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Now Iv'e had solar for about 2 months one thing I've discovered which I dont think you mentioned which is potentially a big advantage for EW is less or no clipping. On very sunny days i can get quite significant clipping on my wholly S facing set up with 5Kw inverter. I could be getting up to 7.5 (max Ive seen so far) but as it is i"m getting 5 Kw exported. With the same size inverter and my panels split half EW I am pretty sure Id rarely get clipping.. So I suspect that with the same number of panels and same size inverter id get very similar export (not the same as generation) from EW as S. However my house didnt come with a rotate option so its a moot point, but it is something to consider if you have a choice.

i have east west 20 panels, ashp, zero bills, what about north south?

I don’t have that in the Octopus app.. Says they still in beta and I need to use Ohme app

So it's clearly not free unless you have 100% compatible plumbing/DHW tank/pumps and rads/UFH. Perhaps it would it be possible for self builders to install their own plumbing/DHW tank/pumps and rads/UFH then get Octopus to connect up a Cosy 6 and controls for free, save a few £k on a new heat pump?

Im guessing you are using an AI to move your face

Thanks!

There is a lady who only made a few videos about doing a trial with here Nissan Leaf , she started just before covid and lock down , she was worried about the battery as she couldnt go out and it turned out it was better for the battery health .

Im having a heat pump installed with air tto air instead of water its much less work an really cheap .for water im having 2 under sink water heaters .

Hi Dan. At the risk of asking a stupid question, have you found any way to see the Octopus Intelligent Go data in a way which shows when additional off-peak rates have been applied outside of core off-peak hrs due to active EV charging? I use both Octopus Watch and Octopus-Aid and seem that the API data doesn’t show this. It feels like the only option would be to download all my data via one of these apps and then manually apply the off peak rate to any times the EV was charging outside the normal cheap hrs. It further complicated by the fact that the Ohme doesn’t really give any useful data on what times it was charging, just that it achieved the target SoC by the required time.

Thanks Dan, I've just run our actual data from 2023 and 2024 using our real average import and export rates (which the Octo-Aid app helpfully calculates) and it looks like Intelligent Go is the better option with all but the most modest EV usage, especially as the export rate is now a fixed 15p at all times. It's also probably worth pointing out that in your spreadsheet you assumed that all your Flux EV import would be at off-peak rate. In practice, given this is only 3hrs a night, this would make even a 25%-80% charge, a multi-night activity, or you would need to be plugging in and topping up most times you use the car. Obviously this is doable, but it's a lot less convenient than Intelligent Go which gives at least twice the number of available hrs per night plus additional smart slots. Appreciate the work you put into this

Thanks. i switched yesterday (May 18) 2024. I needed several restarts and unplugs and replugs and retries (wallbox, sounds similar to poster below) but eventually got the test charge to work and it seemed to work last night. My first car charge times were weirdly set as two periods, 2330-000 and 0030 to 0800 but car was fully charged in the first period. Also I set my house battery to force charge between 2330 - 0530 so that its not charging the car via the battery. Note that you are controlling the charge via the car where you can set the limit you want the car set to, but if you are doing it via the charger what you control is how much is added, not how much the car will be charged to. So you might still want to have a limit set on your car in that case.

This was interesting Dan, thank you. As a brand new EV family owner, I have been debating what to do but have initially swapped to Intelligent Go. We do pretty low mileage however but as we have a 21kWh battery I’ve started charging overnight and then exporting excess the following evening. I think I need to see how the EV usage pans out because we love the car and cheap running costs so much that we are probably going to do more miles than we would otherwise just because!

Perfect timing. I'm switching to Octopus so really useful information.

