Hi All,
Can someone help me with understanding how it’s worked as seen lots many ytube videos but not understand.
Should I need to control my battery to charge at cheap rates in night and then Octpus can take it back on daily at 4 to 7 pm or I can control with my app to send back or not.
As I am on variable flux tariff and it not clear what to do and not.
My house demands need more electricity so I’m charging twice a day. Does it’s damage my battery .
Thanks folks
Jay
@Jayesh I think you might be referring to Octopus Intelligent Flux rather than Octopus Flux
With IOF (search this forum for other articles about it), you hand over control of your battery to Octopus and they will charge and discharge it for you, charging before the peak period to give you sufficient to last the peak.
Import and export rates are identical so you can consider the grid as being a massive battery. of course there are conversion losses so what you put into the battery isn't what you get out, but money wise its the same rate.
There's no issue with charging your battery twice a day, its what the battery is designed to do, to be used. But if you are charging twice a day then Flux is probably not all that beneficial to you as there's only one cheap-rate period overnight and your second charge is then at a higher rate. If you want to stick with Flux, charge once overnight and don't let the battery discharge until the evening peak period. All consumption during the day comes from the grid but as there's no conversion losses this will be cheaper than double charging your battery.
You might be better looking at Cozy (if you have a heat pump) or Octopus Agile (but you will need battery automation to make best use of this).
geoffreycoan thanks pal for your help.
But what then I use electricity at 4 to 7 pm when import prices are high. Should I can use electricity from battery or from grid as cooking ect takes more energy.
Please advise 🙏
geoffreycoan
Hi , buddy it’s look like I not on correct track.
Do you suggest that should I go ahead with intelligent Flux rather standard flux.
As it’s not much convenient for me to keep track and watch on app .
Please advise 🙏
It might be helpful for us to know things like your daytime power usage, your battery size, your solar array size, which way it's facing, ... I assume your objective is to save money. The system shouldn't need any day-to-day adjustments once you've got it set up as you need it.
One thing that does change day to day is how much sunlight there is: on a dull day, you'd need to fully charge your battery overnight, but when you expect more sun, you might choose to import less. That said, I think daytime export rate is comparable to nighttime import rate, so it's probably sufficient to always charge battery to 100% overnight, and if it is a sunny day, exporting the solar will give you back the cost anyway.
Many here are using Flux only during the summer months, but that depends on whether there's a tariff more suitable for you in the winter months, which depends on whether you have EV, heat pump, storage heaters, ...
Intelligent Flux might be for you if you really don't want to have to worry about what the system is doing. Or you could try Intelligent Flux, and then as you learn more about your system, move back to standard Flux when you're ready.
Jayesh Flux is good if you generate excess electricity and want a good price when selling it back to the grid, so for many of us on this forum (me included), its a great rate to be on in summer when there's excess solar.
Of course the drawback of Flux is that you have a higher import price to pay in the peak period. As long as your battery is big enough to see you through all (or at least most) of the peak period, this isn't much of a drawback as you can charge overnight at the cheap rate and use it in the peak rate.
If you are finding that you are having to charge your battery twice a day (and not exporting much) then Flux may not be the right tariff for you and depending on whether you have an EV, heat pump, etc, there may be better options.
Intelligent Octopus Flux may well be a better bet for you. For my (Eastern region) import prices are:
Intelligent Octopus Flux
Off-peak rate (19:00-16:00) 26.29p / kWh
Peak rate (16:00-19:00) 35.06p / kWh
Octopus Flux
Day rate 29.22p / kWh
Flux rate (02:00 - 05:00)
Peak rate (16:00 - 19:00) 40.9p / kWh
So IOF day-rate and peak rates are both cheaper than Flux, but there's no even-cheaper overnight rate.
You need to do some calculations looking at your typical daily load figures to work out what's best for you.
As you are already on Octopus with a smart meter you can download your current half-hour meter readings into a spreadsheet, or you can use the Octopus Compare app on your phone or tablet to compare different tariffs.
geoffreycoan
Thank you for your nice comment.
It’s very helpful. Yes I have installed in December so not much to expect as sun exposure is less. But better go with octopus intelligence flux to start with and see how it works.
I have 4.5k system and 9.5 k battery so let’s hope it’s go well.
Thank you