Help needed with home energy monitor for electricity and solar panels

UncleJoes

Hi, we inherited solar panels and a good FIT scheme when we bought our house in 2014. We don't have a smart meter. I am looking for an energy monitor to tell me how much electricity we're using, how much the panels are generating, and how much the panels export. I want to work out if getting a smart meter and moving to Octopus' export scheme tariff is worth it. At the moment we have deemed export payments - 50% of what we generate. Before switching I want to know if we'd gain or lose out by moving to a system that accurately calculates what is exported. 

The only two monitors I have found that seem to do everything are Eco-Eye Smart PV and Owl Intuition PV, but both are not in stock anywhere (I don't shop at Amazon for ethical reasons). I keep seeing Empria Vue but they have a bewildering array of products and it's hard to work out which will do what I'm after. Because of a lack of stock I also wondered about getting two separate ones instead, one for electricity consumption and one for the solar panel generation and export. I've spent ages online searching and I'm finding it hard to work out whether such options exist and are in stock anywhere. I keep getting US sites! 

Does anyone have any recommendations either for an all-in-one monitor or two separate ones?

[Deleted User]

Why not get a smart meter? It will record all the units that your system exports without any supplier intervention. You can then see over, say, a month how much you have exported to the Grid compared to your generation.

If you decide to forgo deemed export payments for SEG ( note you still retain the FIT payment) then a supplier like Octopus will require your MCS certificate and DNO approval for your system. The supplier will then apply for an export MPAN which once issued will allow the supplier to pay you SEG. You can revert back to deemed exports after 12 months.

UncleJoes

Thanks but the point of the monitor is to understand the data as part of deciding whether to get a smart meter or not - as it would be required for Octopus' tariff.  We don't generally want a smart meter for different reasons, but it might be worth it if the Octopus tariff is a better bet than remaining as we are. Our gas and electricity provider is different to our FIT provider. If we ask our current energy supplier to install a smart meter, I assume it won't impact the FIT payments, as we provide these based on a separate meter to a different provider? 

[Deleted User]

UncleJoes said:

Thanks but the point of the monitor is to understand the data as part of deciding whether to get a smart meter or not - as it would be required for Octopus' tariff.  We don't generally want a smart meter for different reasons, but it might be worth it if the Octopus tariff is a better bet than remaining as we are. Our gas and electricity provider is different to our FIT provider. If we ask our current energy supplier to install a smart meter, I assume it won't impact the FIT payments, as we provide these based on a separate meter to a different provider? 

FIT payments are based on a generation meter whereas SEG requires metered export. If you want SEG then it is often better - and more lucrative - to have the same supplier for both import and for your FIT/SEG.

UncleJoes

Thanks. I am really just after recommendations for energy monitors.

(To respond to Dolor, the Octopus tariff is export only, so we can either remain with our current FIT provider for generation payments, or switch them to Octopus, but the payment rate stays the same. The potential advantage of Octopus export is that the rate is higher than we currently get, but what we currently get is a deemed 50% export, so we need to first know what we actually export, because if it's less than 50% we're better staying as we are.)

The_Green_Hornet

UncleJoes said:

Hi, we inherited solar panels and a good FIT scheme when we bought our house in 2014. We don't have a smart meter. I am looking for an energy monitor to tell me how much electricity we're using, how much the panels are generating, and how much the panels export. I want to work out if getting a smart meter and moving to Octopus' export scheme tariff is worth it. At the moment we have deemed export payments - 50% of what we generate. Before switching I want to know if we'd gain or lose out by moving to a system that accurately calculates what is exported. 

The only two monitors I have found that seem to do everything are Eco-Eye Smart PV and Owl Intuition PV, but both are not in stock anywhere (I don't shop at Amazon for ethical reasons). I keep seeing Empria Vue but they have a bewildering array of products and it's hard to work out which will do what I'm after. Because of a lack of stock I also wondered about getting two separate ones instead, one for electricity consumption and one for the solar panel generation and export. I've spent ages online searching and I'm finding it hard to work out whether such options exist and are in stock anywhere. I keep getting US sites! 

Does anyone have any recommendations either for an all-in-one monitor or two separate ones?

It is not a recommendation, as I haven't used them myself, but you could take a look at https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/shine-kit

[Deleted User]

UncleJoes said:

Thanks. I am really just after recommendations for energy monitors.

(To respond to Dolor, the Octopus tariff is export only, so we can either remain with our current FIT provider for generation payments, or switch them to Octopus, but the payment rate stays the same. The potential advantage of Octopus export is that the rate is higher than we currently get, but what we currently get is a deemed 50% export, so we need to first know what we actually export, because if it's less than 50% we're better staying as we are.)

Octopus is also a FIT payer and you can transfer your FIT contract to them: there will be no change in your FIT payments. If you want SEG in lieu of deemed export it is probably easier to deal with just one supplier.

FWiW, unless you have solar diversion for HW reheating; an EV and a battery you will struggle to use more than 25% of what your array generates. I have a battery; an EV and HW heating and my array generated 21kWh today. The array put 7kWh into the battery; 3.2kWh into the HW cylinder and 7.2kWh into my EV: 3.2 kWh went to the Grid. In the summer my array might generate 50kWh in a day! Looking back at my stats last year, 30% of my total solar was exported to the Grid.

For a customer on its Flexible Tariff, Octopus will pay 15p/kWh for SEG so the 50% assumed export stay on deemed export may result in less income than, say, 70% export on SEG.

jimjames

UncleJoes said:

Does anyone have any recommendations either for an all-in-one monitor or two separate ones?

As this is a money saving site is there any reason you can't just record the data in a spreadsheet to see how much you're using and generating? It sounds like if the numbers are positive then you'd get a smart meter at which point the energy monitors will be surplus. I found that the monitors I tried didn't actually work as they couldn't tell the direction of current in/out of the house so when you move from import to export it didn't show the difference. Newer monitors might resolve that issue but it's still money you might not need to spend.

UncleJoes

jimjames said:

As this is a money saving site is there any reason you can't just record the data in a spreadsheet to see how much you're using and generating? 

I get the point, but this will be very time consuming as my energy bill readings and statements don't line up with the solar panel ones. I work full time so I don't have the spare time on top of work and everything else life requires to take the readings and do the sums myself! I'm happy to spend the money on a monitor for the convenience.

gefnew

Can you not use the software that came with inverter, mine connects via bluetooth to my computer and shows the generation figures from the day of installation. SMA sunny explorer is the software from the maker.

[Deleted User]

gefnew said:

Can you not use the software that came with inverter, mine connects via bluetooth to my computer and shows the generation figures from the day of installation. SMA sunny explorer is the software from the maker.

That doesn’t tell you how much solar energy is being diverted to the Grid. The OP is trying to work out whether the 50% deemed export rate under FIT will generate more income than actual export under SEG.