Something is not adding up...

House_Martin

r8chill91 wrote: »

Scratch that, in the depths of the paperwork it does state that we own the panels outright however it is not known when they were installed.

If past occupier has fiddled the water meter then its an excellent chance the electric meter is fiddled as you say. No one would disconnect solar panels unless the electric is fiddled.
Under the lower cover he/she would have tampered with the wiring.. Whilst it is like this the meter is prone to overheating especially if the wire used is thin.
The clever ones replace the wire seal with an Ebay bought one. The seal go s through the screw to prevent removal of lower cover which gives access to the incoming live and neutral cables.
Occupiers , if they had any sense, would correct the bypassed meter before they left but its surprising how many can t be bothered to do that and new occupiers move in to a bypassed gas and electric meter.
rED is commonly seen on electric meters with solar panels in the daytime when usage is low and its a sunny day but should never be seen at night. If it is then "reversed energy detected " usually means an internal bypass.
The last time I saw that on a meter was in the night time with a new occupier who had been in 6 weeks and meter had exact same reading as her start reading..fiddled by former occupiers who never even took out the link.
The meter needs to be replaced if its been bypassed.

r8chill91

Ah ok... She seems to have been a crafty little so and so! It was the nephew that was power of attorney and sold the house so he probably had no idea about it all, hence why its still like it now. Occasionally the meter will go up but most of the time it goes down, its a very strange set up! I still cant really work it out. I think I will just call Bulb and try to get them to sort out a new meter if theyre concerned. I had no idea things like this could even be done! How on earth do people get away with just not paying?! Thanks for all your help!

zeupater

r8chill91 wrote: »

Scratch that, in the depths of the paperwork it does state that we own the panels outright however it is not known when they were installed.

Hi

How many panels on the roof would give an idea of the installation size as would the inverter model. The model should be on the SMA serial number sticker, the manufacturing date could be there too ... chances are that the inverter wouldn't have been lying around in a warehouse for too long before installation!

Many installers place their own 'brand' stickers on the inverter ... is there a phone number? ... have a look at the MCS database, it's a large spreadsheet with all installations by truncated post-code, if you're lucky you may find an entry in that which looks like your system's specs to find the rough date of install - alternatively, contact the MCS directly to check ....

What you're looking for is a certificate number ... if the system has a certificate and it was registered with an energy supplier you should be entitled to receive FiT payments, if this is an early system these could be over 50p/kWh of generation for the next 17 years or more, so not insubstantial - you should also be able to remove the panels whilst renovating & have them reinstalled on the new roof as long as there's no change to the array.

I'm actually surprised that the conveyancing process didn't highlight the existence of the MCS certificate alongside electrical work certification ... is there anything with the deeds or paperwork you've received?

To give an idea, if the PV system is registered and is an early install you could be looking at losing a potential ~£500/year for each kWp installed, so if it's a 4kWp (16 panel) system that's up to £2k/year ... a replacement inverter (if necessary) should be around/less than half of that, so it's definitely worthwhile checking before you decide to throw it away or sell it - by the way, no-one else will be able to access the FiT scheme payments under your certification number, so the second-hand value of panels is poor ...

HTH
Z

House_Martin

r8chill91 wrote: »

Ah ok... She seems to have been a crafty little so and so! It was the nephew that was power of attorney and sold the house so he probably had no idea about it all, hence why its still like it now. Occasionally the meter will go up but most of the time it goes down, its a very strange set up! I still cant really work it out. I think I will just call Bulb and try to get them to sort out a new meter if theyre concerned. I had no idea things like this could even be done! How on earth do people get away with just not paying?! Thanks for all your help!

They get away with it because its a privatised industry now and the suppliers are not really interested in people stealing gas and electric. No prosecutions to speak of in the UK.
Only British Gas run a proper working Revenue Protection Unit. Cheapjack suppliers like Bulb will be less than useless.
I go to certain streets meter reading in Doncaster where half the street are fiddling the meters and virtually nothing is done to stop them.
Not to worry though, the losses to the Grid will be picked up by the rest of us in higher prices..just like the smart meter roll out costs..pass it on to the consumer.

r8chill91

There are 6 panels on the roof and a sunnyboy inverter. There are no dates or installer details on there that I can see but I will call up the MCS people today and see what they can find out (I can!!!8217;t find anywhere on their website to just input a postcode or anything) like I say everything has been disconnected, the isolation switch is just sitting on top of the inverter not connected to anything, there are wires everywhere.

