We were having problems with our inverter, couldn’t get an early response from our installer a stressed conversation between our installer and solar tech support led to a text to us to authorise connection to your company . Ron was a very helpful and knowledgeable man who tried with a bit of difficulty as we are pensioners and very knowledgeable. Spent time on phone without making us feel small.we would recommend this company if you have any problems. Thanks Ron 5 star
Octopus Flux with solar How it works, best settings and is it worth switching?
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If you're dealing with a fault related to this topic, a remote diagnostic identifies the root cause and recommends the fix, in one session (30 min). All major brands supported.
Book your free diagnosticHow diagnostics workI can add to the list of customers who had already 'given up' on GivEnergy due to their appalling customer service, and that was before they went into administration. So you can imagine my desperation when, having changed my ISP and my Inverter, predictably, proving to be the only device that didn't connect automatically to my new network, I found zero prospect of any customer support with GivEnergy having called in the administrators just five days earlier! The salvation came from Solar Tech Support. My IT advisor stumbled across their web site and some very helpful tips for beleaguered GivEnergy customers, as well as an offer to provide direct assistance. Nothing ventured, I decided to drop them an E-Mail, with very low expectations based on my experience of GivEnergy customer support. Within an hour Ron had responded with some pin point advice, and after a few exchanges of E-Mails he had nailed the problem, enabling the combined efforts of my IT advisor and solar installer to resolve it and reconnect my Inverter. Thank you Solar Tech Support, and Ron in particular, for coming to the aid of a deserted and despondent GivEnergy customer. Expert, razor sharp advice and first class customer service, even though I wasn't officially a customer.
Super support. Delighted I found them. System battery was down for quite a while and no one would try to fix it as GivEnergy out of business. A few hours later and I’m up and running again. Brilliant service!!! Highly recommend them.
Superb work from Ronald. Cannot recommend highly enough. Figured out my problem late into night, going above and beyond! Many thanks to him
Big thanks to Ron. He was incredibly patient and helpful over the phone, taking the time to walk myself and the installer through every troubleshooting step. Through lots of testing he figured out the issue was definitely a hardware issue, which allows us to consider our next steps. Support fees are clear and they operate a “no fix no fee” policy. It is rare to find that kind of honesty combined with dedicated phone support nowadays. I highly recommend Ron, if you need help with your solar system don’t hesitate to give him a call.
Ron is one of those rare finds - an engineer's engineer. He insightfully and accurately diagnosed the problems with our GivEnergy system, very quickly, which helped get us back on track. We will be using him again!
The three-period Flux day explained
Unlike flat-rate tariffs, Flux charges different prices for electricity at different times of day — and, uniquely among simple consumer tariffs, it also pays a meaningful rate when you export during peak hours. Understanding the three periods is the foundation of everything else.
Cheapest import rate of the day. This is when you charge your battery from the grid. Import during this window only — avoid charging at any other time if you can help it.
Standard Flux rate — higher than the off-peak rate but lower than the peak rate. Solar generation and battery discharge cover household demand during this period to minimise expensive imports.
Most expensive import. But Octopus also pays a high export rate during peak — exporting stored battery energy during this window is where most of the financial benefit comes from.
Octopus Go has one cheap overnight import window, 00:30–05:30, and one day rate for everything else, and Octopus says you need an electric car you charge at home to join. Older Go agreements can have different hours, such as the four-hour 00:30–04:30. On Go, export is paid by a separate export tariff, such as Outgoing Octopus at a flat 12p/kWh as of October 2026. Flux adds a third element: a premium export rate during the peak window. This means Flux rewards both the import side (cheap charging) and the export side (selling at peak) — Go only rewards the import side. As of October 2026, Go's cheap rate (9.4p/kWh) was lower than Flux's (about 15–17p), but Go's day rate (about 33–39p) was higher than Flux's standard rate (about 26–28p). Your bill balance depends heavily on how much you can shift to the off-peak and peak windows.
Octopus's Flux page lists what you need: solar panels, which don't need to have been installed by Octopus, with a home battery also on its eligibility list; a smart meter Octopus can read half-hourly (a SMETS2, or a SMETS1 made by Secure); an export MPAN, which Octopus can apply for; your installation's MCS document; and Octopus import and export tariffs before you switch (new customers start on Flexible Octopus and Outgoing Octopus). Your system must also be allowed to export: with an export limit of zero there is nothing to sell in the peak.
Octopus's Flux page says you need solar panels, and its eligibility list also asks for a home battery, so check with Octopus if you have no battery. Without one you could not use the cheap overnight rate or store energy for the peak export window, and a solar-only home only gains from the peak export rate while panels still generate after 16:00, which is limited in autumn and winter.
