‘What crisis? I generate my own power’

Those who source their own energy should be better insulated from rising gas prices. Will Kirkman meets the homeowners future-proofing their supply

nergy bills are expected to rise for most households this winter. But those fortunate enough to be self-sufficient will be somewhat protected from a rise in costs.

Solar panels, watermills and biomass boilers all provide ways to go partly “off-grid”. These features can often be expensive to install, but for many the benefits of being self-sufficient outweigh the costs.

Rose and Toby Jeffrey, from Berkshire, are one such couple. Their home has a 9.69kWp solar system installed on the roof that has almost eliminated their electricity bills.

The panels cost £21,000 to install, including the cost of a Tesla Powerwall, a battery to store the energy produced. It will take roughly 16 years to pay off, using the savings and money generated through exports.

The Jeffreys’ electricity bill before installing the panels was about £1,500 a year. With the energy they now sell back to the grid through an Octopus Tesla tariff, this has fallen to £50 a year. Those selling energy generated at home back to the grid can take advantage of the energy crisis, as export prices reflect wholesale costs, which are now much higher.

On Octopus’s Agile tariff, one unit sold back will make 34p at midday as of Thursday. A month ago the rate was 24p.

Mrs Jeffrey said that the ongoing energy crisis, during which a rise in wholesale prices has brought numerous energy suppliers to their knees, had encouraged her family to become more self-sufficient.

She said: “We are yet to move our entire central heating from gas, but the news we are hearing this week definitely brings that to the forefront of our minds.

“We are on a fixed contract at the moment, but our gas bill will likely increase when it ends.”

She added: “The solar panels will help to mitigate the risk a little – we can switch some of our household usage to solar electricity from gas, such as the hot water.”

Mrs Jeffrey said that she expected to sell more power back to the grid than usual this winter. “We use a Tesla Powerwall to store excess electricity generated from our solar panels,” she explained.

“We get a very good price for the energy. Our solar set-up means that we pay very little for our electricity, so in times like this, we will be able to find a little extra to cover increased gas costs.”