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Yeap me too. Need to work out how to force the solar edge battery to discharge.
@Fueled I found this on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Powerwall/s/JWzS4HhQ3I
TLDR message Tesla using the app and ask for the ‘energy exports’ option to be turned on [edit] or get in touch with your installer [/edit].
I have not, yet, asked for this to be done.
^^ the powerwall, I know nothing about them, but I assume you have DNO setup to be allowed to export to grid when it was installed?
re the saving sessions, pretty epic so far on my little 10 kwh battery:
Thanks for being part of our Saving Sessions on 29th November and 1st December.
You saved 14.86 kWh, earning you 47552 Octopoints – worth £59.43
easily worth doing, although i doubt the figures as i can only export at 3.6kwh and at most those two sessions are 3 hours combined
"You saved 5.59kWh, earning you 17904 Octopoints - worth £22.38."
Accurate I reckon, GivEnergy app says 5.60kWh over the two sessions. House load was 2.20kWh during those 3 hours. Battery discharge is capped at 2.6kWh unfortunately.
I had to pester solar edge chat to enable the manual control on my battery profile. They also need to push a firmware update to your battery and inverter, but once that's done you get an extra layer of control. I can now force export, but am limited to 5kw so any demand in the house reduces this.
I didn't have the firmware upgrade at first so the first couple of saving sessions netted me a total of 27p. Not the bonanza i'd hoped for! fingers crossed for some sessions soon.
Thanks @lodger I think I have the manual control option in the app already so will have a play. Do you know what firmware version you were upgraded too?
no sorry. cant work out how to check the version.
The manual control (on mine at least) seems to have a glitch where it doesn't save the changes so you have to keep closing the app and trying again until it registers.
That's a good point. I also can't find it via their app or the web interface. Got 'SMCU 1.0.67 DCDC 0.0.79 BMS 0.6.' from home assistant though.
So, the savings events are coming thick and fast, but the model means there are rapidly diminishing returns. If I keep exporting, my 10 day average shifts to negative and my 'savings' are reduced - or eliminated completely. Starts to be worthwhile using as much as possible at peak times on non-savings days to shift the average.
I waste way too much brain time on this!
Hah Lodger, I was thinking exactly the same thing. It does encourage the wrong behaviour moving usage to 5-7 on a non savings day if your tariff allows.
I'm surprised they've not in some way stopped people discharging to game the event but I guess if this is all about maiming the availability in the network at peak times then the discharge of energy back into the network is beneficial
So, the savings events are coming thick and fast, but the model means there are rapidly diminishing returns. If I keep exporting, my 10 day average shifts to negative and m
Who's tariff are you on ? Octopus specifically does not include savings days in your 10 day average .
Also for those of you on apple octoaid tells you your baseline for the sessions
Im setting my batteries to charge 5-6 on non event days. They are only small so its used up by the morning in winter but increases usage. Im 60 quid up atm.
it seems you can use the points to buy a t shirt or something in the future
Think i'm 100 up over the saving sessions, last couple still calculating.
As a above, they ignore previous saving sessions in the calcs. However, my export time, if i have nay spare, is usually within that window so my baseline is ~-1.5 to start with, on flux it would be less than ideal to charge on those times for me.
Mine is all automated through home assistant and predbat anyway, opt in, maintain a charge if needed and then dump
Hey all...
This post will be in the 'solar thread' and the 'electric car thread'..
Basically, looking for some advice/charger advice..
I've a nissan leaf - doesn't YET do car2home..
At present, I only charge it at work (have a charger installed there)..
We're currently with UW, and pay about 28p/kWh at ALL times. Our electricity useage for November was... 550kWh. this isn't including gas CH (2 combi boilers)....!
Our bills are, as you imagine, quite big.
I'm thinking about switching to Octopus EV tarriff..
Standing charge is the same.. Day rate is 31.21p, but overnight would be 7.5p. Not just for EV charging, but all electricity.
We could run the dishwasher/tumble drier/washing machines (yup, pleural) overnight...
Those are 'big money items' and would hopefully offset the higher daytime cost.
I could also get a Zappi charger installed (£1000) which could potentially future proof the house for a solar array..
