Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

EricMears wrote: »

Is that a promise that they can never be used thus or just a comment that E.ON haven't got round to implementing the function - Yet ?

That's the situation as it stands today Eric. This hasn't changed since we started installing smart meters. I've no knowledge of any forthcoming plans to change this.

Malc

pinnks wrote: »

Hi Malc,

This is interesting stuff, though the question Z raised is beyond my knowledge of the issue, so I'll leave him to pursue.

When you say not accurate in terms of import I get that completely for use as an export meter for billing purposes but presumably they are as (in)accurate as any other home monitoring kit you can buy like the Owl or immerSUN or whatever.

So, folk who do not have a device of that sort may find it useful to have a smart meter to get a broad feel for their export v import v own use etc?

pinnks wrote: »

Malc,

Just thought of another question. What capability do your smart meters have (now or next generation) to export data to spreadsheets/databases and at what level of granularity?

Sorry for the late reply pinnks. Weekend and all that.

Do you mean the In Home Display (IHD)? These come with our smart meters. They collect and display usage information on a screen that can be positioned inside the home. They're accurate as far as imported electricity is concerned. Our latest ones show how much is being used in terms of cost, kWh or CO2 emissions. This can be seen as a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly amount. There are also lights (green/amber/red) that alert customers to how much is being used at a given time. I agree, they can certainly help give customers a broad feel of their energy usage.

At the moment, our smart meters/IHDs don't have the capability to export data to spreadsheets etc. As I mentioned above, our smart meter programme is constantly evolving and this is something that could be possible further down the line.

Hope this helps pinnks.

Malc

pinnks wrote: »

Thanks Malc,

Without appearing rude these meter aren't really smart at all. Not the fault any particular provider but my immerSUN diverter and its software which have been on the market for about 3 years measure (inaccurately of course but consistent within the device/app) import, export, diverted, generated and calculate from that the house usage.

The display of instantaneous use/import/generated etc is updated every 15 seconds (some complain that is not frequent enough) and the exportable data (CVS file) is updated each hour. You can export hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or annually.

Seems a bit odd that these marvellous, not hyped at all, smart meters cannot do at least what these other devices can. The question of non-import accuracy for billing is a different one.

Maybe the mark II?

Not rude at all pinnks. Very valid comments. As above, we're looking to improve the technology we use with our smart programme all the time. Still a way to go but we've dedicated teams working on this. I've passed some of the issues/comments raised on this and other threads to these teams. Our website is a good place to see news of any developments.

Thanks for the suggestions pinnks.

Malc