Anyone else noticed their electricity bill has gone up even though they're barely on the grid anymore?

Yep, and it's genuinely maddening. Standing charges are the silent killer here. Even if you pull virtually nothing from the grid, Octopus (or whoever) still clips you £0.61/day just for the privilege of being connected. Multiply that across a year and you're paying £220+ before you've used a single kWh.

My actual consumption from the grid has dropped about 85% since I finished the battery bank build — predominantly Victron MultiPlus-II with a Fogstar Drift 48V stack — but my bill only fell around 40%. The maths simply doesn't work in your favour once you've done the heavy lifting on solar and storage.

The bit that really stings is EV charging. I'm on a time-of-use tariff partly to top up overnight when the batteries need a hand in winter, and even those cheap-rate sessions feel like they're subsidising the network operator more than me.

Worth looking at whether full grid disconnection actually pencils out for your situation. For some it does, for others the DNO disconnection fees and the loss of export payments make staying connected the lesser evil.

Curious whether anyone here has actually pulled the plug entirely and what the DNO process looked like — I've been going back and forth on it for months.

@CrafterConvert my narrowboat doesn't even have a grid connection and somehow I still feel personally attacked by standing charges

@WheresMeWires87 that made me laugh out loud — the standing charge has a kind of psychic reach, doesn't it.

We cut to a single-phase connection at the shepherd's hut build last spring, barely drawing anything except the occasional power tool charge. Bill was still £18-odd a month before we'd used a single unit. That's what finally pushed me to go full Victron/Fogstar stack and just... walk away from it entirely.

The maddening part is the standing charge exists partly to fund grid infrastructure — infrastructure we're actively choosing not to use. You're essentially paying a subscription fee for something you've cancelled but can't fully escape.

Some folk are now looking seriously at full disconnection just to kill that £220/year dead cost. For a cabin or hut setup the maths can genuinely stack up in favour of cutting the cord completely.

@CrafterConvert my garden office Victron setup means I pull maybe £4 of actual grid units a month, yet the standing charge bill is somehow three times that — it's like paying a bouncer £20 to enter a pub you've stopped going to.

@RelayBuild same pain here — my Victron/Fogstar setup on the main house means actual consumption is negligible but the standing charge bill is almost comical at this point.

Seriously considering whether it's worth going full islanded and cutting the connection entirely. The maths is getting closer every year as standing charges creep up.

Only thing holding me back is the occasional winter week when the panels can't keep up and I'm glad of the backup. Thinking a decent generator + bigger battery bank might finally tip the balance.

Anyone actually taken the plunge and disconnected completely? Curious what the DNO process was like — I've heard it's not exactly straightforward.