Something does not add up..

[Uklad]

Hope your guys can help with this had my 4 kWh system in since Dec 18 2012 everything is working great but i have just entered my import meter reading onto Scottish Powers site and i don't seem to be seeing much of a reduction in my ele usage

Feb usage = 369 vs generation 142 kWh export measured at 50 kWh
March usage = 366 vs generation 271 kWh export measured at 80 kWh missing a week of data..

I have noticed when i do meter readings at the end of the month the import meter is always showing rEd

 

[Gary K]

rEd stands for reverse energy detected. some meters can be configured to add any energy going the wrong way through it to the used energy reading- it to stop people frauduantly rewiring their meter.
Obviously if you don't use the energy as it is produced, say you are not at home during the day so no usage, then you will not save anything. once it is exported then its gone.

 

[Uklad]

Ahh so my export could be being added to the import meter who fixes that for me ?

 

[Earthstore]

Your energy supplier should arrange for a meter change/upgrade.

 

[whinmoor]

Is your import meter a Siemens?

Or, do you have a pre-payment meter?

 

[liquidity]

But just because it's saying rEd doesn't mean the export is being added to the import.

You give what appear to be import, generation and export figures for Feb and March. Where does the export figure come from?

 

[Uklad]

From my owl PV system everything else is from meter readings

 

[Gavin A]

Is your import meter a Siemens?

This is an important question.

There's an entire batch of siemens meters out there from around 10 years ago that have an anti-tamper setting that means they read both import and export as if they were both import, which would explain your readings.

There may also be other makes with the same issue, but I've not come across them (yet).

 

[FB.]

But just because it's saying rEd doesn't mean the export is being added to the import.

Agreed - I have a Landis&Gyr E110 electricity meter an although it says "rEd" it does not add export to import (neither does it go backwards like the old mechanical meters).

By chance my solar array also happens to have a Landis&Gyr E110 to measure export.


As some people have suggested: perhaps the power generated by the solar is not being efficiently used ("use it or lose it"), but on the other hand some people with solar over-estimate how much it produces and switch everything on (sometimes in a wasteful way), resulting in a lot of power being imported from the grid because the power demands are so high that the solar can only provide a small portion of it.

At the moment, I'm generating about 0.6kW (3.7kW solar array) on a "white cloud" afternoon. My computer is running (0.2kW), the central heating is running (0.2kW for pump/fan etc), my wife is watching TV in the other room (0.2kW) so we're using all it's producing. We just boiled the kettle (3kW) so during that time we were still having to import 3kW of power for five minutes. Not to mention if we were running the washing machine, power tools/garden tools etc.

 

[Uklad]

The generation meter is a Landis&Gyr E110 my import is a Ampy Automation 5235a looks the same