Warning for those with pv Solar Panels

[Barry14UK]

Hi those those with Solar Panels.  Appreciate this is outside the realm of motor subjects, unless you use generated power to fuel your car.  However, I thought some here might take a lesson from my daughter's experience regarding quarterly return on FIT and generation to Grid.  She has a monitor which enables her to calculate her return and was expecting a good quarter of some £900.  But as owners will know, the figures used are as recorded by the meter and neither a separate monitor not the the inverter is accepted.  So today she checked the digital meter and found it had hardly moved from the previous reading.  So instead of getting the expected nine hundred or so pounds she will only receive about six pounds.  She contacted EON who told her they have about two meters a day go faulty so system owners miss lose out, and this is only one energy company.  So you need to check this digital meter every day or two to see it is still working (properly).  Alternatively, you need a device that records from the digital meter to a handy monitor you can conveniently check.    

[Phil xxkr]

38 minutes ago, Barry14UK said:

Hi those those with Solar Panels.  Appreciate this is outside the realm of motor subjects, unless you use generated power to fuel your car.  However, I thought some here might take a lesson from my daughter's experience regarding quarterly return on FIT and generation to Grid.  She has a monitor which enables her to calculate her return and was expecting a good quarter of some £900.  But as owners will know, the figures used are as recorded by the meter and neither a separate monitor not the the inverter is accepted.  So today she checked the digital meter and found it had hardly moved from the previous reading.  So instead of getting the expected nine hundred or so pounds she will only receive about six pounds.  She contacted EON who told her they have about two meters a day go faulty so system owners miss lose out, and this is only one energy company.  So you need to check this digital meter every day or two to see it is still working (properly).  Alternatively, you need a device that records from the digital meter to a handy monitor you can conveniently check.    

Invaluable advice Barry. Investing in a PV /battery/diverter is tantamount to becoming a Power Station Owner! The more disparate the components the more opportunities for failure. Advice tip, get a third party app. I use Octopus Watch, it's a great app that gives me a daily import /export cost usage analysis. 

 

[Shahpor]

Apologies for asking what might be an obvious question, but is this the meter that the Solar installers fit when they commission the system?  If so, is the owners responsibility if it goes wrong?

[Barry14UK]

4 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Apologies for asking what might be an obvious question, but is this the meter that the Solar installers fit when they commission the system?  If so, is the owners responsibility if it goes wrong?

Yes, the solar meter would have been installed as part of the system some eleven years ago, so I am sure would now be beyond any warranty provided. It seems likely that my daughter will have to pay for a replacement and hopefully will be able to get this done soon as possible as we are now in the most productive period for generating electricity.  Incidentally, apart from the panels which have a very long life,  the inverter is quite expensive and may need replacing any time onwards now. It seems the monitor my daughter has records from the inverter.  I have a very similar system to my daughter's.  It was installed by the same firm within a week of hers by the same firm, so this is of potential concern to me.  However, I have purchased a device that is fixed to the digital meter and then into a box containing 3, AA batteries and a transmitter which is paired to a monitor in the kitchen.  Were it not for this, I would not know whether the solar meter was working as it is in the garage along with the inverter so not convenient to check on.

The two types of monitor were offered at extra cost and not everybody would have opted for them or would have chosen the more expensive but less helpful one like my daughter did. (There are doubtless other devices that can be bought nowadays.

Not material to the above but of possible interest is that the FIT alone repaid the total cost of our respective systems in 6.75 years, although we did have systems installed before the Government started reducing the FIT on subsequent installations.  Then we have benefitted from a lot of our own generated electricity to reduce our electricity bills, with years more of benefit to come.  

[stringbender]

Our system has generated 43 megawatts and can still peak at 4 KiloWatts on a cool bright day. It paid back the installation cost in less than the 7 years too. I did hear of a smart meter that charged the customer for the energy produced by her panels ! So far our old fashioned meter remains in place - seems the longer the better !

We have a monitor that continually reads out the watts being produced which we really like.  My wife records the meter reading every night as well as all the other data  ( peak watts, hours of production etc.) . From memory the panels are guaranteed to still produce 80% of the peak power after 20 years. 

The best investment we ever made.

[Shahpor]

Interesting info chaps, thanks for sharing.

This is what May has brought me, but since I have only had the system about 3 months, I can't tell how good it is:

It should be noted that we have an electric car, hence why the export might not be as high as it would be otherwise.  Still, not had to charge the car from the grid this month, which makes it all the more fun to run a car on solar power 🙂

[Barry14UK]

One final point which I noted when I submitted my quarterly claim today reads as follows, so ensure your meter reading is on time!  

"We can only accept, validate and make payment for meter readings submitted
within your meter reading month, so please remember to submit your readings
on time. It's important to remember that the Feed-in Tariff payment will be
made within 90 days of the last day of your meter reading month.
If you have any questions on your Feed-in Tariff readings or payments please
contact our Green Energy Team at feedintariffs@edfenergy.com."

[NemesisUK]

If one misses the reading window it simply gets included in the next . One doesn't miss out on any payments, it just gets delayed to the next quarter