It’s been pretty much a year since I had solar panels installed and, more recently, a battery system, too.
While both make a clear difference to energy consumption, I’ve learned a few things along the way about maximising those savings and making the most of the energy I’m creating and storing.
Try not to export (at least not when you get paid little)
Although you can get paid for any electricity that you export, at standard rates it’s often not worth it. On a standard Octopus tariff, for example, you get paid 12p per kWh exported, but it costs you 26p per kWh that you import from the grid.
That’s a 14p discrepancy there, so it’s best to try and use as much of the power as you can, whether that’s charging a battery or simply putting on the washing earlier because you’re generating excess power.
There are caveats to this rule. If you’re on a variable export tariff, there are times in the day when you get paid a lot more for exporting electricity. If you’ve got an excess around these times (usually in summer when there’s more sunshine), then exporting can be worthwhile, even potentially exporting from your battery. The key thing is to make sure that you don’t export to the point where you have to buy electricity at a higher rate.
Get the right smart tariff for you
Solar power can be brilliant in the summer, but in the shorter, more overcast months of the autumn and winter, you’ll generate a lot less. If you’ve got a battery, you can opt for a smart tariff that has off-peak usage, where you pay less for electricity during these hours.
The idea is that you charge your battery when electricity is cheap, and use the stored power when it’s more expensive (or even solar). Octopus Flux in London, for example, has a three-hour off-peak rate of 16.17p per kWh (2am until 5am). The peak rate, when you want solar or your battery to kick in, costs 37.78p per kWh. At other times, it’s the standard rate of 26.78p per kWh.
There’s also Octopus Go, which is designed for EV users and has a super-cheap off-peak rate of 9.4p per kWh (12:30am until 5:30am), but electricity costs 38.31p per kWh beyond that.
The latter sounds better, but it all comes down to how much power you can offset, based on your system’s limits.
Know your power limits
Solar power is variable through the day, depending on sunshine and other conditions. But, over time, you can get used to the pattern and if it’s going to be sunny, you’ll soon get an idea of when your key generation times are and the maximum amount of power that you’ll generate. From your solar system’s app and smart meter, you’ll be able to get these figures.
When it’s sunny and you’re generating a lot of power, that’s when you use more power-hungry appliances, such as a washing machine or tumble dryer. When you use a device, keep an eye on real-time power consumption, and make sure you’re not having to pull excess power from the grid.
In many cases, it’s better to stagger power-hungry appliances, say running the dishwasher first, and then putting on a load of washing. This allows you to stick within the limits of what you’re generating, avoiding having to pay for any electricity (or, at least, a minimum).
If you’ve got a battery, you need to know what the maximum amount of power it can export is, and then stay below that limit to avoid pulling energy from the grid. Again, staggering appliance use can help: you use the same amount of power, but you don’t exceed what the battery can do, so you avoid paying for grid energy.
All of this is important to consider when choosing which smart tariff you want to go for. If you’ve got plug-in solar, for example (battery support to come next year), you’re limited to 800W. That can easily be exceeded by pretty much any high-power device, so you’ll end up paying for power.
More powerful systems will feed in at 2500W or 3000W, but these can be overwhelmed by multiple devices, such as an induction hob and oven running together. In that example, it’s hard to stagger use, as you need to cook things at the same time.
It’s worth looking at your peak energy draw and usage, and working out if your battery system can cover that period without you having to buy too much power from the grid.
Think about which appliances you have
There has been a tendency in the past for appliances to be almost overrated for what they need to do. For example, a lot of kettles are rated at 3kW, and electric heaters can be power hungry, rated at 2kW or above. Similarly, an old condenser tumble dryer uses a higher power draw.
Switching appliances to those that have a lower maximum draw can help. A 1.8kW kettle, for example, will take longer to boil water, but it uses the same amount of power in total as a 3kW kettle. Importantly, for me, boiling the kettle with standard house use keeps me below the maximum 2500W that my battery can output, so I can have hot water without power from the grid.
Similarly, I’ve switched my electric heater in my office for an 800W IR panel, as I can easily power this by battery/solar power.
Fine tune based on your home
The size and power of battery, how many solar panels you’ve got and where you live all have an impact. The key thing to do is try and use as much power as you generate or that you can buy cheaply to avoid higher rates when you do have to pull power from the grid. By making a few simple tweaks, you’ll find this easier: just keep an eye on the apps and your smart meter to make sure you’re maximising cheap energy.
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