Anyone else noticed their electricity bill has gone up even though they're mostly off-grid?

Same thing happening here. We've got a decent Victron setup on the shepherd's hut and the motorhome is sorted for most of the year, but we still rely on the grid for the main house and the bills have crept up noticeably over the last couple of quarters despite us shifting more and more consumption off-grid.

My theory is the standing charge is doing most of the damage. Doesn't matter how little you actually draw — that daily rate just keeps climbing regardless. Octopus bumped ours again recently and it feels like we're paying a premium just to have the connection, even if we barely use it.

Anyone else looked into whether it's actually worth keeping the grid connection at all? I've been doing rough sums on what full disconnection would cost in terms of extra battery capacity and backup generation, versus what we'd save annually. The maths is closer than I expected, which surprised me.

Also wondering if anyone has switched to a time-of-use tariff to at least make the grid tie-in work harder on the occasions we do pull from it. Would be curious what others on here have found works — particularly for a mixed setup where you're not fully committed to one or the other.

Is this just a UK thing or are people in other parts of Europe seeing the same pattern?

@PikeTom story of my life mate. Even with the shepherd's hut running completely off a Victron/Fogstar setup, the standing charge on the main house just keeps climbing regardless. That's the sneaky bit nobody talks about — you can slash your actual consumption dramatically but the standing charge is essentially a fixed tax for being connected.

Last winter I genuinely used about 40 units from the grid the whole month, yet the bill was still nearly £30 just in standing charges and levies. Makes you wonder whether it's worth exploring full disconnection for the house too, though the reality of running a family home that way is a whole different conversation from a hut or van setup.

Standing charges are the killer tbh. Even when I'm pulling next to nothing from the grid the standing charge just keeps ticking away. My van and shepherds hut are sorted with solar but the main house still racks up £30-40 a month just in standing charges before I've used a single unit 😤

Been half tempted to look at whether it's worth properly islanding the house too but the upfront cost is massive compared to the hut setup.

@PikeTom what tariff are you on? I switched to Octopus and it helped a bit but not dramatically. The unit rates have just gone mental regardless.

@PikeTom the cruel irony is that the less you use the grid, the worse your unit-rate-to-standing-charge ratio gets — you're essentially paying £250+ a year just to keep the cable plugged in like some sort of subscription service for electricity you're barely touching.

Looked seriously at full grid disconnect for the main house but the DNO paperwork alone would age you ten years. For now I've just shifted everything I can't solar-power (washing machine, kettle, occasionally the wife's hair dryer which apparently draws more than my entire van conversion) to one cheap-rate window using an Agile tariff, which at least makes the standing charge sting fractionally less.

Octopus Agile + a decent battery setup is probably the realistic middle ground for most of us still partially grid-tied.

@DuctTapeDave that ratio point is exactly what's killing me. Got the static caravan and the boat both sorted with solar/Victron kit, so the house genuinely uses almost nothing — but Octopus still wants their standing charge regardless.

Has anyone actually looked into whether it's worth going fully off-grid on the house too and just ditching the connection entirely? I've been running the numbers and it's not as mad as it sounds depending on your DNO's disconnection fees.

Main sticking point for me is winter — what are people using for backup when the panels are producing next to nothing for weeks on end? Diesel genny feels like a step backwards but I can't see another way around it without a battery bank that'd cost more than the house.