So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the most of it???

orrery

groovyf wrote: »

Out of interest, how much juice does the car suck when charging?

Depends on the charger: 8kW, 4kW or 2.5kW with the normal charger options.

I've bought a 3rd party lead that offers a 1.5kW option to assist with charging from solar PV, but I have to set the charge timer from 10am to 4pm to make sure that I'm generating enough surplus and that isn't really enough to keep it charged - the battery is 24kWh for a full charge. This time period is going to reduce as we move towards shorter days, and you can see that in winter with only about 3kWh generation, that just isn't going to work at all.

In any case this then doesn't leave enough surplus to heat the water with the SolarImmersion, which will soak up all the surplus when the days get shorter.

So, economy7 it has to be (I'd rather suspected that would be the case).

Smiley_Dan

You could take a look at something like the Optiplug which, assuming the car charger uses a normal 3 pin plug, will only switch on when you have the necessary surplus.

I use it with oil filled electric rads... quite useful on sunny winter days.

You also need the equipment that measures import/export

orrery

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

You could take a look at something like the Optiplug...

I'm not sure that would work - I'd have the Optiplug and the SolarImmersion competing for the surplus. In any case, that would be only viable in the peak summer months.

In addition, there is a basic conflict here - you get solar power peaks in the middle of the day and you can't drive a car and charge it at the same time.

orrery

... and to bring this back to the central question:

Is there any reason I should be wary of having solar PV and a smart meter fitted?

sly_dog_jonah

orrery wrote: »

... and to bring this back to the central question:

Is there any reason I should be wary of having solar PV and a smart meter fitted?

Have they said whether your export payments would still be deemed at 50% of generation, or based on metered export? That assumes the Smart Meter supports this, those built to the early standards don't. It would probably need a variation of your FiT contract to alter the export payments from 50% deemed. Our FiT contract terms refer only to export meters, not smart meters.

ChopperST

We have a smart meter and are on deemed export. Our meter was installed in May 2013 and our PV in January this year.

orrery

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

Have they said whether your export payments would still be deemed at 50% of generation, or based on metered export?

My FIT is with EDF and supply with OVO, so no overlap at all. I see no reason to tell anyone, as my FIT is on the generation meter which is separate - so no change there.

Smiley_Dan

orrery wrote: »

I'm not sure that would work - I'd have the Optiplug and the SolarImmersion competing for the surplus. In any case, that would be only viable in the peak summer months.

If you have the full setup then the immersion is heated before the optiplug switches on.

This highlights another problem in this area: these systems are not very open, so tying different products together is difficult and requires a lot of hacking.

In addition, there is a basic conflict here - you get solar power peaks in the middle of the day and you can't drive a car and charge it at the same time.

Er, ok, thought it was you who was asking for ways of diverting leccy.

sly_dog_jonah

orrery wrote: »

My FIT is with EDF and supply with OVO, so no overlap at all. I see no reason to tell anyone, as my FIT is on the generation meter which is separate - so no change there.

All supply meters are registered on a national database which all suppliers can access, so in theory your FiT provider wouldn't need to find out from you about whether you have a smart meter installed.

sly_dog_jonah

ChopperST wrote: »

We have a smart meter and are on deemed export. Our meter was installed in May 2013 and our PV in January this year.

Almost certainly your Smart Meter can't measure export then, based on the date of installation.