When you are on Octopus Flux, your export earnings are paid through the Flux tariff — Octopus pays the peak export rate for units exported between 16:00 and 19:00 (about 29–32p/kWh as of October 2026), about 11–12p/kWh at standard times and about 5p/kWh in the cheap window. Flux needs your export to be with Octopus as well, so it replaces an export contract with another supplier. If you get Feed-in Tariff payments, Octopus says you must permanently opt out of deemed export payments to join; your generation payments carry on. See the Smart Export Guarantee guide for details on how SEG and Flux interact.
Is Octopus Flux worth it with solar?
The answer depends almost entirely on your battery capacity and how you use it. Here are the three scenarios, from worst to best.
A solar-only household on Flux benefits from the peak export rate when panels are still generating after 16:00 — mainly in summer. In winter, panels rarely produce meaningful output after 15:00 and the peak window yields little export. Meanwhile, the higher standard Flux rate applies for all evening and overnight import. Unless you have a very large east/west-facing array that generates well in the late afternoon, Flux is not compelling for solar-only homes. Octopus Go or a standard fixed-rate tariff with a competitive SEG rate is usually a better fit.
A 5 kWh battery can typically charge fully in the 3-hour off-peak window and discharge meaningfully during the 3-hour peak export window. In winter, the battery is likely to reach 100% from the cheap grid charge alone. In summer, solar may fill the battery before 16:00 without any overnight grid charge, leaving the cheap window available for future use. The limiting factor is battery size: a 5 kWh battery exported at a high peak rate generates less income per day than a larger system. Flux is generally worth it with a small battery — just not transformative.
This is the scenario Flux is designed for. A 10 kWh battery charges fully from the grid during the off-peak window. Solar tops it up again during the day at zero cost. The battery then has a full or near-full charge available to export during the peak window. In winter, the cheap overnight charge plus peak export can effectively give you a daily net energy cost close to zero or even positive — the peak export income offsets the overnight charge cost. In summer, solar generation often means no overnight grid charge is needed at all, making the peak export window essentially pure income. A 10 kWh+ system well-configured for Flux is one of the best financial propositions in consumer solar energy.
The optimal daily Flux strategy for solar + battery
A well-configured Flux setup follows the same daily cycle in winter. Summer shifts the solar contribution forward, often eliminating the need for any grid charge at all on sunny days.
The inverter draws power from the grid and charges the battery to 100% SoC. Cost: about £1.40 to £1.55 for 9 kWh (3 hours at a typical 3 kW charge rate, at about 15–17p/kWh as of October 2026), less if the battery was already partially charged from the previous day's solar. This is the only time grid import is financially acceptable on Flux.
Solar panels generate from sunrise. The inverter prioritises powering the house directly from solar, then re-charges the battery if it was partially discharged, then exports any remaining surplus. During this period, the aim is to keep the battery at a high SoC so it has maximum charge available for the 16:00 peak export window.
In summer, this period may fully recharge the battery without any grid input, making the overnight cheap charge unnecessary. In winter, solar production is lower and the battery likely relies on the overnight grid charge to reach full capacity.
The inverter discharges the battery at full power through the three-hour peak window. On GivEnergy this is Timed Export mode, at full power or at the set power depending on the inverter generation. The battery output covers the house load first, and the rest goes to the grid. How much you can actually export is capped by whichever runs out first: the usable energy in the battery after the house load, or your export limit across the three hours. Your peak income is that amount at the current Flux export rate, less the cost of the overnight charge. Both figures are specific to your system and your current rates, so check them in your portal and your Octopus account rather than relying on a headline number.
After the peak export window closes, the battery switches to powering the house (Timed Discharge or Eco Mode) to cover household demand through the evening. The aim is to avoid paying the standard Flux rate for any avoidable evening imports. Set a minimum SoC reserve of 5–10% to ensure there is always some charge remaining when the off-peak window opens at 02:00. An empty battery at 02:00 charges more slowly and may not reach 100% by 05:00.
A remote diagnostic session reviews your portal data and schedule settings to confirm whether your charge and export windows are aligned to the Flux periods — and identifies any configuration issues costing you income.
How to configure your inverter for Octopus Flux
The settings are the same across all brands in principle — a charge window from 02:00 to 05:00 and an export window from 16:00 to 19:00 — but the interface, terminology, and mode names differ. Here is what to do for each common UK inverter.
