@old_scientist How many Smugs equal a kWh I wonder? 😉 Toodles.

@old_scientist We roughly export about 42% of our total exports over the year during the 4 pm to 7pm. This is just from the solar array even without taking from the battery, joys of a west facing array! Probably the Prime outgoing tariff would be the ideal option for us, if and when it's available.

Posted by: @toodles

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@old_scientist Thank you for the link, I have opted in and that confirmed that I am set up to partake; I have not received the notification promise so will ring 8 legs tomorrow. I note on that page that I didn’t partake in sessions yesterday or the day before - had they notified me, I might have done so!!! Rewards, Toodles.

@toodles I think you may be able to use that link for future sessions too - no idea how long it will keep working for, but someone posted it on another forum a couple days ago so it is not session-specific (I wonder if it's the same link as in the emails? - I'll check when I'm on my PC with emails)

And as I said in a previous reply, you should be able to have a good idea if there will be a session by watching Agile prices. They are around 48p tonight which has triggered a session, albeit pretty low rewards. Last night Agile was around 80p and the rewards were higher.

Hope Octopus can resubscribe you to the email notifications.

Would a Moderator @majordennisbloodnok care to split off these Octopus Savings Sessions posts into a new thread, or are they OK here?

Posted by: @chandykris

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@old_scientist We roughly export about 42% of our total exports over the year during the 4 pm to 7pm. This is just from the solar array even without taking from the battery, joys of a west facing array! Probably the Prime outgoing tariff would be the ideal option for us, if and when it's available.

Wow, indeed. I'm viewing the world from the perspective of my south facing array which is somewhat different. That new Prime outgoing tariff would certainly be better for you, especially if you can increase that export percentage a little by exporting from battery and recharging from daytime solar the next day.

@old_scientist Thank you, I will communicate telephonically in the morning and I feel sure they will resolve it - even though they failed to last year when I sent a series of emails… Toodles.

@old_scientist Yes, that's my plan. If I can export like 2 kWh from the batteries each hour in the 4-7 window, next day I can top up from solar before the peak slot starts again. But, I guess all depends on whether Prime is made available soon. But, I can still model and make an informed decision before next summer.

Posted by: @chandykris

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@old_scientist Yes, that's my plan. If I can export like 2 kWh from the batteries each hour in the 4-7 window, next day I can top up from solar before the peak slot starts again. But, I guess all depends on whether Prime is made available soon. But, I can still model and make an informed decision before next summer.

At a proposed 9p/15p slit, versus the current 12p, it's a simple 50:50 split to break even. If you can do more than 50% of your export between 4-7pm then you are better off. Less than 50% and the 12p SEG is better. Clearly a west facing array and a battery will help, as will lower usage (hence more export) between 4-7pm

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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Posted by: @chandykris

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Thanks @old_scientist That's good to know, as it wasn't obvious from their emails. I didn't bother joining in the savings sessions as we don't touch the grid during peak hours, so thought what's the point. If they pay more for export, I would happily dump more to the grid, as our batteries don't fall below 90% in the summer months. Given the orientation of our PV array, we are exporting like 3.5 kWh per hour these days from 1 pm to 7 pm, so wouldn't hurt to take from the batteries too.

Posted by: @old_scientist

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they will also pay if you export more than you normally export.

Just as a complete aside....

In Home Assistant (for those of you who are interested in the tinkering), I have the IMAP integration running so it can read the mailbox I use for communicating with Octopus. That means that an email notification of a new saving session triggers an automation to opt us in. I then have another automation that is triggered at around the time of the actual session (in fact starting 10 minutes before) which does all the stuff I want to do; turn the heat pump off, stop the car charging if it's using grid leccy etc. There is also, of course, another automation that, 10 minutes after the session, turns stuff back on again as necessary.

This is not meant to sound like a smug git moment, but I do want to highlight how much the HA automating can help. We literally do nothing for the saving sessions since it's all taken care of.

 

I take it back; I’m not using IMAP for that. I’m using the Octopus API instead. Everything else holds true, though. Sorry for the brain fart.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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Just as a complete aside....

In Home Assistant (for those of you who are interested in the tinkering), I have the IMAP integration running so it can read the mailbox I use for communicating with Octopus. That means that an email notification of a new saving session triggers an automation to opt us in. I then have another automation that is triggered at around the time of the actual session (in fact starting 10 minutes before) which does all the stuff I want to do; turn the heat pump off, stop the car charging if it's using grid leccy etc. There is also, of course, another automation that, 10 minutes after the session, turns stuff back on again as necessary.

This is not meant to sound like a smug git moment, but I do want to highlight how much the HA automating can help. We literally do nothing for the saving sessions since it's all taken care of.

 

@majordennisbloodnok   Similar, although no heat pump here (sadly) and all the battery automation is handled by Predbat.

Inidentally, I am experiencing issues related to the smart meter time offset whereby if my battery uses the IGO cheap rate to charge it may still charge for a short period when the meter switches to a high rate period (this is most often in the casse of 'non-standard' IGI car charging slots). Apparently Predbat can correct for this but I've not yet investigated seriously.