Electricity (grid) meter incorrect

chamelion

Hi folks,

I really seem to be having an issue with my grid meter. I ran some calculations on usage figures after 9 days of solar. I have my own loop energy monitor which I can compare figures against.

My old (2011 installed) ace 1000 meter shows my usage has actually increased - despite me not being home most week and my loop showing a big drop.

Today's a beautiful sunny say. I've been generating 1000+ Watts for the past 2 hours. My usage is close to 200 Watts. Yet my meter shows me having used a bit under 2kw in the period.

It should be 0!

Does this mean my meter is calculating my generation as usage??

Thanks!.

Carrot007

Loop monitors are useless.

Martyn1981

chamelion wrote: »

Hi folks,

Does this mean my meter is calculating my generation as usage??

Thanks!.

It's very rare, but some do, especially Siemens. If your household usage has definitely been lower than generation, but import meter has gone up, then it does sound like it's happening.

Take a look at the FAQ's section 4a.

chamelion

Carrot007 wrote: »

Loop monitors are useless.

Well, that wasn't helpful. Based on historical monitoring I get about 90-95% accuracy compared to the meter. After moving it around following my solar installation the calculations I've been doing to gauge whether the meter is defective shows it to be even more accurate than before - 95%+. That's good enough for me.

Martyn1981 wrote: »

It's very rare, but some do, especially Siemens. If your household usage has definitely been lower than generation, but import meter has gone up, then it does sound like it's happening.

Take a look at the FAQ's section 4a.

Yep - so definitely an issue with the meter

Doing calculations on a perfect sunny day like today where I was consistently generating 1kw/h and consistently using about 0.3kw/h (just above my baseline as I have my monitors turned on while working form home), and me monitoring the grid meter hourly shows me 'using' 0.7kw/h when in fact that's pretty much exactly the figure i'm exporting back to the grid. It's counting either direction of flow as positive.

I've called my supplier - since this is non emergency i don't get an appointment until first week of Jan, but they say they'll refund the amount. they won't have a way to calculate so will probably have to guess, but I have numbers based on 5 minute updates to pvoutput which should help me gauge whether their offer is too low / too high / about right.

Martyn1981

chamelion wrote: »

Yep - so definitely an issue with the meter

Great. Well, sort of great if you know what I mean, problem found.

Could you pop on here the make and model of the meter, unless Ace 1000 is everything, then I'll pop a link to this thread on the FAQ's, as Siemens meters are the only ones mentioned so far.

It's certainly a rarity, and at least you found out when generation is lower. On average I export about 15kWh/day in the best months, so a June import that has a 450kWh 'bonus' on it would be unpleasant.

chamelion

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Great. Well, sort of great if you know what I mean, problem found.

Could you pop on here the make and model of the meter, unless Ace 1000 is everything, then I'll pop a link to this thread on the FAQ's, as Siemens meters are the only ones mentioned so far.

It's certainly a rarity, and at least you found out when generation is lower. On average I export about 15kWh/day in the best months, so a June import that has a 450kWh 'bonus' on it would be unpleasant.

it's an itron ACE1000 SM0, edf energy branded. "Store code 61901U" and has a production date stamp of october 2011.

Martyn1981

chamelion wrote: »

it's an itron ACE1000 SM0, edf energy branded. "Store code 61901U" and has a production date stamp of october 2011.

Many thanks. FAQ's updated, so you now have fame in immortality .... OK I've oversold that a bit.

You've certainly had an interesting introduction to PV, but I don't think you've managed to stump us yet.

chamelion

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Many thanks. FAQ's updated, so you now have fame in immortality .... OK I've oversold that a bit.

You've certainly had an interesting introduction to PV, but I don't think you've managed to stump us yet.

I'll be signing autographs after the show. Please form an orderly line, thanks.