April Solar Generation and Export Numbers
Here is the overview for April 2024. This was a bit of a strange month. The weekend of the 13th/14th had the best Octopus Agile plunge pricing we have seen. Some of the slots were as low as -7 and -8p. Other slots were near 0p. This led to a lot of force export and getting paid while charging the battery.
This summer I have also changed my export strategy. Last year I would use the battery overnight and only charge enough to get us through until the sun kicked in. I would use Home Assistant to set the SoC level based on the Solcast forecast. This year, I am topping up the battery overnight. This means we will export earlier in the morning. Also, this year we are on the 15p kWh export tariff. Last year we were on the Agile Export tariff. That was a mistake.
The worst generation day was the 27th with only 8.20 kWh. The best was the 30th when 26.40 kWh was generated.
The best export day was the 14th (forced export due to plunge pricing) with 18.20 kWh. This does include some solar export.
Rather than show an export profit, I thought it would be easier to show the cheapest day.
As solar panels output declines over the years I have added the 2023 April generation to the table at the bottom. Of course weather comes into it as well, but I thought it would be interesting to track.
So far this year we have had twenty days where we generated more solar than we consumed, and forty three days more solar was generated than we imported from the grid.
For the very first time we covered our complete electricity bill. In the past we have covered the import, this time we also covered the standing charge.
April 2024 Octopus Energy bill
Best Solar Generation
| Date | kWh | |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | 26th May 2023 | 32.90 |
| Front generation | 14th June 2023 | 19.80 |
| Back generation | 7th June 2023 | 14.70 |
| Worst generation | 12th December 2022 | 0.20 |
Solar Generation
| Date | kWh | |
|---|---|---|
| Best generation | 30th April 2024 | 26.4 |
| Best front generation | 30th April 2024 | 17.20 |
| Best back generation | 29th April 2024 | 11.40 |
| Worst generation | 27th April 2024 | 8.20 |
| Worst front generation | 9th April 2024 | 4.10 |
| Worst back generation | 27th April 2024 | 3.60 |
Best Solar Export and Profit
| Date | kWh | Profit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exported kWh | 14th April 2024 | 18.20 | |
| Exported profit | 14th April 2024 | 18.20 | £2.67 (15p kWh) |
| Profit day | 14th April 2024 | 18.20 | £2.67 |
Solar/Battery Export and Profit
| Date | kWh | Income/Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best kWh export | 14th April 2024 | 18.20 | |
| Best export profit | 14th April 2024 | 18.20 | £2.67 (15p kWh) |
| Cheapest Day | 14th April 2024 | -£2.45 |
The graphs below is the total generation for April compared to the rest of the year.
2024 generation graph. January to April
Generation
Overview for April
The graph below shows the generation for each day
Graph showing production for the month
The graphs below show the generation split between the front and back panels
Graph showing production for the front facing panels
Graph showing production for the back facing panels
The graphs below show the yearly generation split across both the back and front panels
Front panel generation for January to April 2024
Back panel generation for January to April 2024
Octopus Agile
The costs shown here do include the standing charge. Any comparisons are compared to the unit cost if we were not on Octopus Agile, which is 25.255p per kWh. This is the new unit cost after the price cap took affect. The standing charge was 0.4211p
As mentioned above we are still using overnight slots due to my new export strategy. Note the lowest slot price.
April Grid Information
| Standard Tariff | 25.255p | ||
| Standing Charge | 42.11p | ||
| Cost from the grid | £18.28 (Agile) | £69.40 (Standard) | |
| Savings including export | £92.49 | ||
| Exported | 275.80 kWh | £41.37 @ 15p kWh | |
| Agile slots used | 180 | ||
| Agile plunge slots used | 24 | ||
| Average Agile slot price | 6.65p | ||
| Cheapest slot | -8.82p | ||
| Most expensive slot | 14.994p | ||
| House consumed | 437.40 kWh | ||
| Solar generated 2024/2023 | 489.50 kWh | 521.30 kWh | |
| Percentage generated by solar | 112% | ||
| Solar iBoost used | 9.18 kWh | ||
| Self Sustained Days 2024 (More solar than consumed) | 20 | ||
| Self Sustained Days 2024 (More solar than we imported) | 43 | ||
Here is the Octopus Watch report summary
Octopus Watch summary
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