Newbie here looking for help & tips! 😬

Hi
I've had the giv system installed inverter & battery
No solar or Ev charger,
I am On Octopus dual tariff from economy 7 days,
No smart meter,
I wanted to keep it simple, charge it from night
Rate and use it during the day,
its doing that just great!
Dont have a Export Mpan yet, and wasnt present during installation and couldn't ask as many questions that I should have,
What other steps or questions should I ask,
It seems to be exporting energy which I cant seem to halt, I've tried setting Export times, but it carries on,

An other tips or help most welcome!

If you have no solar then I think all you would need to do is to set the system to ECO mode and set your charge start/end times to when you get your 7 hours of cheap electricity (and charge rate too if you want to keep the battery charging for the whole 7 hours to keep it warm).

If you only make those changes, then the ECO setting will ensure the battery supplies house load (and this will be suplemented from the grid if you can't supply enough power).

It will not export energy to the grid, other than the few watts now and again (and the same with import) which is normal behaviour.

To export, you need an export MPan.
And for flexibility in the future, you need a Smart meter.
For exporting and MPan, see https://octopus.energy/smart/outgoing/

Rob

Rbor thanks for the link,

No Solar even with smart meter you will find Octopus wont accept your export is my finding - Not sure if anyone else has managed, later in the year/this year but even when I eventually got told it was okay after multiple emails they refused it.

Same no solar but I do have smart meter so moved off Octopus after the above fiasco

If your seeing it exporting just a few watts don't worry thats normal and battery balancing if much and you losing much more than you need to set on web setting page as below

Before you do this click he reset to default then do it - as it clears any cobwebs

• Eco on
• Timed Charge - times its cheap
• Timed Discharge - disabled
• Timed Export Disabled
• Battery Options - leave 4% spare, Charge Power enough to fit your window of timed charge 3-4 kWh and Discharge Power 6 kWh

DreadorUK Not sure if the T&Cs have changed but Octopus are at least clear that you need to be capable of generating electricity in order to be eligible to export -

5 Eligibility

5.1 In order to be eligible for the Export Tariff and to be paid, you must:
(iv) own a generation asset that is capable of exporting Energy to the grid

5.3 The generation asset must generate electricity wholly or mainly from one of the following energy sources):
(i) Solar Photovoltaic (PV);
(ii) Hydro;
(iii) Micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP);
(iv) Wind;
(v) Anaerobic Digestion (AD).

I'd be surprised if any of the major suppliers do anything different. For example they all offer SEG and SEG isn't applicable to re-exported electricity, only generated electricity.....

Also of course a smart meter is compulsory for Octopus in order to receive anything other than SEG payments - ie you MUST have a smart meter for any of their export tariffs.

Edit - I'm pretty sure you also need generation capacity to apply for an export MPAN, so battery + inverter wouldn't qualify.

Vestas agreed. I think there’s also terms about brown (imported and then re-exported) energy.

Scottish Power absolutely won’t let you export energy you have previously imported whereas Octopus I think are less definitive, saying something like ‘may not’

[unknown] .Together, we have covered most of the options open to you.

For now, Eco 7 looks a good option, allowing you to charge your battery during the Eco 7 cheap period and to use the stored energy to supplement the main period.
All the utilities will have further info about Eco 7. This is a link to Octopus's Eco 7 tariff.
https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/what-is-an-economy-7-meter-and-tariff/

As others have explained, you need some way of generating energy to be able to export electricity.
This is where an MPAN comes in.

A smart meter isn't needed for Eco 7 but will allow access to Smart Tariffs, which require the 30 minute readings which Smart meters provide. I am with Octopus and they installed my smart meter free of charge but it may take some time to get an installation date. But all utilities shoudl be able to provide you with smart meters for both electricity and gas.

So, with a battery and no solar, you do have access to some smart import tariffs, but not to export tariffs.
For Octopus, smart import tariffs available would include Agile and the EV tariffs: Octopus Go and Octopus Intelligent Go.

With your setup, Eco 7 is a good starting point and you have a chance to research wider options.

Could you tell us about your battery, size and model, and likewise your inverter.
We have a lot of experience of using many different systems and I am sure that we will be able to offer you more advice.

Rob

Duk Together, we have covered most of the options open to you.

