David Jenkins
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| posted on 1/6/22 at 02:49 PM |
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Feel like another rant...
As everyone knows, the cost of electricity has gone up drastically - perhaps by as much as 100% (probably more).
Today I got my quarterly Feed-In Tariff (FIT) payment for my solar panels. The rate I get paid has just gone up - by roughly 7%.
Somehow, this just seems rude...
I may go over to Octopus in the future (I can't at the moment, as they can't do FIT and Octopus Go* at the same time). Octopus promise to
pay near to the market rate for anything that goes to the grid, minus their own admin and handling costs, so as their supply day rate is around 35p
per kW/h this could be beneficial. Note that currently I get paid for every kW/h that comes from the roof, regardless of whether it goes to the grid
so it will require a bit of calculation for which is the most profitable!
At the moment I often don't actually export that much as I plug in our 2 electric cars at every possible opportunity, which often means that I
get paid for my mileage. In the near future I also plan to have a storage battery that will take surplus power during the daytime for use in the
evenings (this will hopefully happen once the parts arrive from China).
However, it would be nice to know that I'm being paid a fair rate when I do export energy!
* Octopus Go is a special tariff for electric car owners - mine is 5p per kW/h for 4 hours from 00:30 every night, for new subscribers it's 7.5p
per kW/h. Normal day rate outside of those hours.
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russbost
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| posted on 1/6/22 at 05:49 PM |
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David, I assume your panels have been fitted relatively recently? Ours went in way back in 2011, long ago paid for themselves & make us over 2k a
year in FIT payments & savings on leccy, we were able to switch to Octopus GO without any problem as the FIT payments are totally independent of
supplier, perhaps later FIT payments work differently?
Octopus have been absolutely BRILLIANT for us, you can't join on the GO tarif, but providing you follow a recommendation link, mine is
https://share.octopus.energy/ashen-light-15 then both you & the referee get £50, which more than covers anything you'd lose whilst waiting
to switch to GO, so you start on their standard tariff & then they switch you over, it took about a month in our case, would have been a little
quicker except EDF who were our previous supplier were utterly awful & had screwed the smart meter up onto a single instead of dual tariff,
they'd had 4 months of trying to sort it out saying they'd have to end an engineer out, they never sorted it! Octopus had it sorted without
an engineer's visit within 48 hours of us joining!!! & I've never waited more than about 12 hours for a response to emails etc. their
customer service is second to none
We pay around 18p per kW for leccy, day rate & 5p overnight, 00:30 to 4:30am, takes 2 & 1/2 nights to charge the car if run right down, but
costs me the princely sum of £3.20 (1 & 1/2 gals of diesel!!!) to charge for a 300 mile range!  The gas price isn't particularly greatat
around 6p per kW, but we're using way less than we used to as I've added a Solic immersion controller, which senses when you're sending
power back to the grid & instead switches it to your immersion heater (assuming you have a tank of course), we had the tank & it cost me about
£130 for the Solic & £20 for an immersion element, did the wiring up myself, dead simple, it will have paid for itself within about a year &
1/2 as I'm now getting free hot water for around 8 months of the year, saves around 6kW of gas a day, plus getting assistance with the water
heating for the remaining 4 months, tho' very little in Dec/Jan obviously
I've also added a bunch of second hand solar panels, batteries, a controller & an inverter, total cost around £1400, but about half the house
is now off grid, I reckon this will pay for itself within 2 - 3 years, plus it can all be removed quite easily & taken with us if we move - an
investment for life - so not only are we much greener, we're also vastly better off than we would otherwise be - I hate giving my money to money
grabbing energy companies, even good ones like Octopus!
[Edited on 1/6/22 by russbost]
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headlights, indicators, mirrors etc, best prices in the UK! Take a look at http://www.furoreproducts.co.uk/ or find more parts on Ebay, user names
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 1/6/22 at 08:17 PM |
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Ours have been on the house since around 2019. FIT payments dropped massively from the early years of panel installation - you will be getting a lot
more than we do now.
Octopus Go is very good - we've been on it for a while. As far as FIT is concerned, instead of a flat rate for whatever comes from the roof
panels (as we get at the moment), Octopus uses the smart meter to actually measure whatever goes to the grid so, if you use all the power from your
panels, you don't get any income. Using the smart meter for this purpose actually clashes with the way they use if for Go (apparently) so
currently you can't have the 2 together - but they're working on it.
You will find that the rates for Go will have gone up considerably at your next contract renewal... 35.11p day rate, 7.5p night rate, 37.65p daily
standing charge.
We were very fortunate in that Octopus screwed up my electricity renewal notice in May, so we didn't get notification at the time required under
the regulations - so Octopus said that the next year will be at last year's rates! 
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hobbsy
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 06:55 AM |
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I had panels on an old house in 2011 just before the end of the peak FiT rates, shame you can't take that deal with you...
I think the issue with having Go and also an export tariff is that it would be simple to add a battery system and load up at 5/7.5p per unit then sell
it back to them at peak times for more.
That said very happy with Octopus, they also made an error re our notification and so we've got another year at those rates. I've grabbed a
portable air con unit that has a heat pump which will use to augment our gas heating this autumn and winter (gas price hike coming in Oct). Claimed
CoP of 3 or so, i.e 1kW electricity will produce 3kW heat, so even before the hike it's cheaper than using gas, we are on Go Faster so have 5hrs
from 2030hrs so effectively 1.8p/kWh of heat during those hours.
