The Solar Revolution - Intelligent Octopus. New Smart Electric Vehicle charging.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2024
- Smart charging EV's, Intelligent Octopus is the latest innovation in the Solar Revolution. I discuss the impact with Hugh my brother who installed solar over 3 years ago. His figures are impressive.
How to configure Tesla Powerwall to export during Octopus savings session. These sessions pay high levels for both reductions in power use over your normal level of usage and for extra power exported. • Energy Export from Tes...
Hugh says, "In my opinion Octopus Energy are the most innovative supplier in the emerging green power space. If you are not with Octopus you can use my referral link and we will both get £50."
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Contents of this video:-
00:00 3 years key points intro
01:38 1st significant change - intelligent Octopus
02:11 Easy decisions
02:48 Octopus App controls
04:57 Electric 12 months figures house and car
06:27 Fossil Fuel 12 months costs
07:56 Intelligent Octopus savings
11:45 £3,000 Annual Savings
12:26 Summary - Savings - Investment
13:53 Solar + Battery investment
14:02 Return on investment
14:35 Environmental Benefit
16:17 How to get to net zero CO2?
18:49 Future of solar revolution
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Bang on. This is one of the main reasons I'm going for solar/battery, as you say nice and simple, charge battery in the cheap rate (and car if needed) export whatever solar there is. Thats it. No more trying to work out what tomorrow's weather will be and whether to import that night or use the solar. ETA I hadn't appreciated this in effect nvalidates Zappi except that (AIUI) Zappa is one of the smart chargers that is compatible so you can at leats use it for IO. By pure happenstance my charger (Wallbox) is compatible.
James. This is a really excellent all round presentation of what you are achieving, and so eloquently discussed. We purchased our first EV last November, and decided to back off from a more expensive model, that ultimately we did not like any more than the one we chose, and the lower price paid for our solar panels and battery. We have not gone to a heat pump yet, but I think that will be our next step. We have had our grandchildren in our thoughts when making our decisions, and fortunately we have hard earned cash available to make the investment. Hopefully more people will watch your video and it will give them that last little nudge to follow this quiet revolution, which I am pleased to say has a good percentage of us more senior people.
Thank you Peter, what a lovely comment and feedback. My brother Hugh (I am the cameraman and editor) has installed his heat pump now. He is getting some really excellent results. His next TH-cam video will take us through his heat pump journey. Hugh has been my heat pump guru, as I also install a heat pump. He has some very important points that I personally think make a huge difference between what the average heat pump installer will give you and what results in an excellent installation. I would like to think this video will be ready in the next 2 to 4 weeks.
If you live in England and Wales there is of course the £7,500 grant, that it would be remiss not to make use of. My suggestion, is wait for this new video before deciding on an installer. There is no harm starting to get quotes, you will need to get half a dozen, to try and find the high quality installers and realistic price. Some will tell you that you can't install a heat pump with micro bore gas or oil heated house. This is not true, certainly not true in Hugh's case, he will share his results with all of us.
Yes us seniors are making a difference quietly. I am currently going through a heat pump installation, I am very lucky having Hugh guiding me on all of this after his experiences. It can be quite daunting as heat pumps is such a different technology for heating compared to gas and oil heating. But Hugh will show it works brilliantly when it is well installed. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, very much appreciated..
I have made the step to a heat pump and I am extremely pleased with it. You do have to be carefull that it is installed correctly though.
Interesting analysis. Our experience with the heat pump is around a cop of 3. We only switched the unit on in September so still need to get to march tonget an accurate view, but comparing the last 3 years figures it looks like the unit is using a 3rd less energy and keeping eith the cop. Cost wise over winter it works out slightly cheaper, but the real gain will be march to may when our solar kicks in better. From an return on investment point of view, the solar and battery breaks even after after 6 years. The interesting and less talked about bit is you do not pay vat or income tax on any solar you generate on site and also the losses for self consumption are minimal compared to transmission of power through the grid. Adding the transmission differences makes things even harder to calculate, so best to keep the analysis as you have done.
You raise a good point on the tax free savings you get from solar.I agree this is often overlooked.
It is hard to do the calculations for any individual part like the heat pump.I have had to make some simplifying assumptions. The low cost power I get from Intelligent Octopus is due to owning an EV but the heat pump benefits. So is it a heat pump saving or a car saving?
I think the only thing I can do is look at the whole system after a year and compare it with my base costs.
A really beautiful story with excellent supporting data. A message to us all ......we are just a short way behind you. Thank you for the effort expended in this example!
