Solar Panels - Maintence and MSC certificate

Amyyy_123

Hello!

I apologise if I am asking very obvious questions but this is all very new to me - I am just buying our house (prev council) which has solar panels on. We are taking ownership of the panels. At current, we are automatically notified when there is something wrong with them and an engineer comes out and fixes them. However, obviously when we own the panels this will not happen. 

(Other option is to continue with lease and not own them until 2034 - maintenance included )

How will I know whether any maintenance is needed?  -  I dont want to miss out on FIT 
Also, will I get the MSC certificate (to see the expected electricity to be generated) when purchased or should I have this info already? and how can I tell what system I have e.g 4kwp system etc
When they stop working after 25 years (approx 10 years left), is it expensive to have them removed? or are they fine to just stay on the roof?

I have no information at all about them! They were just installed and I have no idea what they are producing to be able to keep an eye on if this drops 
Any help on solar panels would be appreciated!

paul991

ive never needed no maintenance just  check on the display every day to see they are still working. send your meter readings in, find out who is monitoring them and will they  do the same for you .its not expensive to have them removed but i would recommend renewing them if they stop. it sounds like your in the fit scheme and you should be getting a payment every 3 months (at least 200 pounds) so should it cover any costs you will need to have these put in  your own name so you get the cash direct but best talk to your old scheme supplier first.
I'm surprised you  have  needed a  engineers visit at all most problems can be overcome by  doing a reset but read your inverter instructions.
insure your council gives you the msc cert , any  electrical testing results for the  house
keep you eye  on the forums in here as you can pick up lots of tips like water  heating switchs and controls

Amyyy_123

Thanks for your reply!

Unfortunately ours is in our attic so it is not something I can check everyday and its hard to keep an eye on! I dont think ive ever looked at it infact. 

Will I need to pay a subscription of some kind for them to be monitored? - do you mean the person who currently owns them now? There are so many people involved with these panels I find it hard to keep track - so far I have 4 different company names which I can only guess are the owners, installers, maintenance and other? haha. 

Yes, our meter stopped sending through readings prev so thats been replaced, also have had various other bits stop working. Good to know about the reset, thanks. 

This is a great help, thank you so much 

paul991

when they are transferred to you you can send readings from the generation meter (should be labelled and situated near your consumer unit)
unfortunately many of these council schemes get sold between different investors  so can  become confusing but the council should have  full details
I'm surprised they didn't  supply you with a in house monitoring  unit like a geo or a phone app to check the output but relatively cheap to purchase, maybe worth  posting a picture of your controls on here 
very hard without more info to help more  

QrizB

Amyyy_123 said:

No idea what any of this means, can anyone help?

• The solar panels on the roof produce DC (direct current). Wires from the solar panels run through that corrugated conduit and connect to the DC isolator (the black rotary switch on the left-hand side).
• The DC from thr DC isolator is then fed along those black wires into the inverter (the big box with Hosola written on it). This converts the DC from the solar panels into AC (alternating current) like the mains supply.
• The AC from the inverter is fed out along that white cable and into the AC isolator (the red and yellow rotary switch) and from there to your solar generation meter (the Emlite GPRS smart meter). This measures the total amount of electricity generated by your solar panels and reports it via a cellphone connection to someone.

The screen on the inverter is showing how much electricity you had generated so far today. 5.07kWh.

The smart meter screen is (probably) showing how much electricity you've generated since the meter was fitted. It says 132.39kWh, which is quite a small number but I can see the meter was only manufactured this year. Has it been changed recently?

Do you have a photo of the solar panels on your roof? Or, if you don't want to post a photo of your house, can you tell us how many of them there are?

If you do take over ownership of the panels, you really want to know who the smart meter is reporting your readings to. You might be able to get it to report to you, instead, which will save you climbing into the loft every time you want to read the meter!

paul991

have  you had any  luck with  sorting  the paper work out

Amyyy_123

QrizB said:

Amyyy_123 said:

No idea what any of this means, can anyone help?

• The solar panels on the roof produce DC (direct current). Wires from the solar panels run through that corrugated conduit and connect to the DC isolator (the black rotary switch on the left-hand side).
• The DC from thr DC isolator is then fed along those black wires into the inverter (the big box with Hosola written on it). This converts the DC from the solar panels into AC (alternating current) like the mains supply.
• The AC from the inverter is fed out along that white cable and into the AC isolator (the red and yellow rotary switch) and from there to your solar generation meter (the Emlite GPRS smart meter). This measures the total amount of electricity generated by your solar panels and reports it via a cellphone connection to someone.

The screen on the inverter is showing how much electricity you had generated so far today. 5.07kWh.

The smart meter screen is (probably) showing how much electricity you've generated since the meter was fitted. It says 132.39kWh, which is quite a small number but I can see the meter was only manufactured this year. Has it been changed recently?

Do you have a photo of the solar panels on your roof? Or, if you don't want to post a photo of your house, can you tell us how many of them there are?

If you do take over ownership of the panels, you really want to know who the smart meter is reporting your readings to. You might be able to get it to report to you, instead, which will save you climbing into the loft every time you want to read the meter!

Hi,

Yes the meter was replaced only 2 weeks ago. So does everything seem as it should? 

I found out who owns the panels now and also who manages them (gets the readings) and who maintains them. The company wont be getting the readings once we own them - does this mean they will come straight to us? Will I need to action this or will it just happen? Who do I send my readings to? 

Here is a photo of the panels we have. 


Thanks
Amy

Amyyy_123

paul991 said:

have  you had any  luck with  sorting  the paper work out

The company who manages them current holds the msc certificate. 

Is there anything I should make sure I know before I take ownership?

paul991

once  you  have proof of ownership and the  msc i  would  contact which ever power  company is  paying for the power and  get the fit  transferred to your  own name . a  meter reading and photo on transfer day. You my be asked  for a copy of  your epc which you  can get off the net.
probably  to best to register  with your own energy supplier  but  you can use  one of many ,I would recommend octopus and  from then on send a reading every 3  months
i  doubt there  is anything else  you could  just check covered by own building insurance, 
and  any  warranty's on panel and  inverter