EoN Drive configure.

Hi,
A question regarding EoN Drive. I am currently on EoN Next Pledge Tracker V3 and have been offered Next Drive; I don’t have an EV but there offer specifically states it’s also for Solar with battery. My system has 10 panels a 5.2 kw battery and Gen 3 3.6 inverter.
I am also on Next Export Exclusive which pays me 16.9p per kWh.
Looking at the tariff, elect standing charge is the same as I am already on but the normal day rate goes up by 6p to 29.42 per unit but the 00.00 – 07.00 drops to 6.9 per unit with no exit fee.
To me this looks good especially if we set the washer etc to run at night.

So my question is if I go down this route how would I configure the inverter to charge my battery from the grid between 00.00 and 07.00. Is it as simple as going to inverter settings and changing from Eco to timed charge?
Thank you

we have a similar eon tariff. We charge the battery overnight (and the EV when required) on the cheap rate as a winter regime.

All you need do is set a timed charge for the battery you do not need to take the inverter out of eco mode. When the timed charge is on it will charge the battery and power the house from the grid between the times set. Then when the timed charge is finished at 07:00 in your case it will the revert to fulll eco mode and run the house from the solar/battery.

Thank you for this. It's simpler than I thought.

Digger The other thing to add is that if you want it to happen day after day you just set it and leave it alone. It will repeat the process each day automatically until you switch the timed charge off.

Hi again,
I have another question regarding EoN Drive charging overnight.
When charging my battery overnight if I switch on a high usage item such as a tumble drier / elect shower etc will it draw power from the grid or battery? If it’s the battery then can I assume that as soon as the drier has finished the inverter Gen3 3.6 will revert automatically to recharge the battery until 100% or times out at 07.00?
Just trying to get all of my ducks in a row.
Thanks

Digger When you are in the charging window you have set you will pull all demand from the grid even after the battery is at 100% until the window ends.

When the charge window ends it will revert to eco mode. The battery will stop being charged even if it is not at 100%

Digger Your inverter can only do one thing at a time with your battery, either charge or discharge.

So whilst you are charging the battery ALL house load will be met from the grid (minus what solar you are generating of course).

So for example if you have an EV and charge it overnight, you set your battery to charge at the same time and that will stop it discharging to meet the EV load.

Answering your last question about time and percent, if you set the inverter to charge to 100% by 7:00 then (as above) all house load will come from the grid. Once the battery is 100% full it will remain at 100% until 7:00 and won’t start discharging to meet house load.

Also considering the Next Drive tariff.
I’m on an old FIT with deemed export and no export MPAN so I think the Next Drive tariff should work for my winter regime of charging overnight and running on battery through the day.

Just trying to work out what headroom, if any, to leave for any solar top up or just accept some solar export on clear days for no additional payment rather than risk the battery running flat during peak hrs and having to then import at the 29p rate vs the current 20.7p flat rate.

treborUK sign up for eon SEG......paying, I think, 16.5p for export. No brainer when paying 6.9p for overnight import. Then you don't have to worry about leaving headroom for daytime solar.

Coys68 sign up for eon SEG

Is there a case for deferring that until spring? Over the winter, would probably use more of the solar, so getting paid as if half of it was exported might be better. Whereas over the summer probably use much less than the deemed amount.

Coys68 It would all depend on what @treborUK is getting paid for on the FIT tariff.

On a FIT deemed export tariff you get paid for 50% of what you generate not what you actually export. Some of the original FIT tariffs were very profitable so you don’t want to move to measured export and give up the deemed export payment.
My FIT deemed export was just about 5p/kWh so giving up £100 of deemed export and moving to measured export where I got paid £900 was a no brainer.

However, @treborUK I would be very careful about changing to ANY kind of smart import tariff. I only found out when I gave up my FIT deemed export that in the FIT terms and conditions, if you have a smart meter fitted then you have to go onto measured export. The deemed export was in effect a workaround for OfGen from a time when smart meters were not common.
(This rule is in the FIT T&C on both the Eon and OfGen websites, I checked)

geoffreycoan
Yes, I had my FIT before smart meters were a thing. Hence no export MPAN now … lots I have read suggests if I try for export MPAN I’ll have to go SEG, even registering for a new tariff could trigger it.
For my setup and how I currently use it, losing the deemed export will cost me money.

Need to go through the maths and see if year round charge on cheap rate overnight and export more solar on SEG would turn things around, then decide whether to change tariff

treborUK As soon as you have an export MPAN then you will lose the "deemed export" you got with FIT and will end up on the default SEG rate of the supplier (5p or so for Octopus). You can change that export tariff but the simplest is fixed and that's 15p/kWh so if you get more than that now...

As @geoffreycoan mentioned, you are supposed to move from "deemed export" to actual export when you get a smartmeter.

Unsurprisingly this often falls through the gaps, but given that FIT payments come from the govt then bear in mind the possibility of back-billing. This is however not a major problem as the smart meter only stores the last three months export data..... 🙂

Vestas
Yep,
My supplier, who also has my FIT account, initiated and fitted the smart meter - I didn’t request it or have anything to do with it, they just turned up out of the blue and said were here to fit a smart meter.
If I change tariff it might force the issue. Hence I will do the maths first😉

Done the maths and initiated a switch, potential to reduce my annual bill by around two thirds with some management of when the dishwasher etc. runs.
This saving will significantly outweigh any delta between deemed FIT payment and SEG payment if they switch my export to SEG.

