuzeQStan said:

we only joined octopus this month and so far they haven’t managed to read our 1 year old smets2 smart meters 😒. 

We were put with Shell as supplier of last resort and strangely, they couldn’t read the smets2 meter they installed before we move to Pure Planet (who went bust). On day one with Octopus the meter was being read and the IHD working correctly. They just have to sort out the MPAN on my export meter. It’s coming up to 5 weeks and I’m giving them power for free!

SuzeQStan

BossBob said:

SuzeQStan said:

we only joined octopus this month and so far they haven’t managed to read our 1 year old smets2 smart meters 😒. 

. It’s coming up to 5 weeks and I’m giving them power for free!

Same here @BossBob - reckon we would have got around a tenner - £15 for the last month or so but I have heard that export calcs arent that exact.  

Still would be nice to get something for it!

EDIT - our SMETS2 meters were installed by Shell as well - wonder if there is a theme developing??

EcoScruples

My kettle isn't tiny, it's 1.7l so standard, just 1kw Kampa kettle
It's supise to be for caravans so it doesn't trip the fuse.
Works for me in the summer because it sits within the PV curve.
Waiting 4 mins for it to boil doesn't seem an issue anymore.

SuzeQStan

That’s a good point ES - doesn’t matter if the kettle takes longer just as long as it doesn’t cost you more to use it like it would if you were pulling from the grid.

Good idea

waqasahmed

EcoScruples said:

Our biggest change since having solar PV and batteries is using the slow cooker for the Sunday meal. Now the pork, beef or chicken always gets cooked for free using sunshine and helps avoid that peak usage in the evening.

This is a fair point. I prefer manual pressure cookers, but they do use a short sharp burst of energy vs long, slow amounts of energy 

waqasahmed

SuzeQStan said:

That’s a good point ES - doesn’t matter if the kettle takes longer just as long as it doesn’t cost you more to use it like it would if you were pulling from the grid.

Good idea

Very true. I'm upgrading my panels and moving to GivEnergy so my inverter will absolutely be able to cope with a larger capacity BUT it's still a bit better when they're longer bursts of energy instead of short, sharp ones, especially if you don't have a battery 

EcoScruples

I'm very jealous of those of you with 6kw+inverters, i wish I'd have installed more now.
I'm surprised at how easy it has been to manage the loads though, apart from showers everything else stays under my 3.68

waqasahmed

EcoScruples said:

I'm very jealous of those of you with 6kw+inverters, i wish I'd have installed more now.
I'm surprised at how easy it has been to manage the loads though, apart from showers everything else stays under my 3.68

I think it'd be a 5 kw inverter with a. 6.4 kw solar panel system without clipping it too which is interesting 

Niv

waqasahmed said:

Niv said:

waqasahmed said:

powerful_Rogue said:

I have 6.4kWp split between East & West. (50/50) Also 13kWp battery.

I charge overnight between 2am-5am and set washing machine/dishwasher to come on between these times as well. It's 20.51p per kWh.

That way when the sun comes up, it tops the battery back upto 100% and i'm then exporting at 23.18p per kWh. It's just gone 4pm now, battery on 100% still and now exporting at 36.85p per kWh.

If I had a smaller battery, I would still do exactly the same.

Why so? I mean I get using flux if you've got a big battery capacity but with my piddly 3kw battery, I'll be paying more than without if.

I'm currently on Octopus tracker 

I have calculated that flux works out for me even without a battery so I agree with powerful rogue here, small battery or big I would work in the way they do. 

May I ask how so? I mean, even with flux, I need more than 3kw of capacity? I mean not every day is super sunny 

I currently do not have have a smart meter  for import from grid so have reviewed energy usage in March 2022 as a base for units used per day (we use an average of 8.5units per day ~3100 per year). Recently had solar installed so have the meter for that to sense check. I rounded up to 10units per day for my calcs and as I did not know my usage profile I assumed 6 of the 10 units were used at the more expensive rate, I ignored the cheap rate entirely. I then calculated my daily electricity cost and using the modelled annual solar production for my system calculated the value of the units produced (to keep it conservative used the standard export rate and not any at the higher rate. I then minused one from the other to work out a ballpark annual electricity cost. I then did the same for outgoing fixed and standard SEG.

I am sure some will rip me apart for my method but I I used the same assumptions for each model so the error should be consistent. I am trying to work out what is actually best and not bias it towards any particular outcome so any improved model is welcomed. 

waqasahmed

Niv said:

waqasahmed said:

Niv said:

waqasahmed said:

powerful_Rogue said:

I have 6.4kWp split between East & West. (50/50) Also 13kWp battery.

I charge overnight between 2am-5am and set washing machine/dishwasher to come on between these times as well. It's 20.51p per kWh.

That way when the sun comes up, it tops the battery back upto 100% and i'm then exporting at 23.18p per kWh. It's just gone 4pm now, battery on 100% still and now exporting at 36.85p per kWh.

If I had a smaller battery, I would still do exactly the same.

Why so? I mean I get using flux if you've got a big battery capacity but with my piddly 3kw battery, I'll be paying more than without if.

I'm currently on Octopus tracker 

I have calculated that flux works out for me even without a battery so I agree with powerful rogue here, small battery or big I would work in the way they do. 

May I ask how so? I mean, even with flux, I need more than 3kw of capacity? I mean not every day is super sunny 

I currently do not have have a smart meter  for import from grid so have reviewed energy usage in March 2022 as a base for units used per day (we use an average of 8.5units per day ~3100 per year). Recently had solar installed so have the meter for that to sense check. I rounded up to 10units per day for my calcs and as I did not know my usage profile I assumed 6 of the 10 units were used at the more expensive rate, I ignored the cheap rate entirely. I then calculated my daily electricity cost and using the modelled annual solar production for my system calculated the value of the units produced (to keep it conservative used the standard export rate and not any at the higher rate. I then minused one from the other to work out a ballpark annual electricity cost. I then did the same for outgoing fixed and standard SEG.

I am sure some will rip me apart for my method but I I used the same assumptions for each model so the error should be consistent. I am trying to work out what is actually best and not bias it towards any particular outcome so any improved model is welcomed. 

This is fair indeed. I think I'll move to flux for electricity, only when I've got more battery capacity