#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 so far this month we’ve generated 330KW, fed 44KW of that into the grid (and taken 14KW from it, by accident, my bad) and 43KW into the car. Today we’re out and most of the 25KW we generate (after putting 5KW into the house battery) will go to grid, offsetting our standing charge.

House came with the solar panels, we installed the battery last March, at the moment it’ll pay back in about 10 years.

#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

Interesting bit of info I just spotted in the data.

Since Feb 1st 2025, we have spent 46 days effectively off-grid. So far this year.

Off-grid is when we import less than 1kwh of electric in a day. There's always a little trickle here and there as the inverter and battery can take 5-10s to adjust to changes in the load on the system.

So 46 days off grid, and 46 days where we imported more than 1kwh each day.

We've imported 299kwh in that period, and 197kwh of it was in Feb.

That's an avg of 3.1kwh per day over 92 days.

For comparison... in the whole 2024, we spent 123 days off grid, and only 21 days of that in the exact same Feb-April period.

We're up more than 50% on last year.

This is where I sarcastically say... Yay, global warming...

#SolarUpdate It's a new record.... No, not the solar generation.

But the new 'recommended' direct debit amount from Octopus as they realise after nearly 2yrs that the solar and battery system means lower bills.

But then they go bonkers and estimate the June/July bills as £1 (last year was £32 & £14) and they think the August bill will be £10 (last year was £34)

But then the drastically under estimate the winter bills too... which can easily top £200 when there's almost no sun and it's fucking cold.

So... they think, in order to avoid them owing us money in 12 months... we should be paying £27.73 a month.

That's down from £40 last month and £43 a couple of weeks earlier that that.

No thanks... I'll leave it at £100 a month, that way I can predict my budget each month and maybe build up enough credit that I can actually have a direct debit of £1 a month for a whole year.

Based on their ridiculous estimates... keeping it £100 a month will mean we've got a £1200 credit by Nov... The Nov-Feb bills avg around £750-850 alone.

#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

#SolarUpdate a quick one as it's almost the end of the month.

Energy bill for the last month just dropped.

£51 for gas & electric, it was actually £70, but we earned £19 from solar export.

Octopus last month were predicting a £104 bill, but after I had a moan at them for wanting to up my DD to £130 after switching to a fixed rate tariff to avoid the price rises... they've redone their predictions to such a ridiculous degree that they think June-July bills will be £1 (last year they were £32 & £14). Which would have meant us paying £910 in monthly payments from April to Sept on expected bills of around £400 (based on last year). But we've actually been around £30-40 lower than their predictions and last years bills too because the weather has been milder this winter and a much warmer spring.

It also means they've predicted the April bill at £63 now, whilst the May bill they're saying will be £27... We continue to pay £100 a month and are expecting to have around an £800-900 credit come winter. Which is great because 80% of our yearly bills is from Nov-Feb when it's colder and we generate very little solar.

They're also suggesting we lower out monthly payments to £40... No thanks. If we do that we'll have to raise them to around £150-200 in the middle of winter... and I'd much rather keep them at £100 because I can afford that just fine, whilst a sudden increase of 50-100% would cause issues. I like working fewer hours and do not want to be pushed into increasing them to afford bills... Work to live, not live to work. I want to retire at 55 if I can, not go back to working full time and unable to enjoy the countryside, sea and mountains around me.

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

If you'd like an example of how much we in the UK are being screwed on energy prices. You only have to look at the daily 'standing charge' we pay for utilities.

It's currently 65p per day for electric and 30p per day for gas.

It's going up in April to 68p and 32p on top of rises per kwh of use.

It's not that bad you might say... But here's 2 charts, for the exact same period.

Chart one is the total electric used inc the daily standing charge for the first 3 weeks of March.

The second chart is just the cost of the electric.

The difference is about 138%

Less than £10 for electric, and almost £14 for standing charges.

#SolarUpdate It's been a pretty good start to March for solar. First 10 days data showing around 140kwh of generation and just 26kwh of electric import (energy provider data says 28.7kwh).

If you extrapolate that into approximate data for the month. It could be in the region of more than 400kwh for the month (2023 was 279kwh and 2024 was 309kwh)... So I expect some more inclement weather to arrive in the latter half of the month to balance that out.

But considering that Feb generation was 28% higher than 2024 (no complete data for 2023), I'm optimistic it's be in the 330-350kwh range.

With extra sunny and clear skies of late, it's also meant it's much colder. No cloud to help trap heat. So gas use is not declining as usual and is on par with Feb, when I'd expect to see a 10-20% drop.

