How I Got My Energy and Driving Costs Down to Just £350 a Year

What if I told you that last year I drove around 10,000 miles, heated my home, used electricity and gas throughout the year, and my total bill for all of it was around £350?

It sounds almost too good to be true, but by combining solar panels, a home battery, an electric car and smart energy tariffs, this is what can be achieved. The important thing is that it isn't one single technology making the difference. It is how they all work together.

My home has around 6.6kW of solar panels, split between the east and west sides of the roof. This means the panels generate electricity across a large part of the day. When the sun is shining, that electricity can be used directly by the house instead of being bought from the grid.

Any excess electricity can then be stored in my 9.5kWh home battery. This allows me to use electricity later in the day when the solar panels are no longer generating. The battery can also be charged from the grid when electricity is particularly cheap and then used when prices are higher.

This is where smart tariffs become really useful. Rather than simply buying electricity at one fixed price, I can take advantage of cheap overnight electricity to charge the battery and the car. My EV can then be charged for just a few pence per mile.

Over the year, 10,000 miles in an electric car might require around 2,500kWh of electricity. At around 7p per kWh, that is only about £175 before charging losses. Compare that with a petrol car doing 40mpg and fuel costing £1.40 a litre, which would cost around £1,600 for the same mileage.

The heating in the house also plays a part. I use air-to-air heat pumps, which can produce several times more heat than the electricity they consume under the right conditions. This allows us to reduce our reliance on the gas boiler and make better use of our cheap electricity and solar generation.

The result is a home where everything works together. Solar powers the house and charges the battery, the battery moves cheap electricity into the expensive parts of the day, cheap overnight electricity charges the car, and the heat pumps use electricity very efficiently to heat the home.

It is not something that will work exactly the same for everyone. The initial cost of solar panels, batteries and an EV needs to be considered, and not every home has the right roof or access to cheap electricity.

However, my experience shows what is becoming possible. Instead of simply being a consumer of energy, your home can start producing, storing and intelligently using it.

For me, the result was around £350 to cover the electricity, gas and 10,000 miles of driving for an entire year. As energy technology continues to improve, I think this type of setup is going to become increasingly common.

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