Intelligent Octopus Go is better than Flux for me by £40 for the month of May. This is due to (2x) EV charging, without EVs the two tariffs would have worked out almost equal. I suspected that IOG was better than Flux for me, but your video inspired me to work it out. To summarise for May (using May 23 energy data and May 24 prices) Flux: PV direct export £191 + battery export £60 - battery charging £47 - EV charging £76 = £128 profit IOG: PV direct export £168.50 + battery export £30 - battery charging £23 - EV charging £37.5 = £168 profit I am a high exporter. 10.8kWp array and 9.2kW of inverters May 23: 1.3MWh generation; 0.3MWh consumption; 0.3MWh import (mostly Flux off peak); 1.3MWh export Last year (2023), Flux was a no-brainer for me because I had access to free EV charging at work. So my imports at Flux off-peak rate were limited to charging my GE 8.2kWh battery and some night shifted appliances, so only about 10kWh per night. This year (2024) I am on Intelligent Octopus Go because I have to do most of my EV charging at home, about 0.5MWh per month (according to my Ohme charging stats). So, on Flux that would be £76 per month just for EV charging vs £38 per month on IOG (an IOG saving of £38 per month for EV charging). PV export during the day on Flux 15.5p/kWh and on Fixed 15p/kWh suggests only a 0.5p/kWh advantage to Flux over a solar to grid quantity of 1.1MWh/month or £5.60 for May (excluding solar export during Flux Peak) Considering PV export during the Flux Peak period: the average of my Flux Peak export for 1/5/23 and 31/5/23 (I couldn't be bothered to gather all the data) was 5.4kWh/day or 168kWh for the month. So a Flux Peak export premium over the standard export rate of 168kWh x (25.8 - 15.5)p/kWh = £17.30 for the month Considering battery use with PV: with Flux or IOG I would (1) fill the battery every night on off-peak electricity to maximise PV export during the day and there would be some night shifted appliance, about 10kWh per night as discussed above; and (2) I would discharge the battery fully every evening to take advantage of the off peak import vs (Flux peak 30.3p/kWh or Fixed 15p/kWh) export prices. With Flux: battery charging import cost = 10kWh/day x 15.2p/kWh = £1.52/day or £47/month; battery discharging export for May 23 was 0.2MWh or 7.1kWh/day according to GE portal. However, this is measured at DC so let's deduct 10% for losses giving 6.4kWh/day which would earn 6.4kWh x 30.3p/kWh = £1.94/day or £60.00 for the whole of May. So a battery arbitrage profit of £60 - £47 = £13 for the month With IOG: battery charging import cost = 10kWh/day x 7.5p/kWh = £0.75/day or £23/month; using the same methodology as above, battery discharging export for May 23 at 6.4kWh/day would earn 6.4kWh x 15p/kWh = £0.96/day or £30 for the whole of May. So a battery arbitrage profit of £30 - £23 = £6.50 for the month (some rounding in my text)

Nice one Dan, Your east west setup has caught up and overtaken my south array . So my 5.1Kwh peak south facing in central Scotland for April was 504kWh , maximum daily was 36.2 kWh on the 24th and minimum again worse than yours at 2.8kWh on the 1st ( must be the dreich Scottish clouds) Still on Octopus Agile but now have a full EV so considering a GO tariff but as I`m retired I manage to charge mostly from Solar but the 7.5p overnight and 15p export might just sway me.......But your 69p standing charge is now ridiculous hope Ofgem are quick

Based in the Northwest with an East/West setup, one of the things I notice about your very informative monthly stats is that although our average generation is similar, weather is clearly having a massive impact...I beat you (just) in January, you beat me in February, I beat you in March, you've just beaten me again... Thanks for all the hard work you put into making these videos!

I was too lazy to study your spreadsheet in detail, but what did stand out was the way you indexed your feed in tariff over the years. A warning here from an Australian is that as the amount of available renewable energy increases, they don’t want your energy. My feed in tariff has halved in three years to 3.3cents, because why should they pay more than they pay for it anywhere else. (This is the actual reason!) With reducing feed in tariffs and likely narrowing of the spread between buy and sell prices in peak times, I would warn to possibly not expect to make as much in the future as you might hope for.

Only 8 panels and a 7kWh battery for my own consumption. And yet already £40 of export payments!

If you only have a typical use of approx 5 kWh, can you explain why you spent thousands on a battery ? As I'd imagine your typical energy bill would be about £30 per month (excluding ev) ?

Thanks Dan for another informative video. For comparison, we have a South and West facing system total capacity of 7.38kW and during April generated 602kWh, Exported 296kWh. With the EVs taking around 200kWh of power during that month our final April bill was very similar to yours at £36.03 on the Octopus Intelligent Go tariff. We also are on Gas so also suffer from the standing charges from both energy supplies and are based in Norfolk. We are hoping for a negative bill next month, especially now that there have been significantly more sunny days so far and have exported 141kWh which is 20kWh more than we've imported already during these first 11 days.

Good stats Dan. It's interesting how the stats change due to location, array size / orientation & battery capacity. My Bucks production for April from a 4.15kWp ESE & 2.15kWp NW array, 3.6kW GE Hybrid Inverter & 2 x 19.5kWh GE Gen 2 batteries was a total 504.34kWh. Solar to Batt 107.48kWh, solar to grid 148.2kWh, solar to home 248.66kWh. Grid to home 453.84kWh This includes battery top up every night & a 64kWh EV which gets topped up every 2-3 days. Solar / Battery back to the grid = 186.27kWh which is not enough to generate a negative bill yet but it's getting there now we have the better weather. April also saw a GE induced remotely controlled "slow/low" battery recalibration which took 27hrs! This was to resolve some over voltage errors. Like you I'm now on Intelligent Octopus Go so I changed my charging routine which will fully kick in this month. Like you I now charge my 19kWh batteries every night irrespective of the next day weather forecast. This ensures that the batteries start the next day fully charged an any solar production goes straight back to the grid @15p/kWh. Not sure if you've had this problem but the only issue I have now is trying to find out how to force export any spare battery capacity late in the day to earn extra revenue before the cheap rate kicks in without screwing up my GE 3.6kW Inverter ECO setting. Any sort of programmed force discharge seems to turn off the Inverter ECO setting which requires you to remember to manually reset it, which is a real pain.