So when the sun is out, I try and open the conservatory door to let the warmer air into the lounge/dining room where the thermostat is. Which means I can avoid the heating coming on as much between 11-3pm when the sun is shining most on the conservatory. That in the last few days has reduced the gas use each day from £3 to around £2 for the last 4 days.

If this continues in a similar fashion for the whole of march, the combined bill is going to be in the £120-140 range, my provider is 'predicting' a £175 bill.

But this years bills have been lower than last year by an avg of £30-40 per month in Jan-Feb (the winter Nov-Dec bills have been almost identical).

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate A quick mini one... Just to highlight what sunshine can do.

Last week we had decent weather for the end of Feb and the start of March. Sun was out, so we could open the door to the conservatory during the middle of the day to allow the heat from that to help warm the home.

The result of that, plus slightly warmer days meant a 74% reduction in both electric and gas use. Saving us £18 & £24 respectively over the avg from the previous much colder week.

That's just 7 days, and a £42 saving.

This week will also be quite low because we've had some decent weather again, Thurs & Sun predicted to be good, Fri-Sat cold and cloudy.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate time again. We spent the last few days of Feb off grid since Monday morning. Haven't yet had a 100% full battery, but we did hit 94% yesterday. Which meant that there was around 50% left this morning, and whilst it's not as sunny as previous days, it's already charged back to 73%

So onto a few stats.

Energy use in the home 395kwh
Energy generation 224kwh
Energy export 3kwh
Energy import 197kwh

As usual, the data reported is within a few kwh of actual use. It's somewhere around 98% accurate. If I look at the direct data from my provider, we imported 201kwh, and exported 6kwh

In Feb 2024, we generated 175kwh, so we've generated an extra 28% of power this year. But we exported some 20kwh in Feb 24 too, four times as much as this year. That's the difference between the old battery of 4.2kwh and the new extra batteries of 12.4kwh

Winter bill for gas & electric (Nov-Feb) £807 vs £904 in 2023. I improved the insulation in the roof at the start of Dec and that has dropped the heating bills a fair amount.

Energy use for Feb was down due to the shorter month, but also a little because we've been doing simpler meals or batch cooking whilst workers have been in doing DIY on the master bedroom and ensuite.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate quickie... We had a zero import day for the first time this year... In February!!!

Last year, that didn't happen until the middle of April.

We've been on solar & battery since Monday morning, less than 1kwh of energy imported on Tues (there's always a trickle of a few watts here and there as inverter and battery can take 5-10secs to adjust to loads).

Weather forecast for the last few days of Feb are decent, we've already passed total generation for Feb 2024 and I'm looking at the forecast and thinking we could easily beat last years total by 20% or more.

If you ever wanted proof of climate change... here it is. Good for our energy bills, not so good for the planet.

But it's hard to be unhappy. Crisp clear winter days are exactly the kind of weather I enjoy. I don't mind the cold, I just hate the miserable grey dark skies.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen

#SolarUpdate

On the 7th Feb 2025, we had our first day of off grid energy consumption this year.

The last time we went 24hrs without importing less than 1kwh all day was 22nd Oct 2024. So about 3.5 months.

Last year, the first time we did that was the 7th March. So a full month earlier than we've done before.

On the one hand... yay for climate change

On the other hand... oh fuck.... climate change.

We might get warmer winters as a result, but we get more storms and more risk... and in the long term... if it persists, the UK and a lot of Europe, will actually get colder overall, more like Scandinavian countries.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen
#ClimateChange
#GlobalWarming

#SolarUpdate time again.

The 1st month of 2025 has been and gone, the world is burning and collapsing all around us.

But I'm still making some savings on my energy bills.

We generated about 148kwh of energy in Jan, not bad. Last year we generated 151kwh in Jan.

We imported 296kwh of electric.

We used around 425kwh of energy for the month and exported perhaps 2kwh which earned 27p.

Our electric bill for the month was around £98. Almost identical to Jan 2024 within about £3 (after accounting for price changes).

Nov-Feb are the worst months of the year for solar, and accounts for over 50% of our energy bill for the whole year in those 4 months.

Last year Jan-Feb and Nov-Dec we imported about 1345kwh of energy. From Mar-Oct, we imported about 670kwh.

It's the same with gas, I turn the heating off at the end of April and back on in Oct. Mainly because I have an elderly parent living with me who gets cold easily. So temps are at least +1ºC than I would keep it and turned on for about 7 months of the year vs 5-6 for me (I'd turn it off early April and on Later in Oct). So the only gas used is for hot water in those months. 90% of the gas bill is in those months the heating is on.

#Solar
#Battery
#GoingGreen