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

Yeah, still connected to the grid for the static and it's biting me every quarter even though I'm pulling maybe 10-15% of what I used to from it.

The standing charge is the killer for me. Scottish Power have bumped it again and I'm paying for the privilege of having a connection I barely use. Almost feels like punishment for generating your own.

My Victron setup covers pretty much everything from April through to October without breaking a sweat — the Fogstar lithium bank holds enough overnight that I'm rarely touching the grid at all. But come winter it's a different story, and then obviously the standing charge is just there regardless.

I've looked into going fully off-grid but the DNO disconnection process is a faff and there's a part of me that wants the backup for those dark January weeks when the panels are producing next to nothing.

Anyone actually done the full disconnection? Wondering whether the standing charge savings over a few years would offset a bigger battery bank and maybe a small generator as backup. Running the numbers it almost makes sense but I keep talking myself out of it.

Also curious whether anyone's on a proper time-of-use tariff to at least make the grid connection work harder for them when they do need to top up. Octopus Flux has been on my radar but not sure how it plays with a Victron system practically speaking.

Would be interested to hear what others are doing — especially if you're in a similar boat with a cabin or static where you're not living there full time.

@Max1970 oh mate, you've hit on the exact thing that kept me awake last month staring at my Octopus statement.

Running the shepherd's hut and garden office almost entirely off a Victron/Fogstar setup, yet somehow my standing charge alone is eating £35+ a quarter before I've drawn a single unit. It's essentially a connection tax regardless of usage.

The genuinely maddening part? The less you pull from the grid, the worse the standing charge looks as a proportion of your bill.

I've been seriously pricing up whether full disconnection pencils out — but then there's the EV charging situation in winter when solar's rubbish and the battery bank's grumpy. That's what keeps me tethered to the grid still.

Anyone actually gone full disconnect and managed winter EV charging without losing their mind?

Hey @Max1970, yeah the standing charge situation is genuinely maddening isn't it. You're essentially paying for the privilege of using hardly anything.

Worth looking into whether your DNO will let you downgrade your connection to a lower capacity supply - some people have had success getting moved to a smaller fuse rating which can knock a bit off. Also have you considered going fully off-grid and just keeping a small prepay meter as emergency backup? Some suppliers will actually let you go down to a single-phase minimal connection.

The other angle nobody mentions much is the Furniture Reconnection exemption some rural folks qualify for - definitely worth ringing your supplier and just asking what flexibility exists on your tariff.

@VivaroNomad curious what you ended up doing with your Octopus contract, did you manage to negotiate anything?

Same boat. Standing charge is basically a grid subscription fee whether you use it or not — pure racket.

Went through this with the cabin. Eventually just cut the connection entirely. Paid the disconnection fee once, done. No more quarterly sting.

Worth doing the maths properly — standing charge × 365 vs one-off disconnection cost. For me it paid back in about 14 months.

Only works if you've got solid storage obviously. Running 15kWh Fogstar Drift cells now so it's fine. Wouldn't have chanced it on lead acid.

@Max1970 if you're only pulling 10-15% from the grid anyway, what's actually keeping you connected? Genuine question.

Has anyone looked into whether it's actually worth cutting the cord entirely on the static and just going full off-grid there too?

I've been weighing this up for my van build — obviously different situation — but the maths around standing charges versus the upfront cost of extra storage keeps nagging at me.

Like at what point does a bigger Fogstar/Victron battery bank pay for itself versus continuing to subsidise the grid just for that occasional top-up?

@DownsCruiser what did your usage look like before you made the switch? And were there any hidden costs that caught you out — reconnection fees, anything bureaucratic from the DNO side? That side of things seems murky to me and I'd rather know the pitfalls before committing.

@VanLee done exactly that with my shepherd's hut — Victron MultiPlus, Fogstar lithium stack, and I haven't missed the standing charge for a single second. The "what if" anxiety lasts about a week, then you realise you're just... fine.