Solar Generation In March 2023 What A Washout! Despite the longer daylight hours we had a really wet and miserable March here in Devon and it turns out it was one of the wettest since the 1980’s. The chart below shows the solar generation for the month worked out at just 344 kWh which was a miserable 277 kWh less than March 2022 and even less than last month!! It really was a cold, cloudy and wet March indeed.
Comparative Energy
Electricity Use
You can see the effect of the poor weather in the above statistics. We used on average 5 kWh a day more this year than we did last March! Still charging overnight with the Tesla Powerwall II really does make a big difference on the overnight tariff! Even without Solar Panels a domestic home battery would be a sound investment when paired with a time of use tariff.
Gas Use
The damp bad weather meant the central heating was on more than normal and as a result usage was up by 4 kWh on average each day. This is despite finally removing the gas fire from our lounge and replacing it with an electric fire. My aim is to ultimately remove the gas boiler but I am not yet convinced an air source heat pump is worth the expenditure at this time.
Out with the Gas Fire
In with the new electric fire
It took me many months to hunt down an electric fire that would fit into the grate without the need to rip out the Portuguese limestone surround.
Total Energy Use
Summary
Cost of your energy this month
Electricity – £55.05
Gas – £84.66
Subtotal – £139.71
FIT Income £0
Despite the bad weather still cheaper than February 2023. On the first of April 2023 Bulb was taken over by Octopus Energy and my account has now been changed to the Octopus Go EV tariff. I expect the reporting format from the new company will change and wait to see what happens to my Bulb app and account dashboard. Its a shame Bulb failed and I found them very helpful and easy to use.
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