Solar panels - meter

sevenhills

I have had solar panels for 5+ years but apart from the readout in the loft, I have no way of knowing how much I am generating and when I am using electricity from the grid.
Is this normal? My panels were free, but since I have bought my council house, I now get the feed in tariff.
My smart meter was fitted in 2017, so first generation. I believe my energy company gets my readings, so the software has been updated?
Should an updated first generation smart meter display solar output etc?

QrizB

For an older system, yes this is fairly normal. Mine is the same.

Somewhere you will have a generation meter that record how much electricity your panels make. Is this the readout in the loft? Do you need to read it quarterly for your FIT payments?

Your smart meter might also be recording export. Do you know how to navigate the menus? Is there an export register?

sevenhills

Yes, my generation meter is in the loft.
I have pressed all the buttons on the smart meter, cannot find any export readings. Perhaps I have a manual in my drawer.

gefnew

You could see what software the inverter has that you could display on laptop, Bluetooth on mine 11 years old. post the make and model see if we can help.

sevenhills

Is have seen a few adds for an app, I can't remember the name just now. It just popped up - LOOP

QrizB

sevenhills said:

Yes, my generation meter is in the loft.
I have pressed all the buttons on the smart meter, cannot find any export readings. Perhaps I have a manual in my drawer.

What model is your smart meter? Someone here is likely to know if it measures export, and where to find the reading.

The Loop app connects indirectly to your smart meter. It might or might not help.

sevenhills

The smart meter is IHD3 MS 2017

gefnew

Seems to be set up via a dashboard system, may have contact the council for access or see if you can pick up its wifi signal,
on your network or router.
Dashboard | AforeUK®

QrizB

sevenhills said:

The smart meter is IHD3 MS 2017

That sounds like your in-home display, not your smart meter?

The smart meter is the box of electronics screwed to the wall adjacent to your fuse box.

sevenhills

This is the electric meter, not seen anything else.

EricMears

From : https://help.so.energy/support/solutions/articles/7000023265-how-do-i-read-my-smart-meter-

• Honeywell Elster AS300P (SMETS1)
  

To get a reading from these smart meters:

1. Press and hold the grey middle button until the main menu loads up
2. ‘General’ should appear on-screen – press and hold the middle button again to select this option
3. ‘Time & Date’ should be visible – now scroll with the bottom button until you see ‘TOU Registers’ 
4. Press and hold the middle button once more will hovering over ‘TOU Registers’ and you should now see ‘Imp. R1’ with a value underneath it

Presumably,  if you press middle button again the export register (if it has one) would eventually appear