#SolarUpdate

A few interesting graphs that show how the solar system has performed over the last 3yrs... Bear in mind it only shows the first 11 months of 2025, whilst the ones for 2023 and 2024 are 12 months.

Graph one, shows a pretty consistent total use in the home for the whole year. It's an avg of 5000kwh give or take around 100kwh. 2023 being 5072kwh, 2024 was 5102kwh and 2024 is currently 4672kwh, with approximately 380-400kwh expected for Dec. Which will bring the total to around 5080kwh.

So that's very consistent across 3 years.

Graph 2, shows the solar generation for the same 3yrs. That's not quite so consistent, and also doesn't quite factor in the expanded battery in Feb 2024 to increase storage. This nearly tripled our storage and reduced the export a huge amount, meaning we used more of what we generate and imported less. Solar fluctuates with the weather, and 2023 was a decent year, 2024 wasn't so good but the extra battery storage more than compensated for it, reducing import further... and 2025 has been really good so far, breaking all records set in previous years.

Graph 3, well that shows how I've managed to make the system work better for our needs. This is the amount of electric imported from the grid. In 2023 the 1st year of the system and with just a 5.2kwh battery, we imported 2195kwh of electric. In 2024, with the battery expanded to 15.4kwh... we imported 1954kwh... a reduction of roughly 240kwh. Less than 1kwh per day and roughly a 20p a day saving. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it's an extra £73 a year saved.

So far in 2025, we have used 1373kwh... plus the avg 380kwh for Dec and that's going to be around 1753kwh. A further 200kwh reduction and a further £40 a year saving.

So over the last 3yrs, we're saving an extra £113, on top of what we were already saving.

As for those savings, if we imported the 5100kwh entirely... that would be in the region of £1450 at current prices... 3yrs ago, that would have been 30% higher due to the higher costs for energy at the time. They're still exceptionally high and continue to rise every 3 months. Once you add on the daily standing charges and the 5% VAT, the bill would actually be more like £1694.

This helps us save more, and reduces the return on investment. What was originally going to pay for itself after 9yrs, will now pay for itself after 8yrs.

So far for 2025, the electric bill has been £581 including all extra fees. A direct saving of £1109 so far this year. That doesn't include all of the export earnings, nor the free energy sessions I've taken advantage of this year which totals around another £150. Meaning the savings so far this year are around the £1259 mark. With electric for Dec still to pay for, this will reduce by around £80-100 by the end of the month.

That's just the electric side though, we still have to pay for gas which is used for heating and hot water. Typically the heating is turned off towards the end of April and not turned back on until the start of Oct. This will usually be in the £700-750 range for the year.

The potential bill for the house without the solar system is in range of £2500. This would require monthly payments of around £250.

As it stands, we pay just £75 a month now after building up £1100 worth of credit on the account these last few years.

I cannot recommend a solar and battery system enough... I cannot also recommend you get one if you have to take out a loan to do so. You won't see those savings until the money is paid off. But if you qualify for a grant or have the spare cash at hand... It's worth it for the peace of mind it brings.

I'm considering what the next efficiency steps could be. I've improved insulation in the home as much as I can without serious work to remove the cavity blown insulation and fill with newer and more efficient products (around £3000), nor insulate between the floors (removing ceilings or floors) But as I've moved walls and redone bedrooms. I've added acoustic insulation to the stud walls upstairs to improve heat retention. I've replaced every radiator in the house with more efficient ones and switched to a better thermostat for more control.

The previous owners of this house had no solar system, not proper thermostat and no control over the heating as most of the TRV's were broken... and I think the heating was pretty much left on 24/7 because they ran up a debt of over £7000 to their provider... who continued trying to collect it for about a year after we bought the house and we had no forwarding address.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate I don't think I did one of these for Oct. Probably because solar generation was utterly appalling for the month, with generation down around 40% on the previous few years avg.

So it was a little refreshing, and very surprising to see that the Nov was actually a little up on previous years. In fact it was roughly 17% higher... That was surprising because it has been a dreadfully wet month... worse than the previous month of Oct, whilst only generating about 20kwh less energy than Oct.

Avg use on the house was 433kwh, battery didn't get much charging, with the best days only getting it to about 45%. We've been trying to maximise solar use even more, so when it's sunny and the battery is charging... get the washing done, use the tumble dryer if needed.

