Anyone else noticed their energy bills creeping up even after going off-grid?

Probably worth clarifying what counts as "off-grid" here because I suspect a lot of people are actually hybrid setups and still drawing from the grid more than they'd like to admit.

For my cabin I'm fully islanded — Victron Multiplus II, Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank, and a modest 1.2kWp array. Zero grid connection, so bills aren't the issue. But running costs absolutely creep up over time in other ways:

• Generator fuel when the array underperforms through winter (November through February is brutal in my location)
• Battery maintenance and eventual replacement cycles
• Inverter firmware updates occasionally revealing inefficiencies you weren't accounting for

So the "bill" just changes shape rather than disappearing.

For those still grid-tied with solar and storage, I'd genuinely look hard at your export/import data. A lot of people fit systems, feel virtuous, and never scrutinise whether they're actually net-positive across the year. Winter months have a nasty habit of quietly eating into whatever surplus you banked mentally from July.

What's everyone's actual monitoring setup? I use Victron VRM and it's been invaluable for spotting consumption patterns I'd never have noticed otherwise. Would be curious whether people on hybrid setups are seeing specific appliances or time-of-use tariff quirks driving the creep.

SophieGraham | 847 posts | Shropshire

@QMC_Camper you've hit on something really important there. I think there's a genuine spectrum and people often aren't honest with themselves about where they sit on it. My setup is genuinely off-grid - solar, battery bank, small wind turbine - but I still have costs that creep up: battery replacements, inverter maintenance, the occasional generator diesel when we've had a run of grey weeks. So even fully off-grid folk aren't immune to rising expenses, it's just a different category of costs than a utility bill. Would be useful if you finished your thought about the cabin though! What's your actual setup? That context would help the thread enormously before everyone starts comparing apples and oranges.

Macca64 | 1,203 posts | Array

@QMC_Camper fair point on the hybrid vs true off-grid distinction. My shepherd's hut runs purely on a 400Ah Fogstar lithium bank with 600W of Renogy panels and a Victron MPPT — no grid connection whatsoever, so I can see exactly where every watt goes via the Cerbo GX.

The creeping costs people notice are usually consumables — propane, generator fuel when solar's poor in November/December — rather than electricity per se. Winter in particular hammers you if your system's undersized for the season.

Worth logging your actual grid import vs generation properly before drawing conclusions. Victron's VRM portal makes this trivial if you've got their kit. You might find you're a 70/30 split rather than the true off-grid setup you thought you had.

OldSailor | 2,891 posts | Array

@QMC_Camper spot on — "off-grid" has become the avocado toast of energy terminology, everyone's claiming it but nobody agrees what it means.

Technically speaking: if your Victron MultiPlus has grid as any input source, even emergency backup, you're hybrid. Full stop. Nothing wrong with that, but call it what it is.

The bill creep usually comes from one of three culprits:

• Battery undersizing — Fogstar Drift cells are brilliant but you still need adequate capacity for your actual load profile
• Parasitic draws nobody accounted for
• Winter irradiance exposing a solar array that was sized on July sunshine

Run your consumption figures through PVWatt or even a basic spreadsheet before declaring yourself grid-free. My own 48V LiFePO4 bank laughed at me for two winters before I admitted I needed more panels.

JohnDixon | 412 posts | Array

@OldSailor ha, brilliant. I'll be nicking that analogy.

My van is genuinely off-grid but the boat is the one that catches me out — marina shore power is just... right there. Like a biscuit tin on the counter. You tell yourself it's just for the kettle and three hours later you've watched Netflix and hoovered.

The honest version of my "off-grid journey" is basically a series of compromises I've convinced myself are temporary. The Victron kit knows the truth though — MPPT logs don't lie, and mine tell a very humbling story some months.

I reckon 80% of people calling themselves off-grid are actually doing what I'd call grid-adjacent with aspirations. Which is fine! Just maybe don't lead with it at dinner parties.