Solar panels - no clue at all

EricMears

Reed_Richards said:

I'm not an expert on smart meters but I looked up the Liberty 100 and it's a first generation (SMETS1) smart meter.  These were installed between 2013 and 2018.  The smart meter would not have been installed at exactly the same time as your export meter; does it have a label to say when? 

Ours is a Liberty 100,  installed by Octopus in March 2020.  They decided to fit a SMETS1 as the contractor advised there would be insufficient signal for a SMETS2.

To get the export reading it's a case of pressing button "9" multiple times until name of parameter you want appears in window then as cycle continues its value appears there.

ASA201

Thanks @Martyn1981 that’s really helpful.   There is an element of shading so perhaps the further drop is based on that?   

@reed_richards or anyone really?   Is there anything more the import and export readings tell us vs the pv meter reading?   Does any of this help work out to remain with just feed in tariff readings or whether to move to the octopus export thing that I don’t profess to fully yet understand! 

Thanks @ericmears

Exiled_Tyke

Looking at export readings you can work out what you would be paid on an export tariff and then compare this to the  rate you are currently paid for the (50%) deemed export on your generation meter.   If you self-use most of your generation (which usually is NOT the case) then you may be better off staying with deemed export.  However if like most people you export quite a bit it could be worthwhile changing to an SEG tariff paying you for actual export. 

However you will only get a good idea of this in the sunny months.  For my (predominately East/West) system December  gives me around a tenth of the output as the sunniest early summer months.  From late October to around the beginning of March PV production is so low that I use it all without fail. Come the summer I'm producing far more than I can use and it's here you will get your biggest return.   I'm guessing with what you've already told us and the fact that your useage pattern will undoubtly differ from the previous occupiers that you can't get a fair estimate of percentage of production you use untl you've got a full year of your own data?

jimjames

ASA201 said:

@Magnitio The meter I referenced above I have seen ticking upwards in terms of digits.   Not at a great rate of knots mind you.   

The weather will not be conducive to getting much generation at the moment. According to BBC Weather the last proper sunny day across UK was end of Oct. Although solar panels do produce electricity all year round the amount is very skewed to summer and can be 10-30x more on a good summer day that a winter one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c36pxjx855go 

Solarchaser

ASA201 said:

Thanks @Martyn1981 that’s really helpful.   There is an element of shading so perhaps the further drop is based on that?   

@reed_richards or anyone really?   Is there anything more the import and export readings tell us vs the pv meter reading?   Does any of this help work out to remain with just feed in tariff readings or whether to move to the octopus export thing that I don’t profess to fully yet understand! 

Thanks @ericmears

Since we don't know what your export percentage is, all we can really do is a half educated guess.
The 27% guess i think is likely a little pessimistic, as its more likely that the smart meter went in after the panels, but thats based on more of a gut feel than anything tangible.

But if we go on that as the only available figures then you look at the export portion, you are being paid a deemed export of 50% of your generation at around 7.14p based on my own 2014 solar install.
If you moved to seg, you would on octopus export be paid 15p for each kwh you actually export.

My view is that 27% is pretty close to 25% and 50% at 7p is pretty darn close to 25% at 15p.

If I was you I'd take a note of both solar and export readings, put it in beside the meter with today's date, and have a look in a year and see if it's really worth it.

ASA201

@Exiled_Tyke thanks.  I'll keep a note of our entry readings on the generation meter and the export KWH figure and see what they change to over a 12 month period and hopefully can work it out from there.

@jimjames your post is timely.  I actually had a look at my generation meter today as was in the cupboard it is in for another reason and compared the meter now to when I last took it on 14/10.  (11/11 - 12758), (14/10 - 12739) so in 4 weeks the meter has ticked along to the value of 19.  Does this seem ok?  Appreciate we aren't in summer months but I guess I did think it would move more than that - albeit I've no idea what the value of 19 actually equates to if that makes sense?

@Solarchaser thanks!

Reed_Richards

ASA201 said:

@Exiled_Tyke thanks.  I'll keep a note of our entry readings on the generation meter and the export KWH figure and see what they change to over a 12 month period and hopefully can work it out from there.

Exactly as I suggested on 2nd November, but the idea didn't sink in for a while.

ASA201

@Reed_Richards indeed and thanks for the advice.  All unchartered territory for me so trying to learn as I go but things taking a bit of time to click.  And I have to say I'm still not quite sure I follow everything!!  But, thank-you for your help throughout all this!! 

ASA201

Does anyone have a view as to whether at this time of year my generation meeting ticking on to the value is 19 is around what would be expected?  Like I said above I appreciate we aren't in summer months but I guess I did think it would move more than that - albeit I've no idea what the value of 19 actually equates to if that makes sense?

Reed_Richards

If that's the change you've seen recently then it's probably 19 kWh.  But that's 19000 Wh if you would like a bigger number.