Import was around 300kwh for the month... around avg for this time of year.

Total energy bill inc gas and all extra charges was up around 10%, we've been on a fixed deal until next Spring, so the 3 prices rises this year have yet to affect us... But I've had to turn the heating up nearly 2ºC over it's normal setting to appease my mum who lives with me now. That alone is going to increase the gas bill 10-15% and I've seen that already in Nov with the gas use being almost 15% higher, inspite of the temperature for more than half the month being very mild and the first 15 days of Nov using very little.

It's a good job, the solar and battery system has allowed us to increase the credit on the energy account over the rest of the year to cover it.

We'll make it through the winter without running the credit down to zero too.

Over the last few years, my 'parental training' has started to pay off. My mum is a dreadful energy waster who puts her convenience before anything and anyone else. So she'll leaves all the lights on, she goes to bed and leaves the tv or her computer on... She always 'claims' she turned them off... but I've seen what she does... she hits a button on a remote without ever actually looking at what she does... so she hits the tv off button then gets up and walks past the TV that still on without even seeing it. 🤦 and blindly claims she DID turn it off. there's a disconnect between her actions and her comprehension of those same actions.

But... the amount of energy we import from the grid has fallen from about 2200kwh a year in the first year of the system, to around 1750kwh for this year (1363kwh so far, Dec is usually between 350-390kwh).

That saving is just from making better use of what we have... turning stuff off when not in use, and using the higher electric using products at times when we have more solar and battery available.

I also conducted an experiment when my mum went away for a week, and found that her use alone accounts for 35% of total energy used. Shared use accounts for another 43% (cooking, cleaning and heating) which means I account for just 22% of excess electric use (which is mostly my computers for work and gaming).

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate LIES.... LIES... IT'S ALL LIES!!!

This is an example of how I have been lied to for the last 8 days.

The grey is the prediction for solar generation tomorrow.

Every single day for the last 8 days have seen a similar curve prediction between 12-17kwh of generation.

The very small partially coloured in irregular curve is what happens on the actual day.

Those 12-17kwh turn into 1-4kwh... at worst, 10% of the prediction, at best 20%.

It's like they've lost the ability to predict anything properly... they couldn't even predict if bears shit in the woods.

It's frustrating, because I can't plan for shit... I think, oh tomorrow will be good, I can do some laundry and drying for almost nothing... or I could put the dishwasher on... important things to reduce how much electric we consume.

So the dishwasher is full, the laundry is piling up and if it lies tomorrow too... I'm going to have a very expensive day using 2 or 3 times the amount of electric I normally.

It's already the worst Oct we've ever had, more than 50% down on the avg. It's more like Dec generation.

I know we're heading into the colder, darker, months... But we should normally be generating 280kwh of electric still... we won't even hit 140kwh at this rate.

It's also starting to affect my S A D... I've not seen sunlight for 8 or 9 days now.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen
#SunshineWhatFuckingSunshine

🚗📉 "German industry takes a #nostalgia trip back to 2005 because apparently the auto sector mistook 'going green' for 'going nowhere'. Who knew that the best way to cut emissions was to stop producing cars altogether? 🤷‍♂️🔧"
https://www.ft.com/content/745fff84-2cbf-491c-b70c-e39bc8edaa39 #GermanIndustry #AutoSector #GoingGreen #EmissionsReduction #HackerNews #ngated

#SolarUpdate time once more.

We're in the transition period from Summer to Autumn, evenings are getting darker earlier, sun sinking a little lower in the sky.

So solar generation starts to lower at a quicker rate. It's been an odd year, we were breaking records from March through May with 10-20% more generation than any previous year... then we had the weakest June we'd ever had (but still 506kwh and still only a combined bill of £23)... But 10% lower than the previous year and 20% lower than the year before).

But then July was about the same & August gave us a little tick up with a 13% improvement over last year (Aug is normally 480kwh, and this year was 550kwh).

So far in Sept after the first week, we've generated about 80kwh, if that continues to be the avg each week, we'll be around the same as previous years.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a miserable day, heavy rain and little solar (less than 4kwh all day)... and coincided with a lot of cooking. So the oven was running for 4-5hrs baking apple crumbles and a Sunday roast. Hence the huge spike of 14kwh electric import in one day. I was also running my computer all day playing a rather graphically intensive game, which uses more power too.

