Solar with Battery - Winter alternatives to Octopus Flux ?

pensionpawn

waqasahmed said:

pensionpawn said:

Mikeyboy01443 said:

How big is your battery? Sorry if i have missed this detail... my battery is 11kw and last winter even on days when i had charged my battery overnight, if it was a very dull short winter day then my battery may have emptied by the afternoon and you could hit the afternoon peak rate! 
I have changed to Go for now as I won't be exporting much now, but I'm supposed to be in outgoing lite which pays 8p/kw so that's better than the usual SEG rate...

0 kWhrs! When bi-directional chargers start to hit the market next year I'll look into getting one with four wheels.

Sorry by directional chargers? Isn't that basically what IOF is? 

Not sure what IOF is however VTH (vehicle to home) has been trialled (https://www.indra.co.uk/v2h/) for a while and is on the cusp of becoming a commercial reality. https://insideevs.com/news/699846/vw-finally-offers-bidirectional-charging-europe-what-about-us/

pensionpawn

waqasahmed said:

Alnat1 said:

I've been on Flux over summer and quite happy with the tariff but it won't work well for me over winter. A few days ago I changed to Agile and Outgoing Fixed at 15p.

I'm happy to accept the lower rate for export as there won't be that much over winter. With Agile you tend to get cheaper slots overnight (often in the Flux 2-5am times) but also some early afternoon, so I can top up my small battery again if needed before we hit peak prices.

I've topped up this afternoon at 5pkWh and now the rain's gone, suns out and I'm exporting at 15pkWh. OK, prices might not always be so good but I was on the same Agile/Fixed last winter before Flux existed and made it work. Similar situation to you, summer exports will hopefully cover a lot of the winter's bills.

Agile prices tonight are actually going negative at times, it's all good fun if you like playing with your PV system and are happy to time-shift using appliances.

May I ask how much Flux made you over summer? If you had an EV, would you still use agile in the winter? Do you perhaps use Flux between say March and the end of October? The agile being the beginning of November and the end of February? 

Moved to Flux late May and have been paid £642 since, which paid for all my energy use until mid November! No point moving off Flux as I would be only £4 better off over November and December on flat rate export.

Jonboy1889

pensionpawn said:

waqasahmed said:

Alnat1 said:

I've been on Flux over summer and quite happy with the tariff but it won't work well for me over winter. A few days ago I changed to Agile and Outgoing Fixed at 15p.

I'm happy to accept the lower rate for export as there won't be that much over winter. With Agile you tend to get cheaper slots overnight (often in the Flux 2-5am times) but also some early afternoon, so I can top up my small battery again if needed before we hit peak prices.

I've topped up this afternoon at 5pkWh and now the rain's gone, suns out and I'm exporting at 15pkWh. OK, prices might not always be so good but I was on the same Agile/Fixed last winter before Flux existed and made it work. Similar situation to you, summer exports will hopefully cover a lot of the winter's bills.

Agile prices tonight are actually going negative at times, it's all good fun if you like playing with your PV system and are happy to time-shift using appliances.

May I ask how much Flux made you over summer? If you had an EV, would you still use agile in the winter? Do you perhaps use Flux between say March and the end of October? The agile being the beginning of November and the end of February? 

Moved to Flux late May and have been paid £642 since, which paid for all my energy use until mid November! No point moving off Flux as I would be only £4 better off over November and December on flat rate export.

Do you have an EV?

pensionpawn

Jonboy1889 said:

pensionpawn said:

waqasahmed said:

Alnat1 said:

I've been on Flux over summer and quite happy with the tariff but it won't work well for me over winter. A few days ago I changed to Agile and Outgoing Fixed at 15p.

I'm happy to accept the lower rate for export as there won't be that much over winter. With Agile you tend to get cheaper slots overnight (often in the Flux 2-5am times) but also some early afternoon, so I can top up my small battery again if needed before we hit peak prices.

I've topped up this afternoon at 5pkWh and now the rain's gone, suns out and I'm exporting at 15pkWh. OK, prices might not always be so good but I was on the same Agile/Fixed last winter before Flux existed and made it work. Similar situation to you, summer exports will hopefully cover a lot of the winter's bills.

Agile prices tonight are actually going negative at times, it's all good fun if you like playing with your PV system and are happy to time-shift using appliances.

May I ask how much Flux made you over summer? If you had an EV, would you still use agile in the winter? Do you perhaps use Flux between say March and the end of October? The agile being the beginning of November and the end of February? 

Moved to Flux late May and have been paid £642 since, which paid for all my energy use until mid November! No point moving off Flux as I would be only £4 better off over November and December on flat rate export.

Do you have an EV?

Can't fiscally justify one yet. Waiting to see how the launch of VTH / bi-directional charging goes, later this year...

EcoScruples

waqasahmed said:

EcoScruples said:

I'm going to give Flux a go over autum/winter and make use of the 18p rate which will mean I can use my battery for a while day quite easily.
There's still a saving to be had for the 180 days(ish) I'll need it. 
I absolutely can't be bothered to keep up with agile each day to schedule charging.
If only there was an AI system that could do it all for you.......

I'm guessing that's based on the current inverter you have now? It's kinda why I want GivEnergy tbf 

There is an AI system for it but it's not been released in the UK yet.
Flux has been ok so far, I've only ran out of battery a few times late into the night a few hours before the battery tops up anyway.
I have noticed that for every 9kw I import I only get 8kw into the battery which is quite a bit less than I though.