Newbie here. Dumb charger for ev. 3 .5 inverter; 9.5 battery. 11 panel solar.
Heat pump to follow imminently
Currently on octopus go.
Cant export at all on that tariff
Any suggestions which octopus tariff would be best moving forward?
Hallamfamily Welcome!
Many people are on Octopus Flux for the cheap rate overnight EV charging and the decent export rates it offers when there’s excess solar in the summer months. Can take 4-8 weeks to get the export side setup though.
Winter though a different matter, and if you have/are getting an ASHP you’ll need to think about how to run it effectively.
There’s quite a bit of correspondence over on other threads, e.g. https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/2772-which-octopus-tariff/1 and https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/2691-octopus-new-tariff-intelligent-octopus-flux/1
Octopus Go certainly popular for EV owners in the winter. I too have an ASHP but no EV so Go isn’t an option for me. Had been considering remaining on Flux or switching to Cosy. Tim Adams recommends Octopus Tracker for his ASHP setup and I’m leaning in that direction as well.
Gary does solar has a useful modelling tool https://garydoessolar.com/utilities/dailymodellingutility/ to work out daily running costs.
Hallamfamily You can export with Octopus Go. Only at their SEG rate of 4.1p per kWh though. Might be region dependant.
Note that you can have an export tariff with a different supplier to your import tariff.
You'll have to do some moddelling to suit your own particular usage. yes, Flux will pay a lot more for exported energy (for my area, 30p/kWh at peak rates). however, your imported energy will cost a lot more too.....cheap rate is 18p/kWh. That is double Octopus Go's cheap rate.
I'm currently on Intelligent Octopus and I get 6 hours per day at £0.075 per kWh. I doubt that Flux would work at all for me.
Self consumption is the key thing here if you have a home battery. And if you are moving to an ASHP will you have any excess to export? If not, then the higher export rates on Flux become moot.
Hallamfamily I had a similar system installed at the end of February. I’ve gone for Octopus Cosy. Cosy is compatible with Outgoing export at 15p/kWh. So there is no need to switch tariffs during the year, which would take 4- 6 weeks every time you switch, there are also some rules about returning to tariffs within a certain period of time, although I forget the exact details. Cosy provides two 3 hour discount periods in 24 hours which will be good for battery charging, giving a 12 hour maximum period and a 6 hour where the battery will feed the ASHP. The discount along with the ASHP COP lower the cost possibly to below gas. I have yet to go through a full winter with this so time will tell. When I get an EV there will possibly be a need to change.
Really thoughtful advice. Cheers.