Thank you, very informative and persuasive arguments for a full 'green' system. I am only just beginning the journey with an EV and planning to add solar with batteries in the next phase.
Good luck, I think you will find it a very rewarding journey (both financially and satisfaction)
Thank you for leaving your comments, it make a big difference to us, that we are posting is of interest.
Hugh has just installed a heat pump, he has just said to me he could produce a series of short videos taking people his experiences to help anyone thinking of doing the same. This is all the start of the solar revolution that is going to transform all our lives. What does Hugh say, "Solar is the cheapest form of electricity ever known to man!"
James, me again. In this video you are echoing my own thoughts on the macro environment for solar, and it turns out we both have a connection to Southern Africa. On the DNO issue, have you thought about some of your future battery storage being 'behind the grid' or solely downloadable from the grid to allay the DNO's fears. And to then be used solely for the EVs.
Hugh Replying with my thoughts.
When you say "behind the grid" do you mean on the DC side of the inverter? If so we did discuss that as an option. DC batteries would allow us to store any energy, above the inverter limit, in DC batteries and then export it or use it at times when the inverter has capacity.
The problem is that I have an AC battery (Tesla Powerwall) and the DC batteries would be from another supplier and would not work together and there would likely be unintended and possibly uncontrollable interactions.
Rather than use the extra storage to charge the car it would probably better to export it and use night time power to charge the car.
I'm starting to come round to your way of thinking because I too use Tesla. Many thanks.
Excellent informative video. I've done something similar and have reduced my energy cost by 75% or so.
When I looked at the installers heat loss calculations it suggested a larger heat pump but I've since realised one figure (air exchange) in the calculation spreadsheet was losing a lot of energy and is very tricky to define and can be way out if you've sealed up the gaps. Reducing this factor suggests I could have got away with a smaller unit but it's still good.
I don't have a buffer tank but I do have a low loss header for hydraulic separation. I have 28mm from heat pump to tee into 22mm middle rail fanning to 15mm to radiators so it's questionable whether I need the header at all but the heat pump warranty demands it's fitted. I do know someone who removed and bypassed theirs but didn't find any advantage.
I have struggled with air change per hour. The MCS spreadheet by default populates the figure based on the age of the house but what if you have refurbished your house?
As you say it has a huge impact on the heat loss figures but is not easy to determine the true value that should be used.
Interesting the heat pump warranty demanded hydraulic separation. What make of heat pump do you have?
@@hughrattray9354 It's a Midea heat pump and the literature includes annual recording of header input and output as part of the warranty in evidence of servicing. I was told by the installer that Freedom (who train installers and supply the units) say one should be fitted - but without speaking to them I'm not sure if the warranty would be void if it was removed. It could just be that it's only recommended to get over more restrictive radiator pipes etc in some situations and keep the flow to the heat pump unrestricted. As it happens in my case, input and output temperatures are identical so it's not distorting or even doing much so it could probably be bypassed but at the same time I'm not sure it would make a difference apart from the power to run a secondary pump. I was particularly careful to ensure the installer tee'd into the centre of the 22mm rails with 28mm from the buffer which is the same to the heat pump so there's no restriction and cross section always gets bigger as it fans out 28mm to 2x22mm to 8x15mm etc.
Yes, the air exchange is a tricky one to measure or even estimate. The heat loss spreadsheet from Freedom which is based on MCS but easier to use has Air Ch/h selected by room type and different building regs or heat recovery ventilation with factors ranging from 2 to 0.2 which can double a rooms loss or more depending on the other U values. I've sealed the place up quite well and use a dehumidifier for drying clothes to keep the RH down and if I select a lower air exchange I could possibly reduce the heat pump a size.
Hi James, I have just come across your channel and subscribed. Firstly it is refreshing that you discussed your frustrations with the DNO involvement. We have exactly the same issues and feel that they are not adapting to a swiftly changing environment.
Secondly, we are currently on Go and looking to swap to Intelligent Octopus. We also have a Powerwall 2, our question is, have you had any issues with the Powerwall discharging into the car during the night time charging periods which leaves the battery low or empty for your daytime use please?
Hi Lynn,
Many thanks for your comments.
Regarding the DNO, I also feel that they are not being open about why they impose limits and the process they follow to decide on export levels. It is all very arbitrary in my view.
It is also interesting that in the Energy Act 2023, which has just passed through parliament, Ofgen now have a remit to help achieve net zero. As a result, I plan to write to them to ask what they plan to do about the DNO bottleneck. I think there is a huge opportunity to utilise home solar to help with the net zero goal.
