WARNING SOLAR PANELS & some Siemens S2AS-100/ Siemens S1AS-100 Meters

John_Pierpoint

Ask the bloke who fits the extra meter what happens to electricity going in the reverse direction.

If it is a nice sunny day you and he can sit and watch the meters for an hour (or count the red flashes) Got two watches with stop watch function?
"Ok here goes first person to 50 flashes GO!".:D

furndire

Guess what the weather looks like here at the moment - what's the betting the heavens will open when they fit the meter :mad:

I did eventually get one of the MicroGeneration Team on the phone, who said "we know that some of the meters go backwards" also, another comment was the "electricity your panels produce goes straight to the National Grid" - which nearly made me swear - my answer to that was "you are not listening to me -mine isn't, its going on to my meter"

Oh dear the meter man is not going to be a happy bunny tomorrow.

dunloadin

Hope I'm not too late to post before the visit....if you switch off all your isolators in the consumer unit then both meters will be seen in reverse.

He'll have to knock you off power to make the job safe anyway....better make sure he switches off the supply from the inverter as well or he'll get a belt!

Jon_Tiffany

dunloadin wrote: »

Hope I'm not too late to post before the visit....if you switch off all your isolators in the consumer unit then both meters will be seen in reverse.

He'll have to knock you off power to make the job safe anyway....better make sure he switches off the supply from the inverter as well or he'll get a belt!

If the inverter is working correctly it should shut down as soon as the grid supply is shut off. There should also be copius warning stickers alerting to the fact that a solar pv system is attached. Still best to play safe and turn off the PV isolators as well.

Cant wait to hear what the outcome of the visit is!

furndire

Check meter is in - its an import only one, which will either go backwards, or stay put. I hope its one that stays put, but if it went backwards, we would see a difference quicker. For the last 10 years I have not been able to "see" the amount of electric appliances use - digital meter didn't have a 1/10th on it.
When I was talking to the boss "auditor", for a start he couldn't understand why we didn't have an export meter - he just did not know that you don't have to have one or why I had said no on the form that asked us if I wanted one.
He said that these meters are definatley not designed to export - when I told him about the register he wasn't convinced - out came the print out - still said that unable to get the data!!! I noticed he did have a read of it though. When they left I did say do you not want to take it with him, but he declined - saying that bit wasnot part of his job.

Very pleasant young man who installed meter had an auditor checking work etc with him, so health & safety was paramount. - Had an audience while he did the job. All switches were off - our installers had told us we would have to do this if anything was done to the mains.
When they came, they did not have anything regarding conversations I had had with SSE or micro generationg team.

There is a huge communication breakdown between the various departments - which is very worrying. When they are sent out to put in meters, they are often not told there are Solar Panels!! - I don't think they had been told we have them.
I get the feeling that each department just does only their job.

Just have to wait now for 2 or 3 weeks until they show a difference between the two - I hope the sun really shines brightly to speed the process up. They have had to put a check meter in as the meter is in dispute.

One thing I didn't know that meters legally can have a 5% tolerance on being accurate. So they are allowed to run either 5% slow or fast!!! When you think about it, neighbours can be paying 10% difference in the cost of their electric if one is running fast, and the other slow
Probably just my luck that mine has been at the upper tolerance level as well for the last ten years. Anyway that's something else I will be doing - getting OffGen to check it once this is sorted.

So I will have a few weeks to compose my complaint.

I still think that this could be happening to more people who don't realise what is happening.

John_Pierpoint

furndire wrote: »

One thing I didn't know that meters legally can have a 5% tolerance on being accurate. So they are allowed to run either 5% slow or fast!!! When you think about it, neighbours can be paying 10% difference in the cost of their electric if one is running fast, and the other slow
Probably just my luck that mine has been at the upper tolerance level as well for the last ten years. Anyway that's something else I will be doing - getting OffGen to check it once this is sorted.

Couple that with the UK grid tending to run at over the European standard of 230 volts for single phase. Historically the UK used to aim for 240 - 250 volts., then you could be paying well over 5% too much.
It is as bit like running a two star car engine on 5 star petrol.

I am told that this over voltage effect is worse if you are the last property out in the wilds at the end of the circuit (as I am).

Would any electrician care to comment?

furndire

Well that's working, I've already got a discrepancy on the meters - taken 3 1/2 hours.

They left at 1.30 New meter was on 0008.0 . old meter on 93492 generataion meter was on 2945
Its now 5 pm ...................... now on 0008.9 ........ now .... 93496 ....................... ........ now 2950


The .9 of KW can be accounted for by putting my oven on - it was dull, & I didn't think it would brighten up - sods law, it did.
They don't need to leave it a couple of weeks. I knew it was bad, but not this bad.
Even when they were putting the meter in, my head was saying "you're right", but you know that feeling of slight doubt was still there and I was sort of still worried I might be wrong.
I feel as though I could cry, I am so relieved.

dunloadin

Good to see the works been done, and a bonus of an auditor being there is that two pairs eyes have seen the problem.

It might be an idea to take the read of the meter the PV installers fitted at the same time that you do the other two. Then it may be easier to work out how much your exporting and consuming. It may also help to prove that the reverse energy is clocking up on the original meter.

If possible post all reads here so we can all have a go at doing the sums.

Assume that there is minimal discrepancy between the meters, I've yet to see a discrepancy greater than 0.5% on any check meters I've fitted....that's not to say that it will always be the case!

furndire

Already taking all the meter readings. Was it you dunloadin who told me how to copy the excel stuff on to here. I was going to give it a go, but didn't get round to it. Would you explain again please?

furndire

This is what I have got so far, tried the "code" from earlier post, but don't know what I am doing wrong.

13.3 0008.00 93492 2945 695 check meter installed
14.34 0008.9 93493 2946 1065 oven on
4 0008.9 93494 2948 2655
4.3 0008.9 93495 2949 1400
5 0008.9 93496 2950 1200
6 0009.2 93496 2950 131
7 0009.7 93497 2950 117