Anyone else noticed their electricity bill went up even after switching to solar?

Funny you mention this — happened to me before I moved onto the narrowboat full-time. Had a small 2-panel Renogy setup on the house roof and my bill crept up the following quarter. Took me ages to figure out what was happening.

Turns out the psychology of having solar made me unconsciously use more electricity. Dishwasher mid-afternoon, extra laundry cycles, leaving things on charge "because it's free." Except on cloudy November days in the Midlands, it very much wasn't free.

A few things I've seen catch people out:

• Feed-in vs. self-consumption — if you're exporting when you're out and importing when you're home, the numbers won't stack up
• Standing charges — these never go away and have shot up lately regardless of what you generate
• Behaviour creep — see above, guilty as charged

Since moving to the boat with a proper Victron MPPT setup and a decent Fogstar lithium bank, I actually see the numbers in real time on the VRM portal. That visibility changed everything. You stop being vague about consumption pretty quickly when you're watching a battery percentage drop.

I think a lot of domestic solar installs just lack decent monitoring. People assume the panels are handling it and stop paying attention to their usage patterns.

Anyone else tracking this properly? Would be curious whether those of you with home setups are using anything decent for consumption monitoring, or just relying on the smart meter in-home display.

@RiverSoul classic "I've got solar now, time to boil the kettle 47 times a day" psychology 😄

Happened in my static van — stuck a couple of panels on the roof, suddenly felt flush and started running the electric blanket guilt-free. Completely wiped out any savings.

The solar didn't fail me, my brain did. Turns out "free energy" is a dangerous phrase to tell yourself.

Got a Victron BMV now so I can actually see what's happening — nothing kills the phantom spending spree faster than watching your battery percentage drop in real time. Recommend it to anyone who thinks panels alone will sort their habits out.

GafferTapeKing3 replied:

@RiverSoul oh mate, the rebound effect is real and nobody warns you about it. The moment people feel like their electricity is "free" they start running the tumble dryer at noon thinking they're quids in.

What I'd genuinely recommend is grabbing a cheap plug-in energy monitor — I use an Owl one, cost me about a fiver secondhand — and actually watch your consumption for a week before and after. The numbers are often a right eye-opener.

The other culprit nobody mentions is parasitic loads from the inverter itself. Some cheaper units sit there quietly munching 15-20W even when you're drawing nothing. Over a whole quarter that adds up to a surprising chunk on your bill.

@RiverSoul this took me by surprise on the narrowboat in year one. I'd fitted a decent Victron setup — felt rich with free electrons — and suddenly I was running the inverter for things I'd never have bothered with before. Electric blanket, laptop on charge all day, even a small fan heater "just for ten minutes."

The Victron Cerbo was logging everything and I eventually sat down and looked at the data properly. My consumption had genuinely increased by about 30% compared to living more carefully before solar.

The panels weren't the problem — my attitude was. Once you feel like energy is free, the psychological handbrake comes off completely. Worth checking your actual consumption figures rather than assuming the solar is underperforming.

@DerekDixon @RiverSoul worth being precise about which consumption is creeping up though — there's a difference between daytime rebound (using solar-generated power you'd have otherwise exported or curtailed) vs genuinely using more grid than before.

First one is actually fine, arguably good — you're self-consuming properly. Second one is the psychological trap @DustyCaptain's on about.

On my narrowboat I tracked this properly with the Victron Cerbo — daily grid import figures don't lie. Turned out my evening usage had quietly ballooned because I felt "rich" during the day and stopped being careful after dark when I was back on the hook-up.

The solar didn't cause the bill rise. My attitude did. 🙄

DaleBen replied:

@ShedGenius makes a fair point about being precise. What I'd add is — check whether you've unconsciously shifted when you use things rather than how much. I did this myself; started running the washing machine more freely because "the sun's paying for it." Except on cloudy days I'd forgotten to check the state of charge first and was pulling straight from the grid anyway. Classic mistake. A decent battery monitor with historical logging sorts this out pretty quickly — you can actually see the days your consumption crept up versus what generation was doing. Victron's app is brilliant for this if @DerekDixon's setup has the GX device. Without that visibility you're essentially flying blind and the rebound effect will quietly eat your savings before you've even noticed.