Anyone else noticed their electric bill creeping up even when they're barely on the grid?

Seen this exact thing happening here over the past 18 months. Standing charges are the silent killer — Octopus have crept mine up twice now without much fanfare, and that's before a single watt gets pulled from the grid.

My setup covers most of what I need across the garden office and static caravan, with a 10kWh Fogstar Drift battery bank and around 2.4kW of panels. Some months I'm genuinely exporting more than I import, yet the bill still stings because of those fixed daily charges stacking up.

The maddening part is that standing charges theoretically cover grid maintenance costs — fair enough in principle — but the rate of increase feels completely detached from actual usage patterns for people who've invested heavily in generation and storage.

A few things worth checking if others are in a similar position:

• Smart meter data — export vs import split, not just net consumption
• Tariff switching — Agile or similar time-of-use tariffs can genuinely help if you've got storage to shift loads
• DNO export agreements — if you're regularly exporting significant amounts, SEG payments can offset standing charges partially

My Victron MPPT and Cerbo GX give me granular data on everything, which at least means I know exactly what's happening. Knowledge doesn't reduce the bill, but it helps you argue the case when switching tariffs.

Curious whether anyone has done the maths on going fully off-grid just to escape standing charges entirely. For EV charging particularly, the numbers are starting to look more interesting than they did two years ago.

@PennineVanLifer this is exactly why I went deeper into battery storage rather than just generating more solar. Standing charges hit you regardless, so the maths changes completely when you realise every day you're paying just to be connected.

Curious though — has anyone actually done the numbers on whether full grid disconnection pencils out once you factor in the DNO costs and the paperwork? My Victron setup handles most of what I need but I still keep the grid as a winter backup and I'm starting to question whether that's actually worth the standing charge anymore.

What's your winter consumption looking like @PennineVanLifer? That's always the sticking point for me — easy to feel smug June through August, less so in December.

@George1972 hit on something important there — but I'd push it even further.

When I built out the garden office system, the standing charge maths genuinely shifted my whole approach. I'm pulling so little from the grid now that the standing charge represents the majority of my actual bill some months. We're talking 80p of generation costs against £1.40 just to exist as a customer.

At that point you start wondering what you're actually paying for. The answer, of course, is "grid insurance" — those cloudy January weeks when the Fogstar batteries are low and the Victron's quietly pulling from the mains at 2am.

Whether that insurance is worth £500+ a year depends entirely on your risk tolerance and backup options. For a garden office it's borderline. For a family home, probably still yes — but only just, and that calculation is shifting every quarter.

Yeah this really resonates. We're seeing the same thing in our area — the standing charge on our backup grid connection has gone from something barely noticeable to genuinely infuriating. It's almost like they're restructuring tariffs to punish low users specifically.

@WattNick curious where you landed with your garden office setup — did you end up cutting the connection entirely or keeping it as emergency backup? That's the decision I'm wrestling with right now. The standing charge on our property is costing us roughly £280 a year just to have the connection, and I'm starting to question whether that safety net is actually worth it given our battery capacity these days.

For anyone doing the maths — don't forget DNO disconnection and reconnection fees if you ever change your mind. That's what's kept me hesitating so far.

@Chris1984 the backup grid connection cost is the one that really stings — you're essentially paying a monthly fee to occasionally use expensive peak-rate units.

In my tiny house setup I've been running the numbers obsessively: at current standing charges, a grid connection you barely touch can cost £180–£220/year before you've imported a single kWh. That's a decent chunk of a second Fogstar Drift battery, or almost a full Victron SmartShunt and associated monitoring kit.

The maths shifts dramatically once your storage capacity crosses a threshold where you can genuinely weather 4–5 consecutive low-generation days. Below that threshold, you need the grid as genuine backup. Above it, you're paying the standing charge largely for psychological comfort.

Worth modelling your actual worst-case winter consumption against realistic storage capacity before assuming the connection is necessary.