So we've imported more in the first week of Sept, than we imported during the entirety of August (32khw in Sept vs 19kwh in Aug).

In fact, from March to August, we've only imported around 130kwh of electric, whilst using 2147kwh of electric in the home and exporting 690kwh of electric back to the grid.

That's a whopping 94% of our entire use for 6 months that was free electric from the solar and battery system.

Then that exported electric earned a further £106.

So here's the savings for the year so far, Jan-Aug

Jan - Paid £80, Bill £222
Feb - Paid £80, Bill £186
Mar - Paid £100, Bill £94
Apr - Paid £100, Bill £51
May - Paid £100, Bill £-1.63 (we earned more than we used)
Jun - Paid £100, Bill £23
Jul - Paid £100, Bill £27
Aug - Paid £100, Bill £26

So far this year, we've paid £760 into the energy account and used £627 worth of gas & electric... and roughly £240 of that amount is in the daily standing charges we have to pay here just for the privilege of being allowed to heat and light our homes.

No matter how much energy you consume... each home will pay in the region of £360 a year just to have gas & electric in the home.

Yet people who have no gas at all and save about 35p a day... still have to pay for their electric based on gas prices... because the entire grid system in the country occasionally has to use gas to supplement the grid when renewables are lower... whilst also paying billions to energy companies to turn off renewables when there's an excess instead of adjust the prices to make energy costs lower or even free, so people will manage their energy intensive tasks better... Which is exactly what I try to do here.

Sun is out, washing goes on... it's a free wash cycle for energy, I can even throw some bits in the tumble dryer for free as a tumble dry gets a better result for some things over putting out to dry on a rack or line.

This afternoon, the dishwasher can go on for free too.

This October, energy prices are going up... they claim by 2%.

But the majority of the rise is being added to those daily standing charges. So higher users (wealthier people) are actually going to see a 1% or less rise in their bills, whilst lower users (poorer people) will actually see a 4.5% increase in their bills.

Punish the poor once more... gotta keep them in their place and worried about simply existing... then they can stoke the fire and blame the immigrants rather than the greed of billionaires and corporate interests who own the politicians.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen
#EatTheRich
#TaxTheRich

After a couple of days of reasonable, yet poor solar generating weather. We will finally be running out of battery power at some point tonight.

In the 192 days since March 1st 2025.... We have spent 151 of those days off grid for electric use.

Of those 41 days we imported more than 1kwh of electric. The total amount of electric imported in those days is just 129kwh of electric.

We use about 400-450kwh of electric a month.

So that's about 10 days worth of electric purchased from the supplier in 192 days (6 months).

Because even on those days we imported more than 1kwh (Below that is effectively off grid, because there's always a tiny trickle for load balancing) we still imported very little. You could argue that anything below 10% of avg daily use counted as off grid, then we'd slash another 30 days of the 41.

It's only when you start looking at the whole picture, that you start to see the savings.

We have generated 3600kwh of free electric so far this year, and there's still 4 months left. The avg for those last 4 months over the last couple of years has been 210kwh. So that's a reasonable expectation of another 800kwh of free electric this year.

Last year we generated 3900kwh, the year before 4100kwh.

If the avg pans out, that would mean about 4400kwh.

We use in the region of 5500kwh of electric on the house in a year. 80% of that use occurs before Nov-Feb 15% in Mar-Apr & Sept-Oct and less than 5% in May-Aug.

We're heading into the part of the year where we won't see much earned from exporting. Last year it was about £90, so far this year it's been £123.

Savings alone so far this year are currently at £767 for just the kwh import. Plus the export so far, and that's £890 saved in just shy of 8 months in 2025.

Not bad going really.

#SolarUpdate
#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate time again.

Another not so great month, but a little better than June (which was awful)... yet slightly better than July 2024 (which was also awful)

Figures are not 100% as the data logging can be from 0-5% out. But it's within a margin of error mostly.

Generation 524kwh, that's up 18kwh over June, up 54kwh over July 2024... and yet isn't even as good as the generation for April this year... middle of summer and the weather is worse than the start of spring.

