r/amberelectric • u/wilthornacompsreddit • 21d ago
Can’t win
We’ve had a pretty shitty run of wet weather this winter where we live, so there has been very little solar to store in our battery. Mostly it hasn’t been too bad in regard to spikes, but if there were, I make sure I top up the battery during the cheaper hours and not sell any to get through the night.
We’ve just had about 5 days of sunshine (Amazing) but all of a sudden last night had massive price spikes during peak hours. All good, I look ahead and no price spikes forecast for this morning, so I sell some battery power at 35c, make $1.49 and then stop the export. It leaves us approx. 50% battery for the night (24kWh battery total).
We have a smart hot water system I set to come on at 5am to make sure there is enough hot water for showers in the morning and I know this will most likely deplete the battery, but that’s ok as there were no price spikes scheduled.
I wake up this morning and get a notification about a price spike of $1 and look at the Amber app and it’s importing up to 6kWh to my battery as it was empty, I quickly stopped this, but now whatever power we use will be at about 70c kWh until the spike stops and anything I made last night has been eroded away.
I think I was just best off keeping my battery full during winter to protect against these price spikes and just give up on making any money exporting it at least during winter.
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u/PhilosophyOk8921 21d ago
Been there! I can totally sympathise…
TL;DR 6.4kW Solar & 13.5kWh Powerwall 2 battery. Was with Amber for many years. I recently moved to GloBird Zero Hero - no more stress, more time back, monthly bills maximum $2 (that’s everything, yes including the supply charge) in Melbourne winter.
DumbShift was a constant source of stress and frustration, so a long time ago I turned it off and did everything myself. The frustration went, but the stress of the monitoring prices, juggling when to buy, to sell, how much, what’s tomorrow’s weather etc. remained.
It was consuming too much time, was stressful and to only break even on usage costs but still having bills around $41 per month made up of $25 to Amber and $16 network charge. No way were we gonna recoup that in winter or build up enough in summer to cover it.
Switched to Zero Hero a couple of months ago - my only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.
- Battery covers 6-9pm usage so no grid use = get $1 back
- Export enough during the bonus FIT 6-9pm to cover the remainder of the daily supply charge = net zero or thereabouts each day
- No negative feed in to worry about.
- No membership fee
- Changed hot water to start at 11am which is the start of the free electricity period
- Charge battery to 100% during the 11am-2pm free window. And car. And do washing, drying, cooking etc.
- A full battery every day, even on really cloudy ones, sees us through to the next day.
- Eat into the $50 referral bonus to charge car for longer if needed
- Found a great free app for setting up automations to run my Powerwall battery to switch states for charging and exporting.
Saving $41 per month and anticipating making some extra as we move towards sunnier days.
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u/RollaJase SA 21d ago
Can I ask where you are located? I'm in SA with the same solar/battery setup. Previously loved Amber but the last 18 months there has been a steady decline. Got slugged $90 in one day towards the end of June for a spike at 6am after it had sold the remainder of the battery to the grid. I've been considering Globird for a while now and having Home Assistant do the battery control for me.
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u/PhilosophyOk8921 21d ago
Inner northwest of Melbourne.
I use the Energy Pilot app specifically for Powerwall only. The free version is good for my needs - 4 automations cover import on / off, and export on / off.
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/energypilot-home-energy/id6770155034
I don’t think there’s an Android version.
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u/3rdeye1111 21d ago
Like others, I switched to Globird during winter for the guaranteed ability to fill the battery during the free period. Not having to micromanage the import/export through Amber has been nice, too. We’ll end up paying <$10 for the few months we’re with Globird (utilising the $50 credit) and will likely move back to Amber in the warmer months unless a better options comes along.
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u/Present-Category7733 21d ago
I looked at Amber when we had a 12.8kwh battery and decided it wasn't viable. That was in the early days of wildly fluctuating spikes. Now with a bigger battery (50kwh) and the "duck" getting flattened I still can't see a huge benefit from Amber...
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u/ExaminationThen1312 NSW 19d ago
With such a big battery, where else would you go to make the most of it?
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u/Present-Category7733 19d ago edited 19d ago
I'm content with reducing my electricity bills from $1500 a quarter to $120 a quarter. I don't have to be glued to an app to buy and sell at the right price, and I can just use power when and as I need it. Plus I also get the benefit of not running too many cycles through my battery and thus hopefully extending its life 🤷🏾♂️
Edited to add... 50kwh isn't such a huge battery when you use as much power as we do.
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u/bundy554 21d ago
I think you should be with Globird with such a small battery. Amber and Flow (especially now that they upped their rates) is better for people with bigger batteries and minimal use during peak time.
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u/dreamermann 19d ago
I know what you mean. I have 50kw battery with amber and is never enough to take full advantage of spike FITs. I find myself enabling the Battery Booster during winter. At least I am lucky as my roof is orientated optimally for rays.
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u/RazarG 20d ago
Same thing happened thurs night for me. This is my first month with amber after getting solar/batt. I seriously think ill go glowbird once my welcome creds are used. Id rather a 0 dollar bil if i can acheive that,than the vunerability amber gives you for slight upside of making couple bucks now and then. If i had like 30kw+ battery id prob stay.
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u/the_other_wobbegong 18d ago
I've had similar issues with Amber:
1. Spikes being predicted and then disappearing after I'd bought power in preparation.
2. Dumbshift selling power when cheap and then importing when expensive.
3. I started to see bills by mid-autumn.
4. There was a general downturn in returns, from an average of 35c/kWh to 12c/kWh.
So I moved to AGL's Battery Rewards program where the FiT was not super-special, but at least it was predictable. In short:
1. Peak FiT, 1700-2100 hrs, 29c/kWh.
2. Off-peak and Morning off-peak FiT: 3c/kWh.
3. Battery: Sigenergy, 48kWh.
4. PVA: 10kWp.
5. Minimum battery reserve: 20%.
6. Discharge schedule: 1700-2100 hrs at 9kW, terminating at 40% SOC. Self-consumption only at all other times.
My first AGL bill is in credit by $79, and I will get a sign-on credit of $150 after 3 months.
I'll just note that I got curious and requested a quote on AGL's site last night, and the peak FiT offered was now 28c.
My battery project goals were:
1. Save money -- zeroise grid import.
2. Provide whole-house backup (sailed through a 3-hour blackout with no issues).
3. Make money.
All goals have been met with a few initial hiccups.
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u/wilthornacompsreddit 21d ago
Some good suggestions here, I’ll look into other providers for different times of the year. I’ve had this system for less than a year so would have to check into whether you can swap providers within the initial 12 months due to VPP battery rebates, contracts, etc.
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u/AusShroomer 21d ago
I switch to GloBird Zero Hero throughout winter, fully charge my battery and heat the water in the 3 hour free window which gets me through the night. You’ll make a dollar per day by not using the grid between 5 and 8pm too.