Solar PV - meter questions 23 October 2022 at 7:09PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 16 replies 352 views

Heedtheadvice

May be your consumer unit is fully utilised. If that is the case can you not have a bigger one installed? It could then be, if it is an older one, that it would conform to current standards such as a metal rather than plastic enclosure.

I would have that done in preference to a separate unit.

boots_babe

paul991 said:

there must be somewhere next to the consumer unit he can pull tails ont and fit a henley lock and isolator but without seeing your consumer unit and area around it, its hard to say

Thanks Paul. Here is a photo of the consumer unit, it's just the other side of the wall where the meter is located.

paul991

unfortunately i cant see whats  under  the shelf but if there is space there  a henley block and  meter  could be  be placed there
also he  may find it difficult to get the cables through to that  side. He may think a new box outside will cut the amount of making good that will have to be done.It  might be worth asking him if its possible to fit the meter under the consumer unit and lower the shelf by 6 inches 

boots_babe

Hmm so they have just been back to take another look. Whilst on site, he did suggest, without any prompting from us, that actually they could house the new bi-directional meter in the cupboard adjacent to the consumer unit. Great news.

However he took some photos, and has then gone away and discussed with his electrician, who says they 'still need to install another meter box to allow us to connect straight to your incoming feed' and so cannot install in our cupboard after all. So we are back to paying £450 for a new external meter cupboard. 

If this is correct and needed, that's fine, we're happy to pay. But just don't entirely understand if it is at the moment, and it's the only thing stopping us from going ahead and paying a deposit to get the G99 process moving.

paul991

  my own set up is the meter under the consumer unit in the garage joined by a henley block and from what i have seen on here see no reason why yours cannot be the same.The trouble is if you get 10 electricians ina room they will all do the same job a little different.Unfortunately unless you get another local electrician to have a look there is not much else you can do .It maybe he has been advised to do it for access reasons. 

Heedtheadvice

I go back to Qrizb's second post.

Why is your system not being connected  to your Consumer Unit?

A generation meter should be between your 'generator' and Consumer Unit. I.e. the generator output Pv, battery, wind whatever.

An export meter on the other hand needs to be at the point of export not generation I.e. between Consumer Unit and the supplied connection to the grid.

Do you not already have a meter that.measures import and export or does that meter need replacing