Solar Inverter Query

Telegraph_Sam

The generation meter (no lights) is fitted next to the inverter with its light.  But the inverter's display is binary off-on and gives  no  indication of strength of signal
Your maxim is probably as good as what A I can provide.

Qyburn

Telegraph_Sam said:

At present I get £0.237 for FIT generation and £0.15 for export = 38.7 p as against 18 - 20 p for Tracker consumption, so I should be quids in. Except that I consume more kWh's than I generate. How does that stack up against the "7 p per kWh"?

Firstly I was assuming an import price of 22p which roughly what we'veseen for the last few days. Forget the FIT generation payment, you get the whatever happens. 

So the 7p arose from comparing (1) export your energy and earn 15p, then buy it back later at 22p or (2) use the energy.  Using your example Tracker prices the saving would be less, 3 - 5p.

Telegraph_Sam

I'm  struggling to follow when you say to "forget" the FIT payment. It's there in black & white and with luck in my bank account once a quarter.
Here our cost price has been more under 20 p than above. Using my figures there should be a surplus of approx 20 p / kWh except that it doesn't feel like it.

jennifernil

Telegraph_Sam said:

Bad news - no sign of any flashes or colour changes from my meter. I'm beginning to think that this is a loser.

At present I get £0.237 for FIT generation and £0.15 for export = 38.7 p as against 18 - 20 p for Tracker consumption, so I should be quids in. Except that I consume more kWh's than I generate. How does that stack up against the "7 p per kWh"?

There may be technology - AI of course - that tells me when to mow the lawn, but it ain't simple.

You said your panels are 13 years old, are you sure about that?    What was the precise date they were commissioned?

Ours were installed 10/10/2011, so about to be 13 years old, but our FIT rate is very different to yours.   We get 71.85p per kWh for generation, and now 15p 
per kWh for metered export, as opposed to our previous roughly 6p for 50% deemed export.

With an almost perfect roof for max sun, with no shading, we generate around 3400 kWh per annum, export a little over half of that, and use about 3600 kWh from the grid.   Plus for gas we use about 17000 kWh for heating and hot water.  Cooking is by electricity.

 This year our income from the panels will be about £300-400   more than our fuel bills, even though we are medium/high consumers, having a fairly large floor area to heat, multiple electrical appliances, home all day, and like to be cosy.

Our generation meter has a red light that flashes , the faster it flashes the more we are generating.

Telegraph_Sam

Date was 16 June 2013.  What you get paid depends on both the date and the provider, in my case Scottish Power, that you get signed up with. By the looks of it you got a significantly better deal than I did and/or know a few more tricks than I do - like getting the red light to flash more frequently (!) Who is your FIT company?

Qyburn

Telegraph_Sam said:

I'm  struggling to follow when you say to "forget" the FIT payment. It's there in black & white and with luck in my bank account once a quarter.

Forget it because it's unchanged by the "use it or export it" decision.

FIT rates more or less halved for systems installed after April 2012, same time as they brought in the EPC requirement. The rates were set by Government and are the same from all suppliers. The only factors are the system type, eligibility date and (latterly) EPC.

Telegraph_Sam

You will agree that both the FIT generation and the export generation contribute to (my) income from the panels.
Granted that the rates generally have been slashed since April 2012, it is clear that these are not uniform - as is evident from jenifernil's post above. They are getting a vastly better FIT rate than I am. Even though our panels were installed at about the same time.

If I consume enough kWh's to soak up my generation from both sources then my opportunity cost is the no of kWh's x (in my case) approx 20 p.
That is about as far as I can go to rationalize the mechanics as I understand them.

tim_p

Pretty sure you’ll find the FIT rate is a national figure and does not vary by ‘provider’. It increases annually by a derivative of inflation. The amount paid per kWh gradually tapered off over the years but the early adopters were literally quids in. 

Telegraph_Sam

I can only repeat the £0.237 as shown on my FIT statements and the £0.7185 quoted by jennifernil above.  You are saying that everyone gets one or other of these national rates?

The_Green_Hornet

Telegraph_Sam said:

I can only repeat the £0.237 as shown on my FIT statements and the £0.7185 quoted by jennifernil above.  You are saying that everyone gets one or other of these national rates?

The FiT rate is dependent on when you had your Solar PV system registered, what type of system it is and its size.

See the spreadsheet in the link below for more information.

Feed-in Tariff (FIT): Tariff Table 1 April 2024 | Ofgem