All four brands use SolarMan or a similar TOU schedule interface. The principle is identical: a charge window 02:00–05:00 (grid charge, SoC target 100%) and a discharge-to-grid window 16:00–19:00 (minimum SoC 5–10%). The key variable between brands is whether grid export is available on your firmware version and whether the brand's portal labels the mode as 'Sell', 'Export', 'Discharge to Grid', or 'Force Discharge'.
Octopus API integration vs manual schedule configuration
On standard Flux, Octopus says you set the battery schedule yourself. Octopus can run a compatible battery for you on a separate tariff, Intelligent Octopus Flux. That is not the same as manual TOU configuration — and running both simultaneously is a common cause of erratic battery behaviour.
You configure TOU slots directly in your inverter portal. No API connection. You control exactly when the battery charges and exports. Settings persist unless you change them or, on some brands, a firmware update resets them. Compatible with all inverter brands.
Octopus connects through your battery maker's account and schedules charging and discharging itself. It lists GivEnergy, SolarEdge, Enphase and other brands, but Octopus's own pages disagree on the full list, so check with Octopus. In October 2026 Octopus showed this tariff as temporarily unavailable, and open only to customers who bought solar and a battery from Octopus.
Why your Flux setup might not be working correctly
These are reasons a Flux-configured system can fail to perform as expected.
Check in order: (1) Is the TOU charge slot correctly configured with grid charge enabled? (2) Is the system mode set to allow grid charging (not 'Self-Use only' which may reject grid charge on some brands)? (3) Is the inverter clock showing the correct current time? If the clock is on GMT in summer (BST), the slot fires one hour late and misses the off-peak window. (4) If you have an Octopus API connection, is it conflicting with the manual schedule? (5) Could the CT clamp be the wrong way round? A reversed clamp makes the inverter misread import as export and refuse to charge from the grid. Your installer or an engineer checks this.
See the battery not charging guide for systematic diagnosis steps.
Check in order: (1) Is the export limit set to a non-zero value? If the export limit was reset to 0W (on some brands, after a firmware update), no power can reach the grid even in Timed Export mode. (2) Is the TOU export slot correctly configured as 'export to grid' rather than 'discharge to house'? These are different modes — Timed Discharge powers the house from the battery but does not push energy to the grid for export income. (3) Does the battery have sufficient charge at 16:00? If morning solar was poor and the overnight charge was insufficient, the battery may be near its minimum SoC before the export window even opens.
Octopus says Flux's periods stay at 02:00–05:00 and 16:00–19:00 UK local time all year, so they move with the clocks. If your inverter clock does not change between GMT and BST, its slots run an hour out of step with Flux for half the year: on GMT in summer, the charge slot runs 03:00–06:00 BST and the export slot 17:00–20:00 BST, an hour late. Your in-home display may also show the wrong times; Octopus says the bill is what counts.
On some brands, a firmware update to the inverter or battery can reset TOU configuration to factory defaults — deleting or disabling your Flux windows without warning. After any update, immediately check your charge schedule and export slot in the portal to confirm they are still active and correct. See the firmware update risks guide for full details of what to check.
If you are exporting during the peak window (confirmed in your monitoring portal) but your Octopus bill does not reflect the expected peak export rate, the issue is usually one of: (1) your smart meter is not correctly registering the half-hourly export data (contact Octopus to investigate); (2) the inverter export is going through a sub-meter that the smart meter cannot see; or (3) your Flux tariff switch is not yet complete and you are still on the previous tariff. Log into the Octopus app, navigate to 'Usage', and check whether half-hourly export data is visible — if the chart is empty or shows estimated reads, the smart meter communication needs investigating.
Related guides and configuration pages
The foundations of battery storage — charge cycles, SoC, degradation, and how inverters control dispatch.
See How Home Battery Storage Works →How SEG works, current rates, and how Flux export income differs from a standard SEG contract.
See Smart Export Guarantee Explained →What export limits are, why they cap your Flux peak export income, and how to check yours.
See Export Limitation Explained →Firmware updates that reset your Flux charge schedule or export limit without warning — what to check.
See Firmware Update Risks →GivEnergy-specific tariff setup — Octopus Go, Agile, Intelligent, Flux, Economy 7 charge schedule settings.
See GivEnergy Tariff Optimisation →Specific Sunsynk TOU configuration issues — clock errors, grid charge settings, and mode conflicts.
See Sunsynk Not Charging on Cheap Rate →Frequently asked questions
Flux not charging or exporting correctly?
If your battery is not charging during the off-peak window, not exporting at peak, or your Flux income looks lower than expected, a remote diagnostic reviews your schedule settings and portal data to find the cause, in one session (30 min).
- Remote — no site visit required
- All major inverter brands configured for Flux
- BST clock and API conflict issues resolved
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