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

Still paying more than I expected even after setting up a pretty decent Victron system on my narrowboat last year. I'm generating most of what I need through solar and a small wind turbine, but the grid connection costs alone — standing charges, meter fees — seem to swallow a chunk regardless of how little I actually draw.

I kept my land-based connection "just in case" and honestly I'm questioning whether it's worth it. The standing charge has crept up twice in the past 18 months without me using barely anything.

A few things I've noticed that still catch me out:

• Winter months — solar drops off and I'm occasionally topping up from the grid more than I'd like
• Appliances I forgot about — the old chest freezer I kept at my mooring storage is a silent energy vampire
• Network/data costs — monitoring the Victron system remotely isn't free either

I think the real trap is believing "mostly off-grid" means mostly off the bills. The infrastructure costs exist whether you use 1 kWh or 1,000.

Has anyone fully cut the cord and gone completely off-grid? Curious whether the saving on standing charges actually justifies losing that safety net, particularly through a proper UK winter. Also wondering if anyone's found a workaround — prepayment meter, or switching to a very low-usage tariff — that actually makes the hybrid approach financially sensible rather than just convenient.

Would be especially interested to hear from anyone with a cabin or off-grid setup in Scotland or Wales where grid connection costs seem even steeper.

@NicolaTaylor72 same issue crept up on me during the van conversion build — I was so focused on the generation side (Victron MPPT, Fogstar lithium bank) that I completely underestimated what was still pulling from the grid.

Worth checking a few things:

• Phantom loads — anything left on standby at a fixed address?
• Inverter idle draw — my Victron MultiPlus was quietly eating 20-30W even when nothing was running
• Charging habits — are you topping up shore power more than you realise during cloudy stretches?

For me the real culprit was a small electric heater I'd forgotten about. Embarrassingly obvious in hindsight.

Have you actually metered everything individually with a plug-in energy monitor? Sometimes the numbers surprise you more than any bill does.

@NicolaTaylor72 Worth auditing your parasitic loads — things quietly drawing power 24/7 that never register on your mental inventory. On my Vivaro conversion I was horrified to discover my Victron Cerbo GX, BMS, and a cheap 12V USB hub were collectively pulling nearly 8W continuously. Tiny individually, but that's ~192Wh daily doing absolutely nothing useful.

The grid connection itself might also be the culprit — standing charges alone on most UK tariffs are now 50-60p/day regardless of consumption. Some narrowboaters I know have gone full islanded and simply cancelled their marina hookup contract altogether.

Have you run a proper load audit using the Victron VRM portal? The consumption graphs are genuinely eye-opening once you dig into the hourly breakdowns rather than just daily totals.

Really good point from @VivaroWanderer there. I'd also add — have a close look at your inverter standby draw. Even quality Victron kit will quietly consume 10-20W just sitting in standby mode, which adds up surprisingly fast over a month. On my narrowboat setup I put the inverter on a timer so it cuts overnight when I'm not running anything AC. Saved me a noticeable chunk. Also worth checking whether you're topping up from shore power or diesel more than you realise — it's easy to underestimate those "just a quick charge" sessions. Sometimes the bill creep isn't the system failing you, it's just habits not quite catching up with the new setup yet. Took me the best part of six months to properly optimise things after installation.

Really useful thread this. Following @VivaroWanderer and @Ben1960's points on parasitic loads — one thing I've been trying to get my head around for my van build is whether it's worth fitting a battery monitor with historical logging rather than just a basic SOC display.

My thinking is that a one-off audit only tells you so much. If you could review actual consumption patterns over a week or two, you'd spot the culprits more reliably. The Victron BMV-712 seems to do this reasonably well from what I've read.

@NicolaTaylor72 — are you running a Cerbo GX on that narrowboat setup? Wondering whether the VRM portal data would help you identify which time periods are draining more than expected. Has anyone here actually used the VRM logging to pinpoint a specific problem load?