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Learn / How to optimise a home battery on a time-of-use tariff

How to optimise a home battery on a time-of-use tariff

A home battery pays for itself faster when you charge it in the cheapest hours and use that stored energy during expensive peaks — automatically.

4 min read · Updated 2026-07

The basic idea: price arbitrage

On a time-of-use or dynamic tariff, a home battery can practise simple price arbitrage: charge from the grid when electricity is cheapest, then power your home from the battery during the expensive evening peak. The bigger the gap between cheap and peak prices, the more you save.

Adding solar to the mix

If you have solar, the battery also stores surplus generation for later, raising your self-consumption. The smartest strategy blends both: prioritise free solar, top up from the grid in the cheapest hours, and discharge during peaks — a decision that changes daily with weather and prices.

Why automation matters

Getting this right by hand is impractical — prices and solar forecasts change every day. FYXO reads your inverter and battery (GivEnergy, SolarEdge, Enphase, Fox ESS, Huawei, sonnen, Victron and more) and, alongside live prices, schedules charging and discharging to make the most of every cycle, within the limits you set.

FAQ

Can FYXO control my home battery?
FYXO reads most inverters and batteries to inform scheduling, and can switch battery mode on supported systems such as sonnen. For read-only systems it optimises your other flexible loads around your stored energy and prices.
Does battery optimisation work with solar?
Yes. FYXO blends solar self-consumption with cheap-hour grid charging and peak discharging to get the most value from each cycle.
See also

Put it into practice

FYXO shifts your EV, battery and heating to the cheapest hours automatically. Free to start, 3-minute setup, no hardware.

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Keep reading
Time-of-use tariffs explained
A time-of-use (TOU) tariff charges different rates at different times of day. Understanding the peak and off-peak windows is the key to cutting your bill.
How much can you save by charging your EV off-peak?
Charging an EV in off-peak hours instead of at peak can cut the cost of each charge by well over half on the right tariff — typically 20–40% of your charging bill when automated.
What is a virtual power plant (VPP)?
A virtual power plant is a network of small, distributed energy assets — batteries, EV chargers, flexible loads — coordinated to act like a single power station.