Utilising Octopus Agile tariffs

[Nigelh]

I have 10 425w solar panels and a 6KW battery. Inverter is a Solax X1 Hybrid-G4 . I am on Octopus agile and want to know how I can force my solar generation to go to grid and not feed load on house. I am on a fixed export tariff of 15p per KWh. Occasionally the octopus agile tariff pays me to import from grid. For example today 25 August 2024 from 7am to 4pm my tariff ranges from 0ppkwh to -4p pkwh. Therefore Octopus are paying me to use electricity. However atm if I’m generating this generated power feeds the load on the house 1st, surplus gets sent to the grid. I’d prefer ( on these rare days) to export all my generated power and all load to be supplied from the grid. Is this possible? I’ve looked at the Solax App but can’t find an option to change the load preference.

Appreciate any suggestions. What I’ve done at the moment is counter intuitive, I’ve turned off my solar panels to force the feed from the grid. This sounds odd but I’m charging my car, got all appliances on so am drawing 5Kw and therefore being paid lol.

 

[rpdom]

No. You can't have power going in two directions down the same wire at the same time.

Output from your inverter will supply house first and grid second.

I prefer to leave my PV running as I make more from export than I would from the small negative charges for import. What I do do is to make sure I charged my battery from grid at the best rate possible, then timed it to charge whenever the rates are zero or lower. That means my inverter (Solis) will use grid instead of battery when there isn't enough PV, but will export any surplus PV when the sun is out. Also making sure I use large loads (boil kettle, have shower etc) when the PV generation is low.

 

[Nigelh]

No. You can't have power going in two directions down the same wire at the same time.

Output from your inverter will supply house first and grid second.

I prefer to leave my PV running as I make more from export than I would from the small negative charges for import. What I do do is to make sure I charged my battery from grid at the best rate possible, then timed it to charge whenever the rates are zero or lower. That means my inverter (Solis) will use grid instead of battery when there isn't enough PV, but will export any surplus PV when the sun is out. Also making sure I use large loads (boil kettle, have shower etc) when the PV generation is low.

Thanks, the 2 way power direction makes sense. The irony is during these paid periods I’m better off not using electricity as I get paid 15p for export. The opposite of what Octopus want me to do lol.

 

[Novice22]

Output from your inverter will supply house first and grid second.

My Solis inverter set for Self-Use, supplies, I believe, in this order - House 1st, Battery 2nd and finally to Export.
Is it possible, using just the Solis inverter settings (S5-EH1P5K-L) to send all PV generation straight to Export?
My fully charged batteries can easily supply my House demand plus ideally I don't want to dribble PV generation into well-charged batteries e.g. 85% SOC.

 

[jgh]

The irony is during these paid periods I’m better off not using electricity as I get paid 15p for export. The opposite of what Octopus want me to do lol.

I guess you could split that period into (say) two, export as hard as your inverter can manage for one part
and then import (ditto) for the other part.

Madness. Eventually, power companies will realize that such a combination of tariffs makes no sense.

Don't forget to turn off your discretionary house loads for the export period.

 

[SeaGal]

Is it possible, using just the Solis inverter settings (S5-EH1P5K-L) to send all PV generation straight to Export?

Yes. Easy. Just use inverter setting to stop battery charge and then turn off all your house usage (fridge, freezers etc.).

But why????