Help required RE: New solar PV system

samtoby

We have just had a solar PV system fitted to our roof in Bournemouth.

Its a 4kw system with an Immersun for heating of the hot water etc.

Now under the stairs we have two machines one is the Immersun machine and the other is a little white box which flashes when the system is working (it seems to get faster if its sunny like now) and at night it goes to a solid red.

Now this metre reads at the moment 297.74 - we have had the system running for three weeks.

My question - is this how much we have generated/ used/ sent to the electric board? Is there a way I can work out how much we have saved/ sent to the board?

Apologies if this is simple - we are novices to this whole set up!

Dave_Fowler

samtoby wrote: »

We have just had a solar PV system fitted to our roof in Bournemouth.

Its a 4kw system with an Immersun for heating of the hot water etc.

Now under the stairs we have two machines one is the Immersun machine and the other is a little white box which flashes when the system is working (it seems to get faster if its sunny like now) and at night it goes to a solid red.

Now this metre reads at the moment 297.74 - we have had the system running for three weeks.

My question - is this how much we have generated/ used/ sent to the electric board? Is there a way I can work out how much we have saved/ sent to the board?

Apologies if this is simple - we are novices to this whole set up!

Hi samtoby,

The white box meter is the generation meter and the number means you have generated 297.74 kWh in the three weeks (assuming it started at zero). Each flash is 1Watt-hour. It is this figure which you will send to the company who are paying your FITs. They will pay you for all this generated power (over 14p per kWh). They will also assume you have used half the power generated and pay you for the half you've exported (I think that's 4.77p per kWh). Sorry I don't have the exact figures to hand.

Without having your own monitors it is difficult to tell the actual power you have exported. The Immersun will tell you how much power you have sent to your immersion heater.

Dave F

samtoby

Thank you.

I have just spoken to Scottish Power who are the electric providers. I am not happy but not much I can do about it. Our system was fitted and signed off on the 28/03/2014 - if we had an EPC done that day and got the paperwork into Scottish Power we could have got the higher rate as it changed on the 31st.

They are stating as we have only just got the paperwork in (I had to get all the documents from the company who fitted it) and book an EPC after I sent the paperwork in and it didn't show a rating of D or above so would have paid at the lower rate (as advised by Scottish Power after I initially sent the paperwork in).

They have had advised that the reading on the machine is incorrect therefore reading will start from today and we will provide a new reading in 90 days.

The EPC we had showed a rating of E and if we had a 2kw system fitted we would rise to a C rating but they physically needed a copy of the EPC to prove this.

I know its only a small difference in pence but its still frustrating.

groovyf

How can they say the reading's incorrect? April has been an OK month, so your 297 seems pretty accurate.

jimmyboy420

I guess you may find that it's not that they think the reading is incorrect, but that they're unable to use it as it does not correspond to the date that all the other paperwork was submitted in complete form.

If I were you, I would be speaking with my installation company about why they installed on 28th March but there was such a delay in paperwork. I would suggest to them that a 3.5% refund is in order as you have missed out...

James

samtoby

I think its pretty reasonable that I am angry we have missed out.

Arghhhhh!

Hopefully we will get payments running soon asap

jimmyboy420

I don't disagree. Sorry if I gave that impression.

nigelpm

When you say paperwork do you mean physical paper and through the post? If, so it's the date they receive the letter which is highly likely to have been after midnight on the 31st March.