Powering electricity bill savings of £100 – £150 per month
Some customers come to us with limited knowledge of the world of energy generation and storage. They’re simply looking for an effective way to make energy bill savings.
Other customers come to us with strong technical knowledge and rigorous requirements. Here, they’re looking for a sophisticated solution to a specific challenge. And Brian Oram was one such customer.
Brian approached us about GivEnergy equipment with a number of key goals. In return, we supplied a battery storage solution that not only powered savings, but also enabled integrated management of smart tariffs, home management software, and an existing solar FIT (Feed In Tariff).
In his own words, here’s Brian’s story.
The goals
With a technical background, Brian knew exactly what he wanted from a battery storage system. He approached the project not with a general goal of making energy bill savings (a given for Brian), but rather, with multiple specific goals in mind.
“I came to this project as somebody who has, for many years, actively managing energy usage and concluded that solar and battery are the best solutions for the future. I already have an existing Feed-in Tariff system comprising 6kW solar panels, inverter, and export meter. So I knew what I wanted. With that in mind, my goals were very specific. I was looking for:
- The best battery technology. It needed to give the longest life and best energy storage, with a capacity of about 10kW.
- The ability to expand the system in the future, with no redundancy of installed equipment.
- Competitive pricing. The solution must not be top price like the Tesla Powerwall, and not bottom like some cheap imports. I was looking for value-for-money.
- Good UK support.
- A company showing vision for the future, with longevity.
- Good integration with the company’s other devices.
- The option to manage my existing solar FIT scheme so that all current payments continue as-is.
- Tight integration with Octopus Energy tariffs for automatic management – including Agile tariff for future usage.
- Software API access for my own home power management system
- Availability within a reasonable timeframe, accepting the world component supply issues.”
For Brian, all the above quickly removed other companies from the list. Because of the existing FIT system, it became apparent that a battery only inverter would be required. Plus, Brian was also having a secondary, and independent, 4kW solar panel installation. Normal hybrid solar/battery inverters would not be suitable to manage the FIT scheme, 2 independent solar panel installations and a battery that could be expanded. Only a limited number of such battery inverters exist.
Fortunately, we had just the solution.
The installation
After his careful research, Brian opted for:
After his careful research, Brian opted for:
- The GivEnergy AC coupled inverter 3.0
- The GivEnergy 9.5kWh battery pack
“During the investigation period, the GivEnergy 9.5kW battery came to market. Its 100% depth of discharge (DoD) and unlimited charging cycles were difficult to match at the offered price point.
Combining the AC3 inverter and 9.5 battery, along with all the integration and software facilities, made GivEnergy the prime contender.”
Brian spent time finding the right approved installer to supply, install and commission the required equipment. With a project more challenging than most, it was essential to use a first-class installer. After ruling out other options, Brian opted for an installer who was able to complete the complex project within 4 installation days.
Brian spent time finding the right approved installer to supply, install and commission the required equipment. With a project more challenging than most, it was essential to use a first-class installer. After ruling out other options, Brian opted for an installer who was able to complete the complex project within 4 installation days.
“We looked at possible locations for equipment installation and noted that all batteries, irrelevant of company, have a problem charging below zero degrees so all equipment was neatly installed in the garage.
It took a day to fit the new solar panels and their own inverter. The next 3 days were for the installation of the GivEnergy equipment and all the wiring that was needed to integrate the existing and new solar panel installations. Those 3 days also included the installation of an EV charger.
The installer correctly followed all requirements and directly communicated with GivEnergy support for assistance with meters and connections.
This enabled the AC3 inverter to manage two independent solar installations and protect the existing FIT.
The installer did a first-class job. There were absolutely zero problems with the install, and everything worked correctly from day one.”
The results
Based on Brian’s own data, he is now making electricity energy bill savings between £100-£150 a month. He has also been able to leverage his technology background to fully customise and optimise his own home system using the GivEnergy software and data interfaces.
Based on Brian’s own data, he is now making electricity energy bill savings between £100-£150 a month. He has also been able to leverage his technology background to fully customise and optimise his own home system using the GivEnergy software and data interfaces.
“I performed some additional configuration work to merge my GivEnergy account with my Octopus account and this worked perfectly. Using the GivEnergy software API, I was also able to incorporate the new solar and battery information into my own home management software. Now this home management software is reactive to solar generation and battery energy levels and proactively switches equipment on and off. I expect to be moving to Octopus Agile this year when GivEnergy software has the full integration to automatically charge/discharge based on the half hour rate. The expectation is that using Octopus Agile and installing the new ‘All-in-One’ GivEnergy product will drop the monthly electricity bill even lower.
Plus, it is the next step to reducing gas usage by using the extra battery electricity to power IR (InfraRed) wall panels instead of using hot water radiators. For now though, based on 5 months running, a rough calculation shows an electricity bill saving of between £100-£150 a month, but a full 12 months is required to obtain an accurate figure because of seasonality and weather. But at the moment this gives a payback time of about 6 years – for the entire solar & battery install. The expectation is it will be less once the full year numbers are known.”
The feedback
Brian is satisfied with his project – but it isn’t over yet. As he becomes increasingly energy-independent, he intends to advance his journey with the GivEnergy range still further.
Brian is satisfied with his project – but it isn’t over yet. As he becomes increasingly energy-independent, he intends to advance his journey with the GivEnergy range still further.
“GivEnergy is a growing company (understatement at 500% growth last year) – which initially led to supply challenges. However, once the equipment was delivered and correctly installed, it has worked flawlessly. The Facebook support groups has also been superb in helping those who are not from a technology background and those who require detailed explanations.
A nice point is that the installation can be left alone to manage itself if you are not technically minded, but also facilitates the other end of the spectrum with extensive software interfaces.
A key point of the install was the competency and professionalism of the installer. Everything was 100% and fully tested before departure. Nothing was missed.
From a technical perspective, the GivEnergy web portal is very good. There is a good depth of information for those that want to dig into the efficiency and management of the system.
I also use the lighter-weight app every day to do a quick check that all is good. It currently contains more than enough info for that, plus it shows the Octopus usage data and the GivEnergy smart plugs I now use.
The equipment has done what I wanted, at a price I wanted. I will definitely be purchasing more GivEnergy equipment towards the end of the year in preparation for next winter.”