How do I charge my battery off peak

FFHillbilly

I have a 9.5kW PV array and 9kWh storage, Is it possible to top the battery up overnight at a cheaper rate ?

currently I'm on Octopus fixed at 25.7p Elec and 5.3p Gas which runs until November 2026, and I also get 12p for exporting electricity. would overnight charging affect any of those?

what are the options? I've had a look at Octopus website, not easy to understand, none of the rates are given, one tariff I was looking at said it was not available due to the Iran war…

Reed_Richards

Any thoughts about getting an EV? The cheapest overnight rates seem to be the ones offered to EV owners.

MattMattMattUK

If you have an EV then those tariffs offer the best option, for most of the year you would not need anything other than off peak electricity at 7-9p per kWh. Your day rate would be higher but it would not matter as you would rarely use energy at that cost anyway.

QrizB

You're currently on a single-rate tariff so you don't have a cheaper off-peak period where you might want to charge your battery from the grid. Changing your tariff will mean losing your current fix and (as you've noticed) several of the smart tariffs are not accepting new customers at the moment.

Do you have an EV?

Peter999_2

I have a 4kWp solar and 15kWh battery. I'm currently on Octopus Intelligent Flux. Using this, Octopus take control of my battery and solar and automatically calculate when to export, when to charge etc.

At the moment it is suspended to new sign ups due to the Iran conflict, but no doubt it will be back. Go to this page :

Intelligent Octopus Flux | Automated export to support the grid | Octopus Energy

and it will tell you if your battery is compatible.

The tariff is 22p per kWh between 7pm and 4pm (21 hours) and then 30p per kWh during 4pm to 7pm. The beauty of it is that the export rate is the same as the import rate. If I export solar between 7pm and 4pm then I get 22p per kWh and 30p per kWh between 4pm and 7pm.

I only joined a few weeks ago so I don't know if it is going to work perfectly for me (I'm a low user of between 4-5 kWh a day) but in the last week I have made more money in export than my electric and gas combined (including the dreaded standing charge). It looks like it will be a winner most of the year apart from winter in which case I'll swap to probably Octopus Intelligent Go.

There are so many tariffs to chose from and it is complicated until you know roughly how much you generate a day which tariff you should chose.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81919905#Comment_81919905

Generally, IOF works if you are a total net exporter, and that often means it is a good tariff for summer, but many people struggle over winter, so you need to take an annual view and see if you make enough over summer to cover the winter bills or if you are better just switching tariffs for winter anyway…

QrizB

IOF is also only available to certain makes/models of battery, and we don't know if OP's is on the list.

lohr500

Do you have the details of your monthly import and export kWh over the past 12 months?

I think you need to establish if it is worth sacrificing the 12p export payments in exchange for say a very low off-peak import rate.

What supply region are you in?

Peter999_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920086#Comment_81920086

That's why I gave them the link to check if the battery is compatible.

Ectophile

It rather depends on how your battery is wired in.

Mine is DC connected directly to the solar inverter. The inverter offers no option to charge the battery from the mains, only solar.

But the battery is also on the inverter side of my generation meter, and I claim a FIT tariff. So it would be dishonest to charge the battery from the mains and then re-export it again as if it were solar generation.

FFHillbilly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81919784#Comment_81919784

not yet. I drive a Van, the vans seem to be a bit behind on the range so it's going to be at least 5 years I'd say. I've heard people can just say you have an EV, do they actually check?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920158#Comment_81920158

not yet, I've only lived here for 5 months, after 3 months I added 6kw storage, and last week I added 5kw of panels and upgraded the inverter so I don't have any stable data to look at
would I have to sacrifice the export for for an off peak rate??

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920302#Comment_81920302

it's a Solax X1 hybrid inverter with T30 batteries, not on the list

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920517#Comment_81920517

It is a hybrid Inverter, definitely can charge directly from the grid