Free electricity to cook the turkey

[Alan]

Just got this email today from my electricity supplier. 4 free hours of electricity on Christmas morning. I have signed up and look forward not only to cooking dinner for free, but charging our solar panel batteries and using our 2 space heaters to heat the house that morning - forecast is for a frost.

Hi Alan,

In many ways, 2020 has been a year to forget.

But we think you deserve a thank you.

This year, you’ve been part of an unprecedented global shift to renewable energy. I’ve included a few epic stats for you at the bottom of this email.

To say thanks, we’re offering Octopus customers with an eligible smart meter 4 hours free 100% renewable electricity to cook your turkey on Christmas Day, or just to celebrate — in whatever way you see fit.

How does it work?
Click this link to let us know you’d like to join in before 11:59pm on December 24th. We’ll need your permission to access the half-hourly readings from your smart meter. (You may have given us this before, but we’ll ask again just to make things easier logistically.)
Go about your day, and enjoy yourself. Casually drop some truth bombs about the green energy revolution into small talk. We’ll measure how much electricity you use between 8am-12pm this Friday automatically.
We’ll automatically credit your account before the end of January. If we can’t retrieve your readings for whatever reason within 7 days, we’ll credit you with the average amount of all participants instead.
That’s it! Just remember to let us know you want to join in before 11:59pm on December 24th.

 

[NW-Bound]

Nice!

A few days ago, I read about excess juice in the UK at night from wind generators. Now, you have excess energy at noon too. I like that, knowing that you do not have reliable sunshine as I do here in the US Southwest.

I would buy more lithium battery if I were you. In fact, I may buy more myself, beyond the existing 34-kWh battery I already have. Why, I just mounted 8 more solar panels on my roof yesterday with the help of my son, and surveying the roof area I saw that I could mount another 8 easily next to these new 8.

And I can still get more mounted after that. Heh heh heh... But I need to wire up this group first to see what I am getting. Can a guy have so much power, he has to open the windows in the middle of summer if his ACs run too cold? Heh heh heh...

 

[Alan]

Nice!

A few days ago, I read about excess juice in the UK at night from wind generators. Now, you have excess energy at noon too. I like that, knowing that you do not have reliable sunshine as I do here in the US Southwest.

I would buy more lithium battery if I were you. In fact, I may buy more myself, beyond the existing 34-kWh battery I already have. Why, I just mounted 8 more solar panels on my roof yesterday with the help of my son, and surveying the roof area I saw that I could mount another 8 easily next to these new 8.

And I can still get more mounted after that. Heh heh heh... But I need to wire up this group first to see what I am getting. Can a guy have so much power, he has to open the windows in the middle of summer if his ACs run too cold? Heh heh heh...

This last year we have had over 30 days where the electricity supply at night exceeded what was needed and prices went negative so we actually got paid for charging the batteries.

We’ve now had a full year of solar panels with batteries and have exported 261kWh more than we imported. The year’s total electricity cost was £59 which is only because of the 20p/day standing charge. The payback on adding another battery is too long to be financially worth it as we only get paid 5.4p/kWh for export.

 

[NW-Bound]

The payback on adding another battery is too long to be financially worth it as we only get paid 5.4p/kWh for export.

My solar storage system is off-grid, and runs some chosen circuits of the house. I cannot export to the grid, and that is a moot point anyway because I still consume more than my solar panels produce, most of the time.

However, I occasionally have excess juice early in the day, and need adequate storage to save it for use in the late afternoon, and potentially through the night.

Being an energy hog, overall I consume more than the existing solar panels currently produce. Hence, I still dream of more panels, and more batteries.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here are some numbers for a better perspective.

In the last 12 months, I used 5,747 kWh.

When I did not have the solar system 3 years ago, I used 16,085 kWh for 12 months.

It does not mean that my panels produce the difference of 10,338 kWh/year, however. Some of the savings comes from the use of 2 mini-splits to keep only the first floor comfortable, and turning off the central AC and abandoning the 2nd floor with its unused rooms.


PS. I made some errors when posting above numbers, and just corrected them.

 

[INTJ10]

We have a solar panel system too. We produce and use about 500 kW or .5MW per month. It varies according to the time of year. We have net metering and have banked about 400 kW extra since the system was installed about 9 months ago. The payout on the extra is pretty small for the utility. The batteries are very expensive. It would cost about $15,000 for a battery installation including the added wiring. The frustrating part of the law is that if the grid goes down, our solar panel system is deactivated. So, even though we could generate enough juice to meet our daylight needs, we can't use it. The only way around this is to get a battery system so if the grid goes down, the juice goes into the battery. But a gas generator is under a $1,000 so the batteries still are hard to justify.

 

[NW-Bound]

... The batteries are very expensive. It would cost about $15,000 for a battery installation including the added wiring...

The $15K will get you about 15 kWh worth of battery. It's enough to get you through the night, but not to run the AC, water heater, or major appliances like an oven or cloth dryer.

The frustrating part of the law is that if the grid goes down, our solar panel system is deactivated. So, even though we could generate enough juice to meet our daylight needs, we can't use it. The only way around this is to get a battery system so if the grid goes down, the juice goes into the battery. But a gas generator is under a $1,000 so the batteries still are hard to justify.

It's not the law, but that's the way all grid-tied systems work. There are technical reasons why batteries are needed.

There are now grid-tied inverters that can supply a small amount of electricity when the grid goes down. The utility of that is still very limited, because you still have nothing once the sun goes down.

Yes, lithium batteries are still expensive. My DIY 34-kWh system still costs me tens of thousands, even with free labor, and by sourcing raw cells from surplus dealers. I am not doing this to save money. I do this as a hobby. What I manage to save is taken as a measure of technical achievement, rather than as a financial success.

 

[Alan]

When storm Bella blew through a couple of days ago we had 8 hours overnight where we were paid 4p/kWh to use electricity. I set the timer on the inverter to get a full charge, set up up a space heater to run all night, ran the dishwasher and we did a hot cleaning cycle on the washing machine. All to help keep the grid in balance

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-generation-boxing-day?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other