Solar Panels - Guidance needed on installed system.

Ectophile

1.       What do the Import, Export numbers on the electricity metre mean?

Import is how much electricity you have used from the grid.  Export is how much you have sent out (exported) from the solar panels.  This is not the figure to read for Feed-in-Tariffs.

If you qualify for Feed-in-Tariffs, you need to find a second meter, which is measuring how much electricity the panels are generating.  If you're lucky it will even be labelled.

2.       The electricity bills seem high (higher than mine anyway) for a smaller household which is theoretically running its electricity from Solar Panels. The Solar Panels do generate electricity for the household to use?  Have I misunderstood something?

Some people just use a lot more energy than others.  The size of the house they live in is only one factor.  Thanks to the laws of physics, you get first dibs at any electricity the panels generate.  Anyhing you don't use goes to the grid.  But if there is a battery, the system will charge that first, before letting any electricity go out to the grid.

3.       Is the money received back from British Gas Feed-in-Tariff the total amount that the Solar Panels have generated or is it just the surplus that has been generated once the household have used what is needed?

If it's a Feed-in-Tariff, then it's based around the total generated, regardless of how much you use.  If it's a Secure Export Guarantee, then it's based on the Export reading from the smart meter.

4.       Should I be doing something clever with the batteries in the loft, or do they look after themselves?

Mine look after themselves.  I have never felt any need to fiddle with them.  But it's useful to see if you can get access to the charge information via an app or the supplier's web site.  I check mine daily.

5.       Why do Lowri Beck send a human to read metres which I believe are automatically read by a smart metre?

Suppliers are supposed to check the meters from time to time.

markin

Date it was installed? Size of solar system?  Total annual estimated use from a bill, imported?

Grandad2b

markin said:

Date it was installed? Size of solar system?  Total annual estimated use from a bill, imported?

Is the OP coming back to give us any of this information?

IgnoramusMSE

Thank you for all your help. Apologies for delay..

I had forgotten about this post. Unfortunately my mother passed away a few days after my original questions.

I cannot provide any further information - the house, including solar panels, has now been sold.

@Reed_Richards

There once was a grammarian keen,

Who corrected each error he'd seen.

He'd pounce on misplaced "their,"

And split infinitives bare,

Till his friends fled, their patience quite lean.

Reed_Richards

@IgnoramusMSE

There once was a fellow called Peter

Who couldn't tell metre from meter

A measurement metric?

A measurer electric?

Or it could be to do with the rhythm of a poem or limerick in which case this line is totally wrong but -
Makes the definition completer.