You can see in the yearly graph (image 2) how good the first 5 months of the year were. Then it drops of massively. June 'should' be the highest generation month of the year and yet it's actually only the 4th highest. That's never happened before. It's always been 1st or 2nd... with May beating it in 2023 and 2025.

That said... we were still effectively off grid for the majority of the month. Only 5 days in the whole month that we imported in excess of 1kwh.

So we only imported around 26kwh of electric the entire month, whilst exporting 106kwh. Including all daily charges and gas use, subtracting what we earned for export. The bill was £27.04, which meant we increased the credit on the account by a further £72.96 to £862.73. That's just about enough credit to cover the entirety of the winter bills from Nov-Feb (avg between £800-950 for those 4 months).

As usual the energy company cannot comprehend how solar and batteries work... and think that we should be paying £4.73 a month... whilst predicting that those Nov-Feb bills will be upto £100 lower than they have been every year previously because those Mar-Oct bills are lower thanks to free electric... also thanks to... oh.. I don't know... WARMER weather... we use less gas because the central heating isn't used between May-Sept and only use gas for hot water.

tl:dr crappy month compared to normal, but crappy is still good and electric was still mostly free.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

Hello from the Family

A brief introduction to Shedlandia. Who we are, who we were, where we went, and why we’re here now.

https://www.shedlandia.com/archives/94

#SolarUpdate time for June

An odd month, as it's both the worst June we've ever had in many ways, yet still good overall if that makes sense.

The total bill for the month of June was 75% higher than last year... But at £23.18 vs last years £13.31... Still considered good. We, still increased the credit on our energy account by £76.82 towards the winter high bills. (Usually around £800 from Nov-Feb).

Solar generation for June was 506kwh, the lowest June figure we've ever recorded. Lower even, than April and 190kwh down on the previous month.

In terms of what we normally do (high 500's or low 600's) it's 20% lower.

We exported 115kwh of that... which is 45% lower than last year. So earnings from solar were just under £20.

As usual, the majority of the bill for both gas & electric was in the daily standing charges (£29) with energy charges being around £14 for both gas & electric.

We continue to use around the 400kwh per month on the home, it fluctuates from month to mont, being closer to the 390-410 range for warmer days, and 420-450kwh over the winter months.

So whilst that should be seen as a good month, we covered 376kwh of the 401kwh used in the home from solar & battery, importing just 28kwh the whole month of June (bill and web data are not 100% aligned as different data point collection)... It feels, disappointing....

It feels like this year has peaked and it's only going to be downhill from here.

It feels like summer was over after May... before it actually began.

Whilst England bathes in sunshine and warmth, we're getting clouds and rain once more.

I know I should be grateful for such a small bill, whilst many others suffer and struggle... I know it's a privileged first world problem. But that's doesn't stop me from feeling that disappointment. After such a warm spring and great energy production, having such a massive fall below that previous years just has that effect.

So, I decided to compare last years bills to this. To try and put that disappointment into a better perspective.

I was quite surprised by what I saw.

From Jan-June 2024, the total bills were £832 for gas & electric. We had rather cold start to the year, and the expanded battery storage wasn't installed until the 29th Feb in time for the longer days. But £499 of that bill was just Jan & Feb.

So when I realised that from Jan-June 2025, the bills were just £575... a reduction of £257... It was quite the eye opener. I know a lot of that is due to the warmer weather reducing the gas bill, but that's also the first time we've a Jan-Feb period with the larger battery, so we used every single bit of solar generation and exported less than 6kwh over 2 months... and that was mostly when we had extra bright days and solar power peaked above what we could flow into the house and battery combined... it happens when we generate close to 4kw of energy and the house is idle (we might go out and turn of all computers for example).

So whilst a bad month... still a good one overall... and I cannot predict what the rest of the year will be like. The solar forecast for the rest of this week for example is very mixed... bad for the 1st July, great for 2nd & 3rd and then getting lower each day for the following 5 days... that can and does often change daily though. Solar generation is a weird thing, it doesn't 'require' direct sunlight, and sometimes too much sun is bad for generation. Cloud cover still produces, and sometimes... as crazy as it sounds, some cloud cover produces the best generation. Light thin cloud, allows sunlight through, that can bounce back of the ground and be reflected back down by those clouds... increasing the amount of light reaching the panels.

