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By the end of today, we should finally have a working smart meter.

We have a GSHP but it's an old one and can only be turned on/off and up/down manually. Just looking at recent running it runs from around 0600 for a few hours and then again in the evening again from around 1800. I can tweak it up a bit during the day to top up the UFH and then it wouldn't need to run much in the evening peak. Averaging around 2000 kWh a year

We have a FIT tied 3.6 kWh PV system generating around 3400 kWh a year

Recently, we got an EV but our car use is irregular and only a short commute. Estimate we need 2100 kWh a year from home for the car

No battery storage at present

I normally work from home so I can adjust things as and when.

We are with Octopus so what tariff would you recommend we start with?
Thanks Beau

IOG with OO and get some home batteries unless your EV can do V2H/V2G.
Depends on your EV model/charger of course

Apologies but I don't know what "IOG with OO" means

Hesitant about the batteries as I have seen some bright sparks suggesting when losses are taken into account batteries won't pay for themselves and that the losses simply add to our carbon footprint. I realise this is a complicated matter where everyone's circumstances are different.

Our older Kia cant do V2H

IOG - Intelligent Octopus Go
OO - Octopus Outgoing

Both are Octopus smart tariffs. The first one is for EV owners who benefit from automatic car charging with lower tariffs, and also a lower tariff in general for the house.

The second one is the export tariff for people with generation, and/or battery capabilities who can export to the grid and get paid for each kWh (as opposed to "deemed export" you get on most of the legacy solar FiTs)

Beau wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 2:34 pm Apologies but I don't know what "IOG with OO" means

Hesitant about the batteries as I have seen some bright sparks suggesting when losses are taken into account batteries won't pay for themselves and that the losses simply add to our carbon footprint. I realise this is a complicated matter where everyone's circumstances are different.

Our older Kia cant do V2H

Intelligent Octopus Go, see this thread. You can set an EV charge time then it will give you cheap elec for the house as well.

AFAIR you don't need V2H to qualify, any EV will do.

Batteries have perhaps a 6 year payback if correctly sized, lots of threads on here e.g. this one.

Thank you both.

I can most definitely charge the car at the cheap rate but will struggle to make the GSHP do the majority of its work in that time. It's so hard to work out how much paying extra for more than half our use is offset but the major savings on the car charging

I was originally looking at Agile tariff V Octopus go but didn't know about IG

I can report that after another 3.5 hours of a stressed-out installer, we have a working smart meter

There is also "Cosy Octopus" for homes with heat pumps - you get a double dip of low rates.
Although not sure whether that would tie in with your car charging schedules.

Beau wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 3:13 pm Thank you both.

I can most definitely charge the car at the cheap rate but will struggle to make the GSHP do the majority of its work in that time. It's so hard to work out how much paying extra for more than half our use is offset but the major savings on the car charging

I was originally looking at Agile tariff V Octopus go but didn't know about IG

I can report that after another 3.5 hours of a stressed-out installer, we have a working smart meter

If your Kia is compatible with the IOG tariff then it’s a no brainer, imo, to go with IOG.
It is an unbelievable tariff, if you add batteries and get OO it becomes an insane tariff.
Last month we charged 3 EVs ( 3k miles) heated a 100 yr old 4000 sq ft house to a reasonable temp SWMBO likes it 23+, for £190 before £45 in saving session credit
3400 kWh import 600 kWh export

Beau wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 2:34 pm
Hesitant about the batteries as I have seen some bright sparks suggesting when losses are taken into account batteries won't pay for themselves and that the losses simply add to our carbon footprint. I realise this is a complicated matter where everyone's circumstances are different.

Our older Kia cant do V2H

There will be some losses with batteries, but home batteries are doing a local version of the big battery storage systems by storing power in the middle of the day to avoid usage at peak times - so they are definitely part of the national green solution in terms of demand shifting.
In personal terms, they also definitely help you to save money compared to just having solar panels.
How much you get is personal, but there is a law of diminishing returns - the first 5 or 10kWh are likely to save the most of your PV.

We have an old,2011, solar set up with very good FIT, we added 10.5 Kw of batteries and then expanded to 15.5. We don't currently have an EV so we're stuck on Economy 7 as the best tariff. During this winter we've been using approx 10 kwh per day to charge the batteries overnight and run the house and then the batteries take us through to the next 'low' price session. As the solar output increases and we cease charging overnight our bill will reduce to 'just' the standing daily charge as solar will charge the batteries enough to see us until next sunrise.
It would be definitely worth doing the sums for batteries to help with your heating consumption.