Smart meter incorrect installation caused increased energy usage

QrizB

Sorry to ask yet another question but do you have a photo of your meter cabinet from before you had solar PV installed?

And one from after solar but before the smart meter?

Qyburn

theoretica said:

One thing, which ought to be on your list, is to check the relationship between what your app shows and what your meter shows.  Will the app total up to show kWh or do you need to do it manually?  If the app shows an import of X and export of Y over 24 hours how much have the meter readings changed by?  Or look at the history of both over a longer time.

That's been suggested in various ways right from the start, but not yet done. Also someone posted how to see the instantaneous import/export figure from the smart meter which give an immediate sanity check.

[Deleted User]

matt_drummer said:

Is there any reason you haven't been back to your solar/battery installer?

Surely they would be best to look at their own work?

I suggested that many posts ago. That said, the App doesn’t help as it is by a margin the most confusing display that I have ever seen. This is what my display shows:

The battery is a whole house EPS. If grid power fails or the voltage/frequency goes out limits, the battery will take the house load up to 5kW.

debitcardmayhem

I agree about the display, my app shows this 

Qyburn

Actually that's not completely self explanatory either, to someone seeing it for the first time. How is import vs export shown, does it show negative for import?

Edit - removed a question that you already answered.

Kateg28

Hello everyone. Sorry for delay but family commitments. 

I do not have an app for the grid, they had run out of monitors and their app is “not yet configured”. So all I have is my solar app and the meter itself. 

Firstly, I agree about my app although it does show that yesterday I harvested 24kw from my panels and so far today I have had 21.30 but it actually says kWh so not sure. 

Partner and I have just done some testing and these are the results

solar App shows house consuming 2.957 kW at the beginning when house in normal state (nothing being used but everything standard is on). Couldn’t check this during our tests as the solar is on wifi and the wifi was off. 

Meter reading 188. 

We then did various and counted the red flashes on the meter per minute. 
in normal state this was around 20.

Turned the consumer unit off, every circuit was off but solar still running
flashes per minute 29
How? The house is turned off at the consumer unit. Nothing is on at all. 

CU off, Solar off - continuous red light

CU back on, Solar off - 14 red flashes

we always waited a couple of minutes in case the system had a delay. 

The plug sockets that check current have now turned up and we shall check the freezers in the garage and other stuff in house. However all the tests above make us laymen think the meter is actually measuring the solar intake. Otherwise my solar app is saying we are getting 24kW from solar and also the meter is telling us we are getting 25 from the grid. Where is 50kw going?
What shall I test next?

Kateg28

TheElectricCow said:

You may not have an IHD, but your smart meter itself can perform the same function and show you what the current power draw is at any given time (with a few extra steps). 

1. Press A twice - “Credit mode bal” should display on screen
2. Hold A for a few seconds - The current time will display
3. Keep pressing A to cycle through the various readings until “Power Active” shows, about 25 presses - this will be your current consumption that you would see on an IHD (watch for the decimal point)

You can also check your total export to the grid through the same method, this will show as Total Act Export after about 10 presses in step 3.

If possible, try to check this when your app is showing the house “giving” power, to see what is actually coming in from the grid through the meter at these times and how they correspond to what your seeing in the app.

Now managed to do that and the Power Active is 55kW
the Total Active Imp is 189
and the Total Active Export is 192. 

This was not when the house was giving as i Will need to monitor and catch this scenario. 

Kateg28

And about contacting people:

I messaged my installers last week but haven’t chased them, I will tomorrow. 

I have heard back from my electrician who has said to go to installers. 

Kateg28

QrizB said:

Sorry to ask yet another question but do you have a photo of your meter cabinet from before you had solar PV installed?

And one from after solar but before the smart meter?

Unfortunately not. I am kicking myself now. 

[Deleted User]

Can we just go back to basics and ignore the App for a moment.

Prior to getting my PV solar, I was importing 4500kWh/year from the Grid. My PV solar forecast output was c.6000kWh/year. A year on, my Grid import dropped to 1000kWh/year and 2500kWh/year goes to export. I have a 6.35kWp array and a 13.5kWh battery. I get my import and export data from the actual smart meter as this is what I 
pay for import and get for export. 

One of the challenges of using Apps is that it doesn’t take into account such things as round trip losses. For example, if my battery takes a 10kWh charge from the Grid then I can expect to get 9kWh out.

Clearly, you haven’t had your system for a year but it should be possible to look back over old bills and make a reasonable assessment of what you are seeing. 

If your actual power is 55kW then you have a problem: that is over 200amps. What are you running?