Let’s see what happens.

treborUK if its anything like my experience of moving to Octopus Flux, I couldn’t complete the export part of Flux until I had ceased the deemed FIT export payments and this had been recorded in the central FIT database. Took a couple of weeks of pushing one group and then another to get it sorted.
Had to sign a new FIT contract and supply a photo of the FIT generation meter to close the deemed export, then a photo of the export meter to show the start meter reading for my metered export.

geoffreycoan Next Drive doesn’t have an export rate, so thinking I will not impact my FIT but we will see

treborUK Next Drive doesn’t have an export rate

I thought it was 16.5p ?

DD Indeed it is.

DD interesting, no mention of it when I was signing up ?

treborUK More info on their export tariffs here, and the link at the bottom to start the application process.

https://www.eonnext.com/electricity-and-gas/smart-export-guarantee

DD Next drive is a supply rate, their SEG rate which is 16.5p is a separate tariff that can go with any of their supply tariffs it is not coupled to any one of them.

For completeness, an export rate of 16.5p is only for supply customers of EON you cannot sign up just for this export rate. Non- supply customer rate is I think 3p or 5p something like that.

killythebid Yeah - from the EON SEG page link I posted above, details below on the different rates.

geoffreycoan if its anything like my experience of moving to Octopus Flux, I couldn’t complete the export part of Flux until I had ceased the deemed FIT export payments

I guess flux is a special case since it's a paired import/export scheme, whereas normally you choose an import and an export independently.

Currently on flat rate electricity tariff with EON plus my FIT with deemed export is with them too.
Don’t generally export anything unless solar has filled battery, but once on Next Drive if they put me on SEG and pay me 16.5p for export I’ll be filling the battery every night and if there’s excess solar will be exporting.

Ok Today I transferred my elect rate to Eon Next Drive. Changed inverter settings from Eco to timed charge 00.05 - 07.00. I will see how it goes. Just got to now remember to use the delay settings on the washing machine and dish washer etc.

Digger Changed inverter settings from Eco to timed charge

These aren't exclusive - you probably want to have both eco and timed-charge enabled.

And interestingly this tariff is available to EV owners and/or battery owners... From their website:

Next Drive Fixed V3

With Next Drive Fixed V3 you will benefit from cheaper overnight electricity rates to charge your Electric Vehicle. This tariff is fixed for 12 months which means you are protected from any price changes for a year. There is no exit fee with this tariff. To be eligible you must own or lease an electric vehicle or have a solar storage system and must pay by Direct Debit. If you wish to change supplier whilst on our Next Drive Fixed V3 tariff, please let us know in advance.

My switch to Drive Next v3 has gone through today.
Set AIO to charge at 2000W from 00:05 to 06:55.
Will monitor and see how things work out.

Just resurrecting this thread, but for anyone on here who is on EON Next Drive with the export, would you be able to tell me how it went and how the export tariff works - my understanding is that you have to send in a photo of your meter export value to initiate a payment and that payment goes to your bank account rather than your electric account - is that correct?

CW Correct, export value on your smart meter, and you get sent a cheque. It took a few weeks for them to send the cheque, but all good in the end.

I have to request export payment every 3 months. My reading is then taken remotely from my smart meter. Takes about 3 weeks for cheque to arrive.

Digger I'm suprised they cannot take it directly from the meter itself, like Octopus do.. still it is 16.5p/kWh export!

CW Our export is with Eon and we have Next Drive too.

We had to send in our export reading but it was paid directly to our bank account.

killythebid Did you transfer over to EON or were they your supplier when you got solar? If you id transfer over, how did you find the export mpan transfer process?

Confused! Eon told me they didn't pay directly into my bank, it had to be by cheque.

Digger I think it depends on whether you pay by DD or not - if via DD they credit the bank account (I'm sure someone here will correct me if I'm wrong)

They do pay via bank transfer. Easiest way to sort it out is to reach out to them via whatsapp.

CW I was automatically transfered to Eon when my previous supplier went bust a few years ago. I got solar when I was a customer of Eon but I did not get the solar installed through or by them.

I applied for the export tariff from Eon as an existing supply customer to get the 16.5p per kWh. They sorted out getting the export MPAN with the DNO.

Originally, I understood from the details they gave me that I would get paid annually by them sending a cheque but when the year came round they asked for my meter reading (plus photo proof) they said it could be paid directly into our bank account. That is what happended.

CW I pay by DD! but still get paid by cheque!

Digger Do you get the option to get the money paid directly to your bank?

No but I will be asking as It's over 3 weeks since I asked for a payment.

Digger Interestingly, they have just created a second account for me (1 for import and 1 for export) and have asked for bank details to support faster payments - so maybe they will pay by DD

I have now got my payment into my bank. I think it just needed a reminder. I would prefer it it be deducted of my import bill but 1 step at a time.

Digger yes, I asked them about that and they said no one had ever asked for that before! I would prefer the account to be updated so I only pay out the correct amount each month rather than quarterly rebates