For the survey we had an electrician come round and sign off the internal electrics but he didnt check anything to do with the solar panels because theyre not in operation and it was stated by the estate agents and solicitors that the panels are not in operation so it wasnt required for the valuation. With regards to any certificates we have nothing and nothing was ever mentioned - it just says in a vendor questionnaire that the solar panels are owned outright but the vendor did not know when they were installed or whether there was any sort of FiT scheme (he was power of attorney for the owner)

Its all a bit of a mystery but i will see if I can find anything further out today.

thorganby

House_Martin wrote: »

If past occupier has fiddled the water meter then its an excellent chance the electric meter is fiddled as you say. No one would disconnect solar panels unless the electric is fiddled.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The clever ones replace the wire seal with an Ebay bought one. The seal go s through the screw to prevent removal of lower cover which gives access to the incoming live and neutral cables.
Occupiers , if they had any sense, would correct the bypassed meter before they left but its surprising how many can t be bothered to do that and new occupiers move in to a bypassed gas and electric meter.
rED is commonly seen on electric meters with solar panels in the daytime when usage is low and its a sunny day but should never be seen at night. If it is then "reversed energy detected " usually means an internal bypass.
The last time I saw that on a meter was in the night time with a new occupier who had been in 6 weeks and meter had exact same reading as her start reading..fiddled by former occupiers who never even took out the link.
The meter needs to be replaced if its been bypassed.

Surely it is very irresponsible for a meter reader indirectly employed by energy companies to post specific and dangerous instructions on bypassing a meter on an open public forum!

Please explain the following:

Why rEd on the display should never be seen at night?

Why rEd on the display usually means an internal bypass?

Why a meter needs to be replaced if it has been bypassed?

r8chill91

Im no expert but just to reply to you thorganby as Im here now.

1 - I dont think that information is irresponsible - if you are so inclined to break the law and bypass you own electric meter then its nothing you probably cant find on google.

2 - if it was to do with the solar panels then there would be no reverse energy at night - because there is no sun at night.

3 - I presume if the rEd is not to do with the solar energy reversing the meter then the next reason would be because of a fault or bypass.

4 - because if youve bypassed it, that essentially means youve bust it.

Just guessing but that seems like the obvious answers.

House_Martin

thorganby does have a point about the "specific " instructions on electric meter bypassing which I have deleted.
I think it was in 2014 when BBC ran a program called Inside Out which ran nationally.
They followed BG s Revenue Protection team on the job in various parts of the UK.
In this program they shocked me with revealing methods of bypassing gas meters on the TV for all to see and copy involving the internal cogs in gas meters and also a method used underneath the gas meter which we use a mirror to check for.
They also revealed how when they caught a fast food outlet tampering the gas meter to the tune of an estimated several thousand pounds.
One would have thought that a prosecution would have been a certainty given that several thousands pounds of straight theft was involved but all that transpired was a simple rebilling process . The owner even bartered down the rebill for bit of discount for immediate payment.
So the message was broadcast to the nation on national TV.
Have a go at stealing thousands but if you get caught ..we want it back ..IF you get caught..No Magistrates are involved, no Policemen no criminal records

r8chill91

I find it scary how easily things like this are done! I will contact Bulb and see what they say regarding it.

I have also contact MCS this morning and they have got a certificate for me so the panels are registered - I just have to prove the solar panels are ours somehow. Once that is through we will have to get them reconnected and see what happens from there!

thorganby

House_Martin wrote: »

thorganby does have a point about the "specific " instructions on electric meter bypassing which I have deleted.
I think it was in 2014 when BBC ran a program called Inside Out which ran nationally.
They followed BG s Revenue Protection team on the job in various parts of the UK.
In this program they shocked me with revealing methods of bypassing gas meters on the TV for all to see and copy involving the internal cogs in gas meters and also a method used underneath the gas meter which we use a mirror to check for.
They also revealed how when they caught a fast food outlet tampering the gas meter to the tune of an estimated several thousand pounds.
One would have thought that a prosecution would have been a certainty given that several thousands pounds of straight theft was involved but all that transpired was a simple rebilling process . The owner even bartered down the rebill for bit of discount for immediate payment.
So the message was broadcast to the nation on national TV.
Have a go at stealing thousands but if you get caught ..we want it back ..IF you get caught..No Magistrates are involved, no Policemen no criminal records

More irrelevant and pointless waffle from you as expected!

I'm sure that I am not the only person wondering why you have not answered the three question that I asked you in post #27?

:rotfl: