If I have solar panels am I better having economy 7 tariff

[KatyMac]

As I use less in the day so wouldn't pay as much?

Or am I missing something?

I didn't think that Economy 7 was still available.

They keep telling me that the Economy 7 signal (apparently transmitted by the BBC) is being switched off, and I should have a Smart meter installed... (which I am avoiding)

Oh I have a smart meter

& its being offered by ovo

Have you got a battery as well as panels?

If you can't get It, look at Octopus.

No battery, i cant afford one

But I thought minimal daytime energy at the higher rate plus higher night time energy at the lower rate?

You could very well be right.
To check you need to look at your usage stats - have you got a smart meter which gives you these and can you download the info to analyse?
You'd need to look at a full year though, winter generation is obviously far lower than summer.

I dont think I can download the info - Id need to input it

Damn

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/ideas/export-to-csv-feature-for-usage-data-of-the-online-account-12667 does this help? (I don't use Ovo).

it really did - it directed me to data.n3rgy.com

Which allowed me to download my data in 3 month chunks

now I just need to crunch it (possibly after work)

Thanks so much - I'll be back with an update possibly in a few days!!

I have solar panels but also a battery and an electric car. I far better off on a cheap night time rate. However I can't see that you would be from October to March, can you switch in the winter?

It depends.

How do you heat your home and water? Usually economy 7 is for electric heating or an immersion tank.

Is your shower gas or electric and when do you tend to use it?

Do you batch cook and reheat meals or use the oven every night?

If you have an electric shower and use it most days before 7am you'd probably be better off on economy 7 in the summer months at least as this is the main thing your solar won't cope with (assuming it's 10kwh and your inverter is around 4-5kw).

The other big one (heating aside) is the oven. If you cook a full meal at say 6pm and don't have a battery the level of solar coming in won't be sufficient by that time.

I do economy 7 in winter because I have a battery and storage heater. But in the summer I flip to standard rate because it means I am a lot less mean about the time everyone has to shower!

You need to use a fair bit of cheap electric for it to compensate the higher rate.

I have downloaded my data and I need to check ti.es with the company then I will number crunch it

We are at home most of the day and know to put washing machine and dishwasher on daytime

Heating is gas but electric runs the pump, shower is electric but mainly daytime use

Hmm

Economy 7 tariff has a HIGHER STANDING CHARGE (at least mine does). So for most people (who don’t use bulk of their energy at night) COSTS MORE !

PS And the daytime unit charge is HIGHER than if you don’t have Ec7. It’s not a free lunch !

We have solar panels and no battery. We are with octopus and are on their tracker tariff. We also export all the excess electricity and get 15p per kwh. On sunny days when we are generating a lot , I try to use as much of it as I can, rather than exporting (ie dishwasher on, washing machine going etc).