Cheapest off-peak electricity prices

mmmmikey

rowan_bradley said:

bristolleedsfan said:

No Octopus 5p kWh off peak tariffs, might be worth a look for more rate certainty than agile.

I don't need rate certainty, I just need the cheapest rate I can get on average over the year. I will need about 2-3  hours to fully charge my battery. I can write some software to download the rates every day and choose the cheapest timeslots to charge my battery (if the rates change every day, which they do for some of the Octopus taffiffs).

Rowan

With Agile Octopus there is an IFTTT trigger that you can use to start the battery charging when the rate falls below 5p or whatever, and another that you can use to charge the battery for the cheapest 2 hours (or whatever) each day which might be worth exploring if you can start charging with an IFTTT action. I'm playing with it now but for heating water rather than battery charging.

As far as rates are concerned, Agile Octopus are the cheapest I could find at the moment but for the sake of a few days (or a few weeks at  most) might be worth holding out to see what the E7 rates look like from 1st July onwards. I'm confidentally predicting that they'll either be higher or lower than they are now (or if not about the same) Seriously - it's a bit of a guessing game what's going to happen.

Have fun playing with your battery and working out how to use it to best advantage - apart from the money saving aspect it can be an absorbing hobby / challenge

michaels

For those with an EV I see EDF GoElectric is back 8p for 5 hours per night

rowan_bradley

Petriix said:

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

Why would Octopus Flux be better in summer? Form what I can see, Octopus Flux's off peak rate is 20.39p. EDF's E7 off peak rate is 8p. So why wouldn;t EDF be better all year?

Thank you - Rowan

matt_drummer

Before you decide on your electricity tariff you need to work out how much electricity you use and when.

You may find that when the sun is shining there is no need for you to charge your batteries at night. If your solar and battery does not cover your peak daytime use (your load exceeds what your panels and battery can supply) you may want the cheapest daytime tariff you can get.

If you only import during the day and your battery covers your use overnight then a cheap overnight tariff is useless.

What about export, do you export much?  If you do it may be worth the higher import cost to benefit from the good export rate paid.

You can't look at this as you are, a cheap overnight rate is only useful if you need it.

Your aim must be to reduce your import to the lowest you can, maximise any export and then find a tariff that suits your system and usage.

You may find you can adapt your lifestyle a little to suit the system.

You may find that different tariffs work better at different times of the year.

It all depends on you, how much you generate and what you do with it.

matt_drummer

As an example.

I have 38 kWh of batteries.

I am on E7 with Octopus, my day rate is 27p and my night rate is 15p

I don't import any electricity at all between the middle of February and the middle of November

Therefore, I really don't care what my import tariff is, it's irrelevant.

My batteries are only charged only from my solar for nine months.

I have the batteries to run my ASHP in the winter on E7 electricity, that is why I have so much capacity.

From November to February I do care what my import tariff is, ideally I need as many hours at a low rate as I can get, the daytime rate doesn't matter too much as we are not heavy users and have learnt to manage our house loads. We have a lot of solar so even in the winter we can use things like the washing machine when the sun is shining to minimise or even eliminate grid import.

I only draw about 2 kWh a day from my batteries at the moment, the rest comes from the sun.

I export a lot right now, sometimes 60 kWh per day.

I am on a fix for import and export with Octopus, otherwise I may have moved to Flux for nine months to take advantage of better export rates.

I probably can come off my fixes but have chosen not to.


So, you can see, probably Flux would suit me for nine months and E7 for three months (I like E7 as it gives me the longest time to charge my batteries, other tariffs may be cheaper but for fewer hours).


Your situation is probably completely different to mine, which is why you need to carefully work out what you generate and how you store and use it.

[Deleted User]

rowan_bradley said:

Petriix said:

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

Why would Octopus Flux be better in summer? Form what I can see, Octopus Flux's off peak rate is 20.39p. EDF's E7 off peak rate is 8p. So why wouldn;t EDF be better all year?

Thank you - Rowan

Flux is working well for me. My electricity import/export bill for last month was £109.20. You need to do the maths.

matt_drummer

[Deleted User] said:

rowan_bradley said:

Petriix said:

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

Why would Octopus Flux be better in summer? Form what I can see, Octopus Flux's off peak rate is 20.39p. EDF's E7 off peak rate is 8p. So why wouldn;t EDF be better all year?

Thank you - Rowan

Flux is working well for me. My electricity import/export bill for last month was £109.20. You need to do the maths.

My bill was -£140 on Outgong Octopus

mmmmikey

rowan_bradley said:

Petriix said:

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

Why would Octopus Flux be better in summer? Form what I can see, Octopus Flux's off peak rate is 20.39p. EDF's E7 off peak rate is 8p. So why wouldn;t EDF be better all year?

Thank you - Rowan

Hi - the fundamental thing here is that Flux has a very attractive export rate associated with it at certain times - i.e. it is both an import and export tariff. That's why it might be better in summer when your using less (so higher import rates are less important) and exporting more (so higher export rates are advantageous).

But you need to do the sums yourself as per previous posts.

Petriix

rowan_bradley said:

Petriix said:

You're almost certainly better on Octopus Flux for the summer then likely EDF Economy 7 in the winter. 

Why would Octopus Flux be better in summer? Form what I can see, Octopus Flux's off peak rate is 20.39p. EDF's E7 off peak rate is 8p. So why wouldn;t EDF be better all year?

Thank you - Rowan

As others have stated, you may not actually be importing very much in the summer but probably will be exporting a lot (assuming that you don't have exceptionally high usage) so Flux would give you a significant gain on the SEG payments at the expense of a small additional cost on the import side. But do your own sums... 

rowan_bradley

Thank you for all that advice.

I was planning to try not to export at all, but use any surplus solar to charge the battery, and when the battery is full, to heat the hot water cylinder. I have only a 3kW solar array, and it doesn't face due south (about SE) and it is somewhat shaded by next door's house in the morning. That's why I have been focussing on import rates, not export. Presumably to use one of the tarriffs that have a high export rate, I would need an export meter. Can a smart meter do this, or do I need another meter? Who would install this? Who would pay for it? In any case (it seems to me) I might be better to stick with my current FIT arrangement, where I get paid for 50% of the energy I generate, even if I don't export it at all, but use it to charge my battery or heat my hot water.

Thank you - Rowan