We leave the Zappi on fast. We set the car’s app to charge between midnight and 5.30am before plugging it in, which stops the Zappi charging until it’s allowed to.
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The way the Zappi is wired will determine where your car is charged from. I had to get my installer back as my home batteries were often charging my car.
Even now, if I plug my car in and there is excess PV, it will go into the car rather than export. Just plug the car in when the sun has gone down.
Also, on Octopus Energy, you can decide whether charging is controlled via the car or the Zappi. BMW did a software update which meant the car was not controlling the charge properly. Working with Octopus, we set it up so that the Zappi is now controlling. This gives a much better result for me now. I would not go back to the BMW controlling the charging.
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We have our first power cut and running off the inverter EPS system and battery. Feeling smug… our house is the only one with lights on in the village that I can see 
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We had a couple of years when we had many power cuts…..it took them that long to identify a fault in an overhead powerline. We had to buy a generator. So when we take the plunge…..to be able to be off grid is a must. Good on you👍
Your neighbours may think you are growing something 
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Indeed.. power all back… local overhead powerline fault apparently….
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Indeed… our system is not fully automatic… I declined the additional expense as our power reliability has increased massively in recent years, so one has to throw a main switch over to isolate the grid.. and another to activate the EPS (emergency power supply) otherwise our battery would be powering the whole phase in the village… which wouldn’t get very far 
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Did not know that was an option, makes sense.
When we installed our solar back in December, I was intrigued as to if and when our monthly fuel bill would go negative, ie we were being paid more for export than we paid for import. Our bill in January was £170. In February it was £110 and in March £25. It looks like April will be about -£50. The way things are going it looks like we will be in the minus until about September.
I don’t think the summer credit will fully offset the winter debit so have set our monthly direct debit at £35, which should let us build enough of a balance to get through the winter. It will be interesting to see how things develop as we move into the summer.
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https://www.lbc.co.uk/tech/experiments-to-dim-the-sun-set-to-be-approved-within-weeks/
You’d better hope they dont dim the sun too much. 
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That must have been a nice milestone to reach. My FIT payments come separately every few months, so it’s only via a spreadsheet that I see the overall cost change.
Wow, I first assumed that would be an April 1st report, but no
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You’ll be getting a lot more than our 15p of course. With Octopus we have two separate tariffs, one for in and one for out, so it’s easy to see what’s going on in their very good app.
My current FIT rate is 5.03p for what we generate, plus 7.14p for what we export. That for me currently equates to an “export only” value of 19.7p, so yes pretty good overall. It was the last of the FIT rates. They were much higher rates before that, but so also was the cost of solar, so was seen as an ongoing grant.
That does sound more complicated for sure. At least the 15p is nice and easy. I know people on very early FIT tariffs who get 70p per kWh, but as you say the panels cost more back then. As I’ve said before, Mrs HH was keen to get the panels for years, while I procrastinated and did nothing. I’m so pleased we have them now though. It’s not just about the savings of course; it makes me really happy to be generating power and contributing our little bit to greening the electricity supply.
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Like @Thegreatroberto I have switched to a cheap import tariff overnight (Intelligent GO) and fully charge the batteries and then discharge until almost empty by 11:30pm.
Yesterday I exported 45kWh including solar. I started discharging at 5:45am and stopped at 5:30pm. That way the battery can absorb what I can’t because of the 3.68kW limit set by the DNO.
Phil
Just noticed my neighbours panels he had fitted late last year. A couple of panels sit below his TV aerial and are now covered in bird poop, not sure how much power will be being lost? But have made a mental note to remove our old defunct aerial when we get panels.
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6hrs to charge batteries at night gets me to about 90% full. Doesnt take long before batteries are 100% and then all PV is exported. Then ill start to dump batteries anout 4pm.
Just checked, 46 units exported yesterday.
And srpay the atmosphere with reflective material? Good luck UK 
Then all the Chinese trash panels can go to landfill
Martin
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That’s a lot. We exported 36 yesterday. I’ve adjusted the settings to dump more during the evening. I’ve only been doing it for about 2.5 hours so have increased it to 4.
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