Using Your Smart Meter to Maximise Solar Self-Consumption
Your smart meter data tells you exactly when you're wasting solar by exporting. Here's how to read the patterns and shift your usage to keep more of what you generate.
What Self-Consumption Means
Self-consumption is the percentage of your solar generation that you use directly, rather than exporting to the grid. For plug-in solar owners, higher self-consumption means higher savings — because the value of avoided import (currently ~24p/kWh) is far greater than what you'd get paid for exports under the SEG (typically 4–15p/kWh).
A typical UK plug-in solar system achieves 60–80% self-consumption without any effort. With smart optimisation using your meter data, you can push that above 85%.
Reading Your Smart Meter Data
Your SMETS2 smart meter records half-hourly import and export data. Most supplier apps display this as a bar chart showing each 30-minute slot. Here's what to look for:
Import bars during midday (10:00–15:00) — these should be small or zero on sunny days. If they're consistently high during peak solar hours, you're running heavy loads at times when your panels can't cover them, while exporting surplus at other times. That's inefficient.
Export bars — every bar here represents solar energy you generated but didn't use. It went to the grid for a fraction of its value. Small export bars are fine; large consistent ones mean you could be capturing more.
The transition points — note when import kicks back in each evening. This tells you when your panels effectively stop generating enough to cover base load. Any discretionary loads (dishwasher, washing machine) should run before this time.
Practical Load-Shifting Strategies
Based on what your smart meter data shows, here are the moves that make the biggest difference:
Run appliances during solar hours
A dishwasher cycle uses about 1.5 kWh over 2 hours. Run it at noon instead of 8pm and your solar covers most of that. Same for washing machines (1 kWh per cycle), tumble dryers (2.5 kWh — try to run on the sunniest days), and slow cookers.
Use delay-start timers to schedule loads for midday even if you're out. You don't need to be home for this.
Charge devices during the day
Laptop, phone, tablet, robot vacuum, cordless drill — anything with a battery. Plug them in during solar hours. Individually these are small loads (20–60W), but combined they add up.
Hot water boost
If you have an immersion heater on a timer, shift the boost to midday instead of overnight. An immersion draws about 3kW, which is more than your plug-in solar can provide alone, but it still offsets some of the import.
Consider a battery
A plug-in battery like the EcoFlow Delta 2 stores daytime surplus for evening use. This effectively turns export into self-consumption. Whether the maths works out depends on your export volumes — your smart meter data tells you exactly how much you're exporting and therefore how much a battery could save.
 battery](/images/products/stream-ultra.png)
- 800W dual-panel kit with 1kWh Delta battery
- Store daytime solar for evening use
- Full home backup mode
- Smart scheduling via EcoFlow app
Using the EcoFlow App vs Smart Meter Data
If you have an EcoFlow STREAM system, the EcoFlow app shows real-time generation and can automatically divert surplus to the battery. The smart meter complements this by showing the net effect on your grid consumption — it's the billing truth.
Use both: the EcoFlow app for real-time optimisation, and your supplier app's half-hourly data for tracking long-term self-consumption trends.
Setting a Self-Consumption Target
For an 800W plug-in system without a battery, aim for 75%+ self-consumption. With a battery, 90%+ is achievable.
Track it monthly: compare your total estimated generation (from your energy monitor or EcoFlow app) against your export register readings. The difference is your self-consumption.
Self-consumption % = (Generation − Export) ÷ Generation × 100
Related Reading
See how much plug-in solar could save you — with real data for your postcode.