Solar and smart meters

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SalsaDanca
SalsaDanca Posts: 434 Forumite
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in Green & ethical MoneySaving
Hi,

In the past I've read a few reports of problems with smart meters when the house has solar panels. Are there still any downsides to installing a smart meter?

I've got a 4 kW PV system with one of the oldest FIT tariffs, with an Immersun diverter and ASHP. I already have an emonPi system so i can monitor my own generation and use.

Stats for the last year are:
4,300 kWh used
3,850 kWh generated
2,050 kWh exported (53% of generation)
2,500 kWh imported

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  • pinnks
    pinnks Posts: 1,259 Forumite
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    So what benefit would you see from a smart meter other than saving 2 minutes each quarter to read your gas and leccy meters and enter the numbers online?
  • 1961Nick
    1961Nick Posts: 2,072 Forumite
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    pinnks wrote: »
    So what benefit would you see from a smart meter other than saving 2 minutes each quarter to read your gas and leccy meters and enter the numbers online?
    A smart meter will allow you to access TOU tariffs.
    4kWp (black/black) - Sofar Inverter - SSE(141°) - 30° pitch - North Lincs
    Installed June 2013 - PVGIS = 3400
    Sofar ME3000SP Inverter & 5 x Pylontech US2000B Plus & 3 x US2000C Batteries - 19.2kWh
  • EricMears
    EricMears Posts: 3,232 Forumite
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    1961Nick wrote: »
    A smart meter will allow you to access TOU tariffs.
    Are there many (any ?) such tariffs yet ?
    NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq5
  • Dave_Fowler
    Dave_Fowler Posts: 612 Forumite
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    EricMears wrote: »
    Are there many (any ?) such tariffs yet ?
    I've recently had smart meters fitted so that I could join the TOU tariff 'Agile Octopus' - thanks to @Zarch

    They work well with solar and you can get both import and export displays on the electric meter. The export display must be calibrated as Octopus also offer to pay for your exported energy rather than the deemed 50% built in to the FiTs system.

    If you haven't already paid for monitoring equipment to measure your import / export, a smart meter is a free way to get the figures!

    Dave F
    Solar PV System 1: 2.96kWp South+8 degrees. Roof 38 degrees. 'Normal' system
    Solar PV System 2: 3.00kWp South-4 degrees. Roof 28 degrees. SolarEdge system
    EV car, PodPoint charger
    Lux LXP 3600 ACS + 6 x 2.4kWh Aoboet LFP 2400 battery storage. Installed Feb 2021
    Location: Bedfordshire
  • ASavvyBuyer
    ASavvyBuyer Posts: 1,737 Forumite
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    We have had an electric smart meter (1st type) for over a year now. Got it so we could change to the Octopus Go tariff when we got an EV. Don't have one for gas, as we get that from Zog and they don't insist on smart meters.
    I was reluctant to get one until they sorted out the issues, but ours has been fine.
    Very useful getting the half hourly breakdown of when we import electric.
    Average cost of all our electric has worked out at less than 8p/kWh because of shifting high usage to either the 4 hours overnight or when we have good solar PV generation.
    It is also useful to have a measure of how much we actually export.
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