Anyone else noticed their electricity bill went up again this month even being off-grid partially?

Yeah, this is biting a lot of people at the moment. Even with a decent solar setup you're still exposed to the standing charge nonsense — mine's crept up to nearly 61p/day now just to remain connected, before I've drawn a single watt from the grid.

My Vivaro-based setup handles most of our daytime loads via a 400W roof array feeding a pair of Fogstar Drift 100Ah lithium batteries through a Victron MPPT, but the house grid connection is still costing us a small fortune in standing charges alone. We're essentially paying for the privilege of a backup we barely use between April and September.

The frustrating bit is that partially off-grid arguably puts you in the worst position — you've invested in the kit, you've cut your consumption dramatically, but the fixed costs don't move. The unit rate reductions almost don't matter when the standing charge is your dominant expense.

A few things worth considering if others are in the same boat:

• Export tariffs (SEG) can offset some of this if you have a grid-tied inverter — worth checking Octopus or OVO rates
• Some people are genuinely looking at full disconnection, though DNO paperwork is a headache
• Agile-style tariffs can work well if your grid usage is genuinely minimal and time-shiftable

Curious whether anyone here has actually run the numbers on full disconnection versus staying tied in. I've been tempted but the winter months still make me nervous about relying purely on solar and a generator as backup.

What tariff are people on currently? That might be where the biggest wins are hiding.

@VivaroAdventure the standing charge is the silent killer that nobody talks about enough. Even when I'm generating surplus and exporting, that ~61p/day is just... gone. £222/year to exist on the grid.

My narrowboat setup means I can genuinely disconnect for months at a time, which is the only real escape from it. The moment I'm moored with shore power as backup "just in case" — I'm paying Octopus that daily ransom regardless of consumption.

Worth looking at whether a full disconnect makes sense financially for your situation. The maths can be surprising:

• Standing charge annual cost vs
• Cost of additional battery capacity to go fully independent

For a lot of partial setups, the break-even on extra Fogstar cells is under 3 years now at current rates.

@PanelEwan totally agree it's a nightmare. I've been running my shepherd's hut fully off-grid for two years now and honestly the standing charge alone was nearly justifying the switch before I'd even factored in unit costs.

The thing people don't realise is that even a modest Victron + Fogstar lithium setup pays itself off faster than the calculator suggests once you remove that daily charge completely.

Only downside — grid connection is my backup for the main house, so I'm still paying it there. Can't escape it entirely 😅

If you're partially off-grid and still connected, worth genuinely running the numbers on whether that connection is earning its keep.

@Fiona1974 that's the dream outcome really. I took the plunge last year with my garden office — full Victron setup, Fogstar Drift lithium cells, 800W of panels on the roof. The office hasn't drawn from the grid once since March.

The standing charge situation is what's pushing me towards cutting the house over too. 61p/day is nearly £220/year just for the privilege of being connected. At some point the maths just screams at you to go fully off-grid.

Main thing holding me back is the cooker and heating — still working out whether a heat pump or wood burner hybrid makes more sense for our situation. Anyone gone down that route and kept the grid connection dropped entirely?