Any Solar only & EV users out there? Octopus questions

Jonboy1889

Anyone have solar only (no battery) and an EV?

Best plan on octopus?

my thoughts are:

- Agile & agile outgoing over winter (Sept to April)

- Flux over summer

its pretty close TBH over the summer- but less stormy so less super low/negative, and hardly use any import over the summer (70kw + 100kw EV avg), so import rate benefit is marginal, but export benefit is quite big (c500kw average per month May- July)

Just wondered what others did

Screwdriva

I’d invest in a PV capable EV charger. Zappi wins my vote every time unless you have a SolarEdge system, in which case I would go for the no directional EV charger. 

I’m on Flux given we export 4X what we import and every penny per kWh makes a difference 

Jonboy1889

Screwdriva said:

I’d invest in a PV capable EV charger. Zappi wins my vote every time unless you have a SolarEdge system, in which case I would go for the no directional EV charger. 

I’m on Flux given we export 4X what we import and every penny per kWh makes a difference 

Do you mean mean an EV charger that’s able to charge your car with any excess solar? Yes we have one of those- but we never really use it as the nighttime rates on agile are so much cheaper (my spend so far for 250kw is about £5) so would be a waste. Plus even on flux the nighttime import rate is cheaper than the export rate in the day so also not worth it.

agree about flux in the summer but wondered about the winter/summer set up, with EV and solar only.

I'm willing to bet you don’t export 4 times as much as you import between Nov and Feb? 🙂 we generated more in two good summer days than we did in the whole of December last year! 

Jonboy1889

In fact my export vs import rate Nov-Feb has been 1:7 since I got an EV, opposite of the summer which is 7:1

ecraig

We now have an ev, and I’m in the quote stage to get a Zappi and Harvi to complement my solar edge and growatt battery system.
Ive done some very very quick sums so far but cant seem to justify going to flux this year. I calculated that I exported around £10 last year at the most profitable flux rate, and I note there is now a huge difference between the night time import and daytime export rate.
for me I am tempted to remain on agile for import and the 15p export, or maybe intelligent octopus go and fixed export.

Jonboy1889

ecraig said:

We now have an ev, and I’m in the quote stage to get a Zappi and Harvi to complement my solar edge and growatt battery system.
Ive done some very very quick sums so far but cant seem to justify going to flux this year. I calculated that I exported around £10 last year at the most profitable flux rate, and I note there is now a huge difference between the night time import and daytime export rate.
for me I am tempted to remain on agile for import and the 15p export, or maybe intelligent octopus go and fixed export.

Yeah I think it depends A- on the size of your EV system (we exported c500kw a month over summer), B- your non EV use (we just imported 75kw a month) and C- your EV use (we only need c100kw a month). This means flux would work over this period. Agile isn’t as good over summer months as less storms and you end up with not too dissimilar rates as flux as night. I worked out my total average agile rate would have to be 13p to lose out with flux over summer. Unlikely, given the rate over the last 30 days with all those storms was 14p.

Hence my approach above with a mix of agile and flux over the year. Flux was even better last year, but the standard export rate only 2.5p better now. My average export was only 11% better than the standard export (ie only did about 11% at the peak time)

but like I say all depends on your set up and usage/needs. A heavy EV user with need for daytime usage at home would be better with agile all year round, avoiding any horrendous cold snaps of course!

octopus Igo is very good for super heavy EV usage- but I would have spent c£30 a month more over the last few months with octopus IGo. Mainly due to its very expensive daytime rates. I use electric heating in the office, dehumidifiers, tumble drier all in the day- averaging c8kw a day probably outside EV use. My nighttime EV charging has averaged <1p due to storms- but it’s been unusually stormy - with a battery IGo is perfect tho!

Screwdriva

Jonboy1889 said:

Screwdriva said:

I’d invest in a PV capable EV charger. Zappi wins my vote every time unless you have a SolarEdge system, in which case I would go for the no directional EV charger. 

I’m on Flux given we export 4X what we import and every penny per kWh makes a difference 

Do you mean mean an EV charger that’s able to charge your car with any excess solar? Yes we have one of those- but we never really use it as the nighttime rates on agile are so much cheaper (my spend so far for 250kw is about £5) so would be a waste. Plus even on flux the nighttime import rate is cheaper than the export rate in the day so also not worth it.

agree about flux in the summer but wondered about the winter/summer set up, with EV and solar only.

I'm willing to bet you don’t export 4 times as much as you import between Nov and Feb? 🙂 we generated more in two good summer days than we did in the whole of December last year! 

No, ofcourse not. We imported/ exported ~380/ 193 kWh last December & January & will likely achieve our goal of 1500 kWh import p.a. We recently expanded our system & hope to export 6000 kWh this year. The difference between Flux vs. Agile would be marginal and not worth the risk of not being let back onto Flux, so didn't bother switching.

Jonboy1889

Screwdriva said:

Jonboy1889 said:

Screwdriva said:

I’d invest in a PV capable EV charger. Zappi wins my vote every time unless you have a SolarEdge system, in which case I would go for the no directional EV charger. 

I’m on Flux given we export 4X what we import and every penny per kWh makes a difference 

Do you mean mean an EV charger that’s able to charge your car with any excess solar? Yes we have one of those- but we never really use it as the nighttime rates on agile are so much cheaper (my spend so far for 250kw is about £5) so would be a waste. Plus even on flux the nighttime import rate is cheaper than the export rate in the day so also not worth it.

agree about flux in the summer but wondered about the winter/summer set up, with EV and solar only.

I'm willing to bet you don’t export 4 times as much as you import between Nov and Feb? 🙂 we generated more in two good summer days than we did in the whole of December last year! 

No, ofcourse not. We imported/ exported ~380/ 193 kWh last December & January & will likely achieve our goal of 1500 kWh import p.a. We recently expanded our system & hope to export 6000 kWh this year. The difference between Flux vs. Agile would be marginal and not worth the risk of not being let back onto Flux, so didn't bother switching.

Ah I thought Flux wasn’t a waiting list plan like Agile and tracker? When I joined last time it took less than a day to move? Seems to still be the case now? 

It might be marginal in your case but certainly not in ours, about £40 a month difference over the winter- but mainly due to EV- hence the Q re EV users and solar- if you were using an EV at 200 KW a month you might think again about Flux all year. 200kw x 17.5p = £35 vs £10 on agile (probably less than this if stormy). Need to export 625kw a month in winter to offset this delta

Spies

Depends on your usage pattern, although my car has a fairly small battery I don't need it for work so I can easily charge up within a 2.5hr slot, therefore Agile works best for me.

I know it's counter intuitive but I let my solar export during the day then typically charge overnight in the cheapest agile slots which my Zappi automatically chooses, I just need to tell it how many % I want to fill the battery by.

Jonboy1889

Spies said:

Depends on your usage pattern, although my car has a fairly small battery I don't need it for work so I can easily charge up within a 2.5hr slot, therefore Agile works best for me.

I know it's counter intuitive but I let my solar export during the day then typically charge overnight in the cheapest agile slots which my Zappi automatically chooses, I just need to tell it how many % I want to fill the battery by.

I’m the same- I’ve had very weird days on agile where the import rate is negative but it’s still better for me to avoid using import altogether as export is a higher rate. 

Using your EV every day defo means Flux wouldn’t work. I only need c100kw a month which means I just wait until it’s cheap and then charge it then, hence why I’ve only once charged for more than 2p per KW so far. That will change over the next few months tho!

pensionpawn

I've been on Flux since May. No EV or battery. It's so far paid for a year's worth of petrol. Just throwing that out there..