Big question... as I don't actually charge my EV at home (as said - I charge at work, but ultimately I'm the business that pay the electricity at work at 20p/kWh) will i see major savings??
DrP
I can't add much DrP beyond not baselining against your existing rate or the standard variable rate (svr), rather against alternatives like octopus tracker which comes out historically about 30% less than svr without having to overly worry about pushing usage off peak. Just my tuppence
cheers - will look into that too...
My dream would be to have a whopping south facing solar array, with batteries, and to produce most of our electric energy. However, install costs need to be looked into.
DrP
Your plan might be scuppered from the beginning as you can't switch to Intelligent Octopus without a compatible car or charger, and they make you do a test charge during the switch. You can check this on their website if you click the "I'm not an Octopus customer" button.
You can go onto generic Octopus Go without a compatible car, which I believe is 9.5p for a shorter period. Would recommend doing the maffs to see if it's worth the hassle of getting up early to shuffle wet washing into the tumble dryer. If you're only saving 20p/day by doing stuff overnight then that's going to be flattened by the increased unit cost during the day.
It's a gem of a tariff if you have batteries - I've paid 7.5p/kWh for all my electricity use for the last year - but doesn't sound ideal for you. If you do decide to switch, make sure you use a referral code because you get £50 back.
You can go onto generic Octopus Go without a compatible car, which I believe is 9.5p for a shorter period. Would recommend doing the maffs to see if it’s worth the hassle of getting up early to shuffle wet washing into the tumble dryer. If you’re only saving 20p/day by doing stuff overnight then that’s going to be flattened by the increased unit cost during the day.
This is the big issue..
Our house is like a Chinese laundary at times..and in all honesty, despite my winging and moaning, I appear to be the only one who would actually put a washing machine etc on timer...
Will give it some thought.
Batteries (or a leaf that does c2h) and solar would be the ideal.
In fact... if they DID upgrade the leaf to c2h, i'd pop to Lidl and fill it up at 14p/kWh, then power the house from that~!!!!
DrP
Eon Next Drive is slightly more expensive than Octopus Go but has a much longer cheap period, from midnight to 7am. This means you can put stuff on timers to finish just before you get up so you can sort the washing out as it finishes instead of it sitting in a puddle from 4:30am, that kind of thing.
Saving session on Octopus between 5 and 6 today. Battery seems to be discharging :D. Tried to configure at lunch time but kept getting errors and gave up. Then came back a bit later on and tried again and it worked.
👍. I’m doing this too.
Slightly random q…
I don’t have a roof that I can put panels on (listed building, any areas I could potentially get permission are North facing).
I do however have a 7ft high beech hedge running 40m up the side of the garden (in direct sunlight all day).
Would I be able to mount panels on top of the hedge (on some form of pole / frame)?
Would this likely kill the hedge?
I didn't know that, thanks.
Still pays to waste on the other days, but not quite so much!
Frustrating/weird how long it takes to work out your usage and savings. Octopus and my inverter never agree either, which is a bit annoying. But I'm not sure who I trust more. We can use 90KWh on a bad winter day so the fine margins make a difference!
re panels on a hedge....
just consider how much panel; space you need to make it worthwhile, then you'd need a frame that can support the panels AND keep them secure in strong winds... not going to be easy or practical..
it's not uncommon for people to put panels on ground frames if you have the space
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67494082
I have a bad habit of oversimplified thinking but would houses having batteries even without solar be a way of soaking up this excess energy for later use? Judging by the above article they would need to be in the right area...
Not sure if it is the demand locally, or something akin to the cable coming out of the wind farm not being fat enough.
But it is frustrating that the aspects that feel like they should be easy are not being addressed. Lots of people have smart meters now, but most people have no way of being given cheap electricity and being told "now is a really good time to charge your cars up!". How hard can that bit be?
Thanks to advice from @prettygreenparrot, I'm now all set up ready to discharge from my battery. So now there probably won't be any more saving sessions again knowing my luck!
Could be one today. There has been notification of a test event sent to suppliers today, normally a saving session follows later on
Looks like a session will be between 5-6pm today check your provider for notifications as they always dont sent out in time
Recently bought a house with panels on, installed back in 2018. Wind is howling today and i can hear rattling/chattering in strong gusts which i assume is coming from them. Only other time i heard it was in storm babet. Is this normal in strong winds or is something loose? If it isn't normal am i right in assuming this will be a pain/ expensive to inspect?
