B
BrummyGit
I'm not an electrician, but I'm hoping that you can help me work out how to solve a problem that's causing me headaches and sleepless nights. I recently had a Solar PV system installed in my home. For background information it's one of the free "rent-a-roof" schemes where the supplier gets the Feed In Tarrif and I get to use the electricity generated, with surplus exported to the grid. This also means that the supplier has satisfied their needs with a generation meter that they read via the mobile phone network.
In order to really benefit from the system I need to be able to monitor my generation and compare that to my consumption at any point in time, and ideally I'd like to keep history so I see how I'm doing. This means that I can then decide to switch on the dishwasher etc. Currently I'm using cost effective energy monitors from CurrentCost that clamp onto a single conductor and measure current flow, but not direction. I know these aren't the most accurate, but they are good enough for my needs and allow me to record the consumption on my laptop.
The Solar PV is connected to the consumer unit via a 16amp MCB on the non-RCD side, as are the house lights on a single bus bar from the 100a main switch. I have 1 30ma RCD feeding everything else via the RCD protected bus bar. My consumer unit is full and located in a full meter cupboard.
I have one energy monitor clamped on the Solar near the official generation meter which is fine for monitoring what I generate, but my problem is trying to monitor my consumption. Currently I have another monitor clamp on the meter tail, but the problem is that these monitors can only read current flow and not direction, therefore I can't tell if I'm exporting or importing power from the grid. Ideally I'd like to measure the total consumption of my home but I haven't got anywhere I can measure this as the input to the CU also exports.
My consumer unit is in my external meter cupboard and there is no spare space for installing extra kit (the generation meter had to be installed elsewhere). I don't want to speand a fortune, but I am willing to get a qualified electrician to make sensible changes where needed. I've so far had a couple of dubious ideas:
Thanks for reading.
In order to really benefit from the system I need to be able to monitor my generation and compare that to my consumption at any point in time, and ideally I'd like to keep history so I see how I'm doing. This means that I can then decide to switch on the dishwasher etc. Currently I'm using cost effective energy monitors from CurrentCost that clamp onto a single conductor and measure current flow, but not direction. I know these aren't the most accurate, but they are good enough for my needs and allow me to record the consumption on my laptop.
The Solar PV is connected to the consumer unit via a 16amp MCB on the non-RCD side, as are the house lights on a single bus bar from the 100a main switch. I have 1 30ma RCD feeding everything else via the RCD protected bus bar. My consumer unit is full and located in a full meter cupboard.
I have one energy monitor clamped on the Solar near the official generation meter which is fine for monitoring what I generate, but my problem is trying to monitor my consumption. Currently I have another monitor clamp on the meter tail, but the problem is that these monitors can only read current flow and not direction, therefore I can't tell if I'm exporting or importing power from the grid. Ideally I'd like to measure the total consumption of my home but I haven't got anywhere I can measure this as the input to the CU also exports.
My consumer unit is in my external meter cupboard and there is no spare space for installing extra kit (the generation meter had to be installed elsewhere). I don't want to speand a fortune, but I am willing to get a qualified electrician to make sensible changes where needed. I've so far had a couple of dubious ideas:
- unscrew the consumer unit from the back-board and ease it forward in the hope of clamping all of the Live conductors (except solar) in a single clamp where they exit into the wall cavity. I have serious doubts over the possibility of this.
- Use a double insulated 16mm or 25mm meter tie cable to make a loop outside of the consumer unit of the feed from the 100a isolator back to the non-RCD busbar and RCD for the remainder of the board. This would ideally mean moving the lights to the RCD or also splitting the lights from the solar
- Install a small consumer unit between the grid meter and the current consumer unit - feed the solar in here and measure the consumption between this CU and the main household CU. This sounds to me like the obvious solution but the problem is that I don't think we could accomodate even an extra 2 way unit in the meter cupboard.
Thanks for reading.