Radio silence from Octopus - SEG/FIT switch setup

Telegraph_Sam

Thanks.  Seems a bit of a gamble to me!
I have no particular wish to move from Octopus for my energy supply.  To keep things simple I would keep the FIT (and SEG?) payments with Scottish Power.
Living in the North East sunshine here doesn't break any records although the location of the panels is good.
Do most people just take a blind jump onto SEG hoping that on balance they will be better off?

pete-20-11

Telegraph_Sam said:

Thanks.  Seems a bit of a gamble to me!
I have no particular wish to move from Octopus for my energy supply.  To keep things simple I would keep the FIT (and SEG?) payments with Scottish Power.
Living in the North East sunshine here doesn't break any records although the location of the panels is good.
Do most people just take a blind jump onto SEG hoping that on balance they will be better off?

No, some of us create spreadsheets 🤣

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

Thanks.  Seems a bit of a gamble to me!
I have no particular wish to move from Octopus for my energy supply.  To keep things simple I would keep the FIT (and SEG?) payments with Scottish Power.

You should note that, while suppliers are being flexible about this, there's a FIT scheme obligation on them to use metered export if an export meter is present.

You might be able to decline the invitation to switch, but eventally it's likely to be compulsory.

(When I first mentioned this here I did get a lot of aggresssive pushback from people who hadn't rad the T&C of their FITs. Hopefully we can avoid a repeat of this.)

Telegraph_Sam said:

Do most people just take a blind jump onto SEG hoping that on balance they will be better off?

Most people who don't have batteries or diverters will be exporting 60%+ of their generation. Metered export will make sense for them.

Even with a diverter, it's likely that you'll export 30-40% of your generation. With a non-FIT export tariff of 12p you'll still be quids in compared to a 6.79p FIT.

I have a (small) battery and a (suboptimal) diverter, and I'm still exporting ~30% of what I generate.

Edit to add: here are my calculations from 2022:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79357887/#Comment_79357887

At that time, switching to metered export and a suppliers' export tariff could have earned me an extra £120 a year, if I hadn't been on an import tariff that restricted my options.

Telegraph_Sam

Very helpful tks.
By my elementary maths switching from FIT's to SEG's would get me a monetary increase of 77% other things such as kWh's being equal (they are usually not .. ). Alternatively I could "lose" 43% of kWh's but still break even with SEG's..
I am hoping that I can go by this back-of-a-fag-packet simplification to arrive at a decision. Unless you can spot any flawed logic
I don't have a battery but I do have an inverter which may or may not be the same as a diverter?
[I suspect that the ultimate step would be to switch from Tracker to Flux but not if I want a simple life]

Telegraph_Sam

I was looking up your 2022 comments. Not simple
I was one of the "lucky" ones who got into FIT's at a rate that I believe is better than latecomers'.
My latest FIT statement gives me 226 units @ £0.2252 plus 113 deemed export units @ £0.0679 [this is up to 20.4.2023 - I am way behind with my meter readings)
Is there a danger that I might "lose" these rates if they are relatively attractive and I switch to SEG?

pete-20-11

You won't loose the FIT generation rate (the larger one) unless you rip out the kit*.

It's just the second rate, the export rate, that you'd loose if you swapped to SEG. 



(* There are options to replace broken components, it's a bit complicated, but mentioning it here for completeness). 

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

I was looking up your 2022 comments. Not simple ... I am way behind with my meter readings

Since your smart meter was fitted ("some months ago", but how many?) do you know how much solar have you generated? How much of that does your smart meter say you have exported?

Telegraph_Sam

Incomplete answer I fear. 
Last solar reading (before yesterday) was on 28 April 2023. I have generated 2608 kWh since then.
It would be a coincidence, but not impossible, if that was about when I got the smart meter. I thought I could deduce the exact date from past invoices, but no.
I do not know how much of the generation was exported (disregarding the 50% "deemed"). There is probably a clever way of working this out which is beyond my pay grade.
But the question is: Does this incomplete info mean that the decision on going SEG or remaining 100% FIT cannot be calculated precisely, and indeed is that necessary? The circs which you helpfully explained earlier in this thread inclined me then to switch to SEG on the balance of probabilities.

Exiled_Tyke

Telegraph_Sam said:

Incomplete answer I fear. 
Last solar reading (before yesterday) was on 28 April 2023. I have generated 2608 kWh since then.
It would be a coincidence, but not impossible, if that was about when I got the smart meter. I thought I could deduce the exact date from past invoices, but no.
I do not know how much of the generation was exported (disregarding the 50% "deemed"). There is probably a clever way of working this out which is beyond my pay grade.
But the question is: Does this incomplete info mean that the decision on going SEG or remaining 100% FIT cannot be calculated precisely, and indeed is that necessary? The circs which you helpfully explained earlier in this thread inclined me then to switch to SEG on the balance of probabilities.

If you scroll through the various screens on the smart meter there should be one that tells you how much has been exported since installation.  It isn't always obvious. It might just be indicated by an arrow pointing out to the grid rather than inwards (for import from the grid). 

Can you use this to deduce what proportion of generation is exported by looking at similar time scales? 

QrizB

Telegraph_Sam said:

I do not know how much of the generation was exported (disregarding the 50% "deemed"). There is probably a clever way of working this out which is beyond my pay grade.

As E_T says, reading the export register on your smart meter should be about as tricky as reading your import register.
What make and model is your smart meter? We might be able to point you at a tutorial.