Solar panels, backwards running meter and NPower

Carrot007

Cardew wrote: »

The reason Npower ignored actual meter readings and substituted estimated readings is down to the 'all seeing, all knowing computer'!

That would not be npower but the data collector appointed by npower as per the sort of crazy regulations of when the electric ompatition was introduced and each area became a seperate company.

Of course trhis may also be npower depending on your area, but it's not the npower that you pay yopur bills to.

Carrot007

Smodlet wrote: »

OMG. We, too are with nPower, have been for four years now and, three and half years ago, we got solar panels. It was great fun watching the old meter go backwards and having an idea how much we were generating from how fast it spun... but I knew it couldn't last.

He threatened me with huge, estimated bills as, of course, if your meter is going backwards you must have tampered with it and be stealing electricity

You are stealing electricity. You got the solar panels installed. The installed should have told you to gte the meter changed for a more modern one that does not exhibit the problem of going backwards. But they often do not and the ultimate responsibility is yours.

Smodlet

Which I think they did, can't remember now, and which I certainly did, Carrot007, as I said, hence the sshh I encountered. Either way, I knew a meter going backwards was never going to be tolerated unless I dealt with it, it's only common sense. I didn't even know they could go backwards until I saw it do so.

Point is, we never had any estimated bills, dude, it was all :cool: because I was all over it... just not prepared for the degree of incompetence I encountered but it made me stronger...

TBH, I would recommend that solar panels company to anyone... and we are not stealing juice, Carrot007, we are making it and saving the planet, and money, not necessarily in that order.

Smodlet

tunnel wrote: »

Why can't I ever get THAT person, I would have had SO much fun

Call 'em up and ask for Paul, say I sent ya! :cool:

jimjames

MDGM wrote: »

I found figures online detailing the past 4 years of average monthly solar panel output, and I used them to figure out November is 59.9% lower on average than the rest of the year. So I have suggested when we recalculate the usage based on the next month, we increase the solar panel generation by that amount to take into account the time of year.

Good luck getting it sorted. The info I see online suggests that power companies, even now, are almost completely useless for grasping that solar panels can make old meters go backwards.

Not sure if you found the site below with generation data but it may help showing amounts per month.

http://solar-panels-review.321web.co.uk/index.php/yearly-comparison-of-solar-pv

You might find an adjustment based on November reading better than a much longer period. The problem is that with months with lower generation you may well use a much higher proportion of the output. So maybe this month if generation is 150kWh you might be able to use 90% of the electricity if not more. If they are happy to multiply that across the whole year then you could be in a good position as you're unlikely to use 90% of the generation in June for example. As they've been so rubbish you could play them at their own game. However if they're looking at your usage then you may not want to use Nov data as that's likely to be higher than summer months.

MDGM

Thanks everyone for your help, support and advice. We've since had a digital meter installed and are going to run it for 1 month and adjust that for the year to figure out how much the bill should be. They are offering a 25% reduction considering it's winter. Personally I think the reduction should be quite a lot bigger.

After suggesting this based on the spreadsheet linked in my 2nd(?) post, they outright ignored me and are still only offering 25%. I'm thinking of asking the Ombudsman to decide what's a fair discount. I'll keep you all updated.

Thanks
MDGM

pinnks

Sounds as though things are moving in a more sensible direction.

In December my import is just over twice what it is in July. Indeed, looking at 2016 (up to November), my import was (slightly rounded):

January - 320
February - 190
March - 190
April - 140
May - 160
June - 160
July - 140
August - 160
September - 180
October - 190
November - 260
December - heading for about 300

We are LED lighting throughout with 10W living room, 15W kitchen and so on, so our main use is LED TV/Virgin box and those 24/7 things like fridges/freezers and bricks on strings. If you have non-LED lighting your winter import will be higher, so the numbers even more skewed.

If you do the maths, my December import is about 13% of my annual import. So, to work back form your December figure, try Dec/13*100 and see how that compares to their suggested, or try with November, where my import is about 11% of the year.

Hope this helps inform the debate.

societys_child

My monthly gas consumption has leapt since it turned cold.
25% would no where near cover it.
Have your dad come and live with you for the month . . .