July Electricity:
I managed to maintain a 1.75% Peak/Off-Peak ratio, compared to 8.93% in 2025.
A pretty sunny month, way more so than last year.
Electricity costs for the month of July: £103.75 for 2026, £120.13 for 2025.
Electricity demand for the month of July: 1531kWh for 2026, 1884kWh for 2025 (2026 does not include EcoFlow figure – see below).
The off-peak/peak/SC values for July were £0.069/0.30269/0.53892 for 2026 vs £0.07/£0.28959/0.47606 for 2025, same as last month.
This can also be seen in the month on month usage vs cost graphs where my usage is about the same, however my costs have gone down each year:
Ecoflow Batteries:
The graphs show a total of 443kWh (321 + 122) of usage, 139kWh (93 +46) of which came from the batteries and 302kWh (227 + 75) came from the ‘grid’ after the batteries were exhausted.
This means that I have moved an additional 139kWh of usage from peak to off-peak or £32.48 (139 * (0.30269 – 0.069)) of additional savings not captured elsewhere, this should be added to the demand figure above, taking it to from 1531kWh to 1670kWh
July Solar:
Actual production for July significantly exceeded the forecast.
The various arrays produced the following levels of energy: Garage 426.13kWh, Office 403.87kWh, East 286.10kWh, West 346.18kWh for a total of 1345kWh, this compares to 1032kWh for July 2025, so significantly up on last year.
I produced more than last year and also managed to export 975kWh compared to 291kWh in 2025, for a total saving of £117.02, around 250% more than last year’s figure of £43.69.
This is largely due to the extra batteries, allowing me to make it through most days without drawing any peak electricity and thereby allowing me to export more solar and also empty my Enphase batteries at the end of the day.
The import costs of £103.75 less the export savings of £117.02 means my net cost for July was £-13.26 for 1670kWh of demand making my average rate £-0.0087/kWh.
This makes July my first month with a negative electricity bill. Unfortunately it didn’t quite result in a zero, or negative total bill, as the gas was still a factor.
July Gas:
Heating was turned off for the entirety of this month.
Quite a warm July my cost was slightly up on last year, £30.31 vs £29.08, despite my usage being down, 286kWh vs 424kWh, the average cost per kWh was up at 0.0702 as compared to 0.0470 in 2025, war in the Middle East, is still having an adverse effect on the gas prices.
Gas costs:
There were six Saver Sessions this month, my Home Assistant automation signed me up automatically
I received notification about these sessions via emails sent round midday of the day in question.
9th July between 20:00 and 21:00, offering 137 Octopoints (17.125p) per kWh saved.
13th July between 20:00 and 21:00, offering 93 Octopoints (11.625p) per kWh saved.
17th July between 20:00 and 21:00, offering 96 Octopoints (12.00p) per kWh saved.
24th July between 18:00 and 19:00, offering 96 Octopoints (12.00p) per kWh saved.
28th July between 19:00 and 19:30, offering 108 Octopoints (13.50p) per kWh saved.
Since all but one were offering less than my export guarantee and way less than the peak rate (30.269p/kWh), I made no effort to charge the batteries beforehand, or discharge them during the sessions.
The savings are calculated against the previous 10 days usage during the same period, and since my usage is usually at, or near zero during these times, I would need to be discharging my batteries to make any difference.
My house draws from the grid when I am force discharging the batteries, which can have a significant impact on any potential savings – hence why I discharge my batteries each night at the start of the off-peak window.
As a result my savings during these sessions were somewhat low:
I saved 0kWh on the 9th, which netted me 0 Octopints (£0.00).
I saved 0.17kWh on the 13th, which netted me 16 Octopints (£0.02).
I saved 0.17kWh on the 17th, which netted me 16 Octopints (£0.02).
I saved 0.17kWh on the 24th, which netted me 16 Octopints (£0.02).
I saved 0kWh on the 28th, which netted me 0 Octopints (£0.00).
A total saving of £0.06 – absolutely not worth the effort to even bother doing anything regarding these sessions.