Flux for the winter?

When the Flux tariff was introduced a lot of people said "good for the summer, but not for the winter". Well winter is just around the corner and I wondered if people are still of that opinion, and, if they are planning a change. Last winter I was ECO 7 and Octopus Agile (variable) and the 7.5 hours of cheap power meant I could do a long slow charge overnight that kept my battery (mounted outside) warm and toasty. I'm a bit worried that 3 hours won't be enough to do that, but changing to Economy 7 was such a faff I'm not sure I want to go through that again! What are other people planning to do - especially if you have an outside battery

Karen changing to Economy 7 was such a faff

Agreed and i have been thinking the same, I would like to think that Octopus might have it sorted by now but I am not over confident.
It will mean downloading the smart data each month and checking teh charges for each half hour though the overall split they show would indicate a problem or not.

I'm still exploring the best setup for my solar + 9.5kWh battery, but I've taken to doing a charge to 90% overnight, letting solar bump it up to 100% if possible, then discharging at full power for an hour at the peak time. Not sure how that will pan out in terms of income / expenditure, but hoping that discharging at the peak time will maximise my income. The battery typically gets down to 30% by 2am so there is easily time to charge back up to 90%

Given that Eco mode and timed discharge don't work nicely on my system (hoping for an update to fix that) I'm just switching manually at the moment, using alarms on my phone to remind me when to switch back to eco mode.

My battery is not outside, but is in the garage. I'm assuming that ambient temperature won't be a problem.

I've just answered the same question on another thread but yes, we're planning to stay on Flux for the winter, charging up the approx 10Kwh overnight (Gen 3) topping up with any solar during the day and exporting any excess we can before recharging at 2am. We have 17.7KwH battery and only use around 10 on average so I think there is still scope with Flux. We'll see!

10kw array, 2 * 9.5kw batteries, we are only using more than we generate for about 10 weeks a year, Nov - Jan , currently about £1000 in credit so i will just leave it with flux on eco, and will probably charge from the grid up to 60% during that period we installed batteries early December so it's our first winter so its a bit of a learning process.

Very similar. I was on E7 before Flux. Can't see the hassle of changing back is worth it. Probably won't bother setting an alarm to discharge, but will charge to 100% overnight. Getting the app sorted would help, as Intelligent Flux might. For the last week Tracker seems about the Flux import price, but I assume I'd be on 15p export, as opposed to 23p Flux.

5.5kW array, Gen2 5Kw inverter and 9.5kWh battery (outside, but in a sheltered position), no EV and Gas for heating and hot water. Typical daily use is about 7kWh, so in theory the battery can cover us from cheap rate to the next cheap rate assuming zero generation.

Just going to stay on Flux this first winter with solar. At the moment I haven't needed to force charge overnight other than once as a test, to make sure I understood how to set it up and make sure it worked. At some point soon I'll start a 1 hour overnight charge, then gradually increase it to the full 3 hours (if required). If the next day turns out to be sunny, then we'll just export once the battery has topped up assuming it'll drop from 5am until the sun is bright enough to charge it again.

I don't plan to do any force exporting during peak as this might leave us open to running out before cheap rate, but I'll keep an eye on it. I'm pragmatic in my approach because this year we are paying so much less for our electricity anyway that a few £s extra from forced exporting isn't such a big deal to me.

I'm going to move from Flux to Go for the winter I think. Now import is 9p and export is 8p its no drama if I overfill my battery overnight...

Flux has been great for summer and is still OK for autumn but in winter I become a net importer. We have got used to minimal usage during the Flux peak and will give Flux a go as we go into winter. Would ideally like the ability to have 2 battery charge periods on the GivEnergy inverter (Gen1 hybrid) for a 100% top up at night then a top up to 50% 3pm-4pm to get through the peak period.

I am planning to return to Intelligent Octopus for he winter, but Octp won't let me switch at the moment, so have gone on the waiting list.
7.6kW array, 18kW Ge battery on AC3.0. 12kW PHEV

Hi all, I'm new to this community having just got a 10.4kW battery and started on Flux last week. I've had my PV solar panels for nearly 2 years and decided to get a battery because I was exporting about 25% of what I produced.
Currently my battery is charged to 50% in the "cheap" period and my panels add further charge during the day. I let the battery system decide when it discharges to the house or charges from solar. I have a solar iBoost for the hot water tank and there is competition who gets most of the charge first. However, I normally have enough in the battery to cover the "peak" period as we tend have our main meal at lunch time. The battery is down to single percent values by the time 2am arrives.
I read with interest what other people are considering for the winter but I'll probably increase my overnight charge rate and see how it goes.

Just applied to move back to 'go'. I export very little if anything during the winter as I consume all I can get so it makes sense for me to get the super cheap overnight rate.

Yup, i’m considering moving to agile for the winter and back to flux for the start of April as we’re no longer exporting. Just did a comparison of prices based on the cheapest 8 daily slots on agile over 3 months vs the new price of flux starting in October. For 10kwh charge daily over 90 days it was a saving of _£60
Appreciate cheap slots are not alway together so it’s just an indication. Has been cheaper import an average and I expect it would be over winter?

DouglasCollinson You can see last 365 days here min, max and average for each day over last 365 days if you want to see what last winter was like

https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-south-eastern-england/

EDIT
You can change tariffs at the top of page and switch to your region, hover over the tariff and drop down for region pops up 🙂

DouglasCollinson there’s more detailed graphs here https://dashboards.energy-stats.uk/d/5cZqqmf4z/user-dashboard?orgId=1&var-area_name=Eastern_England&from=1672531200000&to=1680303599000