For a lease will they ever stack up? Dunno. Over 2-4 years I think they will just be more expensive net because that duration cost is weighted to new price/depreciation

You could get a leaf but I'd prefer to get wet on the bike and fall off Whilst miles are low you are all good with the reliable fun (ST), extreme fun (Z1000) and old skool tinker fun (Honda)

Currently national grid are keeping an eye on charger installs and may demand charge rate is limited so might get mine installed now before the rush

 

Don't even get me started on 'smart' meters! All it can do is tell you what you are using, there is nothing remotely 'smart' in it or about it.

 

Expect subsidies to reduce/be removed, Even with the £350 grant the net cost is typically £600. I like the one I chose (Ohme) because it works well with my Agile Octopus tariff but given my time again I would try to swerve the grant and just treat it as a job for my sparks with him sourcing parts and materials for less. 32A dedicated circuit lets me charge at the max 7kWh rate the 'e' supports.

But like I said the grid is creaking already.
Compare e.g. April this year with previous years. I've only got <5p prices Easter Sunday/Monday so far. Resumption post lockdown is if anything going to exascerbate the situation. It will be interesting to correlate the take down of fossil/nuclear gen sets and build up of wind farms with market prices. I ran the elec market pre privatisation clearing bureau in 1990/91. It was a different world then before the MMGW myth took hold.

Luckily my house battery controller has an emergency power option so we can boil a kettle and keep the fridge/freezer on.

Another delivery of kiln dried oak just arrived.

Gotta go unload

p.s. having a 'smart' meter opens your eyes is all UF. You are the 'smart' part of the box.
If I suspect they are spying I can always turn the ****er off or 'accidently' suffer a frayed cable

 

Isn't the idea that they report usage back to somewhere so they can see instantaneous demand and stuff?
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I suspect for most of us staring at consumption will quickly lose novelty though I used to put one of those £30 sensors over our inbound cable and watch usage when I was making changes (stuff like led over halogen)

 

In reality you quickly learn what is what consumption wise then it becomes part of the daily routine to have a quick look see. With PV available the weather is a big factor and unpredictable (as I said the goons can't get that right so why should we believe them on global warming? I did think about offering my services to the UEA CRU but I think they would clap me in irons ) My best friend is the app (desktop as well as iPad) that came with the Luxpower batt controller. With it I see at a glance (coloured multi line graph) what is happened and I can adapt my tactics. Agile Octopus daily rates release at around 4pm for next day. The smart meter responds quite quickly to demand whereas the app lags half a minute. The server is across the water from Hong Kong though. Interestingly it refuses to work when my VPN says I am in the US

Octopus bill me on the smart meter readings which are very accurate. As we speak my PV just passed 7kWh so far today my awning just deployed over the solar hot water evacuated tubes i.e. hot water tank full. I won't need to boost my batts pre peak period today when the peak period as I said is mysteriously extending til 9:30pm and the pre peak lower rate is a to be avoided 18p/unit. I dream an algorithm is in there but the weather and market in electricity puzzle is ... puzzling.

 

My issue with Smart Metering is that once they work out where your peaks are, they will adjust their tariffs to make sure they get the most of you whilst you get the least out of them.

Which is where Rogs solution wins, you are your own supplier.

 

Can you think of a company that has ever set out to reduce its profits?

 

On this new topic, while EVs will reduce local pollution, they won't solve congestion, and the obvious solution is for the govt to introduce road pricing to make up the difference. Politically tricky but do we think that's the way things are going to go?

Or will they lump it onto income tax/vat/something else?

 

Since installing the smart meter (required for the Octopus 'Agile' tariff) I have reduced the electricity fed back by my PV panels to the grid to 13% on average. FITs are paid on the basis of 50% deemed export to the grid so I am getting ahead of the game. If only I could rely on the forecasters to predict the hours of sunshine tomorrow I could do even better. But all they are certain of is global warming. Hours of sunlight tomorrow is beyond them.

edit: @lovegroova my feeling is a road miles tax. A GPS box to read/check your miles isn't too far beyond possible. Don't they have something similar already? I can see massive employment opportunities for the Welsh in Swansea for example. Measuring and monitoring us all is big brother's dream come true ...

 

I presume if your battery banks were big enough you could run variations of:

PV during the day / splitting output to charge and then run batteries overnight and only put excess back into the grid when it suits or when the FIT is at its peak?

On the basis panels are reasonably cheap, once the basic system is in place and you're rated correctly - you could bump the panel count up as long as you've the roof space and become a fully independent user who feeds the grid when they feel like it?