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

keith_r59

I registered with e.on and they too have a 5 day limit however my installers registered the system the day after the system was commissioned so it wasn't an issue. I paid them by cheque.

If you paid your installers on completion of the installation they should have sorted out the MCS registration straight away and, as it's an on-line process, the certificate should have been e-mailed to you automatically.

celerity

themaverick1953 wrote: »

My installer told me (in good faith) that I would receive my FIT paymets from the 0 reading on the meter. I registered wth British gas today and the form I filled in said that you could only start at 0 if you registered within 5 days of commissioning.

Since you have to pay the installer, then wait for the MCS certificate before then applying for the FIT payments, 5 days seems extremely unreasonable. Has anyone else come up against this?

Yes, I'm in the same boat as you as a bank holiday and a screw up with the MCS paperwork meant I missed the 5 day deadline. I'm desperately hoping that Eon decide to pay me from the zero reading anyway. If they don't, I'm well over £100 down - although there is an argument to be said that you'll eventually get this back linked to inflation in 25 years (as your FiT period will just be say, two weeks longer). That argument doesn't hold any sway with me though, I want my cash now! :mad:

/\dam

furndire

Sorry to repeat myself again, but to all new users please read my post https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3191844 -


at first you will find it difficult to get your head round what I am saying, but I have now got a check meter that proved within a couple of hours that my solar panels were ADDING ELECTRIC on to my meter. This has happened to others, and if you don't spot it now, once the duller days are here, you may not spot for months.

& check you MAINS ELECTRIC meter is working correctly with the old analogue meters which have the tenths on, or the spinning wheels, its easy to see. But if its a digital one which just goes up by full KWs it is not easy to work out.

Your Installers should have told you to do this, but are often failing to do so.



Meters that are known to be "not fit for purpose" are some of the Siemens ones S2AS-100 and S2AS-200.

You will be very excited reading the monitors watching how much electricity you are producing - most people are, but you need to make sure that it is not adding on to your mains meter. There is at least one more MSE'er this has happened to - its even worse for people who have the "free" panels. See PaulReed's post 302# (you will need to go a few pages back on this thread) He had his panels since October - 6 mths ago. & mine were installed 9 mths before I could work out what exactly was happening

carolinabirichina

themaverick1953 wrote: »

My installer told me (in good faith) that I would receive my FIT paymets from the 0 reading on the meter. I registered wth British gas today and the form I filled in said that you could only start at 0 if you registered within 5 days of commissioning.

Since you have to pay the installer, then wait for the MCS certificate before then applying for the FIT payments, 5 days seems extremely unreasonable. Has anyone else come up against this?

Yes, this happened to me as well - my solar panels were installed at the end of October 2010 and it took about 3 weeks before all the paperwork came through from the company, so 4 weeks before I could register with British gas. I lost out on 40 units - my system is only 1.3kw (8 panels) and it was a very dismal November so not much in the way of production. I would be more annoyed if it had happened now as my panels are producing on average 7 units a day in this lovely sunny weather!

ChrisJD

furndire wrote: »

Sorry to repeat myself again, but to all new users please read my post https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3191844 -
Meters that are known to be "not fit for purpose" are some of the Siemens ones S2AS-100 and S2AS-200.

I think it would be more accurate to say that these meters can work absolutely fine, but may also be programmed to add exported energy to used energy on the visible display.

I haven't checked details of other common electronic meters to see if they also have this option in their configuration settings.

Certainly everybody should check what their meters are showing.

keith_r59

furndire wrote: »

at first you will find it difficult to get your head round what I am saying, but I have now got a check meter that proved within a couple of hours that my solar panels were ADDING ELECTRIC on to my meter. This has happened to others, and if you don't spot it now, once the duller days are here, you may not spot for months.

I'm sorry but how could you not spot that there was something wrong with your electricity meter almost immediately?

The whole purpose of installing Solar PV is to reduce your grid electricity consumption so I would of thought that most people would check that this was the outcome as soon as they had their system installed, I know I did.

furndire

My post is aimed at new users - more than older ones, unless they got it installed late summer, or autumn.

If yours is ok Keith, (I can almost bet that your meter is either one that has small increments on, or a wheel that goes round) fine - then, this post won't be of interest to you, ours wasn't - and it was difficult to tell. I don't particularly want to go into reasons again, but - it happens.
If you get the electric first, and use it, it doesn't add on - with a meter that only goes up 1 KW at a time & dull days - you have a problem working it out. Its only because its been exceptionally bright that I have been able to work it out. My bills didn't go up, they just didn't come down as much as they obviously (now) should have done. I have been querying this with suppliers for the past 9 mths, and they have been convincing me that our electric consumption had gone down in the last 3 years, so they were saying it was probably was correct.

If I can prevent one or two more people having the same problem as myself, I will be happy.

furndire

Chris, the guys who came and fitted the check meter catagorically said this meter is not an export meter, and even though I gave him the manual, he still wouldn't have it that it had the data on. Totally ........ me off - This is the problem where the departments are not talking to each other properly. How the heck do you convince someone who was obviously blinkered to what I was telling him - I could just tell by the way he looked & spoke he thought "just another person who hasn't a clue as to how much electric things use".

If this only happens to a small percentage of these meters, surely they should all be checked properly & people warned it can happen - why the heck should I, not knowing much about this have to find out for myself - as soon as its logged up by the Generation teams -(you give them your meter type etc when applying for FiTs) - they should be warning customers, not, like the ones I spoke to, telling them how to save more electricity.

Another reason not to pick up on this is bills are paid by Direct Debit, this evens out any difference over the year, and exacerbated by the fact the meters are only read properly twice a year (unless you request otherwise). SSE's online facility stopped working for me middle of December - I had, up to then, been trying to monitor on their site just what we were using. The last time I told them about this, they told me it wasn't meant to be used this way, and to stop using it!!!!!!!

BobA

I am new member to the forum and looking for some advice.

I had a 3.96kWp system installed in March with a Diehl Ako 3800s Inverter in my loft. The system has been working well with all this great sunny weather, BUT, I am being woken up nearly every morning by the constant buzz of the inverter which is a few feet directly above my head in the loft.

I have tried to research Inverter noise and there doesn't seem to be much information - and my suppler has said they have installed 20 other installations without anybody complaining about the Inverter noise.

I came across an Australian web forum (link removed as "Sorry as a new user you are not allowed to post with links."),
but have seen nothing posted on UK sites.

Does anybody on this forum have solar Inverters in their loft and suffer from 'Inverter noise' ?

I have to get it fixed as it is causing me to wake at 5am each morning!

themaverick1953

Mine in the loft and I can't here it even when right next to it in the loft. However I am getting it moved to the garage so I can at least see the read out.