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

vuvuzela

pauldreed wrote: »

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A spammer building up post count to start posting links.

furndire

No - I don't think that at all - PaulReed has sent me his email, and address, actually only lives about 25 miles from us.
There wouldn't be any point. Post counts don't count for anything really on this site - not to me anyway.
Just someone who has a problem, and wants to sort it out in his own way.

If I was him though I would be shouting as long and as loud to everyone I could, as ASG have let him down badly by not notifying him - whether or not he would have had to go through the same process - they should have let him know, after all, they do have the name of the type of meter he has, and when they had more than 4 or 5 bad ones, they should have been acting - which would have given them a whole load of credit to their company - instead of which, they have just lumped themselves in with the rest.

I am giving my installers the benefit of the doubt, as when they rung they said they had no idea this could happen. His first reaction was that this possible problem will be going in the pre installation survey - which is as much as he can do at present, and to get back to them if I need any back up. I also suggested that he should check other people who have the same meters, or one like PaulReeds should be notified of potential problem.

I've just passed this posting on to the news team on MSE, so I'm hoping they read it and hopefully act in some way - this potential problem needs somebody to spread the word & quickly to make Electric Companies sit up and listen, not just, as in my case, fob people off.

HalloweenJack

thank you again for starting this - i`ve started `spreading the word` as they say - maybe someone can start on CAG as well? i think a list of what meters are effected (in addition to the named siemans one) would be a good start

eastbounre council have a `meet the team` next week and i would love to go along , with yet more evidence so they can grasp the scale of this issue - and how the suppliers , so long as they get the FiT payments are dragging there heals over it.

furndire

Thanks for that, don't know why I didn't think about CAG before - I was a member on there many years ago, when I claimed back bank charges for my daughter - before I had heard of MSE.

Anyway I've just copied my first post on there now, so another good forum to get out the word
but
just got first comment on there saying "I work in Electronics, and didn't understand a word of that"!!! I didn't think it was so difficult to understand ???? - can anyone put it better or are they just being .........!!!!

John_Pierpoint

CAG = Consumer Action Group (I think).

There was a small item on "Don't get done get Dom" this morning (11:00 BBC1) It featured a social club (think suburban type pub building run by amateurs). They had switched suppliers along the line and were paying a direct debit for about 5 years, then motivated by the publicity about rocketing energy prices, got round to reading the meter (a pretty modern job with a flashing red light).

The bill was £42,000.

Some independent consultant was employed to check what was happening.

He arrived with a box of tricks with enough dangling connectors to start half a dozen flat car batteries.

No fault could be found with the meter.

Somehow the club managed to negotiate a 25% discount against an undertaking to pay up.

Discussion about the statutory requirement to physically read the meter every TWO years (I have had British Gas refuse to read a gas meter after a tenant had died, trying to get me to argue the toss with the executors !!!!!)
However the keeper of the meter must make arrangements to let in the meter reader.

Moral: Know your meter.

ChrisJD

espresso wrote: »

Are you sure that you are reading your main Siemens S2AS-100 meter correctly?

3.5.3 Total Register
A “total register“ holds the total accumulation of all the rate registers. This is a separate register - not a calculated register. There are, in fact, two separate total registers - one for import energy and one for export energy.
An option in the tariff software allows export energy to be added and displayed to the forward total (or Import) register. In all cases, the export and import registers are physically maintained separately.
The resolution of the total register is 9 decimal digits, but only 6 may be displayed at a time. The number of decimal places displayed is
programmable as 0, 1 or 2. If no decimal are displayed, only 5 full digits can be displayed on the LCD for the S2AS-100 and S2AS-200.

Source here

These solid state meters get programmed at some point, and there are quite a lot of options. A guy appears to have written his own version of the software to do this. I'm not suggesting interference, but his manual, which can be found here shows an option, on page 11:

"Add Reverse to Total
If this is checked, Power measured in the reverse power register will be added to the Forward Total Register as well as being recorded separately. Only the forward register can be displayed on the LCD display."

This moves us forward in two very important ways. Firstly it explains why your meter is behaving as you report - your supply company should only need to inspect the meter configuration to confirm this. Secondly, although it is not displayed to you, the exported power is recorded, and they should be able to see this too.

furndire

Thats fine, but when I am billed, I am paying my bill, and DD according to what has registered on the meter - I have been telling them for the past 9 mths that something is not correct. How long would this go on for until something is done? & I have the worry of high electric bills when they should not have been.
They would only check the meter if I paid them to do it, - that is the only reason they are going to do so now - its going to cost me 31.80 for it to be checked.
If I hadn't persisted with this, it could go on for years.

I could work out what was happening, because I have a generation meter - BUT
the people who have the "free" panels on their roofs don't, so won't know what is being generated - making it nearly impossible to realise that they may be paying more - much more difficult to work out when the weather is dull - & more to the point why should we as consumer have to be telling the suppliers what is happening!
ASG told PaulReed in an email that only about 20 of their customers were affected. So somewhere there are electricity suppliers who know this is a possibility.

ChrisJD

furndire wrote: »

I could work out what was happening, because I have a generation meter - BUT
the people who have the "free" panels on their roofs don't, so won't know what is being generated

I hadn't understood that was the case. How does the company manage to claim its FIT then?

ChrisJD

furndire wrote: »

I could work out what was happening, because I have a generation meter - BUT
the people who have the "free" panels on their roofs don't, so won't know what is being generated

I hadn't understood that was the case. How does the company manage to claim its FIT then?

furndire

They will be distant monitoring from their offices (probably wrong wording but you get the idea)

Like me they will expect their mains meter to be working correctly & won't think to check it. As meters are only read twice a year, the amount of electric used will average out, and not be noticed.

When its dull, they will not rack up much more than they are using, maybe 1 or 2 KW a day. Also, if you put a washer, dishwasher etc on, it uses the electric before it can be added to the meter - its only when nothing big gets switched on the the electric is being added.

I do wish I could explain this better.