Guides for homes with solar, batteries, EVs, and heat pumps.
Plain-English explanations of Octopus tariff conflicts, battery behaviour, and whole-home coordination — written for homeowners, not engineers.
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GivEnergy vs Solis: which inverter works better with Octopus smart tariffs?
Both are popular UK home battery systems. But their API access, cloud connectivity, and compatibility with smart tariff coordination differ in ways that matter if you are on Intelligent Go or Agile.
How to read your inverter data to spot energy waste
Your inverter app shows you numbers. But which numbers actually tell you whether your system is working efficiently? Here is what to look for — and what the common warning signs mean.
Which 1app smart control mode should you use?
A practical guide to choosing between Autopilot Value, Maximise Self-Sufficiency, Arbitrage + Reserve, Profit, and Manual Control in 1app.energy.
Octopus Agile vs Go for home battery owners: which actually saves more?
Agile's half-hourly pricing can beat Go significantly — or cost more. For battery homes, the answer depends entirely on whether your battery can act on the prices automatically.
Octopus Intelligent Go in 2026 — what actually happens to your home battery
Intelligent Go is marketed as a smart EV tariff. But for homes with a battery, it creates a conflict that neither Octopus nor your inverter will tell you about. Here is what is actually happening.
Why does my home battery drain when Octopus charges my EV?
If you have an Octopus smart tariff and a home battery, you may be losing stored solar energy every time your EV charges during the day. Here's exactly why it happens — and what you can do about it.
How much solar energy do UK homes actually lose to EV and battery conflicts?
Most solar + battery + EV homeowners assume their system is working efficiently. The numbers suggest otherwise. Here is a realistic estimate of what the average UK home is losing — and why it rarely shows up on any dashboard.
Heat pump + battery + EV: why a smart tariff alone is not enough
A smart tariff optimises one device. Homes with a heat pump, battery, and EV have three devices competing for the same energy at the same time. Here is why that requires a different approach.
Octopus Go vs Intelligent Go: which is actually better if you have a home battery?
Both tariffs are cheap for EV charging. But for homes with a battery, the choice has consequences that go beyond the unit rate. Here is an honest comparison based on how each tariff actually behaves.
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