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The Days My Solar Beat the Grid — 2026
104 days in this year my ground-level garden panels beat the grid outright. The month-by-month breakdown.
Octopus Agile
The Night My Safety Net Fought Itself
A week ago I said my battery had never breached its floor. Last night it did — not because the safety net failed to fire, but because a second safety system was running month-old code and kept turning the charger back off. Two backstops at war, and a human at 2am.
Gas vs Electricity: A Year, and Six Weeks Away
Electricity and gas behave nothing like each other over a year — one flat, one seasonal. And six weeks away turned the flat into an accidental experiment in what's heating and what's always-on.
What the Electricity VAT Cut Would Have Saved Me
The government's taking VAT off electricity for six months. Measured against my actual bills, it would have saved me about £12 — a number with a story behind it.
One Year of Buying Electricity Cleverly — First by Hand, Then by Script
A year ago I put in a home battery and started timing my electricity buying — by hand at first, then a Python script I built. What the year added up to.
61% of my energy bill is now standing charges
The charge planner squeezed a month of energy down to £16.93 — so the fixed daily fees are now the bill.
Home Assistant as the Brain: How My Solar System Manages Itself
Discover how Home Assistant automates your solar energy system to maximize savings with Octopus Agile pricing and intelligent self-management.
The Days My Solar Beat the Grid — 2025
In 2025, not once did my garden panels beat the grid — the honest baseline, month by month, before the year that changed it.