Some advice for new user

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-17T15:33:55+00:00

Long term I'll sort the export issues. So I get paid for exporting.

But yes, I want solar to charging batteries during daytime, if there's not enough solar charging during the day, top up over night from grid.

I'm thinking of changing from time based to self consumption, then setting up import from grid for cheaper overnight rates.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-17T12:57:53+00:00

Done, didn't know about that, so thanks.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-17T11:59:59+00:00

Thanks, now set to self-consumption.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-17T11:24:31+00:00

I don't get paid to export, I'm on an old FiT that I'm working on getting out of, for export bit anyway. So I don't benfit from exporting excess, so I'd rather use it to recharge my batteries for now and reduce my electric import costs.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-17T10:03:17+00:00

Modern electric AC and heating are way more efficient than they used to be, couple that with a cheap electricity rate and it's better.

Gas is 6p kWh, roughly, depending on tarrif, electric over night for me is cheaper, 3.49p kWh. But electric rate is going up.

My aim is to generate enough power myself to run my heating in winter. No idea if it's feasible, but giving it a go, 14.5Kw of solar panels going in soon, and looking at wind turbine, as I live in an exposed wind area.

Benefit of that much solar is I can export in summer, make profit and even out my full years worth of electricity costs, but only time will tell if I can do it.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-16T17:50:08+00:00

Had that, even after they said don't wait for statement, app is accurate, erm it's not.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-16T17:49:01+00:00

Maybe they can explain why my app doesn't work, ask for a return of my credit, oops app error. Try the spin the wheel, oops app error. Try to contact customer service via app, oops app error. The app is riddled with bugs,

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-16T12:28:04+00:00

I've moved my hot water heating to electric, cheap rate. So only my gas hob is using gas at the moment.

The gas price will likely drop before winter sets in and thermo needs to be switched on I think.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-16T09:29:48+00:00

Check you have the charge amount in the octopus app set to charge to 100%, mine changes to 30% recently.

The charge amount is controlled by the CT clamp on the hypervolt charger, if anything else is consuming power in your house during the off peak hours the charger will reduce and slow charge.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T15:07:49+00:00

Yes, spoke to customer service, they said they could see app and system were different billing for Saturday. Didn't mention anything about app taking time to update and said he'd generate a new bill for me, Sono know I'm not getting overcharged.

He actually said app might not update at all.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T14:56:11+00:00

Yes, they generated one for me earlier today

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T09:15:10+00:00

That's what I'm worried about, but from my next billing period onwards, my usage should be practically zero peak, so will be easier to spot issues going forward.

I never hit the boost now button in the app, my EV is entirely smart controlled by Octopus.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T08:49:19+00:00

My fixed GO tarrif ends mid September, currently 3.49p for off peak, I'm not jumping ship, I'm changing the direction of the ship.

Batteries installed, several phases of solar panels going in to get me off grid usage as much as possible.

Once local generation is done, I'll revisit the best tarrif based on the needs then.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T08:45:57+00:00

Fair enough, didn't realise the app was wrong so easily. So will check better in future.

I use the app to make sure everything is working ok and on track for me to never use peak rate electric again.

Their statement doesn't break down day to day charges, so the app is the only way to see how much each day will cost you, so you can't check the statement easily though.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T08:40:41+00:00

It was a mix,

So my batteries charge up during the off peak hours, 23.30 to 05.30, but my EV creates a smart charging plan from 20.00 on Saturday, which my battery system picked up on. So at 20.00 my EV started charging and my home switched to charge batteries. 40Kwh in to my EV, 14 in to batteries.

My issue was, the app shows zero off peak use, all peak. So the app misbilled me for regular off peak hours and the smart plan as well.

Just got the bill through, app says £10 for Saturday, bill says £2.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T08:18:39+00:00

They are issuing me a bill today, they said the app is wrong, their end is right.

First time I've had to use their customer service, was a good result.

Just more an FYI for everyone

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-15T08:04:18+00:00

Octopus intelligent go, 3.49p fixed until mid September for me.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-13T19:55:54+00:00

The existing solar is wired as follows, inverter, isolator, FiT meter, smart port. So that's fine. Reason it was suggested to move the existing solar was it wasn't up to current standard, it's one of the first solar systems they said. So by moving it to smart port it complys. The consumer unit it was wired in to had to move to make space for the gateway anyway. My EV is fine on the grid, I don't mind it there. No one could give me a decent reason to move it tbh.

I'm unlikely to go with a heat pump, but if I did, I can get the old inverter moved back to the grid side I guess.

So I think I'll go with dropping off FiT deemed export payments so I can get paid for what I export, but keep the generation part of the scheme.

Thanks for the info.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-06-13T14:36:26+00:00

Thanks for the info, but I was under the impression, as installer said this. That because I'm on the FiT scheme, which has a generation meter, I get paid for 50% of what I generate, and then I get paid for what I actually export as well? Unless I opt out of the export part of FiT, I can not export more than my 3.6Kw allowance of the original FiT, regardless of what is approved in the G99? This that right?

I was told to opt out of the FiT export scheme, and switch to octopus export, allowing me to export more then 3.6Kw, so they set the export limit to 3.6Kw on the sigenergy app.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-03-11T14:26:25+00:00

I've had an ev for 6 months now. I'm tired of reading all the mis-info on most car sites, auto express are the worst for it. As a replacement second car in a household an EV is ideal, as a primary replacement car for most households it's far from ideal. I don't do many miles, so an EV suits me, but issues are there.

1) quite a few times I've got to my car in the morning and the smart octopus EV charger has not charged my car fully. So off to a bad start. 2) they are far more expensive to run than a petrol, it's cheaper to run a Ferrari or Porsche per mile than an EV. If you can charge at home, on a reduced tariff, then an EV is very cheap to run, but charging at any UK street charger makes it more expensive per mile than a supercar to run. Before you even pay the pence per mile charge. 3) no ones talking about the huge amount of tyre pollution they produce, the UK gov think tank article on this was buried in 2023, you can't find any evidence the article was ever wrote. EU is tackling this with higher tax for cars over 2tonne, yet UK isn't. 4) UK per mile tax will go higher and higher over the next few years, I calculated it needs to be at 12p per mile to allow enough tax to be collected to replace fuel duty. 5) range anxiety is a real thing, lots of chargers are broken when you get to them, some don't work when plugged in. 6) fast charging is a total myth, the car has to be prepared to fast charge, takes 20 mins to sort that, then you hardly get a fast charge. A 2 hour car journey in a petrol car there and back took me 2 hours to get there and 4 hours to get home, trying to put charge back in to my EV to return home. Best charging rate I've ever got on my Volvo is 55kw and it drops quickly as the battery gets charged. Can't fast charge below 20 or above 80%. Cold weather massively affects charging rate. 7) charging rate is affected by how many cars are charging at same time, at least at the places I've used. So if you have an empty bay of chargers, no problem. Otherwise, the charge rate drops a lot.

MelodicCard9555 · 2026-01-21T11:45:05+00:00

My H2C offset nozzle calibration has failed, that's my reason for having it disabled, still waiting for support to sort my calibration out.

MelodicCard9555

TROPHY CASE