Not normal. Get someone up there to look at it soon
OK not what i wanted to hear but will get someone to look at it. Been in the garden looking through binoculars and can't see any movement anywhere when it gusts but quite loud inside from a specific area of the roof. Can't imagine anyone getting up there before the new year now though.
Probably. The cables banging off the underside in the wind. Especially if they have been up there for. A long time and the cable restrain system has failed.
Or it’s just the tiles moving around. Ours do this in strong winds.
December update and annual summary – 5.5kWp array, S facing in the SW. 20kWh of battery storage.
81kWh Generated (HALF of last year - what a crap December)
550kWh Imported (Wife was at home for most of it, kids were at home for a lot of it, at least 100kWh went into car charging)
19kWh Exported
Running total for the year is ~5731kWh of generation. We beat our installer estimates by 13%.
Overall, we're still in profit for the year, but unless the PV yield picks up in January, we'll be paying at the end of it.
How did everyone do during the recent power saving period? We got 5600pts, which wasn't that great.
3.9kw panels, 10.4 kw/h batteries, 3.6kw inverter
some quick math has me co9nsuming 1198 kw since august, my average unit price works out at 1.1p per kwh.. wonder how that will work out over the year, that doesnt include the following:
saving sessions, have taken part in all, i have earned 81,376 points so far (£101.72)
last one 10624
4.14 kwh system.
Wife has been at home since May on maternity. So washing machines been getting cycled daily with nappies and wipes etc.
We have imported 10kwh more than we exported just on top of all the power we used at source.
The 50000 points we got through the December saving sessions has paid for our import usage through December. Just have to pay for the standing charge which will be our first payment to octopus this year.
During a normal non maternity year I think our system is sized correctly
5.7Kwh array south facing in a mountainous valley setting. Powering 2 households and a small farm workshop and livestock sheds. Also have a 14KWh battery storage. I am grid tied but have no ability to export.
Since June last year we now supply power to an internet radio repeater mast on our shed. This has a background consumption of 300w, so 7.2 KW daily or approximately 1900 KWh total over and above for the last 6 months or so.
Results from 2023 (Not including 1900 KWh usage by the radio mast which is paid at cost)
Solar generation 4490 KWh<br />Consumption 4491 KWh<br />Import from grid 544 KWh
Expenses at 60p/Kwh = £2700 (generated) - £332 (imported) = £2368
December has easily been the worst month so far with only 85 KWh generated which is half the next worse month of November with 185 KWh. Best month was June with 577 Kwh
During a normal non maternity year I think our system is sized correctly
the volume of clothing you wash as your kids grow does not shink. If you're lucky they stop pooing themselves but shortly after they find ways of going through a couple of outfits a day (especially this time of year with mud/puddles), and said outfits are significantly bigger.
heads up, saving session today at 5:30!
@andybrad - thanks for the nudge. My best result so far is 3100 pts + 400 bonus - limited by the inverter.
Figures for the year :
(10kwp east west split, 10kwh battery)
we only started exporting at the end of May when our transformer was uprated.
Use - 9.36 MWh
Production - 7.33 MWh
Of which was exported - 3.96MWh
I think we are about break even for the year, maybe £100 in credit i.e. no payment for energy, including standing charges (we are electric only).
So that's ~£2800 "earned" for the year.
The array and battery were part of the new-build house purchase so I don't know what they cost. the battery is ~ £6k (inc vat) now
octopus saving session 5-6pm tonight
So we got ours installed at the end of January:
- String one - 10 * 435w inset panels south facing
- String two - 4* 435w east & 4* 435w west
- 6kwh solaredge inverter and Tesla Powerwall
What's amazed me so far, one week in, is how much we make on a totally overcast or wet day, we generate 4-6Kwh even when the sun doesn't break the clouds (North Yorkshire). when the sun comes out we've seen 4kwh generation. Best day so far 16kwh, worst day 1.5kwh. Powerwall has been excellent, we've been self powered for 50% of the time, longest stretch was 36 hours.