Battery’s from night rate electricity

msajhg

I have moved into a new house to find that it is on economy7 (duel) tariff). Surprised since there is no night storage radiators in the house. I can only assume that there was once and when they were removed and the tariff not changed. 

My first thought was to move to a single tariff but then I thought there maybe options. 

We do not have an electric car but within the next 2 years we will need to change cars and would prefer an electric one. I know charging overnight on a night tariff is a good move. Also as the house is listed it will never get solar panels but a battery charged overnight would save money if the electricity was used during the day.

Is it worth fitting a battery to exploit the cheap night rate?

my biggest fear is that the pricing structure will change with dynamic charging depending on grid production and demand. Not sure how much that would affect the idea as there are bound to be cheap times where I can charge the battery. 

As I have just moved in I am not sure of the electricity consumption. The house is listed, three bedrooms, poorly insulated and mainly heated by oil. It has electrical heating in the kitchen and conservatory and supplementary solid fuel stove in the sitting room. Additionally fed from the same supply is a barn converted to a 3 bed holiday home. This too is heated by oil with an electric shower and immersion heater. But the holiday barn may not be used that often. 

Any thoughts about fitting a battery bank?

subjecttocontract

Yes there is a possibility of charging a storage battery on a lower night rate and using the battery storage to run your house during the day, BUT......the cost of the battery means it's just not worth it.

We had the economy 7 tariff a few years ago but didn't have storage heaters. We had a hot tub running 24/7 and using the dishwasher & washing machine at night just about made it cost effective.

QrizB

msajhg said:

Is it worth fitting a battery to exploit the cheap night rate?

...

Any thoughts about fitting a battery bank?

There are people who have done exactly that.

The economics are a bit marginal, but they do just about work out favourable. More so with current electricity prices, but we all hope they will fall.

I wouldn't put it at the top of my moneysaving ideas, but if you've dealt with everything else and have a few thousand pounds burning a hole in youe pocket, it might be worth getting a quote.

Netexporter

There are better tariffs than E7 but they do require a smart meter. As your meter will get replaced with a smart meter when it reaches the end of its service life, you might as well be pro-active about it. Octopus have many smart tariffs, to suit many different circumstances:

Works with Octopus | Octopus Energy

The Givenergy All-in One battery is well worth considering. It has islanding capability, so you can keep the lights on in a power cut, without so much as a flicker when it changes over.

All in One | The best home battery of 2023 | GivEnergy

Petriix

Ignore anyone who tries to tell you, one way or another, how a battery would work out for you. You can't know until you understand your usage and, importantly, how you could adapt it to work around cheap periods. 

I cancelled my battery installation after analysing my smart meter data. It turned out that I could save plenty by load-shifting into the Octopus Go off-peak window and a battery wouldn't make sense for my usage pattern.

The first thing to do is get a smart meter with 30 minute data and see what you actually use. Then consider if simply changing behaviours could save you money. Without solar, a battery can only save you a maximum the difference between the peak and off-peak rates multiplied by the size of the battery, less 10-20% for round trip losses, per day.

On Octopus Intelligent Go (as it's now called) you could save roughly 20p per kWh. If you had a 10kWh battery, that's £2 per day/£60 per month/£720 per year. My problem was that, for at least half of the year, I don't actually use anywhere close to 10kWh of peak electricity on a normal day.

mmmmikey

Petriix said:

Ignore anyone who tries to tell you, one way or another, how a battery would work out for you. You can't know until you understand your usage and, importantly, how you could adapt it to work around cheap periods. 

I cancelled my battery installation after analysing my smart meter data. It turned out that I could save plenty by load-shifting into the Octopus Go off-peak window and a battery wouldn't make sense for my usage pattern.

The first thing to do is get a smart meter with 30 minute data and see what you actually use. Then consider if simply changing behaviours could save you money. Without solar, a battery can only save you a maximum the difference between the peak and off-peak rates multiplied by the size of the battery, less 10-20% for round trip losses, per day.

On Octopus Intelligent Go (as it's now called) you could save roughly 20p per kWh. If you had a 10kWh battery, that's £2 per day/£60 per month/£720 per year. My problem was that, for at least half of the year, I don't actually use anywhere close to 10kWh of peak electricity on a normal day.

I'm sure this is good advice. I have a battery system and it certainly works for me but I've put an awful lot of work into analysing my usage patterns to make it pay for itself, and even then the payback isn't huge. It really does come down to (a) your usage patterns and (b) your ability to change them. Easy for me living on my own to change things - not so easy for others.

So I think the advice to really understand your usage patterns before you invest in a battery system is sound.

Netexporter

And you will understand your usage better with a smart meter.

Spoonie_Turtle

If you have a smart meter I'd recommend changing to single rate at the moment while you mull over the possibilities.

And if you have money to be able to use right now, I'd think insulation would be top priority, including secondary glazing if applicable.

Netexporter

Spoonie_Turtle said:

If you have a smart meter I'd recommend changing to single rate at the moment while you mull over the possibilities.

And if you have money to be able to use right now, I'd think insulation would be top priority, including secondary glazing if applicable.

Yes, the cheapest kWh are the ones you don't use.

markin

By the time you get the EV powering the home with it may be more common.

dunstonh

I have moved into a new house to find that it is on economy7 (duel) tariff). Surprised since there is no night storage radiators in the house.

We're on economy 7 and have no storage heaters.  Its increasingly common for those with higher off peak use to have economy 7.

Is it worth fitting a battery to exploit the cheap night rate?

It depends on how much you use at peak rate.   For us, it is viable to have batteries charged at off peak rate but it won't be for everyone.    However, I haven't actually gone ahead with the installation as it is very marginal, in terms of the full cost over the expected life expectancy, and the technology is improving all the time.     

There are better tariffs than E7 

Potentially better for some may be a better way of saying it.  I have yet to find a better option than Economy 7 for our scenario.