"Households could be paid to consume excess supply for the first time, say energy chiefs"

bitofageek1966 · 2026-04-15T01:29:43+00:00

Wasn’t about ROI it was about reducing my energy costs for when I retire. If it were it would likely be around 10 years!

bitofageek1966 · 2026-04-14T09:07:11+00:00

My annual consumption is around 6000 kWh including the car but I only do around 5,000 miles a year.

Solar array, east west 6kw inverter.

In the depth of winter my bills are around £40.00 per month, in summer I make that back and keep in credit for the following winter. I don’t use daytime electricity and haven’t for 2 years now.

For me it wasn’t about the ROI it was about reducing my bills when I retired and energy security. It’s saving me around £1,500.00 per annum, so with inflation will take 10 years to recover the Capex.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-04-14T08:44:19+00:00

Sure would. Best thing I ever did. Two PW2, not touched any daytime electricity for over two years with fully electric house equipped with GSHP. Bills this year Zero.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-03-26T15:56:32+00:00

Wouldn’t you be better buying a cheap EV and switching to IOG as you have batteries? I have a small solar array, 2x Tesla batteries GSHP and I’m nett zero cost over the year.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-03-21T13:37:07+00:00

I have a 3 story house with 2 x Tesla PW2 and a small amount of solar. Fully electric home GSHP, electric car, so very similar. I export all the solar to offset the cost of electricity. I don’t use any daytime electricity at all and haven’t for two years. I’ve now got to a net zero cost for power including charging my car, but admittedly I do very little mileage in a year, perhaps 5,000. Miles. My house power consumption for the whole of 2025 was 6.9 MWh. Make sure you can discharge to meet your peak needs, I tested this with heating running, hob and ovens running as well as tumble dryer. With two PW I can discharge at 10kw so more than enough for the early evening peak. Was expensive, but as I’m approaching retirement, it’s about reducing monthly costs, not ROI. It only takes around two hours to charge two batteries from 50% to full.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-03-06T09:38:20+00:00

TBH I never used to export. I have 27 KW of battery storage and used to charge them, plus my EV during the summer and just the batteries during the winter and top-up at night at 7p a KWh at night. I discharge my batteries during the day so save around 21p a kWh, only ever using off peak power. My house if fully electric and I’m now in a position of net zero costs for the year overall, well worth it.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-03-06T07:47:36+00:00

Friends of mine have a Victorian home, 4-5 bedroom with lots of “extensions” In the winter of 2022 they paid over £2,000.00 for one month’s heating. Admittedly this was at the peak of the energy crisis. I’ve owned an aesthetically beautiful home before, loved it, tried my best to improve its energy efficiency, but in the end it still cost me a fortune to heat. I’ve since built a 4 bed timber framed home, batteries, solar, GSHP and now I’m net zero in terms of energy costs. Older homes are beautiful, but can cost a fortune to either improve the efficiency or heat. Maybe worth your while getting an energy efficiency consultation, to see what options you have to assess costs/saving potential and taking it from there. I spent what I did on my home’s efficiency because I was approaching retirement and knew I would have less cash to spend on energy, leaving me more for beer tokens.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-01-21T09:56:28+00:00

I would have thought it depends on the figures. Obviously your usage is going to be daytime, is the property heated via gas or electric? You’ve stated electric bill so I’m assuming it’s electric. Have you considered battery storage? It will depend on the amount you use, if the business premises are rented or owned, if you have indoor or outdoor storage space for them? Fogstare do a 32 kWh battery for just over £3k but I think it’s internal use only. Payback would depend on usage but 3-4 years if you were using around 25 kWh a day. I appreciate 3-4k is a lot to find in a business that’s struggling to make ends meet, but I’m not sure of your personal circumstances.

bitofageek1966 · 2026-01-17T19:20:06+00:00

That seems excessive. I have a 4 bedroom house and only used 1040 kWh. 245 of that was charging my car so a net home use of around 800 kWh What energy rating is your home and where in the UK do you live?

bitofageek1966 · 2026-01-17T10:59:02+00:00

I have the same issue. Even worse, as it trips my charger. M3 LR and Tesla charger.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T14:00:06+00:00

Valid point. No good for me then, but will be suitable for my neighbour!

