Hi I have just had solar fitted and waiting to get my certificate to allow me to save and give energy back to grid. However, was my battery doesn't seem to be charging much and was wondering if I should charge from grid during the night. I realise it's winter and the sun is low but, I thought I would get better charge. Thanks
Only charge from the grid if it is cheaper e.g. if you have a tariff that has an off peak period
Charging and discharging the battery is lossy. So if you put one kWh into the battery you might get around 0.8kWh back. Thus no point doing this on a flat rate tariff and no point charging during a peak or discharging during an off peak.
Only exception being charge up from grid if you’ve joined Octopus saving session or other such event (aka DFS), ready to either use the battery to power the house during the saving session hour or (when you have an export MPAN and export contract) to export during the saving session.
Can i also add, if you do get on a tariff that has a cheaper rate like say Flux try to save your battery for 4 till 7pm as it's a lot more to use the grid then