Octopus Saving sessions 2023

EricMears

cm4ever said:

nobby1963 said:

Thanks very much for this information.
Saves waiting for a week for Octopus to let us know how we did.
However seeing your results and hearing about others too is only adding to my frustration of not yet having battery storage for our solar panels …… they were installed back in 2011 and we are fortunate enough to have the highest FIT rate but it’s clear that to maximise our returns now we need a battery.
I have to confess though that the whole process is completely baffling to me.
Anyone fancy educating me ?
Cheers
Nobby.

The fact that you're lucky enough to be getting FIT payments means it's not as simple for you to work out the cost/benefits of adding battery storage.....

You'd definitely need to take some time to think it through and all the different options you could take.

I'm in a very similar position to nobby1963 and recently fitted batteries.  It really didn't take a lot of weighing up :  in the Summer I can zero rate keeping the batteries topped up and use that power when I would otherwise have been paying peak rate;  in the Winter I top up at IOG's 7.5ppu and avoid buying anything at 30p

cm4ever

Sorry as the following is a bit off topic.

Don't get me wrong, personally I think that now we've had solar & battery storage installed, it has transformed our electricity costs and how it's used / managed - Octopus saving sessions are just an unanticipated and very surprising additional benefit this year around, due to Octopus now rewarding exports - it's not something I factored in at all.

But, there are many different ways in reaching that goal, especially with a solar system already installed and potentially needing to marry up a possible previous solar only inverter with the the requirements needed to allow the addition of battery storage to that system.... or is it a replacement / or additional inverter requirement etc etc with all the FIT payment conditions to be mindful of for those who currently receive such benefits.

Just saying it's not necessarily an easy or as cheap an option depending on what's already been installed, but definitely has it's benefits and if electricity prices were to tank in 2/3/4 yrs time, many would say was it worth it - personally I'd always say yes but that may not be actually very MSE in that scenario....

Having access to very cheap TOU tariffs like IOG make it so much more financially beneficial - we have no EV, but Octopus Flux is still working out well, even in winter for us personally.

Netexporter

But, there are many different ways in reaching that goal, especially with a solar system already installed and potentially needing to marry up a possible previous solar only inverter with the the requirements needed to allow the addition of battery storage to that system.... or is it a replacement / or additional inverter requirement etc etc with all the FIT payment conditions to be mindful of for those who currently receive such benefits.

The simplest way is to fit a Givenergy All-in-One battery. It imports and exports at 6kW. It has its own inverter built in. In addition it has gateway unit that connects to existing solar and can also feed a car charger. In the event of a power cut it disconnects from the mains in 20 milliseconds and you can still run the house appliances up to 6kW total. (12 or 18kW if you add extra battery units - the maximum one gateway will handle.

It is essentially the smae specification as the Tesla Powerwall but for a much lower cost, better availablity, and no Elon Musk.

michaels

QrizB said:

michaels said:

QrizB said:

frugalfran said:

We are on deemed export ..., does this mean we can't get any saving sessions payments if we fill the batteries and then discharge during the savings sessions time?

Correct. You need to be on metered export, and your account for export needs to be with a supplier that's part of the savings scheme.

Is the second bit correct, as long as your export is metered by the smart meter does it matter who your seg payment is with?

Only your export supplier has access to your export readings. Your import supplier does not.

Not sure that is true as the Hugo app based turn down and save said they were going to pay out for export and they are not a supplier.

frugalfran

At the moment we email our solar readings to get the FIT payment on which deemed export of 50% is calculated. Does our smart meter register usage we pay for (with batteries we try to use as much as possible from solar generated) but not export as well ?  
If we had octopus outgoing I understand they have to know the MPAN number, but do they not know the export figures from the smart meter? 
It's just a question, but early adopters with FIT and deemed export could help the grid if it's possible...... Every little helps, to quote someone!

EricMears

frugalfran said:

At the moment we email our solar readings to get the FIT payment on which deemed export of 50% is calculated. Does our smart meter register usage we pay for (with batteries we try to use as much as possible from solar generated) but not export as well ?  
If we had octopus outgoing I understand they have to know the MPAN number, but do they not know the export figures from the smart meter? 
It's just a question, but early adopters with FIT and deemed export could help the grid if it's possible...... Every little helps, to quote someone!

A 'smart' meter will record amounts of both imports and exports.  But unless you've got an export MPA Number, the only way of reading the export register is by pressing buttons (or using one of the optical devices a meter reader should have).

Mikeyboy01443

Netexporter said:

But, there are many different ways in reaching that goal, especially with a solar system already installed and potentially needing to marry up a possible previous solar only inverter with the the requirements needed to allow the addition of battery storage to that system.... or is it a replacement / or additional inverter requirement etc etc with all the FIT payment conditions to be mindful of for those who currently receive such benefits.

The simplest way is to fit a Givenergy All-in-One battery. It imports and exports at 6kW. It has its own inverter built in. In addition it has gateway unit that connects to existing solar and can also feed a car charger. In the event of a power cut it disconnects from the mains in 20 milliseconds and you can still run the house appliances up to 6kW total. (12 or 18kW if you add extra battery units - the maximum one gateway will handle.

It is essentially the smae specification as the Tesla Powerwall but for a much lower cost, better availablity, and no Elon Musk.

Whats wrong with Elon 

michaels

Mikeyboy01443 said:

Netexporter said:

But, there are many different ways in reaching that goal, especially with a solar system already installed and potentially needing to marry up a possible previous solar only inverter with the the requirements needed to allow the addition of battery storage to that system.... or is it a replacement / or additional inverter requirement etc etc with all the FIT payment conditions to be mindful of for those who currently receive such benefits.

The simplest way is to fit a Givenergy All-in-One battery. It imports and exports at 6kW. It has its own inverter built in. In addition it has gateway unit that connects to existing solar and can also feed a car charger. In the event of a power cut it disconnects from the mains in 20 milliseconds and you can still run the house appliances up to 6kW total. (12 or 18kW if you add extra battery units - the maximum one gateway will handle.

It is essentially the smae specification as the Tesla Powerwall but for a much lower cost, better availablity, and no Elon Musk.

Whats wrong with Elon 

It is a tricky one as I suspect their would have been no EV revolution without Tesla so is Elon a good enough reason for avoiding Tesla?  If they fail it will push back EV adoption much more than just the loss of Tesla vehicles.

Netexporter

I think the best thing Tesla have done is the charging network. Nothing else comes close. That's how it should be, everywhere.

BossBob

Never going to work for me as I use as little as possible during the peak rate, preferring to run off battery then, so I don’t have a history of consumption to save against. My battery doesn’t discharge to the grid so the only way octopus is going to work to my advantage is during any free electricity periods.