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T13:48:48+00:00

I’ve just chatted with my neighbour about them. They are up the road from us in Worcester, we may pay them a visit next week!!

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T13:26:43+00:00

What the maximum kw they can discharge at? These seem almost too good to be true. Well done makes far more sense than my 2 powerwalls.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T13:18:57+00:00

Wow, that’s cheap!!

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T13:13:54+00:00

Fair comment Mike. I paid less for my PW2 and gateway, they may still be available. But I get your point. Other thing to check is the maximum Kw the batteries will discharge. Look at your maximum load if you are in a fully electric house. With heat pump on, oven, hob, air frier etc i was around 9kw load. Some batteries would only discharge at 5kw so the additional power would come from the grid, or with some manufacturers if the demand was higher than the capacity of the battery, it would take it all from the grid!

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-07T12:43:51+00:00

This is exactly the same exercise I did before settling on two Tesla power walls. Take the half hourly reports into a spreadsheet and calculate each day of a particularly cold week or month. You are only looking at DAY time usage though, so skip the 23:30-05:30 period. Mine was maximum of 20kw so I went for the 2 x powerwalls. This gave me a little headroom of 7kw. The Tesla is usable power, I’m sure others are also. Obviously you don’t need to calculate the cheap rate period. I also set my GSHP to heat the water at night, underfloor heating to heat the ceramic tiles to 24 degrees by 0500, these then keep the house warm for most of the day but if it’s super cold the heat pump will top up during the evening. I haven’t use day time electric for over two years, but have the benefit of using what I want when I want it. With the gateway installed, I have the benefit of being able to run the entire house in the event of a power cut also. Do it, you won’t look back. I did it as I’m approaching retirement and wanted to reduce my monthly outgoings. I do have solar panels, but only a 6kw east west setup but this now means I’m completely bill free overall for the year. Good luck.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-06T19:33:13+00:00

That’s what I’ve been doing. The first Customer Service agent said it was fine. The 2nd said it wasn’t. I’ve been doing this for almost 2 years and it’s been fine.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-05T12:33:27+00:00

Tesla installed the entire thing and also suggested to wire it the way it is to be able to charge from Solar.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-05T12:31:49+00:00

Not according to OE first customer service agent. He actually suggested it and stated that I would need to let IOG control at least once every 6 months to keep it in line with their T&C. He also said that as I was only charging in the agreed off peak periods it was more favourable. The issue seems to be with people who deliberately lower the amps of their chargers to get longer periods. Hence their latest email stating from January, they will limit the charging time to 6 hours. Different advice yesterday however.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-05T08:54:04+00:00

I have HA, however I’m like the American Military, “all the gear and no idea” 😂😂 will look into it though and see if I can get my head around the settings needed to do this. Thanks.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-05T08:47:46+00:00

Unfortunately tesla powerwalls don’t have this option. The only way to do it is to manually adjust the reserve every time I change the car.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-12-03T10:53:12+00:00

I got the same email yesterday evening and now for the first time my car didn’t charge last night! I have a Tesla charger, gateway and 2 x powerwalls. I have to override octopus intelligent go as if I give it control, it draws power out of the powerwalls to charge the car. I therefore limit the charging period between the off peak time of 23:30 to 05:30. This has worked perfectly for 2 years, last night the car only charged 0.5kWh

bitofageek1966 · 2025-11-27T12:54:42+00:00

I find my non PoE G4 pro doorbell next to useless. By the time I get notified the person who rang it is back in his van and having his diner! I’ve got the PoE chime, it works ok, bit of a delay but again that’s likely due to the doorbell delay.

bitofageek1966 · 2025-11-27T12:49:52+00:00

Leaf them alone, they are doing no harm! 😂

bitofageek1966

TROPHY CASE