Discuss Something does not add up.. in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

They're both effectively the same meter. Your primary/utility/import meter shows rED when reverse (exported) energy is sent to the grid, as others have said. Your system is most probably exporting energy when you need it the least, thus impacting on your imported values very little. You need to store or be smart about how you consume your generated energy if at all possible, in order to reduce your net import.

Just as an aside, how accurate do you believe your Owl monitor to be? I've seen over 20% innacuracy on some systems...
 
Today my owl has measured 12.1 kWh generated from CT clamps, PVoutput logged from the inverter is showing 12.5 kWh that's a 1% difference in my calculations are correct

Helmshore sun trap ! 4.000kW

I'm not really questioning the smartness of my energy usage, im just not really seeing the difference in my import meter that i would expect based on my generation, maybe it is just me meter configured wrong..
 
I'm not really questioning the smartness of my energy usage, im just not really seeing the difference in my import meter that i would expect based on my generation, maybe it is just me meter configured wrong..

Is your house a high consumer of electricity, and the cold weather has caused you to use more? It is reckoned that gas usage is up by one-third on last year. Quite a few people are looking at their gas and electric meter in recent days (bills due soon) and a lot of people have had a fright at just how much they've had to use to keep warm this winter.
So if you have quite a lot of electric heating in your house, maybe the bitterly cold weather has caused higher usage than last year, but the solar has made a contribution which has kept the electric import about the same.
 
Ha Ha don`t mention the gas bill holly carp !! with this winter and an extension added to the house in the summer the gas has shot up, i think i will give it another month and do some calculations again and see how it goes
 
The other thing to consider is that occasionally some installers have incorrectly connected the PV to the WRONG side of the consumers meter, so you're not getting the benefit of anything you generate (except the FiT).

How is your's wired in - a photo would help us and save a dozen posts asking for more detail.
 
Today my owl has measured 12.1 kWh generated from CT clamps, PVoutput logged from the inverter is showing 12.5 kWh that's a 1% difference in my calculations are correct

Helmshore sun trap ! 4.000kW

I'm not really questioning the smartness of my energy usage, im just not really seeing the difference in my import meter that i would expect based on my generation, maybe it is just me meter configured wrong..


Does your OWL work out what your actual export values are ??

As looking at your PVO account - they either arent posted or you have PVO settings set incorrectly ??

As said above - you wont see a great reduction in your electrical bills Jan-Feb and Nov-Dec, especially if your export percentage is high as well.
 
Hope you dont mind, but another observation just looking at your LIVE data - your voltage seems to go a little high - you may have to keep an eye on that when the production really kicks in, as your Inverter may start to shutdown if it gets too high.... assuming that (grid) voltage figure is accurate btw


ps> where is that Temperature value coming from too ??

hth
 
The data on the PVO is direct from the inverter the TEMP is the inverter temp i think, i can not find a way to link the owl data into PVO.. so the export is just the same as generated.

on a side note about the grid voltage i have noticed its a bit high but for a few days in feb is dropped but came back up

Helmshore sun trap ! 4.000kW | Live Output

Is there anything that can be done about the high voltage
 
The data on the PVO is direct from the inverter the TEMP is the inverter temp i think, i can not find a way to link the owl data into PVO.. so the export is just the same as generated.

on a side note about the grid voltage i have noticed its a bit high but for a few days in feb is dropped but came back up

Helmshore sun trap ! 4.000kW | Live Output

Is there anything that can be done about the high voltage

Well as long as it isn't ambient temperature around the Inverter you are OK

With regards Grid Voltage, just keep an eye on it as it may cause an issue when fully generating, are there any other Solar PV arrays in your surrounding area that you know of on the same sub-station ??

If you do have issues - May onwards, you or your installer could try speaking with your DNO about lowering the grid a wee bit, as I personally found my DNO very helpful when I reported that voltage was too low in our road on every phase ( 216Vac ), however I suppose it did cost them a fortune in my repair bills so may have been over obliging in my case switching the network within 3hrs of the callout ( after checking other random houses in the road on each phase ) but are not obliged to do anything unless its outside std +/- tolerances.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I know of 1 other system that is on the same sub station looks in the region of a 2kWh, i have long had issue with halogens popping way to soon and LED transformers not lasting long..
 

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