Octopus Flux

[MikeGrahamT21]

It gets so complicated all this, and I’m a Systems and network engineer 😂 

 

my solis ac connected inverter for the battery doesn’t have the options I need really, and trying to get them to understand on support is almost impossible.

 

I’ve got time of use so can set timed import and export up no problems, have 3 slots for each, but then you have to specify your charge in amps, so you have to guess in DC what the battery will get if you want specific power. Tonight I don’t have enough charge for my hourly discharge so I’ve had to disable it, but asked support if they can implement say a SOC setting by which force discharge won’t go below, but once it hits that only the force stops and normal discharge resumes, but so far they don’t get what I’m on about 🤦‍♂️

Edited September 26, 2023 by MikeGrahamT21

[S2D2]

Finally time to say goodbye to Flux and jump ship to Cosy for the winter. Haven't paid a penny for energy whilst on Flux (including gas and both standing orders) and remaining credit should last to the end of the month so 7.5 months of free energy, can't ask for more really!

[Pocster]

2 hours ago, S2D2 said:

Finally time to say goodbye to Flux and jump ship to Cosy for the winter. Haven't paid a penny for energy whilst on Flux (including gas and both standing orders) and remaining credit should last to the end of the month so 7.5 months of free energy, can't ask for more really!

I jumped to cosy a few days ago .

Though my export still shows flux ! - as that’s wrong I assume I won’t be getting that export rate .

My export credit will last until the next flux and then some !

Edited October 19, 2023 by Pocster

[MikeGrahamT21]

14 minutes ago, Pocster said:

I jumped to cosy a few days ago .

Though my export still shows flux ! - as that’s wrong I assume I won’t be getting that export rate .

My export credit will last until the next flux and then some !

Export tariffs always seem to lag behind import I’ve noticed.

[Pocster]

9 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

Export tariffs always seem to lag behind import I’ve noticed.

Yeah be nice if I really am still getting 35p export ( though what I export now is nominal ) . I do like cosy . Get to top up PowerWall and SE twice a day at off peak rate . Absolutely awesome for winter .

[S2D2]

2 hours ago, Pocster said:

I jumped to cosy a few days ago .

Though my export still shows flux ! - as that’s wrong I assume I won’t be getting that export rate .

My export credit will last until the next flux and then some !

Same with the export, I specifically applied for outgoing fixed which seemed to confuse things even more, maybe an email to them would have been better? Usually the UI is a mess for 48 hours then it all comes out the wash.

 

2 hours ago, Pocster said:

I do like cosy . Get to top up PowerWall and SE twice a day at off peak rate . Absolutely awesome for winter .

Indeed, it tops up the battery like the solar used to and six hours a day of cheap heat pump should definitely help with winter costs! I've parked all the complicated battery management logic and just gone for 100% charge in the cheap periods as cheap Cosy is close enough to Fixed Outgoing export to not faff about.

[MikeGrahamT21]

My heating is still gas at the moment, and a full battery come first thing on a morning is more than enough to get me through even a busy day with appliances, so going to stick with flux for now, I should have done it sooner really but to be honest was just glad to get a fully operational smart meter 😂 

[JohnMo]

19 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

fully operational smart meter

Lucky you, mines a nice new smart meter that cannot communicate. So I'm slowly moving towards E7.

[S2D2]

6 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Lucky you, mines a nice new smart meter that cannot communicate. So I'm slowly moving towards E7.

As usual this makes a joke of government targets. Doesn't matter if it actually functions or not, allowing the user to leverage smart tariffs, the box for "installed at this property" gets ticked...

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Lucky you, mines a nice new smart meter that cannot communicate. So I'm slowly moving towards E7.

So is mine.  They say it is a local area problem, but I think they are arse covering.

It was working fine when first fitted, but lasted less than 2 days before it stopped.

I am in a good cellular phone signal area, so that is not a valid reason.

I think they have given me 50 quid off my bill, hopefully I will get another 50 quid, not that they have sent me a bill for 4 months now, which is a bit of a worry.

[S2D2]

Outgoing Fixed Export now working as expected. I forgot it's fixed for 12 months so does insure next summer against export price drops, not that I'm expecting prices to drop much.

[MikeGrahamT21]

Just noticed on the Octopus app, Octoplus, which is their rewards program for ESO demand flexibility for 2023 and this year also seems to include free import when there is excess energy. Should be a good add on to flux or anything really

[MrTWales]

Oww...I'm on Flux but it looks like I should be thinking about Cosy. 

 

What I'm worried about is judging how much to charge the battery. If it gets full in the day then I'm at least getting an export amount paid now, but this stops with Cosy? I guess it's less of an issue each day and you can top up to a certain figure before the high import rates start.

[S2D2]

2 minutes ago, MrTWales said:

Oww...I'm on Flux but it looks like I should be thinking about Cosy. 

 

What I'm worried about is judging how much to charge the battery. If it gets full in the day then I'm at least getting an export amount paid now, but this stops with Cosy? I guess it's less of an issue each day and you can top up to a certain figure before the high import rates start.

You can move your export to outgoing fixed at 15p/kWh. Not quite symmetric to the cosy import but I just fully charge for simplicity.

[MrTWales]

3 minutes ago, S2D2 said:

You can move your export to outgoing fixed at 15p/kWh. Not quite symmetric to the cosy import but I just fully charge for simplicity.

Ah thanks for this.  I wasn't aware of this - I thought that you could have Flux Export only with Flux Import, but I wasn't aware of any other options. When I can face it I'll think it through and get it sorted. My inverter has a fair number of options but not quite as many as I'd like, but I can set several windows to imports / push to the grid.

[S2D2]

On 19/10/2023 at 15:05, S2D2 said:

Finally time to say goodbye to Flux and jump ship to Cosy for the winter. Haven't paid a penny for energy whilst on Flux (including gas and both standing orders) and remaining credit should last to the end of the month so 7.5 months of free energy, can't ask for more really!

In hindsight, Cosy worked well but ended up costing £30 more than just being on Octopus Tracker for 3 months, before even factoring in battery inefficiencies. So I'm just on Tracker now. Obviously tracker won't stay cheaper forever, but at present with low rates on Tracker there just isn't a use case for Cosy to me. It still compares well against standard variable, of course.

 

Flux was a different beast, over £200 better being on that over summer compared to Tracker with fixed export at 15p, so I'll switch back to that again in the spring depending on where export rates go.