How much can you save with solar?

How can solar power save you money?

Curious about the potential savings with solar energy? You're not alone. Following years of unpredictable energy costs and with environmental concerns growing, more people are choosing to generate their own green power at home with solar. But when you take up-front costs into consideration, how do the savings actually work? We’ve simplified the jargon and provided just the answers - so you can decide if solar is the right fit for you.

What is export?

Simply put, ‘exported’ energy is electricity that has been generated by your solar panels, but has not been used at home (or stored in your battery). These excess electrons are instead diverted to the National Grid, and you will get paid for every unit (kWh) of energy you export. Ka-ching! 🤑

Whether you opt for a solar and battery installation with Octopus or with another installer, we have a selection of solar tariffs available that will allow you either just sell your energy back to the grid at a standard flat rate, or use smart technology to offer dynamic pricing based on energy demand, for greater savings.

Smart tariffs and how they work

Solar smart tariffs can help you to save money on imported and exported electricity by offering cheaper electricity when demand is low, and paying more for exported energy when demand is high. Broken down further, this means that if you're able to utilise a battery to sell your energy back to the grid at a time when the UK is using a lot of energy (dinner time, for example), you may get paid more per kWh, whilst helping to reduce strain on the grid by supporting it with clean energy at times when there’s generally a lot of fossil fuels in the mix.

Equally if you use electricity or charge your battery when demand is low (and energy is more likely to come from renewable sources), that energy will be cheaper to buy. Our latest solar smart tariff, Intelligent Octopus Flux, offers you amazing export rates for your solar energy, and automatically charges and discharges your battery at the best times so you don’t need to worry about programming your system - easy peasy. We’ve gone into more detail about our tariff options below - skip to smart tariffs.

We've found that an average customer on Intelligent Octopus Flux can reduce their annual bill to almost zero, or even make a small profit. Whereas customers on our standard Octopus Flux tariff, save around 90% on their electricity bills.
(However it's worth keeping in mind that Intelligent Octopus Flux is not available with Enphase or Tesla battery systems just yet.)

What is a payback period?

After several years of saving on your electricity bills, and making money on export payments, your solar system will begin to pay for itself; however, how long it takes will depend on the number of solar panels you have and the amount of energy you use. We compared the typical installation cost and annual bill savings for our most common solar system (10 x 440W panels, with or without a 5kWh battery) in different scenarios and found that the payback period varied from 8 - 10 years, depending on the energy tariff. Check the average payback periods for our Flux tariffs below, and see the full savings table and workings here.

What will the costs and savings look like for you?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this one. Solar savings are dependent on many variables, such as your tariff, how many solar panels you have or how much electricity you use and when you use it. At Octopus, we’ve found that our most popular system has 10 PV panels with a battery, so we’ve chosen this example to demonstrate what savings could look like, depending on whether you have a battery, and your tariff. Savings are based on the Ofgem average usage of a medium sized household.

If you choose to switch to the Intelligent Octopus Flux tariff, you could save £1,149 per year on your energy usage, whereas on Octopus Flux you could save £961 a year. See the savings table for a further breakdown.

If you’d like to find out what costs and savings would look like for your home specifically, our Solar Design Specialists will put together a full breakdown for you, when you get a quote.

Find your solar tariff

If you’re looking for quick answers, check out our smart tariff quiz to find out which tariff is right for you. Keep in mind that you will need a smart meter to take advantage of any Octopus smart tariffs.

The future is Flux

The original Octopus Flux, and the more recent Intelligent Octopus Flux are gaining a lot of traction as the leading tariffs for homes with solar and a battery – and for good reason. Both take care of your import and export electricity usage, and offer great savings.

On Octopus Flux you can get super cheap rates between 2am-5am every day to top up your battery, plus a peak export rate from 4pm-7pm when you can discharge your battery. All of which can be scheduled in your solar generation app.

On Intelligent Octopus Flux, you don’t need to lift a finger to get the best export rates on the market. Octopus Energy pairs with your battery to optimise charging and discharging; filling up your battery when energy is cheapest and greenest (often overnight), and then exporting the electricity when demand is high on the grid and electricity is more expensive. With the Intelligent version, customers save £97 a year on average compared to Octopus Flux, and get paid to use energy.

To check the rates for Intelligent Octopus Flux in your area, enter your postcode here. For Octopus Flux, you can find your rates here. IO Flux isn't available with Enphase or Tesla battery systems yet, but that's coming soon.

Outgoing Octopus

If you don’t have a battery, or if you’d prefer to pair your export tariff with a different import tariff, Outgoing Octopus may be the option for you. Also a smart tariff, Outgoing comes in two flavours: Variable and Agile.

Outgoing Octopus offers a standard rate of 15p kWh for every unit you export - great if you prefer a predictable income or if you don’t have energy storage.

Alternatively, Outgoing Agile offers changing rates every half-hour, depending on the price of energy at the time. Which means that if you’re on the ball, you can take advantage of amazing rates and programme your battery to import energy or discharge accordingly.

Another popular reason for choosing Outgoing is if you have particularly high electricity usage - like if you have an electric vehicle or heat pump. In this case, there are import tariffs, like Cosy Octopus or Intelligent Octopus Go which will give you better bang for your buck on purchased energy than Intelligent Octopus Flux might, making it a more suitable combination for your home. Find out more about which tariffs work together here.

Smart Export Guarantee (SEG)

If you’d prefer to go with another supplier for your import energy, you can still join our standard Smart Export Guarantee tariff. With the SEG, you will earn a flat rate of 4.1p per kWh for every unit of electricity you export.

If you still need a hand to decide whether solar is the right fit for your home, we’re here to help. Give our solar experts a call on 0808 196 6842 or email solar@octopus.energy for a personalised quote, and tailored advice. Or check out our FAQs page for further information.

Savings breakdown