FIT meter gives strange readings; installer gone bust!

Tonychilvers4

In January 2024, I had a battery installed to work with the solar panels I already had (January 2012).  This required a new meter and I have submitted manually the three meter readings required since, to E.On.  They recently asked for a photo of the meter readings to verify my entries and have said that the readings are faulty - one is a negative!  The Nett reading is -3429, which they say is impossible and therefore will not accept readings from me.  The system needs checking over but the installer of the battery and new meter has gone into liquidation and cannot be contacted. The liquidator doesn't believe that there will be any funds to repay any costs I incur.

I have no record from the installation of any 'back-up' organisation (like FENSA is for windows).

Can anyone suggest how to move this forward in a way that minimises costs?
Many thanks
Tony

tim_p

What were the readings you submitted and did you get the payments you expected?  You must be on a decent FIT from 2012 so the payments should have been substantial. If those payments were normal then has anything changed since the last reading. Or are you not receiving FIT ?

Keep_pedalling

If this was a bodged insulation it may very well have voided your FIT contract. Your only real option is to get the system checked over by a professional.

Reed_Richards

My generation meter has always read negative because it was installed to measure in the import direction.  I have a battery on the DC side of my inverter so charging the battery from the mains gives a positive reading and solar electricity going to the house or the mains shows a negative reading.  The default reading is the difference between the two, so it's an accurate measurement of what I have actually usefully generated.  I have always given the reading as a positive number because that is the net export.

Edit: Just to be clear, my meter is bidirectional.

In my experience, some of the Eon (Next) SEG staff are not very knowledgeable.  If your meter has been installed like mine then a negative reading is normal.  You should also be able to view the import and export readings separately.  If you can become confident about what your meter is measuring then you can argue your case with Eon and convince them that they are wrong.

If you photograph the reading in the morning then later again on a sunny day you can show that the reading has gone up in magnitude.  If you charge your battery from the mains overnight you can see that the reading has gone down in magnitude.      

QrizB

Was your battery installer MCS registered? Did you get an MCS certificate?

If they were and you did, there should be an insurance-backed guarantee (it's a requirement of the MCS scheme).

If they weren't MCS registered, and you didn't get a certificate, you might've voided your FIT contract.

Qyburn

What model meter?  I fitted an Emlite Import/Export/Net meter for our inverter, and it has to be connected the other way round compared to a normal generation meter (like the one I was replacing).

Original generation meter ..



Replacement Net meter ..

Reed_Richards

To repeat myself, if it is a bidirectional meter it doesn't matter which way round it is connected, you just need to know which way round it is connected.  But my bidirectional meter displays the nett reading by default, then you press a button to scroll through other data, the first of which are the readings for each direction of current flow.  Perhaps other bidirectional meters behave differently? 

matt_drummer

Reed_Richards said:

My generation meter has always read negative because it was installed to measure in the import direction.  I have a battery on the DC side of my inverter so charging the battery from the mains gives a positive reading and solar electricity going to the house or the mains shows a negative reading.  The default reading is the difference between the two, so it's an accurate measurement of what I have actually usefully generated.  I have always given the reading as a positive number because that is the net export.

Edit: Just to be clear, my meter is bidirectional.

In my experience, some of the Eon (Next) SEG staff are not very knowledgeable.  If your meter has been installed like mine then a negative reading is normal.  You should also be able to view the import and export readings separately.  If you can become confident about what your meter is measuring then you can argue your case with Eon and convince them that they are wrong.

If you photograph the reading in the morning then later again on a sunny day you can show that the reading has gone up in magnitude.  If you charge your battery from the mains overnight you can see that the reading has gone down in magnitude.      

Is it accurate? What about battery charging and discharging losses?

Are you on FIT payments Reed?

What happens when your battery discharges either to your house or the grid?

My FIT generation is completely separate from everything other than the panels, it only measures generation, I thought that is how they had to be?

Who do you give the reading to Reed?

Surely your SEG payments are related to the export register of your smart meter?

mmmmikey

Reed_Richards said:

To repeat myself, if it is a bidirectional meter it doesn't matter which way round it is connected, you just need to know which way round it is connected.  But my bidirectional meter displays the nett reading by default, then you press a button to scroll through other data, the first of which are the readings for each direction of current flow.  Perhaps other bidirectional meters behave differently? 

Hi - technically that's true of course, but the issue comes with users who's net usage hovers around zero. Unless there's a convention, on the (admitted rare) occasion when the supplier either visits to read the meter or asks for a photograph there's no way to validate the reading.

Qyburn

Reed_Richards said:

To repeat myself, if it is a bidirectional meter it doesn't matter which way round it is connected, you just need to know which way round it is connected.   

Let's say I exported 300kWh and imported 100. My meter would show a net of 200. Connected the other way round it would read Export 100, Import 300 and Net -200.

Reed_Richards

matt_drummer said:

Reed_Richards said:

My generation meter has always read negative because it was installed to measure in the import direction.  I have a battery on the DC side of my inverter so charging the battery from the mains gives a positive reading and solar electricity going to the house or the mains shows a negative reading.  The default reading is the difference between the two, so it's an accurate measurement of what I have actually usefully generated.  I have always given the reading as a positive number because that is the net export.

Edit: Just to be clear, my meter is bidirectional.

In my experience, some of the Eon (Next) SEG staff are not very knowledgeable.  If your meter has been installed like mine then a negative reading is normal.  You should also be able to view the import and export readings separately.  If you can become confident about what your meter is measuring then you can argue your case with Eon and convince them that they are wrong.

If you photograph the reading in the morning then later again on a sunny day you can show that the reading has gone up in magnitude.  If you charge your battery from the mains overnight you can see that the reading has gone down in magnitude.      

Is it accurate? What about battery charging and discharging losses?

Are you on FIT payments Reed?

What happens when your battery discharges either to your house or the grid?

My FIT generation is completely separate from everything other than the panels, it only measures generation, I thought that is how they had to be?

Who do you give the reading to Reed?

Surely your SEG payments are related to the export register of your smart meter?

A lot of questions.

I have a hybrid inverter with the battery on the DC side.  This is quite a common configuration, you'll find many other forumists have the same.  The generation meter measures what passes out of and into the inverter on the AC side.  So this meter slightly underreads the actual generation because when the solar panels charge the battery and then subsequently the battery discharges to the house (or the grid) then the meter reads this discharge.  The same thing happens if I charge the battery from the mains and then discharge it again.  Battery losses mean that the nett reading will go down a little.  So I am slightly underpaid for generation (on the FIT scheme).  On the other hand, the fact that the panels charge the battery DC to DC rather than DC to AC to DC perhaps means that some losses are reduced?

I recently moved my FIT provider to be E.on Next then elected to be paid for actual rather than deemed export, which means I am an SEG customer as far as E.on Next are concerned.  This transfer took a bit of time because E.on Next made some mistakes through being unused to dealing with anyone in my circumstances - but it all worked out in the end.