Southern UK ; Production 740, Max 43 MIn 11.3

East Cornwall Production 711.89kWhs Consumption 341.04kWhs Import 30.11kWhs Export 329.83kWhs. On Octopus Flux bill from Octopus £47.14 credit

Nice. I’m currently trying to work out if i should get pure solar or solar plus batteries. Can fit 16x400w south facing with just few degrees, down south (about 9.2k quote). ROI seems much on batteries, but I know people like you do smart tricks to charge overnight etc. We could run appliances during day, charge car etc, and power pc when wfh, but we must use a lot of power in evenings when kids are gaming on multiple pcs, electric oven, hob , microwave etc. Not really sure which way to take it

Hi, I’ve switched to Octopus and used your referral. Hope this helps.

It is not 19 in the front and 20 in the rear. It’s 20 inches square. But 235/35/20 in the front and 275/30/20 in the back. For the rest, I agree with you.

How do u find out where the cars are made? I live in europe

new m3p way better the old m3p, looks, material quality inside and faster

What do you think to the new Model 3 Performance? Perfect all round EV or still a way to go?

Is there a service out there that allows you to set a wholesale price and then sends you notifcations if it goes above that? Would be really useful. Just googling around it appears the wholesale price isn't freely available which makes me feel nervous

I just moved to octopus fixed tariff which works out about £800 cheaper than variable however since then the price cap has dropped , I keep hearing about this tracker tariff , is there way to see if this tracker works out better than my fixed tariff that I am currently on? I can still exit with no fees and change so tempted...

Hi Dan, thanks for the video. In the process of planning a system. Currently looking at Intelligent Flux. I do have an EV but it's a company car so the company pays for all my charging and I pay them for personal use. Given that I will get all the EV import money back, does it make sense to charge overnight on Intelligent Flux and then export as much solar as possible during the day and peak times?

Octoplus is discriminatory. Some customers only get invited to savings sessions, others get these and invites to use electricity for free.

Thank you for an amazing and full of real data video. You did amazing job but I hope you prediction about future electricity pricing will never happen 😱

We just had 8.7kw east west also end March. April appears to be pretty poor compared to what I thought off pvgis. I’d be expecting around 550kwh but as of today it’s under 400 so might hit 430 max possibly. Will you be running your April figures also? Thanks

We just had 8.7kw east west also end March. April appears to be pretty poor compared to what I thought off pvgis. I’d be expecting around 550kwh but as of today it’s under 400 so might hit 430 max possibly. Will you be running your April figures also? Thanks

This is exactly what I have found, with my E/W solar. Less peak, but more hours across the day of usable levels of generation. I find within 30 mins of sunrise on a clear day I have at least 1 kWh so more than enough to cover the home use. My 7.56kWh system produces around 6,200kWh per year.

Have intelligent go connected to Wallbox charger and it just works like a charm. Initial setup was tricky as I had my car app trying to control the charge. Disabled that setting and all problems fixed. I have two EV so I connected Octopus to the car charger and setup the larger EV. Both cars just work with the tariff. Octopus thinks it's charging the bigger EV but when the smaller EV reaches 100% charge it obviously just stops charging so there's no issue. Side benefit, the smaller EV has lower range so we charge it more often, this means more evenings where we get the 7.5p rate before 11:30 pm

It’s cos we pay for the failed companies like bulb and others who were well happy with the good times.

Now the reality: I have a Tesla M3 SR and am on OG. I activated the Octopus app IOG and got ticks for the car and charger and virtual key and was told to connect the cable for a test charge. I checked that all schedules were off so that I could just let it charge when approved on the charger. Obviously the car started charging (at peak rates) immediately. I clicked 'do test charge' on the IOG. Failed after 3 seconds. Tried again (after having to disconnect then reconnect the cable!!). Failed a second time. I wish people would not say how easy it is when I have implicitly followed the instructions two days in a row and seen the test charge fail every time.

Hi Dan, thanks for the video. Under this tariff, if I am using electricity in the house while the car battery is discharging to support the grid, so the electricity used is coming from the car not the grid, would that electricity be free?

Excellent video. You'll be pleased to hear that £50 will be winging its way to you in the near future. Thanks.

Always enjoy your videos Dan. It makes me realise I should concentrate more on my own solar production and repayment figures. I'm guessing the spreadsheet you use to track your own figures was one you made yourself, do you have any ideas as to a link to a spreadsheet an idiot could use (i.e Me) to track my own solar journey?