Solar iboost system - being charged for 'free' hot water

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Spare Solar - SOLiC 200 or Solar iboost - Thoughts?.

Reggieboy2025

Hello all

This is my first post and I was wondering if you guys can help.
So when  my solar iboost system kicks in supposedly supplying me with free hot water I am infact being charged according to my smart meter.

I've had an electrician take a look , sender clamp is in the correct position,arrows on the clamp pointing the correct way.

Any ideas guys ?

Thanks in advance

QrizB

Reggieboy2025 said:

This is my first post and I was wondering if you guys can help.

Welcome to the forum!

Reggieboy2025 said:

So when  my solar iboost system kicks in supposedly supplying me with free hot water I am infact being charged according to my smart meter.

Is this a newly-fitted iBoost, or have you had it for a while? Has it ever worked properly, and (if it did) how long ago did it start drawing from the mains?

How would you heat your water if you weren't using the iBoost?

Do you have an export tariff?

paul991

Turn gas water heating off and see if you get hot water, although I could check on my controls I now have a good idea by the amount of sunshine we have  ,failing that I have a neon on the immersion switch in the kitchen which flickers when the water is heating. After my water is heated it then turns on a heated towel rail which has a neon on too  How  much does your smart meter or in house display say you are using ? it will be near 3 kw if you are being charged if its only a few watts it could be just a time lag due to switching.

Reggieboy2025

Hi guys thanks for responding

So I've had the iboost for 18 months and to be honest with you I've no idea if it has ever worked properly as I've recently had a smart meter fitted which obviously makes it much easier to track usage.
Yeah it always rises to more or less 3 Kwatt regardless of the spare energy being produced by the solar panels.
The inverter can display 1kwatt being produced and with nothing else on in the house the meter is using 3kw .
Thanks in advance for your help

QrizB

That's a bit weird. If your solar panels are producing 1kW and the only significant load is a 3kW immersion heater, the smart meter / IHD should display 2kW of metered load.

Can I come back to my other questions:

How would you heat your water if you weren't using the iBoost?

Do you have an export tariff?

If (for example) you have mains gas for water heating and are being paid a sensible amount for your exported electricity, it would make more sense to turn the iBoost off and heat water with gas.

Reggieboy2025

Hi, sorry I forgot to answer that part of the question, I don't have any gas in the house or any export tariff as I'm a housing association tenant.
The housing association has sent an electrician to take a look but we're getting nowhere fast

Cheers again guys

Martyn1981

Really, really silly question / idea, but is there any chance that your PV is somehow not going through your consumer unit / smart meter?

I feel pretty stupid even asking if this is possible, but could the PV be somehow wired on the wrong side of the mains?

Do you have a PV meter (as you give an example of knowing that 1kW is being produced), and if so, does the cable then run to a 'fuse' in the consumer unit? Or just a cable running from the inverter to the CU?

Reggieboy2025

I have a PV generation meter that flashes red when it's generating power from the panels , it's connected to the CU  
Will try to include pictures 

Martyn1981

Reggieboy2025 said:

I have a PV generation meter that flashes red when it's generating power from the panels , it's connected to the CU  
Will try to include pictures 

Thanks Reggie. If the PV is going through the CU then it should be displacing some or all import. That really is strange, no wonder you are baffled. Please keep us updated as I'm sure (like me) we are all interested to know what is going wrong.

Edit - Sorry, one last question (now I sound like Columbo), when the PV was originally installed, did you notice a reduction in your leccy consumption and bill?

Reed_Richards

Now you have a smart meter you should be able to get an export reading from it.  What does that say?