Solar panel help needed!

[Deleted User]

oppro said:

I’m so confused! 

I had solar panels installed in February but so far they don’t seem to be making the blindest bit of difference! I don’t have a battery or diverter for the water, so I’m trying to use my electrical appliances during the day time, rather than overnight as I used to. At the moment even cooking is during daylight hours, all appliances like washing machine, dishwasher, hoover, lawnmower, power tools etc are during daylight hours. We’re not using heaters, electric blankets, kettles of hot water bottles, extra lighting etc. How have I still had a £250 bill?? I’ve NEVER had a £250 bill even in December! 

My consumption (from Utility Warehouse) is almost identical now to what is was this time last year, surely it should have gone right down? (My bills have gone up due to price increases but I’m trying to focus on the consumption.)

Apparently I’ve generated about 1182kwh, used 417kwh, and exported 764.3kwh, but I’m still using the same or more than this time last year on my UW bills? 

I didn’t realise I had forms to fill in & an 8 week wait to be paid for excess energy I export back to the grid but I’ve filled that in now. 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️ But I’m more concerned about using the energy I generate rather than being charged 33p for it from the grid & selling it back for 2p. 🙄

What is going wrong here? I was expecting my daytime usage to be basically nothing! 

There is a flaw in your thinking. Unless you have a battery then then you will only use somewhere between 25 and 50% of the solar that your solar array produces. As I post my 6.35kWp array is outputting 800W so even putting on a 3kW kettle will draw 2.2kW from the Grid. If I want solar to cover the use of, say, a washing machine I need to wait until my array is producing over 2.5kW of solar output. Using appliances when the sun shines is what reduces Grid import.

Your 1182kWh of output also suggests to me that your panels are subject to shading and you have chosen not to have optimisers fitted. In this case, one panel in partial shade reduces the output of the entire array. I have optimisers and my array generated over 1000kWh last month and 2700kWh so far this year.

By choosing UW, you are getting a very low export payment. Octopus offers 15p/kWh as its standard SEG and even up to 36p/kWh on some of its tariffs. My array generated £139.50 in export payments last month.

In sum, I suspect that you are suffering from 3 things: one, a poorly designed array; two, a poor choice of supplier for SEG payments and, three, a misunderstanding as to when it it is best to turn on power-hungry appliances. 

Out-of-interest, can you post 2 readings. One, what is the reading on your solar generation meter along with the date of installation and, two, the actual amount of electricity exported to the Grid as recorded by your smart meter? You can access the export reading on the actual smart meter.