You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
My new house has a small PV array, 1KWH I think, which we own, and the chap we bought the house from has just told us
that all the output goes to the grid and not the house. Seems a bit odd to me! Why would you put a PV
on the house when there is no benefit to the owner?
Is there a way of contacting whoever is benefitting from it to at least pay us for the free energy they
are getting and will they be able to back date it the three years it been doing so?
Start with the wiring diagram that will be posted next to the incoming pv breaker assuming it's installed to regs.
Unless it's been installed under rentatoof it's very unlikely to be as you say unless he did a bad self install.
Feed in tariff I guess with full export. It could be the case if it is a 'rented' roof space but searches etc should have highlighted that.
Are you sure that's right though? You should be able to see what side of the meter it feeds to. It may just be a tariff
Do you not have a feed in tariff? We get paid 5.5p for generation and then an additional 4.5p for export to the grid. No export meter, so it's assumed 50% is exported.
You sure he hasn't taken the FIT agreement with him? You specified the panels in the sale?
Sounds odd.
Our house has PV's under the rent-a-roof type scheme and the mortgage application required all of the documentation to be in place before they would lend.
If the panels are generating, we can use as much as we can and anything that we don't gets fed back into the grid and the installers get the FIT.
Domestic don't usually have an export meter as they assume 50% of generated goes straight to the grid.
OP just follow the cable coming out of the inverter - it should go into a small meter (this is the generation meter) and from there the cable should go into your consumer unit.
If it does then all is good - but if it goes into the 'public' side of the house meter then something's amiss.
This is what happened to the installation at my mums house - idiot installer.
Previous owner had it installed and said that he couldn't be bothered to contact the electricity company to arrange payment of units supplied to the grid, he has passed that job on to us. Its a new build.
PV
There should be several isolators in the PV system, turn them all off and see what happens!
@sharkbait The PV generation meter and all the other gubbins is in the garage and the array is on its roof. The consumer unit is in the house so may be difficult to trace where the output is going.
Generator meter...
Have you got an export meter or smart meter ?
No other meter @trail_rat other than the one shown in the link above.
I'm going to contact the installer and hope they can help.
The thing on the RHS of your image is what communicates with the tariff owner (I think). If you turned off the isolators either side of the inverter, someone would get in touch fairly quickly.
The consumer unit is in the house so may be difficult to trace where the output is going.
OK……. so a PV system will not run when there's a power cut (which is why I doubt that it's feeding straight into the grid) - so if you switch off the main breaker on the consumer unit the inverter should shut down.
If it doesn't then it may be wired wrong.
Interesting jdea @eskay. Mind you, with my history, switching stuff off usually ends in some sort of calamity!
Thanks @sharkbait, I'll check tomorrow, should be a bit of sunshine, so i'll check its producing something then hit the main off switch on the consumer unit. Fingers crossed I don't blow something 😁.
Unless your supply and the PV network are on different phases, I don't see how it can installed such that you aren't using it whilst it's generating. Any excess will be exported.
As you were chaps. Spoken to the installer and they have said the system is generating into the house with any excess (unlikely as its only a 1kw pv) going to the grid.
Unless your supply and the PV network are on different phases, I don’t see how it can installed such that you aren’t using it whilst it’s generating.
Easily!
The installer on my mums place fed the output from the inverter (so all the generation) into the incoming side of the house meter - so everything went to the grid.
This didn't come to light until I inherited the house and fitted an immersun to divert spare production to the immersion heater - even with the panels producing 3Kw and everything in the house was switched off nothing was going to the immersion.
I posted pictures of the wiring on the [now dead] Navitron forum and my thoughts were confirmed - the installation was wrong.
A call to the installers produced a "no that can't be right, you're wrong" response so I sent them the pictures. Within 2 weeks they'd sent someone from Norfolk to the far end of N Wales to correct it. They also paid compensation as I'd lost out on 2.5 years worth of production.
Came to the grid /billed for as it was flowing into your house.
While I was on the phone to the PV installer I got a quote for adding another 4kwh to our south facing roof. £6000 all in. Sound reasonable?
No idea on the price but you can't just add 4kw to your existing system - you need permission for that.
The price looks high (from memory), and I would be wary of that installer as they don't seem to have done a good job advising the purchaser. There used to be a change in the rules once you had more than 4kW in total capacity, but that may just have been for the Feed In Tariff, which was a (misnamed) government backed incentive to get more panels installed by paying you to generate electricity even if you didn't feed it to the grid. Now you only get paid for what you put into the grid, see https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/smart-export-guarantee/ and the 4kW limit may not be relevant. You still need the installation to be certified.
6 seems high for 4kW additional given you already have the inverter etc.
we were 4500 for 4kw with no pre existing in june.
But then price probably went up with demand given energy prices sky rocketing.
less than 3.6 kWh at the inverter (4kWh at panel) you tell your DNO
More than 3.6 KwH at inverter(4 kWh at the panel) you ask permission from DNO
6 seems high for 4kW additional given you already have the inverter etc.
It may need a new inverter capable of handling 5 kW. Still seems a lot of money though considering the wiring is all there......
Why was it only a 1kW system on a new build though, perhaps some sort of minimal building regs/planning requirement?
Why was it only a 1kW system on a new build though, perhaps some sort of minimal building regs/planning requirement?
PV counts towards the energy rating and small system can sometime be used to off set poor scores in other areas that are more costly to rectify.
It may need a new inverter capable of handling 5 kW. Still seems a lot of money though considering the wiring is all there……
His photo and I might be wrong due to scaling seems to show a full size ginlong solis same as mine the smallest of which. Is 5kw.
The 3600 is a small form factor unit.
I would add a few panels.
The panels aren't that expensive. https://www.bimblesolar.com/solar/
If the inverter has the capacity just plug em in.
get a solic 200 diverter linked up to your immersion heater to be sure you are using all the production and not exporting any.
Surprised the installer got away without the paperwork for getting you generation money from the grid. You want to do this as you get paid for generation nevermind if you use it all, so free electricity and you get paid for it. Although on 1kw its barely worth it these days......
Easily!
The installer on my mums place fed the output from the inverter (so all the generation) into the incoming side of the house meter – so everything went to the grid.
You'd still be able to use it all in the house, but you would pay for it (even though you'd generated it yourself).
You’d still be able to use it all in the house, but you would pay for it (even though you’d generated it yourself).
+/- same as putting it all to the grid.