The Great 'Get Paid To Generate Energy' Hunt

furndire

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

I agree with those who are saying the expected (or claimed) generation figures are very exaggerated. For the month of December my 2.96kWp system generated 44 kWh - i.e. less than £4 off my electric bill for the entire month.

Dave F

so anyone paying a "maintainance" fee of £5 would be paying the "free" company to put the panels on their roof.
So this month they would be on 44 x 41.3 + export of 22 @ 3p = £18.82 for the company - ok, I know they have the outlay - but its the FiTs that are the reward not the saving of electricity in the winter.

Cardew

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

I agree with those who are saying the expected (or claimed) generation figures are very exaggerated. For the month of December my 2.96kWp system generated 44 kWh - i.e. less than £4 off my electric bill for the entire month.

Dave F

That is of course if you used all of that 44kWh in the house(or you have a backward turning meter).

In all probability it wasn't all used.

furndire

Very true!

Dave_Fowler

Cardew wrote: »

That is of course if you used all of that 44kWh in the house(or you have a backward turning meter).

In all probability it wasn't all used.

I actually exported 12kWh from the 44kWh (during 3 'good' days). Most of the time I can easily keep up with the meager output of around 180W.

And, yes, my meter still hasn't been changed and runs backwards when exporting. I've no idea what they are going to do when they finally get round to changing it - and I'm sure they will when the negative usage figures come in during summer.

Dave F

Cardew

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

And, yes, my meter still hasn't been changed and runs backwards when exporting. I've no idea what they are going to do when they finally get round to changing it - and I'm sure they will when the negative usage figures come in during summer.

Dave F

To avoid negative usage figures, using the immersion heater instead of gas for some of the time helps!!

As long as there is a single kWh to be charged, the accounts computer won't pick up any 'problem'!

jackieblack

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

I agree with those who are saying the expected (or claimed) generation figures are very exaggerated. For the month of December my 2.96kWp system generated 44 kWh - i.e. less than £4 off my electric bill for the entire month.

Dave F

Cardew wrote: »

That is of course if you used all of that 44kWh in the house(or you have a backward turning meter).

In all probability it wasn't all used.

We've just had the first Electric Bill since having our PV system installed in October.

On the day the (import) meter was read the pv system had generated 153 kWh.
Comparing the latest electric bill with the bill for the same quarter last year, we have imported 156kWh less.

Not especially scientific:D, but seems to confirm that we are probably using whatever is being generated ourselves at the moment, although I realise this is because of the relatively small amounts being generated at this time of year.:)

M4RKM

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

I actually exported 12kWh from the 44kWh (during 3 'good' days). Most of the time I can easily keep up with the meager output of around 180W.

And, yes, my meter still hasn't been changed and runs backwards when exporting. I've no idea what they are going to do when they finally get round to changing it - and I'm sure they will when the negative usage figures come in during summer.

Dave F

Interesting, I've just had a PV system installed, and noticed, a day or so after that my old meter also was running backwards. Are the figures actually rolling backwards when exporting, I didn't take that much notice!

M

Dave_Fowler

M4RKM wrote: »

Interesting, I've just had a PV system installed, and noticed, a day or so after that my old meter also was running backwards. Are the figures actually rolling backwards when exporting, I didn't take that much notice!

M

My meter certainly takes off the units when I export. It's going to be quite a battle in the summer to keep the recorded usage positive - it is difficult to use 20-25kWh in a day during the summer. I have arranged my on-line quarterly meter readings to be the end of March, June, September and December. The June and September readings will include at least one month of duller weather when the net usage can be quite positive. The main problem will be the visit from the meter reader man. If he coincides with a time when the net reading is negative there could be some interesting results.

Dave F

ChrisJD

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

My meter certainly takes off the units when I export. The main problem will be the visit from the meter reader man. If he coincides with a time when the net reading is negative there could be some interesting results.

Dave F

I am intrigued that you see this as a problem. The form I filled in to claim FIT asked if my meter ran backwards. Did you not have to declare this yourself? Initially I thought mine did too, but soon realised it just managed part of a turn before the ratchet caught it.

Chris

Dave_Fowler

ChrisJD wrote: »

I am intrigued that you see this as a problem. The form I filled in to claim FIT asked if my meter ran backwards. Did you not have to declare this yourself? Initially I thought mine did too, but soon realised it just managed part of a turn before the ratchet caught it.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Yes, I had to declare that the meter ran backwards when I applied for FITs. However, unlike your meter, my meter continues to run backwards for the entire time I am exporting. No ratchet in my meter. Last summer there were days when I imported minus 15 kWh.

The problem I have is that soon after I started generating and applied for FIT payments I changed my supplier. I sent a new set of forms to my new supplier, but they said they could not take over my generation payments because there is at present no mechanism for changing who pays FITs. They say that when you switch supplier you do not switch over the generation company for FIT payments. This will be set up some time in the future, but at present it can't be done. So I am claiming FIT from my old supplier but paying for my supply from the new supplier.

My old supplier has no incentive to change the meter since they are not losing income when my meter turns backwards and the new supplier, although I notified them of the backwards running meter, does not seem to be able to process the problem as they have nothing to do with my generation payments.

Dave F