Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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The key to getting the best from it is to go all-in with your home automation so that you can ensure you're not pulling from grid at the expensive times (particularly the 4pm - 7pm stretch). To be frank, that has a far bigger effect than whether it's sunny or cloudy. The other big one is, if you have an EV, making best use of the times of negative pricing.

As you can probably guess I’ve not been persuing TOU tariffs but just following the topic with interest. Your comments above are very useful and I can see that automated controls, EV and solar,  storage transforms the home energy usage. But my thoughts are that it comes at a significant cost and personal time commitment. 

At the moment we have a reasonable kw rate of 19p. (That’s compared to a previous variable rate of around 26p) it’s not a high tech solution but it is hassle free and has substantially lowered our annual energy bill. 

Posted by: @sunandair

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Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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The key to getting the best from it is to go all-in with your home automation so that you can ensure you're not pulling from grid at the expensive times (particularly the 4pm - 7pm stretch). To be frank, that has a far bigger effect than whether it's sunny or cloudy. The other big one is, if you have an EV, making best use of the times of negative pricing.

As you can probably guess I’ve not been persuing TOU tariffs but just following the topic with interest. Your comments above are very useful and I can see that automated controls, EV and solar,  storage transforms the home energy usage. But my thoughts are that it comes at a significant cost and personal time commitment. 

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Glad you're finding the information useful; I try to keep it "warts and all" since that helps people judge within their own context. With that in mind, it's still worth unpicking further the thoughts you've mentioned.

There are certainly significant costs involved in the installation of solar PV and the investment in an EV. However, the costs I've run up to date on home automation are £34.50 for an RS485 to Ethernet converter (the way I decided to link up via Modbus with my inverter) and £26.99 for a new hard drive. Everything else has been free (Home Assistant free download installed onto a free PC (being thrown away by my company) with the new hard drive fitted).

The personal time commitment that was necessary (and I'm separating that from my periodic bits of tinkering which are purely for fun or learning) was not huge - let's call it a day or so - since the automation I achieved means the system does what I need it to without my need to get involved. That said, IT is my business so I'm well aware what I've put in place was a lot easier for me than for some. The point I was making in my last post, though, is that this level of automation is necessary to really benefit from the half-hourly pricing of Agile otherwise you need to be hunched over a PC monitoring your home's consumption all the time.

The existence of systems like Homely and Havenwise do allow for some automation to be provided to a homeowner in a far more plug and play manner, thereby sidestepping the need for the homeowner to know what they're doing. However, they currently have a blind spot with regard to solar PV, home batteries and EVs and can only optimise based on heat pump, weather and tariff. As a result, the market is currently a trade-off; either you have a plug and play system that can optimise performance but ignores some important parameters or you put in place a system that can take all parameters into account and optimise your whole home but requires a learning curve.

As a result, I'd say the personal time commitment isn't that great but the commitment to gain greater understanding is more significant.

Posted by: @sunandair

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At the moment we have a reasonable kw rate of 19p. (That’s compared to a previous variable rate of around 26p) it’s not a high tech solution but it is hassle free and has substantially lowered our annual energy bill. 

That, of course, is the only end goal that really matters. All I would say is that the price per kWh imported from the grid is not as relevant as the number of those units actually imported and consumed. For me and my situation, the solution I've put in has both reduced the unit price and the number of units consumed so the net yearly bill has plummeted. From what you say, you've achieved something similar. Whether or not you see opportunities in the future to do more of the same remains to be seen, but each time your starting point will be an already improved situation.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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As a result, I'd say the personal time commitment isn't that great but the commitment to gain greater understanding is more significant.

That would be my biggest commitment -time to gain greater understanding. That has definitely been the case when we installed our Ecodan. That knowledge gained has been priceless. 

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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For me and my situation, the solution I've put in has both reduced the unit price and the number of units consumed so the net yearly bill has plummeted. From what you say, you've achieved something similar. Whether or not you see opportunities in the future to do more of the same remains to be seen, but each time your starting point will be an already improved situation.

I’m hoping not to spend so much time learning, which came with the heat pump. As I’d rather be out windsurfing on a sunny day…😎… but I will definitely be keen to adopt a solar PV and storage some time in the near future, since we have already got planning permission for the panels.

thanks again