Although I have solar panels in the garden, during this time of year there is a lot less sun and therefore the solar panels cannot always support the home or keep the battery charged up. So I charge the battery, from the grid, every morning when the price is low (~8.5p per kWh) for up to 5 hours so that we can use it to feed the house during the day. This has enabled me to reduce my overall electricity use during winter.
I have concluded that this type of approach may be of benefit to those people who are unable to install solar panels. Get a battery installed, with an inverter, and move to a tariff such as Octopus Go which allows you to charge the battery in the early morning at a cheap rate. This both allows you to save money and reduces the amount of electricity demanded from the grid during the day. For example, my home use depends on the inverter behaviour such that we use an average of 10kWh of electricity per month.
For example, last month it cost us £8.85 to keep the battery charged up in the morning. Then we used 13kWh which cost £17.87, which includes standing charge and VAT. So the overall electricity price was £26.72. The actual electricity usage was estaimated at 315kWh, which would have cost about £100.
We also use a myEnergi Eddi device to control our hot water. We also boost this in the morning when the price is low, then we boost the temperature during the later day from the battery when we need it. This helps us save gas, about 3,000kWh per year.
An alternative to installing a battery is to use an electric car if you have one. Electric cars and their home chargers are being developed so that they can be used to provide electrical power to the home. They can also be charged early in the morning using the cheap tariff. Car batteries are much larger than traditional home batteries so they could be used for powering modern devices, such as heat pumps. For example, my battery is 8.2kWh and my electric car battery is 60kWh.
