Time tariff setup….

Currently still with EDF….after pulling my hair out trying to make sense out of Octopus tariffs and Gen 1 smart meter I decided to take this simplistic approach…I switched to E7 variable with off peak (15p approx)window from 00:30 to 7:00 approximately…I set my battery charging time between these hours…with charge percentage influenced by the next day’s weather forecast ( a rough gauge ) usually 70%-100%…I don’t set a discharge time…the following day subject to solar the eco setting will utilise a mixture of solar grid and battery…( topping up if solar’s sufficient) the result being that my cheap battery power in combination with available solar and some grid input covers the house needs…. This will be my default winter approach…off peak battery energy + available solar + minimum grid ….as tariff or supplier switching incurs no penalty or time constraints I will switch to an export tariff for the summer months when solar is more productive…( we are in central Scotland by the way..) any thoughts…?

All other Giv settings off

I am just about getting through a 24hr cycle with an Eco7 charge and a bit of sunlight in the day if I am at 100% by 16:00, though yesterday as the days are getting longer/brighter I exported

ONEIL I suggest you set the wheels in motion for SEG now. Sometimes it takes a few days, other people have reported it taking months. Once you've got an SEG tariff, you can move it around as you like (EDF is current over 5p/kWh). The main stumbling block is getting all the paperwork from you installer: MCS certificate; system diagram and DNO agreement.

We enable ECO mode 24x365 and a timed charge from late autumn until early spring. The timed charge period is our off-peak period and never changes but the Charge to % does. We start late autumn with 60% and move it up every few weeks as the days get shorter until it's at 100% in December, then dropping as the days lengthen. We've recently dropped it to 50% but have actually disabled timed charge for the last few days, having plenty of sunshine to charge the batteries.

The only thing we need to be watchful of is if we need to charge the EV overnight (usually surplus PV in the day keeps us going from spring until late autumn) for any reason, we also need to enable timed charge on the Givenergy system otherwise the EV charges from house batteries.

Thanks Tim…I initially thought I could let the system run itself but quickly realised monitoring and adjusting is the way to go…I’ll enquire about a SEG tariff….does this type of tariff still have off peak options…? I’m also considering sticking with EDF for now…as our smart meter is one of the very first generation ones…( not installed by EDF ) and don’t want another wrinkle if another supplier can’t communicate with it…as is the case with Octopus…

ONEIL Give Octopus a call - I was with British Gas and for 2 years I was asking them to put me on a smart meter. I have moved to Octopus in December, 4 weeks later I had my smart meter installed. They have much better export tariff - you get paid 15p/pWh .
The have just released brand new smart tariff called Flux (https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/), where the day export rate is 25p/kWh and peak export rate (between 4PM and 7PM) is 40p/kWh. (I think the prices are different in different regions)
Here is my referral link (https://share.octopus.energy/vivid-sage-317) - that will give you £50 top up on your account when you join and I will get £50 as well

ONEIL We are with EDF (on a SMETS1 smart meter) for import and Octopus SEG for export. Our SMETS1 meter posts its data to the Data Communications Company which is where all SEMTS2 meters post. If yours posts to DCC, it can be accessed by any supplier. The issue we have is that our meter registers locally but does not post export data to DCC, so we have to manually submit meter readings to Octopus every month. You can choose who to have your SEG tariff with and it can be completely separate from supply as there are two MPANs. Your export MPAN is applied for when you subscribe to an SEG tariff with any supplier.

On that note, and completely separate from any import/export provider, you can find out if your SMETS1 meter is posting data to DCC by downloading the Bright App (Hildebrand Glow) and signing up for an account with them. You also need to give them your MPAN but doing that gives you access to your 30-minute (and hourly, daily, weekly, monthly) summary electricity meter figures (and gas if that's also smart and connected). In "signing your life away" to Hildebrand, you are giving them permission to use your energy data for their purposes but as there's no cost to you, you may consider it worthwhile. If all that works, you can buy a dongle (connects over zigbee to your smart meter and house wifi) from Hildebrand and then you can subscribe to your energy data via MQTT, getting almost real-time consumption (6 second updates). Their API is also available if you want to automate the downloading of data.