So... bad is good still... lower bills are always good, a £790 credit on the energy account is roughly enough to cover the bills for Nov-Feb alone. We might even be able to reduce the £100 monthly payment, as my mum will be getting a £200 winter fuel payment again this year, which gets put onto the account.

It's all good... all good.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate It's been a disappointing first 2 weeks of June compared to other years.

At this rate we'll be around the 500-525kwh of generation mark this month, down from 696kwh last month and way down on June in 2023 & 2024.

However, we've still covered the majority of the home use and have still been around the avg of less than 1kwh of import per day. So lar export has been down, so earnings are down.

We've spent about £12 on electric and standing charges so far, and earned about £10. So we're close to covering the electric side of the bill, but not the gas side like last month.

Solar forecast for the coming week is a bit 'meh' for the next few days, then it's supposed to improve.

I was hoping to get out and about one day this week... and Weds looks like the only day that might be possible (trades in Thurs-Fri doing some jobs)

The data as usual.

Solar Generation - 249kwh
Solar Export - 62kwh
Electric Import - 11kwh

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

A Mattress Testing Expert Breaks Down Natural and Organic Certifications (2025)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/organic-mattress-and-bedding-certifications/

#SolarUpdate time

We broke records again. Lots of good weather, plenty of solar generation and we earned enough from export to entirely offset the gas & electric bills, and even earned £1.63 back on top of that.

The last few days of the month turned with more inclement weather. But not enough to ruin the month or spoil the data.

So here's some figures.

697kwh of solar generation (243kwh used directly, 180kwh via battery and 274kwh exported).

These are all new records, the previous generation record was May 2023 when we did 668kwh and exported 260kwh. I was really hoping we'd hit 700, but that last few days of inclement weather dashed my hopes.

25kwh of electric imported, no record broken there, that still remains June 2025 with about 15kwh.

Without the solar, the electric bill would have been £129 and the gas bill would have been £16 (inc all other charges).

We actually generated and exported enough to wipe out both of those bills and earn an extra £1.63 on top. So this month alone we saved around £147.

We've increased the credit on our energy account this month by £101.63. Last month we increased it by about £49 and in March we added about £6 to it. So the credit has increased by about £156 and we're not even into summer yet.

All of the images are bar charts showing import, export and generation from Jan to May this year.

So far this year, we've imported 610kwh of electric from the grid at a cost of about £158 (not including standing charges)

We've exported about 490kwh and earned about £75 so far this year.

We've generated about 2050kwh of electric, passing the 50% mark in only 5 months. last year after 6 months we'd only hit 1950kwh, and in 2023 we did around 2050kwh in 6 months.

Here's hoping for a decent summer.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate A quickie today... because we finally did it. We exported enough electric to cover a full months worth of electric, gas and all other charges & VAT.

Just barely though... We cancelled out the whole bill and earned an extra £1.63 that's added to the credit on the account.

We continue to pay £100 a month and our bills for the next 4-5 months should all be well under £100 (the avg for June-Aug last year was around £30) and unless we have a sustained period of inclement weather, should see that credit increase to at least £900.

I know we could get that refunded back to my account, but it's a nice cushion to have, and means we don't have to increase the monthly payments to cover the much higher bills we get over the winter period. Typically, the Nov-Feb bills are around 80% of our total gas & electric import due to using the heating a lot (it's turned of May-Sept) and far less sunlight for generation.

If I refunded it, my monthly payments would probably increase to £150 or more and that would actually put a bit of stress on the monthly budget after all of the other price rises we had in April. Energy prices went up 6%, we had a 10% rise in council tax and a 30% rise in the water bill. With food prices continuing to be higher our monthly avg of £300 for groceries and household supplies is now £325. So the monthly basic budget is £100 higher than it was in March... that's an extra £1200 a year already... throwing another £600 on top of that just so we can have a little extra money to spend now... doesn't make any sense at all.

As of yesterday, we'd hit 650kwh of solar generation, 3 days left in the month and nearly 60kwh of generation being predicted.

The previous record was in May 2023 when we did 668kwh and exported 260kwh (worth £39), so far this month we've exported 272kwh (£40.80).

I'm crossing my fingers the solar forecast is accurate and we hit that 700kwh mark for the first time... and that we finally have a good summer. So far we've had a decent May and most of June the last few years and then from the last week of June onwards it gets wet and windy.

