Our Solar PV Journey

On Sunday, I suspended my normal "set-and-forget" policy and intervened in the natural order of things. Octopus Agile had plunge pricing and I wondered if it was possible to make use of it despite having plenty of free solar energy coming in. Well - for the first time - I managed to make money on both import and export. The average import cost was actually negative (although there was still the daily standing charge). It is a pity that it is not like that more of the time.

Again, actual generation exceeded the Global Solar Atlas prediction. 806.9 actual, 670.9 predicted. Exceeded by 20.2%: Bottom line: Compared to last year (on Standard Variable Tariff), my bill has reduced to about 30% of what it was. I am paying for only about 42% of the energy used, the rest being "free" (if you ignore my investment in plant). Another way of looking at that same statistic, is that my average cost per kWh is effectively about 10p. Of course, these figures will be considereably worse when the winter comes - but that is where we are right now. Note that these stats are for a home without gas, with a heat pump and a plug-in hybrid vehicle. Total consumption is a lot greater than the typical British household. A typical household would be able to meet a much greater proportion of its needs with a similarly sized system.