With the Powerwall 2, I have programmed the Intelligent Octopus tariff and the new 15p export rate into it and, as a result, it does not generally discharge into the car at night. If it forecasts a sunny day it may partially discharge.
I have gone a step further though and allowed the Powerwall to export to the grid. So it can buy power at 7.5p and sell it later for 15p. This results in it fully charging every night and then exporting the solar and the excess solar during the day.
I have just seen my Octopus bill to the 15th October and it is negative so I have been paid more for my exports than it cost me to buy power.
@@hughrattray9354 Thank you for your reply. Our DNO wanted 15k from us to upgrade our home to a three phase supply when we added our Powerwall and extra solar in 2020. We are therefore stuck with an export limit of 3.6. In April this year I understand that the rules as to who pays for adding a three phase supply to a domestic property changed. My understanding is that if you wish to add extra generating capacity you still have to pay the majority of the cost. However, if you wish to increase your consumption ie install a heat pump, the DNO meets the cost.
Unfortunately trying to talk to anyone at a DNO can prove to be very difficult, indeed in our experience advice differs with the same DNO depending on who you speak to. As an example our installer dealt with one DNO member of staff to fit a Pw and extra solar in one town who allowed a normal install, then moving to our property in another town 20 miles down the road had to jump through hoops with a different member of the DNO so we had additional and unnecessary costs just to fit the new equipment.
We will see what happens when we pluck up the courage to try Intelligent, I suppose we could ask for our EV to be ready for charge by 0330 and then that would give to Pw plenty of chance to charge. We are very low mains users and being on FIT payments already get paid for the majority of our generation plus deemed export of 50% that generation, we use 2/3rds of all we produce as well so it’s not a priority to,”lose” the deemed export to potentially gain the Octopus export 15p.
@@lynnfisher4396 I agree with your comments on the DNO, everyone I have spoken to has told me something different and this confusion is then spread to the installers.
In my case they have allowed me to have a 6Kw export limit and I have heard from people who have a 10Kw export limit, all on a single phase.
I was quoted £5K to install three phase but I was told that all I had to pay for was the connection to my house and they would deal with any upstream costs.
I have a heat pump installed and they upgraded the main fuse to the house to 80Amps from 65 without any charge.
I am not sure why you are nervous about moving to Intelligent Octopus from Octopus Go. I made the same switch without any problems.
The only differences are a cheaper off peak rate that lasts for 6 hours not 4 hours and the exact time of charging is decided by Octopus within the 6 hour window. I set the app to ensure the charge is completed by 6am. Last night it charged between 04.00 to 4.30 and 05.00 to 05.30.
The Powerwall was fully charged by about 1am and no power was drawn from it until .5.30 am when the off peak rate ended.
@@hughrattray9354 Thanks Hugh, that’s very reassuring regarding how the PW works with OI, I will try a test of the communications between the car and Octopus to start the swap process this afternoon.
@@lynnfisher4396 Actually you can exceed the 3.6kw limit if you file a G99 form instead of a G98 which has the 3.6 limit. We have a 4.7kw array and 5kw inverter, so have exported up to 5kw. I believe that the G99 would allow higher than this
Hello James, great video thanks. At the beginning you mentioned exporting to the grid from your Powerwall, I've got a very similar set up to you, but don't know how to make my Powerwall export to the grid - can you let me know how to do this?
Hugh has just made a video showing how you can export to the grid from Powerwall, hope this helps - th-cam.com/video/QqkRORvrb6w/w-d-xo.html
I hope you have now managed to get the Powerwall setup for export. I anticipate, with the high pressure, low wind days, there will be more power saving sessions coming up.
Tesla have said they'll turn it on for me, it's been a week and the export options haven't appeared on the app yet - I'll chase them next week.
Have you looked into connecting more solar and limiting its export?
I have but I have been told that the DNO no longer trusts limiters. This means that they will also limit the total power output of my inverters.
I am going to continue to look into this as I am not happy with the answer.
I do also have the option to connect more panels to my existing inverter which would give me more power in the winter but clipping in the summer.
Just a question as I understand it the dno does not stop you fitting more panels they want to restrict your peak supply to the grid to whatever you have permission for? If that is the case you can install more solar and have more battery including perhaps dc connected batteries then store more, import even less and export over more hours than you do at present?
The DNO now restrict how much you can export and this must be implemented by a G100 compliant limiter but they are also now restricting your total inverter capacity. They will count the inverters for your solar system and also the inverters in any AC batteries you own.
I am not sure why they are restricting total inverter capacity. You can implement as many DC batteries as you like.