For now, Eco 7 looks a good option, allowing you to charge your battery during the Eco 7 cheap period and to use the stored energy to supplement the main period.
All the utilities will have further info about Eco 7. This is a link to Octopus's Eco 7 tariff.
https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/what-is-an-economy-7-meter-and-tariff/

As others have explained, you need some way of generating energy to be able to export electricity.
This is where an MPAN comes in.

A smart meter isn't needed for Eco 7 but will allow access to Smart Tariffs, which require the 30 minute readings which Smart meters provide. I am with Octopus and they installed my smart meter free of charge but it may take some time to get an installation date. But all utilities shoudl be able to provide you with smart meters for both electricity and gas.

So, with a battery and no solar, you do have access to some smart import tariffs, but not to export tariffs.
For Octopus, smart import tariffs available would include Agile and the EV tariffs: Octopus Go and Octopus Intelligent Go.

With your setup, Eco 7 is a good starting point and you have a chance to research wider options.

Could you tell us about your battery, size and model, and likewise your inverter.
We have a lot of experience of using many different systems and I am sure that we will be able to offer you more advice.

Rob

geoffreycoan I think there’s also terms about brown (imported and then re-exported) energy.

There are but they're currently not widely enforced.

I suspect they're to deal with people on EV/HP tariffs who take the piss and charge batteries at cheap rate to export later. Gives Octopus a way to either boot them if necessary or hit them in the pocket by back-billing them a years worth of export 😉

[unknown]

T&C's have changed V2.2 Last updated on 1 November 2024 - That wasn't there before as I used their old T&C's within my complaint

They haven't fixed everything though as drop down still lists storage alone as an option

They at the time said they would accept a G99

Its frustrating though after being told yes

[unknown] And yet many battery solar users take that with a pinch of salt and do it anyway

sorry for the unknown forum seems to be playing up

Sorry I've not had time to reply before,

Yes currently I dont have any solar but am adding that shortly,
This the current system

Rbor

They have added this export meter

[unknown] or be like me and sit in the grey area…I have 1kw array that came with the house…we use it all but I qualify for export because I have them. I have an ev so I qualify for OG. If they looked at my usage they don’t know that what I’m selling back isn’t coming from solar….they don’t know what I’m importing isn’t going to my car…I mean if they really looked they could work it out…but it’s not going to stick out

[unknown] or be like me and sit in the grey area…I have 1kw array that came with the house…we use it all but I qualify for export because I have them. I have an ev so I qualify for OG. If they looked at my usage they don’t know that what I’m selling back isn’t coming from solar….they don’t know what I’m importing isn’t going to my car…I mean if they really looked they could work it out…but it’s not going to stick out

Vestas or be like me and sit in the grey area…I have 1kw array that came with the house…we use it all but I qualify for export because I have them. I have an ev so I qualify for OG. If they looked at my usage they don’t know that what I’m selling back isn’t coming from solar….they don’t know what I’m importing isn’t going to my car…I mean if they really looked they could work it out…but it’s not going to stick out

I just want to stop it exporting but cant find the settings!

How much is exporting and how often? You can never stop it fully exporting because your load fluctuates so sometimes you export a little bit sometimes you import a little bit.

My system was plugged in last Thursday and thi is the export meter today!

JasonF they don’t know what I’m importing isn’t going to my car

They do unless you charge the EV from a standard 13A socket & I doubt they have to "really look". The stats are pretty easy to interpret over a period of months and its trivial to determine who's re-exporting electricity.

For now you're probably "safe" as Octopus (and all other suppliers) are falling over themselves to acquire & retain EV owners so they don't care. That won't last, not on Octopus anyway...

[unknown] why does the socket matter? If I’m charging batteries at 7.4kw or my car at 7.4kw they don’t know where it’s going.

Vestas why does the socket matter? If I’m charging batteries at 7.4kw or my car at 7.4kw they don’t know where it’s going.

JasonF when you are on an EV tariff then all of your electricity in the EV period is at the cheap rate, so there isn’t an issue with charging your batteries.

Its with export it gets more restrictive as the suppliers terms include that they don’t have to pay you for so called brown electricity that you import at one rate, store in the battery, and export at a later rate. In practice Octopus and the other suppliers don’t enforce this (yet)

[unknown] I’ll happily store it for them and export it during peak periods for them. I’ll take the premium as payment for use of my equipment 😉

geoffreycoan I’ll happily store it for them and export it during peak periods for them. I’ll take the premium as payment for use of my equipment 😉

From the national grid https://grid.iamkate.com/
There is no battery storage in use!
😂