If anyone wants £50 for both of us referral then fill your boots and see my link below, I'm adding a battery system for when the electric hike
finally hits as at ~35p Vs 7.5p (current Go rates) the pack back is a lot shorter
https://share.octopus.energy/sage-queen-253
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russbost
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 07:35 AM |
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I knew FIT payments had reduced drastically, but didn't realise that the system of what you get paid for had changed completely, I assume ours
hasn't changed as when the legal jargon was written I don't think smart meters were being installed, or would certainly be in their infancy,
hence, presumably they have to stick with the legal agreement of the time.
Nevertheless, surely something like the Solic still would work with your system as if it's saving 30p+ a unit that's a lot better than
getting paid a meagre few pence per unit.
I think at present payback against the very high cost of batteries can be quite long, but obviously as prices rise, that will improve the payback
rate/time.
My DIY panels (as opposed to the original MCS 4kWh system that was installed back in 2011) & batteries are all SH, tho' the batteries are
2021 units, but lead acid rather than Li, at present Li prices seem to be going up rather than down as demand is exceeding supply, hopefully by the
time I need to replace my lead acid units Li prices will have dropped
Must admit, having switched to Octopus only last October, I didn't realise that prices had gone up so much more since, we're already paying
mearly 3x what we were 2 years ago for gas & almost double for leccy!
I no longer run Furore Products or Furore Cars Ltd, but would still highly recommend them for Acewell dashes, projector headlights, dominator
headlights, indicators, mirrors etc, best prices in the UK! Take a look at http://www.furoreproducts.co.uk/ or find more parts on Ebay, user names
furoreltd & furoreproducts, discounts available for LCB users.
Don't forget Stainless Steel Braided brake hoses, made to your exact requirements in any of around 16 colours.
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/furoreproducts/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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hobbsy
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 08:08 AM |
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If you're on a FiT your almost certainly best off staying on it both in terms of the regular payments and the export continues to be assumed at
50pc (hence you can use 100pc and still get the smaller payment for this)
Post FiT they brought in the Smart Export Guarantee, which I think set a minimum of 5p/unit, although others offer higher, 7.5p fixed with octopus (if
you're a regular customer). Then if you think you can export at times of higher demand you could try a flexible rate export tariff like Octopus
Agile Outgoing. It'll pay more at peak times but less at other times (listed as negative but in reality is zero).
https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/categories/tariffs/seg-tariff/
https://octopus.energy/outgoing/
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chillis
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 08:17 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
As everyone knows, the cost of electricity has gone up drastically - perhaps by as much as 100% (probably more).
Today I got my quarterly Feed-In Tariff (FIT) payment for my solar panels. The rate I get paid has just gone up - by roughly 7%.
Somehow, this just seems rude...
I may go over to Octopus in the future (I can't at the moment, as they can't do FIT and Octopus Go* at the same time). Octopus promise to
pay near to the market rate for anything that goes to the grid, minus their own admin and handling costs, so as their supply day rate is around 35p
per kW/h this could be beneficial. Note that currently I get paid for every kW/h that comes from the roof, regardless of whether it goes to the grid
so it will require a bit of calculation for which is the most profitable!
At the moment I often don't actually export that much as I plug in our 2 electric cars at every possible opportunity, which often means that I
get paid for my mileage. In the near future I also plan to have a storage battery that will take surplus power during the daytime for use in the
evenings (this will hopefully happen once the parts arrive from China).
However, it would be nice to know that I'm being paid a fair rate when I do export energy!
* Octopus Go is a special tariff for electric car owners - mine is 5p per kW/h for 4 hours from 00:30 every night, for new subscribers it's 7.5p
per kW/h. Normal day rate outside of those hours.
Don't look at your standing charge or you'll blow a gasket. Mine up 125% in April and up by another 125% in October. Price per kW/h up from
14 pence to 30 pence and another similar increase in October despite being told my energy is from 100% renewables. 30 pence when I consume but only 3
pence when I generate - so 900% profit on my electricity hmm and these companies show record profits and pay record dividends and our Rugger Bugger
politicians are doing nothing, they want us to go all electric but at these prices its unaffordable, whats worse is the rip off high prices are
sending businesses abroad so its killing the economy too
Never under estimate the ingenuity of an idiot!
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 09:07 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by chillis
hey want us to go all electric but at these prices its unaffordable
They are also pushing heat pumps, but they simply don't suit the way we heat in our household - we put the heating on when it's cold, and at
most other times it's off, and often the windows are open somewhere in the house. My wife likes fresh air!
Heat pumps run the radiators at far lower temperature (around 50C, I believe) so the aim is to keep a steady temp throughout the day - no way that
would work for us.
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 09:30 AM |
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Radiator temps on condensing boilers are around 50-60C anyway. Heat pumps are going to have to suit you soon, if your boiler dies
I thought FiT was a thing of the past? And SEG replaces it, and requires all PV has to be MCS certified to apply. Ugh.
[Edited on 2/6/22 by coyoteboy]
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 2/6/22 at 10:29 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
Heat pumps are going to have to suit you soon, if your boiler dies
Worcester-Bosch already have boilers that can be readily converted to burn hydrogen - it just needs motivation/legislation to change what gets shoved
up the gas pipes. This has been done before, when we all changed to natural gas. The cynic in me thinks that this may never happen though...
quote:
I thought FiT was a thing of the past? And SEG replaces it, and requires all PV has to be MCS certified to apply. Ugh.
Existing FIT contracts are still being supported but all new contracts have to be SEG - if the household has a smart meter.
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