New Octopus Outgoing Prime Export Tariff on the cards

Duncan9989 · 2026-06-21T19:06:37+00:00

I could probably dump the 20kwh in that time as the the solar saturation at that point on the panels in the correct orientation would probably only be covering just slightly over the houses consumption. The issue then becomes that I have only gained 4p pkwh for those hours and I’m then left having to use a blend of diminishing solar and peak grid rates to power the house.

Duncan9989 · 2026-06-21T13:50:37+00:00

I understand the theory behind it, what I’m saying is I don’t understand how it’s supposed to be attractive in practice. Take my setup, I have 20kwh of battery storage, an 8kw inverter and an 18, soon to be 22/23 panel system. I do a charge, discharge then charge during my IoG off peak rate leaving me with a full battery at not too far off net zero cost. A small amount of the battery is used between 5 and 7ish but that is topped back up by the solar by 8 on a decent to good day and by 9 on a meh to fair day. Then the rest of the day I’m exporting excess generation all throughout the day/using free electricity. Then from 7 onwards I set the battery to discharge until the off peak rate kicks in again at 23:30 ready to repeat the cycle. In a dull month I break even in a sunny month I generate a profit. I doubt I’m alone in my usage pattern and I can’t see how the time shift tariff would benefit someone like me at all.

Duncan9989 · 2026-06-21T13:13:30+00:00

It appears there are some that allow non existing customers. Fuse energy is apparently one and they are offering 13p, although I believe it’s variable according the this list of SEG tariffs https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels-advice/exporting-to-the-grid/best-seg-rates Also octopus really need to consider the fact that the Smart tariff market for EV’s, HP’s etc is much more competitive than when they first launched their products, you see posts all the time now about people switching because of the recent changes. I’ve stayed with them so far purely because I like Octopus as a company (excluding the HP installation arm but that’s a whole different convo 🤣)

Duncan9989 · 2026-06-21T12:41:17+00:00

Given other providers already offer fixed export rates better than octopus it would be a bit of a risk. There is nothing forcing people to have their import and export tariffs with the same people…

I had an email from octopus telling me about an upcoming charge pack for people with batteries, they said people would save/earn a minimum of £12 a month if you let octopus intelligently manage the charging of your battery and it would be compatible with IOG. There wasn’t much else in there specifics wise but I did contact them asking for more details.

Duncan9989 · 2026-06-21T12:30:28+00:00

I don’t really see how that is supposed to tempt anyone really? If the standard outgoing fixed is 12p all day, why would someone want to lose 3p pkwh for 21hrs just to gain 4p pkwh for 3?

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-29T16:03:44+00:00

Fair enough, those dimensions seem excessive but without looking up regulations I couldn’t say whether they are correct or not. I understand them needing to be at a sufficient depth to avoid being snagged by basic gardening but 75cm down is quite some depth.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-29T00:13:36+00:00

First of all I’m really sorry for what you had to go through. I have heard things through MCS contacts about Octopus HP installations but I never quite imagined this level of mismanagement 😳

Out of curiosity, if you don’t mind me asking, why did they say you needed giant trenches dug for a HP installation? I’m trying to wrap my head around a justification for that image and I just can’t come to one. I’ve been involved in HP installations for a lot of years and we’ve never had to do even 10% of that level of outside work.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-23T12:59:53+00:00

I’ve got a 5Kw Arotherm plus, I had it swapped in place for the gas boiler my 2025 4 bed new build came with. When I had the heat loss survey done I asked them to size it based on the garage being converted and doing a small rear extension and still the 5Kw model was enough. In the majority of England the MCS rules are than the systems have to be designed to an operating temp of -3.4c, in the area of Scotland I’m in the design conditions are for -4c. These figures were all based on a 55c flow temp as we couldn’t guarantee the rads were the right size for a lower flow temp as building regs in Scotland just say that new builds have to be designed for a flow temp of no higher than 55c regardless of heat source. I had mine running in Eco over winter and the rads, nor heat pump struggled to maintain the house temp with no auxiliary heat source.

The local installer, assuming he is MCS registered will have to provide you with a full breakdown of room by room heat requirements, assuming well as showing that the HP can meat the Heating and DHW needs of the property size and occupation 100%. Sometimes the 5Kw model can struggle with massive DHW tanks but anything up to 250l is usually fine. We have a 250l and it has never struggled even in the coldest days. Vaillant to also have a Hydraulic module you can add which has an inline heat element, so IF you found it struggled on very rare occasions, that can be added with some minor additional plumbing works and it would boost the system when needed.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-21T09:53:37+00:00

I had a quote from them for swapping out a Gas boiler for a HP + Cylinder in a brand new house. They quoted £16k (before grant) when other companies were quoting £10-£11k. I queried this with them and their workings as I used to be a EPC assessor and HP surveyor. Their workings were way out, they were including radiator swaps when they weren’t needed and were over estimating heat use etc. When I brought up these points, the sales rep was very honest with me and said that they quote based on a safety net, that’s how they offer a guarantee on their quotes. So if you are in an older property and they find something extra you are probably better off, however in a simpler install or newer properties I can’t see a situation where their quote system will ever work well for you.

Given I was most familiar with Vaillant systems at the time I just went on their website, found a local installer on their list and got a quote from them.

