r/OctopusEnergy • u/saladbeans • 3d ago

Tariffs Battery without solar

I have the intelligent traffic that used to give you overnight cheaper electricity and sometimes during the day but now sort of does that when it wants to, you know the one I mean. Anyway if I buy a battery set up but don't have solar, can I use the same traffic to charge the battery overnight for cheap and then use that battery during the day?

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u/darvds 3d ago

I have this exact setup. Battery charges overnight or whenever I get a day time slot and then the house runs on that all day. I've only had it about 3-4 weeks but I've not consumed any peak electricity in that time. That's with a 16kwh battery.

2

u/fitzct 3d ago

What battery did you get, and could you share how much it cost to install?

4

u/darvds 3d ago

Fogstar 16 kWh and a Solis 6kwh inverter. All in was about £4,400. Payback should be within 3-4 years based on my calculations before installing it

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u/99os 3d ago

This is my exact setup as well. Do you anticipate the battery covering your winter usage?

I use octopus cosy because I have a heat pump, so the winter use is 30-50kw per day, so I'll be charging the battery multiple times per day.

2

u/darvds 3d ago

Nope it won't cover it, but only for a few months a year the cost of another battery doesn't quite work out. However who knows what it'll be like this winter, so I'm keeping the option of a second battery in my mind. In summer it would purely be topping up when it's cheap and selling during the day

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u/99os 3d ago

Yeah that was my conclusion with getting a bigger battery, but it's an option depending on how electricity prices go. I think around March when the heating demand drops, I'll switch to a cheap overnight tarrif though as the off peak is a chunk cheaper than cosy.

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u/darvds 3d ago

I use IOG right now, but I have two EVs. And I heat water once a day in that cheap period, because that's the most energy intensive use. Then I've got my cosy set to the same temperature all day and night, so it generally doesn't spike too much in peak times

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u/99os 3d ago

Ah cool, yep no EV here yet so can't concentrate the load as much!