So far this year, we have imported 635kwh of electric for the whole house. We've used 2034kwh on the house (avg 405/month). That's 1400kwh of 'free' electric we've used directly... on top of that, we've exported 497kwh of electric and earned an extra £74 back. So in a few days short of 5 months this year, we've already saved £378 + earned £74 back for a total of around £452.

We've not even reached the summer months yet.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate A quickie before bed... oooer 🤔

3 weeks into May... here's the data

10.5kwh of electric imported (£15.82 inc standing order fees)

264.3kwh of electric exported (£36.95 earned)

£9.53 of gas used (inc standing charges)

Current bill +£11.60 credit

529kwh generated in total (May 2024 was 485kwh, May 2023 was 668kwh)

170kwh used directly,
118kwh sent to the battery
246kwh sent back to the grid

Daily avg 25.2kwh

It's been an exceptional month so far, and whilst rain is forecast for the end of the week, it's scattered showers rather than dark clouds and heavy rain. So solar forecast is still looking reasonable for the next week.

Instead of it predicting 207kwh of generation for the last 7 days, it's predicting 130kwh, with an avg of a 50-60% chance of rain each day from Saturday onwards. Which is still a daily avg of 18.5kwh and would only bring the daily total to the 28th down to 23.5kwh a day.

It would also mean (if it's accurate) that we'd equal, if not beat the previous record of total generation in a single month... Which was also May 2023 (668kwh).

Only 10 days left in the month... will we break records or won't we... Tune in and find out.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate 2 weeks into May and here's the data.

347kwh of electricity generated
158kwh of electric exported back to the grid
8.5kwh of electric imported

So after 14 days, we've spent about £11.30 on electric (inc standing charges)

We've earned £23.70 from exporting.

We've also spent about £6.30 on gas (inc standing charges)

So our bill for the first 2 weeks of May is about £17.60 and we've earned about £23.70.

Which means so far this month, we are about £6 in profit.

We still paid the £100 direct debit the other day, so the credit on the account is currently up by £106.

The best day so far this month was 27.71kwh of generation, we've had an average of 24.7kwh of electric per day.

The lowest day was 12kwh and that's the only day so far this month below 22kwh.

The best ever day we've had was may 2023, when we generated 29.7kwh.

Forecast for the next 7 days is more of the same... 192kwh of solar generation is being predicted for the next 7 days.

At this rate, we'll surpass last years 555kwh for May with 9 days left in the month, and current predictions for the month are over 700kwh.

We use around the 390-450kwh mark each month... lower over warmer months as we use sunshine to dry clothes rather than the tumble dryer. So if we hit 700kwh generation, at least 300+ of that will be exported for around £45+

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate As we move into the more sunny and productive part of the year. I do more regular updates on the system.

So after 1 week of May, here's a few stats.

179kwh of solar generation
87kwh of solar export.
3.7kwh of import

Avg daily generation 25.5kwh
Avg daily use in the home 13kwh
Avg daily export 12.4kwh

When you factor in the daily charges for electric, the current energy bill for electric is about £6. If you add on the gas charges since we turned of the heating at the end of April, it's a total of £9

The earnings from the export £13

So after the first week of May, we are roughly £4 in profit for the month.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate time again.

It's been a very good month once more, well above the avg of the previous two years.

So a few figures first (previous years in brackets).

Solar Generation: 537kwh (2023: 468kwh & 2024: 425kwh)... That's really high for April, and for more context. In June 2024, we only generated 555kwh and 626kwh in 2023. 537kwh would be a very acceptable monthly figure for Jun-Aug

Export: 138kwh (2023: 163kwh(with smaller battery storage) & 2024: 98kwh (with larger storage)

We earned aprox £20 from export, which was deducted from the bill. So the bill for Gas & Electric inc all charges was £51.

In 2024, the April bill was £104, I don't have the bill from 2023 as we switched providers in Sept that year, so I'd have to hunt through emails from 2 years ago to try and find it... TBH, can't be arsed. 😆

We used 425kwh of electric on the house and imported 51kwh.

We also used the conservatory as a heater on the sunny days. Just opening the doors from the house to it, meant we didn't need heating for most of the month. In fact, we only spent £1.50 a day on gas 5 times, and only went over £2 a day twice. So our whole heating bill was about £34

We earned more in exported, than we spent on importing electric... but the daily standing charges made up 2/3 of the whole electric bill... and because of the export, the electric bill was around £17 for the month and around £34 for gas.