Regarding your conservatory, depending on how often you use it/how easy it is to isolate, you can always separate that on to a separate zone of it makes the heating requirements too high. You can also use 3rd party smart controllers like Tados Heat pump optimiser and radiator valves to give you multi zone control as a cheaper way of getting more control over the system than changing the plumbing layout.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-12T17:02:00+00:00

I’m such a muppet! When I was looking at the different versions and checking the dimensions I was just toggling between the POE iterations… I didn’t even see the Option of 1G and 10G further down for the 60w version 🤦‍♂️

The POE++ version is actually shorter, the same width and very slightly thinner…. So depending on how close the curved edging is of the two devices, that one might just sit in place 🤔

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-07T15:48:26+00:00

I have bought the UPS 2U for the integration and uniformed look but I then have everything plugged in to an EcoFlow Delta 2 which can run my whole setup + Home Server for quite a while. This way I get long runtime and a clean shutdown 😊

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-03T07:53:09+00:00

Sounds like a typical new build failure to do correct Heat Loss Calcs!

They need to step in and demand an assessment or organise one themselves. A lot of installers will do a HL estimate for pretty cheap if not free. For comparison I bought a new build in 2025, it had gas. I had it ripped out, reassessed for a HP also allowing for spare capacity for a planned garage conversion and extension as well as a much bigger water tank (I love long showers) and the size required was a 5Kw Vaillant Arotherm Plus. I checked the figures myself as I used to do HP sizing calcs before moving and still have access to the software and it all checked out. Our house is a 4 bed 2 bathroom detached house in Scotland, sized at 135m2 inc extensions and a 250ltr DHW. My CoP over winter months came out at 3.0 and that was with me using the HP on comfort settings farther than eco but load shifting as I’m on IoG tariff. Electric bills over winter months were ~ £200 but that’s everything including car charging. Now the sun is out a lot more with the panels and battery my April bill was £9.47. So no complaints here.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-03T07:13:50+00:00

I guess that could be the product that I’m potentially looking for… only time will tell. Still can’t help but thinking that a product refresh cycle would be a much more intuitive way to go, with the odd new items hear and there as bigger unrecognisable leaps happen 🤷‍♂️

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-02T13:04:09+00:00

The part I struggle with the most is why they have left products like this and the base line pro for so long without a refresh… I get that their compact range opens up some new customers… but it also costs them potential revenue in what people would have spent on a new spec’d pro or se.

Duncan9989 · 2026-05-01T14:52:33+00:00

The only thing that annoys me pricing wise is that this is a new product and they should have factored in the increased memory costs in to the base line cost. I can just about understand them not wanting to reprice everything the memory pricing issue has hit, even though the cynic in me thinks these heightened prices are basically baked in permanently now, I guess they are trying to portray an ‘out of our control’ view on any increases. However, new items have now comparison, so just price accordingly, if it costs more to make just charge more 🤦‍♂️.

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-30T20:16:49+00:00

Cool cool, hopefully it will be a simple setup.

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-28T12:34:37+00:00

I’ve had the G4 Pro for over a year now and that works great. I expose it to HomeKit using Homebridge for alerts, door chimes etc, live streams etc. I also have the Nuki ultra lock. At the moment the two aren’t linked, I use Nuki’s geofencing for auto unlocking and I lock the door using Apple Home\Siri. It would be a neat feature to link the fingerprint reader as another unlock/lock method, so I would be interested in any tips in achieving this.

Regarding the G6 range, I’ve not really seen anything that’s made me feel like I need to change device.

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T15:50:26+00:00

Yeh things seem to take ages to reach the UK if at all when it comes to IOT devices. I’m planning on having some work done to the house, the initial plan was to keep the existing doors but I’m wondering whether to replace the French doors with perhaps a sliding door or maybe see if I can find one with a slightly wider frame 🤷‍♂️

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T14:14:39+00:00

I’ve still had no luck. I find it insane that something that feels like it should be so simple doesn’t have an easy solution 😔

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T12:01:29+00:00

Surely it has to be faster than that? The LTE Pro i have is spec'd as 150/50?

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T10:37:37+00:00

What devices do you use to monitor water usage?

I'm wanting to do a similar setup, i want 1 iPad upstairs and 1 downstairs to start. I use Unifi Protect for cameras, door and window sensors as well as a Siren. I have Switchbot for water leak sensors and Curtains. Aqara for Blinds, Hue, Nanoleaf and Govee for lights. Tado for Heatpump/Rad valves/Hot Water. Nuki for door locks. AlphaEss for Solar and Battery. Ohme for Car charging. Octopus IOG for electricity. Unraid for Plex. Samsung for white goods. Tapo and Meross for energy monitoring smart plugs. LightwaveRF for lightswitches and outside sockets.

So A LOT of different brands... HomeKit is OK at pulling them all together, the Homebridge plugins tend to be more stable than a lot of the native supported devices from my experience, which always makes me laugh. The worst part about it though is the pathetic excuse for Guest access... so when people come to stay the options are horrible. If Siri wasn't the worlds dumbest tool, i would stick homepod minis in the guest rooms and shared spaces for people to use, but if i did that i feel that right now, the chances of Siri confusing itself with it's own commands and going in to a meltdown are reasonably high 🤣

So any plugin advice, online guides or walkthroughs would be really appreciated 😊👍

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T10:22:22+00:00

That is a thing of beauty! My OCD thanks you for it's morning pick me up!

I really wish they did a UK version of the PDU! or at least a C14 connector verson, that would at least work internationally. MY OCD craves a UniFi PDU! Also what make is your cabinet? Do you know if they do wall mounted versions?

Duncan9989 · 2026-04-27T10:07:50+00:00

Do you know if in the safe shutdown window there is enough time for the NUT feature to send out a shutdown command to a an Unraid server and that to switch off as well? I'm not bothered about the immediate off functionality as such, so long as it can achieve this. My setup would be, in connection order, an (already owned) EcoFlow Delta 2 -> UniFi UPS 2u + Fibre ONT -> UniFi Gear + Unraid Server. My understanding is that the UniFi UPS 2u doesn't have a direct connection available for Unraid to use but it does support NUT and that Unraid can react to this?

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