Solar panels , would you ?

[cliveb]

Maybe. Could be your ukpn? Different ones have different rules. Mine might be more laid back compared to others

I mean I had a sparky come round to redo my consumer unit

I shut down the solar, powerwall and tripped the cut out

He still pulled the fuse for belt and braces as he said.

His call. Not my life on the line

Nobody cared, it was offline for 4 hours

Surely the whole point of the cutout is so that electricians can isolate the house from the grid without having to pull the fuse? That's what my solar installers told me - they have to isolate the house from the grid in order to commission the PV system.

Presumably your sparky had the necessary tools to reinstate the seal after he replaced the fuse?

 

[PJ87]

Surely the whole point of the cutout is so that electricians can isolate the house from the grid without having to pull the fuse? That's what my solar installers told me - they have to isolate the house from the grid in order to commission the PV system.

Presumably your sparky had the necessary tools to reinstate the seal after he replaced the fuse?

No idea tbh, assume he did.

That is the point of the cut out but he felt the need to pull the fuse aswell. I'm not his boss

This no touching the fuse for sparkies is a massive overkill, it would speed up a lot of things not having the DNO involved and just have them notified of work

 

[Fade and Die]

Surely the whole point of the cutout is so that electricians can isolate the house from the grid without having to pull the fuse? That's what my solar installers told me - they have to isolate the house from the grid in order to commission the PV system.

Presumably your sparky had the necessary tools to reinstate the seal after he replaced the fuse?

Like these ones on eBay?

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We always pull the main fuse when working on a ccu, it’s part of our RAMS, “safe isolation of supply”… we can always cite health and safety measures if necessary.

Upgrading tails is a very routine job when replacing the consumer unit, having to have networks in attendance to isolate then return to re-energise some hours later would be a logistical nightmare, especially if doing a couple of boards a day.

 

[cliveb]

I'm coming to the conclusion that the company who did my PV installation may have been overzealous with their (possibly wrong) interpretation of the regulations.

Sounds like perhaps they could have pulled the fuse and installed the cutout themselves? That would have saved waiting a month for National Grid to come and do it.

 

[larmen]

We didn't yet get teh bill, but Octopus has updated our account tonight.

For mid Jan to mid Feb
We used 182 kWh for £50.90 which will include the standing charge
We got credited for 69 kWh with £13.46
This makes a net bill of £37, but we also got a couple of credits for the saving sessions we participated in, £13.50 in total.

This means we spent £24 for electricity for the last month. A long shot from the £110 to £130 we used to pay.
But a lot of those savings will be the turning off of the immersion heater which I noticed when we 1st got access to the monitoring app.

Still paid £214 in gas this month, but hopefully now spring is coming and heating is going down.
Time to adjust the direct debit, I think.

 

[PJ87]

We didn't yet get teh bill, but Octopus has updated our account tonight.

For mid Jan to mid Feb
We used 182 kWh for £50.90 which will include the standing charge
We got credited for 69 kWh with £13.46
This makes a net bill of £37, but we also got a couple of credits for the saving sessions we participated in, £13.50 in total.

This means we spent £24 for electricity for the last month. A long shot from the £110 to £130 we used to pay.
But a lot of those savings will be the turning off of the immersion heater which I noticed when we 1st got access to the monitoring app.

Still paid £214 in gas this month, but hopefully now spring is coming and heating is going down.
Time to adjust the direct debit, I think.

I did the same last night, I asked for £150 of my remaining £224 balance back (took £500 out last month) they said £100 as they insist on charging you for what you used then and there not taking into account the direct debit

So I've lowered the direct debit to £150 from £200 for 2 months to then make it £700 I've removed this year from the account

Tempted to leave it at £150 but it's factored into the budget already and it's nice every April to have a chunk to cover things

 

[Mudball]

Lot of my bill seems to be moving around..... we went from standard to Intelligent in Jan. and then last week moved to Fixed outgoing. It says I made a princely £0.82 worth of export so far. At that rate, I will need 15,000 years to recoup our panels..

 

[larmen]

Lot of my bill seems to be moving around..... we went from standard to Intelligent in Jan. and then last week moved to Fixed outgoing. It says I made a princely £0.82 worth of export so far. At that rate, I will need 15,000 years to recoup our panels..

We changed in January, didn't even look at teh Dec-Jan bill for that reason. £1 here, £3 there, ... . I just treat that as transition and look from now on.

 

[PJ87]

Lot of my bill seems to be moving around..... we went from standard to Intelligent in Jan. and then last week moved to Fixed outgoing. It says I made a princely £0.82 worth of export so far. At that rate, I will need 15,000 years to recoup our panels..

But that's just a small way of thinking about it

It's also winter

Have you factored into your total use compared to what you took from the grid? Because that's saved you a lot not having to buy from them

Then you fill up the battery at night and use during the day

That saves more money

Yesterday cost me £1.67 to run the house , on £8 with of electric

 

[Mudball]

I don’t know how but i need to stop exporting in the middle of the night. At night i am charging battery and EV, and i need to stop nightly discharges.

Ideally use at home between 5-9 when heating/hot water comes on and then export later during the day.

Somehow the UI for the GroWatt interter and battery is bloody confusing

Also currently we have building works going on, so tradesman charge their drills or use concrete mixers, industrial size space heaters etc. lot of consumption

 

[cliveb]

got a couple of credits for the saving sessions we participated in, £13.50 in total.

You earned £13.50 in 2 saving sessions? Wow.
So far we've earned £2.50 in 8 saving sessions.
You must be using a LOT of leccy.

 

[larmen]

There will be an owners group of your inverter on Facebook with geeks being more than happy to share their settings. They tell you what you need to set.

 

[larmen]

You earned £13.50 in 2 saving sessions? Wow.
So far we've earned £2.50 in 8 saving sessions.
You must be using a LOT of leccy.

No, that’s all sessions from mid January to mid February.
We push 2 kWh in each hour for each of the 2 sessions in it.

 

[cliveb]

No, that’s all sessions from mid January to mid February.
We push 2 kWh in each hour for each of the 2 sessions in it.

Do you mean that you export from your battery during the saving sessions?
Do those exported units count as saved (ie. you can be deemed to have negative usage)?
Quite enlightened if that's the case.

 

[larmen]

Do you mean that you export from your battery during the saving sessions?
Do those exported units count as saved (ie. you can be deemed to have negative usage)?
Quite enlightened if that's the case.

I think that's new this year, but they count it. We only got an export tariff after NYD so before we just had 0 use and saved a bit, now we have 2 kWh export ans 'save' a little more.
We don't export from battery at any other time. Usually it is just surplus solar once the battery is full.

 

[Mudball]

As per Octopus app... i have earned £9.5 this week from export.

 

[PJ87]

As per Octopus app... i have earned £9.5 this week from export.

Wow that's pretty decent. Considering I've exported enough for £185 however that's since may 2022! Your on course for much more by sounds.

 

[Mudball]

Wow that's pretty decent. Considering I've exported enough for £185 however that's since may 2022! Your on course for much more by sounds.

sorry that was shortlived... like an English batsman taking a DRS review based against an Indian spinner - i looked at the app again... it is 9.5KwH exported and a princly sum of £1.5 in the bank

 

[PJ87]

sorry that was shortlived... like an English batsman taking a DRS review based against an Indian spinner - i looked at the app again... it is 9.5KwH exported and a princly sum of £1.5 in the bank

For this time of year that's still outstanding

I've exported a grand total of 3kw this week

 

[Mudball]

For this time of year that's still outstanding

I've exported a grand total of 3kw this week

This is first week of being on an export tariff … so let’s see