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After six months when the wind turbine has been off more than on, due to the need to replace the blade, damp ground meaning the blade couldn’t be replaced until months after we paid for it, it finally got sorted last week
Now generating more than we can use - and we don’t have any export tariff other than the deemed 50% export on the wind turbine. Currently looking into octopus and a smart meter - but octopus not very responsive to an email query and I have seen contradictory information whether they will fit a smart meter on a three phase supply
I’ve found Octopus to be very good with one exception, answering emails. I’d sent them emails querying when they will answer. In the end phoned and waited till they answered. Sorted on the phone in five minutes.
Do you know if a smart meter will work in your area? I had one fitted a while ago and the DCC signal simply doesn’t pick up, even though we can see the nearest mobile mast. I’ve tried some DIY aerials with no luck. Octopus wash their hands of it, blame it on the DCC provider (I gather that is Capita, so no real surprises there). It may well work but worth checking.
I am getting that impression - will phone them soon
Yes that is a question that I put in the email and will ask when I ring. It’s quite an important question
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DM them on X ( formally twitter). Phone can be chaotic and noisey, email hopeless.
I emailed them once. After two days I assumed my email had got lost and used other means to contact them. Resolved the problem. After a week a got a response via email! A short dialog ensured where the guy just got stuff wrong.
I’ve phoned ever since which seems by far the best way.
They do seem to want to do right by the customer. I think they are still running with processes developed for a few thousand customers and it’s creaking now they have millions, so some things struggle and there are lots of disconnection in the organisation.
But the phone seems to work well
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I abandoned Twitter last week but have in the last couple of days joined an octopus Facebook group, which was very helpful in answering my questions - though responses ranged from octopus are great to octopus are awful, octopus will fit a 3-phase smart meter to no they won’t
Octopuss are well-meaning, but their training is far from adequate, and I expect they have some staff turnover, like many call centers.
They are hampered by poor “smart metering” from their supplier. Often, data is missing from my time-of-day tariff. So they choose to bill me at the higher rate! I am in regular contact with them! As we say in my industry, “Trust, but verify.”
Can your existing supplier provide a smart meter? Then jump ship to Octopus or whoever after it’s installed.
To get paid for export you would also need an export meter if you don’t already have one.
They have turned up twice to fit a smart meter but both times they sent someone with a single phase not three phase meter so had to send them away. We have been having a hideous time communicating with them (EDF) so have given up trying to get a smart meter from them
Anything other than basic billing, and they can be hopeless. I suspect they contract the work you want out, so limited control.
This is a useful picture of how our system has performed this year. As an all electric household including car (average of 4K miles pa) it’s not costing us much. The winters involve a cooler house in the coldest weather (18c) , which we want to improve on. It’s driven by the 20kWh batteries not being able to supply the full daily needs on the coldest days (66kWhs last December, average 33). On Flux we get 3 hrs of cheap electric (5kW inverter) and we run the heating and other things to maximise our use during that period. We then wait till 7am before it comes on again, which is not ideal. Nothing to export unless we have a very sunny day, but those are usually opportunities to warm the house up more and store heat in it. We probably paid an average of 19.7p/kWh.
Now the picture below shows the Agile rates last December. The key thing is that the high rates are limited to 4-7pm, which is when the battery comes into its own. This has to be converted to AC, and the round trip drops to towards 80%. Arguably one might as well just keep the battery for the peak periods. So I might switch to Agile soon (by the end of October).
Phil
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I’ve just installed a ASHP with Solar hydra inverter and 5kW battery.
Octopus put me on cosy rate when I enquired but am now wondering if it’s the best option as I leave my underfloor heating on full time in the winter.
The house is seven years old and well insulated.
I’d be grateful for other peoples experience with the Octopus options.
Install the Octopus Compare app and give it a month to analyse your own data.
The problem with people just recommending what they have is that it may not be the right tariff for your usage profile
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Has anybody heard of Sygenergy?. Chinese company (unfortunately), but seen some YouTube videos and apparently well regarded. Their battery system is plug and play stackable where you can slot in 5 or 8kw batteries up to 6 high (more on 3 phase) and hybrid inverter with ups backup gateway. Also v2g/v2h compatible ccs car charger all in the one footprint which looks very neat