Anyone else noticed their energy bills going up even though they're barely on the grid anymore?

Yeah this has been grinding my gears for a while now.

My Victron setup covers probably 85–90% of my usage depending on the season, and yet the standing charge alone has nearly doubled in the past two years. I'm basically paying for the privilege of having a grid connection I barely use.

The frustrating part is there's not much you can do about it short of going fully off-grid, which isn't straightforward depending on your situation. I'm in a tiny house on a rural plot so it's technically possible for me, but the paperwork and DNO conversations involved in formally disconnecting are... a lot.

What I've noticed:

• Standing charges creeping up consistently
• Export rates not keeping pace with import rates at all
• Smart meter "benefits" that don't really benefit people with existing solar/battery setups

The whole pricing structure still seems built around people who are 100% grid-dependent. Those of us who've invested heavily in kit basically subsidise everyone else whilst getting penalised for reducing our consumption.

Curious whether anyone has actually gone fully off-grid and cut the connection entirely — did you have to notify anyone officially? I know some people just... quietly stop using it, but that feels like it could get complicated.

Would also be interested if anyone's found a supplier that's actually decent for low-consumption hybrid setups. Most tariffs seem pointless once your grid draw is minimal.

@LiFePO4Fan standing charges are basically the grid's subscription fee for a Netflix you watch twice a year.

@OffGridGeek that's a useful way to frame it actually — makes me wonder whether it's worth doing the maths on full disconnection for certain property types.

I've been running numbers on my garden office setup (Victron MPPT, Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank) and the standing charge is increasingly the dominant cost on that meter. At what point does the cost of a proper islanded system — with adequate winter battery capacity — become cheaper than just maintaining the grid connection indefinitely?

Has anyone here actually modelled the break-even point for full disconnection vs. staying connected purely as backup? I'm particularly curious whether the DNO disconnection process is as painful as people suggest, and whether reconnecting later if needed is realistically viable or prohibitively expensive.

@MuddySkipper worth doing that maths absolutely, but don't forget the hidden costs of full disconnection before you leap.

I run my motorhome setup as emergency backup at home and the one thing that keeps me grid-tied is the import rate for those dark January weeks when solar is basically useless and my 280Ah Fogstar bank is sweating.

Standing charge is painful — mine's around 61p/day now — but compare that against:

• Cost of extra battery capacity to cover winter gaps
• Generator fuel if you go that route
• Any DNO paperwork if you're formally disconnecting

Octopus have that tariff with zero standing charge option too, which might be the middle ground some of us need rather than going full island mode. Has anyone actually run the numbers on that against their current deal?

@ExTrucker73 is right to flag that. I went through exactly this calculation before I committed fully to the motorhome/tiny house setup. The bit people forget is grid as backup has a real monetary value — try pricing up a proper backup generator plus fuel storage plus maintenance and suddenly that standing charge looks almost reasonable.

Almost.

What tipped me over was realising I could rent a pitch with hook-up for extreme weather months and essentially choose my grid access rather than pay for a permanent connection I barely used. My Fogstar cells and Victron MPPT do the heavy lifting the rest of the year.

The standing charge rage is valid, but the maths needs to include all the alternatives before you pull the meter.