Is my solar meter wired correctly?

6am

I just had a solar panel system with the battery installed, works great, but I am not sure if the generation meter was wired correctly. My utility meter (which was not changed during installation) shows no consumption from the grid. The installers installed another meter called emlite eca2.nv and it has 3 readings: import, export and net. The export reading does not change, the import reading is slowly increasing, and net  reading (the difference between export and import) is negative and the absolute value is also increasing (i.e. the value is decreasing towards negative infinity). Should it not be other way around, I expected that since I am exporting to the grid the export value will increase, and import stay as is.

I found a manual for this new meter and it has the following information

Many PV users are now registering to receive payments for exported energy. When doing this the utility will ask for an export reading. Many customers and utility staff believe this comes from the generation meter (Solar PV Meter) but, this is not the case. You will find your export reading at the utility meter, dependant of what type of meter you have installed. Most smart meters will give you this reading but, older types of meter might not provide this therefore your utility meter will need to be changed.

So it seems this meter is not suitable for SEG payments at all, since I am supposed to use an utility meter which is supposed to show an export reading (mine is an old dumb meter and it does not have a reading for the export purpose). It seems that if I want to have SEG payments then I have to upgrade to a smart meter. What is the purpose of the new installed meter then?

mmmmikey

Hi 6am

In the "old days" (a few years ago) it used to be the case that you got a grant from the Government called the Feed-in-Tariff. The amount you got paid mainly depended on the amount your solar panels generated, regardless of whether you used that yourself or it got exported to the grid, so a generation meter (which is what it sounds like you have) was essential.

You did also get a payment for what you exported and to measure this you would have needed a separate meter because in those days (in reality only a few years ago) most people didn't have a smart meter. Rather than add the cost of a second meter to every installation to claim an element of the payment that maybe only accounted for £20 or £30 a year, you were allowed to simply estimate your export by assuming you used half of what you generated and exported the rest. This was called "deemed" export. In practice all you had to do was give whoever was making your FIT payment the reading from your generation meter once a month and they did the rest.

What it sounds like you have is a system set up like this. The generation meter will just tell you how much the solar panels are generating, which can help you understand what's going on but isn't linked to any form of payment.

If you want to claim the SEG payments you will either need a smart meter (which is probably the best option if you can get one as it's free) or an export meter that you will have to buy and have professionally installed.

Hope this makes sense?

mmmmikey

p.s. as an afterthought - just to explain your current meter. It is wired between the solar inverters and the mains in your house and will only show electricity flowing in one direction since you only ever get energy out of the panels. This could show as either import or export depending on which way it's connected, but one way or the other the number that is going up is what you are generating.

[Deleted User]

The generation meter is for information only. 

To get SEG export payments, you will need a smart meter. The supplier will need to see your MCS Certificate and DNO sign off on your completed installation. The supplier will then apply to the DNO for an export MPAN: one meter, two MPANs. 

wrf12345

So do all new smart meters work with solar panels to show exports? Anyone getting a solar system should get the smart meter first, then but there is no incentive from electric companies as they are getting the export electricity for free, and there seems to be a huge backlog to get a smart meter. Seems to be too many different systems involved for any kind of efficiency.

[Deleted User]

wrf12345 said:

So do all new smart meters work with solar panels to show exports? Anyone getting a solar system should get the smart meter first, then but there is no incentive from electric companies as they are getting the export electricity for free, and there seems to be a huge backlog to get a smart meter. Seems to be too many different systems involved for any kind of efficiency.

SMETS 1 and 2 smart meters all have an export register. 

Reed_Richards

As per other answers, I think what you have is a generation meter, not an export meter.

My battery is connected on the DC side of the solar panels so only my inverter knows if power is coming from the panels or the battery.  Occasionally after days of cloud the battery state of charge can get too low and it needs to be charged from the mains; this happens automatically.  That causes an import of electricity (which on your meter would be shown as an export) so the amount of solar power I actually generate is the net reading on my generation meter.

       

mmmmikey

Reed_Richards said:

As per other answers, I think what you have is a generation meter, not an export meter.

My battery is connected on the DC side of the solar panels so only my inverter knows if power is coming from the panels or the battery.  Occasionally after days of cloud the battery state of charge can get too low and it needs to be charged from the mains; this happens automatically.  That causes an import of electricity (which on your meter would be shown as an export) so the amount of solar power I actually generate is the net reading on my generation meter.

       

Yes, thanks for that, for clarity my last post was wrong - you should use the net reading as @Reed_Richards says

Eiggom23

Hi Mikey,

I found your post because I have the same problem with the export meter - it seems to be the wrong way round.

The EXP figure matches what the battery charges, while the IMP figure is how much solar energy is being created. Makes no sense, because the solar energy should be export.

BUT we have a smart meter 2, and that does show the correct information.

Most important advice for yourself, if you've not already done it, is that you need to get your supplier to install a SMET2 anyway. Because if you have both solar and battery, then you should be taking advantage of a different day/night rate, and charging the battery at night while electricity is cheap. So instead of paying 25p all day, its 15p night and 40p day, but with the combo of battery and solar you will never use any electricity at the higher rate.

Then there are also some suppliers that will offer you much better unit rates for export too, via a smart plan than via SEG. For example, our export in the afternoon is supposed to be 20p but SEG is only 5p.