That's about a 50% saving on last years bill alone... the best one yet this year. We've seen 30-40% reductions on last years bill in previous months.

Can this weather last, or will we have a wet summer... No idea. But if it does, we could have a record year for generation. We need to beat around 4100kwh to do that. After the first 4 months, we've generated 1363kwh. We're still 7 weeks away from summer (4 if you count 1st June as the start rather than the equinox on the 21st).

A side effect of such a high generation, we've increased the credit on the energy account by a further £49 this month. They were predicting a £102 bill a few weeks ago, they lowered it to a £62 estimate a week or so back.

Interestingly, they're no estimating the May bill as £27... I'll be turning of the heating now for the summer.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

A very quick #SolarUpdate for the first week of April.

We've had 7 days of lovely sunny weather, very unusual for this time of year, and another 5 days of it predicted until the weekend.

How does that affect the running of the house?

So far, we've spent
£6.49 on electric inc standing charges
£7.06 on gas inc standing charges

We've earned

£9.12 from exporting electric

Which gives us a balance of £4.43

The standing charges alone for that week are £6.65

So we've covered all of our gas & electric use and a third of the standing charges so far.

The weather won't last... But it's reminder that a little bit of sunshine can do wonders, not only for your mental health and well being, but for reducing your reliance on energy. We've been using the conservatory (it has a laminate roof) as a heater for the house. It gets so hot in there, even in colder weather, that you can open the doors and let that warmth into the house, avoiding the need to have the heating on at all during the day.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate

My energy provider continues to be idiotic.

I actually had a moan at them last week because they recommended upping my monthly payment to £130 from it's current £100 after I switched to a fixed tariff to avoid the price rises from the 1st April.

They estimated my bills for the next 7 months at around £700, when based on the last 2yrs data... they would be in the £400 range and wanted us to make just over £900 in payments.

As we had £655 credit on the account already, this would have given us a credit in the region of £900-1000

So I told them off, gave them far more accurate figures (it's not like they don't have access to the smart meters and can actually see this for themselves).

They agreed to leave the payments at £100 which will not only gives us a healthy credit to protect from sudden larger bills next winter... But leaves the total monthly budget for the whole house, at a set level without any surprises.

So what do I find today... They've 'adjusted' their predictions to an even more ridiculous level, this time swinging so far under... that they're recommending the monthly payment (for gas & electric) should be £45.36... or a 55% reduction just a couple of weeks after recommending a 30% INCREASE.

Utterly stupid.

But not only that, some of the predictions they're making for bills are so stupid and so out of touch that they're laughable.

Like predicting we will use ZERO amount of gas for April through August, when we will still be using gas for hot water.

Predicting the total bills for June & July as £7... not a typo. Given the standing charges alone are about £30 a month and the most we've ever earned from solar export was £27 in a single month.

So here's their predictions with the last 12 months of actual bills in brackets.

March £118 (2 days ago it was £168, actual bill was £94)
April £67 (last year was £104)
May £30 (last year was £42
June £5 (last year £13
July £2 (last year £32)
Aug £14 (last year £34)
Sept £38 (last year £50)
Oct £89 (last year £108)
Nov £134 (last year £192)
Dec £174 (last year £207)
Jan £184 (this year £223)
Feb £152 (this year £185)

So, they think that 2 weeks after predicting our bills at around £700 between March-Sept and asking for £900 in payments for that period... We will now have bills totalling... £274 and they want payments of £371.86 (6x £45.36 as March already paid @ £100)

When the actual bills last year were about £380 for the same period and we'd paid £700 in monthly bills (we build up summer credit because we easily have £200 a month bills from Nov-Feb due to heating and less sunlight).

They have over 2yrs of data with the solar system in place and still don't have a clue that the actual import of energy is between 1800-2000kwh a year and now they seem to be assuming it's going to be around 1400kwh.

Thankfully, they're only recommending lowering the payments at this time.

But FFS, how can they go from recommending £130 2 weeks ago to recommending £45 now... If they're using some kind of AI to do these predictions... it just further proves how shite they are.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen
#Octopus
#DumbPredictiveBilling