October 2025 updates
October Electric:
I managed to maintain a 30.25% Peak/Off-Peak ratio, which is down on last month’s 17.6%.
There were a quite a few days that were overcast, and on the rest I managed to have only minimal peak usage.
Electricity costs for the month of October: £205.32 for 2025, £198.76 for 2024 and £458.58 for 2023 – slightly worse than last year, but still way better than the year before.
Electricity demand for the month of October: 1688kWh for 2025, 1673kWh for 2024 and 1535kWh for 2023.
The cost for this year was around £7.00 more for 15kWH more usage.
The off-peak/peak/SC values for October were £0.07/0.26716/0.488 for 2024 vs £0.07/£0.26716/0.4879 for 2025, peak is slightly down, but the standing charge is up.
This can also be seen in the month on month usage vs cost graphs:
October Solar:
Actual production for October far exceeded the forecast for every day, often by way more than double..
The various arrays produced the following levels of energy: Garage 105.93kWh, Office 85.10kWh, East 55.89kWh, West 68.95kWh for a total of 315.85kWh which is quite a drop from last month
A relatively poor month for solar production, I managed to export 59.69kWh for a total saving of £8.95.
The import costs of £205.32 less the export savings of £8.95 means my net cost for October was £196.37 for 1688kWh of demand making my average rate £0.1069/kWh.
October Gas:
Gas costs for the month of October: £30.24 for 2025, £74.43 for 2024 and £32.45 for 2023.
Gas usage for the month of October: 459kWh for 2025, 1222kWh for 2024 and 369kWh for 2023.
£44.00 less than last year, but then last year was colder and I had the heating on.
Gas prices remained about the same this month, I would have paid a lot more had I still been on the Octopus Standard Tariff, which was £0.0699 per kWh for October £42.26 ((459 * 0.0699) + 10.18sc) or an additional £12.02 for the month.
The heating was off for the entire month, so gas was only used for heating the hot water.
Again all visible in the usage vs cost graphs.
There were a number of ‘free electricity sessions this month that again had some quite wildly different savings
04/10 Free Electricity between 12:00 and 14:00, I used an additional 22.21kWh and saved £4.22 (22.21 * 0.26716/kWh)
05/10 Free Electricity between 11:00 and 12:00, I used an additional 9.41kWh and saved £2.75 (2.75 * 0.26716/kWh)
07/10 Saver Session between 18:00 and 19:00, offering 104 Octopoints (13p) per kWh saved, I saved 0.23kWh for 24 Octopoints (3p)
14/10 Saver Session between 18:00 and 19:00, offering 192 Octopoints (24p) per kWh saved, I saved nothing
15/10 Saver Session between 18:00 and 19:00, offering 192 Octopoints (24p) per kWh saved, I saved 1.88kWh for 360 Octopoints (45p)
24/10 Free Electricity between 09:00 and 10:00, I used an additional 12.5kWh and saved £2.91 (12.5 * 0.26716/kWh)
25/10 Free Electricity between 12:00 and 15:00, I used an additional 18.85kWh and saved £5.51 (18.85 * 0.26716/kWh)
For most of the sessions I also discharged the batteries for an hour or so beforehand so I would be able to charge them to a decent level during the ‘free’ periods.
Total additional saving of £15.39 (4.22+2.75+2.91+5.51) which brings my electricity costs for the month down even further from £196.37 to £180.98