Which Octopus Export Tariff Please?

Jollyhg

Hello - site newbie and also solar/battery newbie too.

Situation - existing Octopus customer, smart meter installed, in process of having 12 panels installed on s-facing roof (4.92KWp), 4.8KWh battery and Solar iBoost hot water diverter.  Fairly standard 1960's chalet bungalow, family of four, fairly energy conscious but not going to be monitoring it minute by minute.  Happy to set timer on big machines such as dishwasher and w/machine to run in off peak times but may not wish to discharge battery during peak times as I'll want to use its power on the basis that would be better than importing to, say, run my oven at tea time.  

Am I right in thinking:

Octopus Flux - good if you can use your big machines during set hours at night and also discharge battery and not use much power during set peak time hours in evening i.e. around tea-time.

Octopus Agile - good if you really want to monitor things closely and alter your usage and discharging day to day depending on when Octopus tell you the rates are high or low.

Octopus Outgoing - good if you are happy with a straight 15p / kwh exported.  Just use your own solar/battery/imported power as usual and don't worry about it.

I haven't really got my head around the standing charge - seems to vary between 40-42p per day.  Does this really make any difference?
How does the SEG fit into all this - do I get this on top of whatever Octopus will pay me to export or is that included in what Octopus pay?

I'm sort of assuming that I'll save a bit on my hot water by keeping the immersion hot using the diverter rather than using gas to heat it (or at least using less gas than currently), also thinking that I can save a bit during the working day by using an electric heater to run in my small home office rather than running the gas central heating during the day (even in winter?)

If this is all answered on other threads please point me in the right direction.  I have had a look at quite a few threads but many are quite technical and over my head!

Thank you for any help and advice!

Alnat1

You'll see from my signature that I've a similar set up to you and I'm on Flux, at least until autumn.

I don't use an iboost, gas is cheaper (around 4.5p per kWh on Tracker this summer) and I'd rather get paid 18-30p per kWh for exporting the electricity on Flux.

You will find in summer that you'll generate much more than you can use, so you really need to get paid as much as possible for it and build up some credit for winter.

I don't bother time shifting use too much, unless we've had a poor solar day and then I'll set the dishwasher to run 2-5am rather than after dinner, and if the battery is low I'll top it up a bit then to say 25%. We usually eat around 6pm so I might discharge the battery down to 60% before 7pm which is plenty to get us through the night and boil a kettle next morning. 

I only fully fill the battery overnight if  there's no sun at all forecast the next day. 

Sep-Oct time, I'll look again at what options are available for winter, when you get quite a few days of generating less than 1kWh

Jollyhg

Alnat1 said:

You'll see from my signature that I've a similar set up to you and I'm on Flux, at least until autumn.

I don't use an iboost, gas is cheaper (around 4.5p per kWh on Tracker this summer) and I'd rather get paid 18-30p per kWh for exporting the electricity on Flux.

You will find in summer that you'll generate much more than you can use, so you really need to get paid as much as possible for it and build up some credit for winter.

I don't bother time shifting use too much, unless we've had a poor solar day and then I'll set the dishwasher to run 2-5am rather than after dinner, and if the battery is low I'll top it up a bit then to say 25%. We usually eat around 6pm so I might discharge the battery down to 60% before 7pm which is plenty to get us through the night and boil a kettle next morning. 

I only fully fill the battery overnight if  there's no sun at all forecast the next day. 

Sep-Oct time, I'll look again at what options are available for winter, when you get quite a few days of generating less than 1kWh

Thank you - really useful.  I've been invited to apply for Flux so might just get on with it and stop dithering!

Exiled_Tyke

Some great advice from Alnat.  To add to that (and some sligtly different views):

1. I charge my battery every night. In Winter it's necessary in Summer it's easier to just leave it rather than messing about. However there is another reason of which yesterday (Sat) has been a case in point. The weather forecast predicted showers and sunny spells. Had I followed this I would have not filled the battery but allowed the PV to fill it up. However it was gloomy pretty much all day and the roof only produced 2kWh. Charging the battery meant that I still got through the day on cheap (7.5p) electricity rather than paying 30 odd pence a unit.  So many days I fill the battery when I don't really need to but I'm not going to mess about with it too closely. And this way I never lose out when the weather is worse than the forecast.

2. In summer you rarely have to time shift. Yesterday again being an exception, I put the dishwasher on overnight as there was no sun and not enough in the battery.  In Winter production is so poor that everything possible is time shifted.  (On a good Summer day I get 20kWh on the best January day it's about 1kWh).

3. I do have a small (about 500w) electric radiator for my office.  I do find there is very little opportunity to use it though.  When it get's cold enough to need it the PV is too poor.   My office is tiny with 2 27inch computer screens and that tends to keep me warm enough.  Other than that I wrap up warm or put the heating on a tad early.  Others on these boards have recommended heated seat pads (which make a lot of sense). My radiator only cost about £30 so it's not a waste but rarely useful.

Screwdriva

If you are able to shift running your heavy appliances to the 2-5am window while charging your battery, Flux may prove the most rewarding for you. 

If you'd like to geek out on the numbers, you can manually encode your consumption, Flux tariffs and forecasted generation/ export in this handy calculator.