Help with my setup

[Chrisbee]

That's impossible to answer as it's so very different every day.

They're always empty by morning.
Self use gets first dibs on generated power.
If a cloud comes across and generation goes below consumption, the battery starts discharging, assuming it has some.
So it's up and down all the time making sure what's generated is used, even if it never reaches full.

I'd say that more often than not it's full by tea time. But some days it stays empty all day.

Mine is 4.8Kwh of battery and the display often shows much more than this for charge and discharge figures in a day.

 

[Chrisbee]

You're quids in then, no need to worry about feed in at all.

From late Feb to now, multiplied up to 12 months, mines looking like just over £1K a year. But that's without factoring in winter months.

 

[Andy1733]

After seeing chrisbee usage comparison compared to mine, it got me thinking. My past 12 month avg utility bill is 3x the amount showing for solar usage.
So this morning I plugged in my EDF smart metre. (Waited until everyone was out of the house so no excess usage) the solar panels were producing over 1kw. The EDF metre said £2.12p of electricity usage Inc standing charge so I turned on the grill, kettle and washing machine and the EDF metre started to go up. For the 3 minutes these were running it went from £2.12p to £2.26p. looking at the solar app read out the usage and consumption never altered that much to warrant the above draw. Well I'm no rocket scientist but I'm guessing the solar PV is not feeding back to my house.

 

[Chrisbee]

Andy don't forget that the Solis app shows no change at all for 5 minutes. You can refresh it all you like but there's no change to the numbers.

It's possible that the panels were producing 1kw at the instant that the snapshot was taken, then maybe production was far lower for the rest of the 5 minutes that that rate was displayed. .

I find it best to use the smart meter set to show "cost now" so you can see Watts updated every 10 seconds. Then compare that to the inverters own screen which is updated a lot faster than the app.

 

[Andy1733]

My set-up.
Main electric connection (main fuse) enters my house in the kitchen. This goes through the smart metre then the tails split via Henley blocks. One tail goes to my house consumer unit and the other tail goes to a 100a single unit that feeds my garage.
The garage is fed by a 10mm cable into my garage consumer unit.
Inside the garage cu I have the main switch with 2 16a MCB for the AC side of the solar PV. (Non protect side) Then 1 100a RCD with my ring main and lighting ect.
The metre supplied (Acrel acr10r) is wired to live/neutral then the CT is clipped to the live of the 10mm cable from the house. (Arrow pointing to house).

Is there anything wrong with my set-up or is there a setting inside the inverter that needs altering?

 

[Andy1733]

Andy don't forget that the Solis app shows no change at all for 5 minutes. You can refresh it all you like but there's no change to the numbers.

It's possible that the panels were producing 1kw at the instant that the snapshot was taken, then maybe production was far lower for the rest of the 5 minutes that that rate was displayed. .

I find it best to use the smart meter set to show "cost now" so you can see Watts updated every 10 seconds. Then compare that to the inverters own screen which is updated a lot faster than the app.

No m8. I even came into the garage and checked the inverter readout. That said I was only using 0.47kw

 

[binky]

batteries can be awfully sulky for a few days, especially when supplied almost fully discharged as your display would suggest. There should be an option to force it to charge the battery from the grid by changing work 'mode', I forget exactly which option it is, but it will be worth doing to get the battery working properly before resetting the 'mode' to self consumption.

 

[Chrisbee]

My set-up.
Main electric connection (main fuse) enters my house in the kitchen. This goes through the smart metre then the tails split via Henley blocks. One tail goes to my house consumer unit and the other tail goes to a 100a single unit that feeds my garage.
The garage is fed by a 10mm cable into my garage consumer unit.
Inside the garage cu I have the main switch with 2 16a MCB for the AC side of the solar PV. (Non protect side) Then 1 100a RCD with my ring main and lighting ect.
The metre supplied (Acrel acr10r) is wired to live/neutral then the CT is clipped to the live of the 10mm cable from the house. (Arrow pointing to house).

Is there anything wrong with my set-up or is there a setting inside the inverter that needs altering?

I'd suggest that your CT needs to be before the Henley block. So it can see everything that the smart meter is.

 

[Andy1733]

batteries can be awfully sulky for a few days, especially when supplied almost fully discharged as your display would suggest. There should be an option to force it to charge the battery from the grid by changing work 'mode', I forget exactly which option it is, but it will be worth doing to get the battery working properly before resetting the 'mode' to self consumption.

I don't have the batteries yet binky. I just haven't turned off the battery function in the inverter

 

[Andy1733]

I'd suggest that your CT needs to be before the Henley block. So it can see everything that the smart meter is.

Not sure how I would do that as the inverter is 8m away from the Henley block and the communication cable won't be long enough

 

[Andy1733]

 

[Andy1733]

 

[Andy1733]

ive just realised the EDF smart metre has a back to grid symbol on it. Never noticed that before so If that's reading back to grid, which is plugged into my kitchen then ot must be working as usual. Maybe I jumped the gun and was expecting the original 1kw to power my house and the street

 

[Chrisbee]

Not sure how I would do that as the inverter is 8m away from the Henley block and the communication cable won't be long enough

You may have to find a way to extend it.

One thing to try, turn something on in the garage, maybe take the kettle in there. See if drawing power from somewhere after the CT works as you expect.

 

[binky]

Not sure how I would do that as the inverter is 8m away from the Henley block and the communication cable won't be long enough

you can buy CT with longer lead, or extend the one you have. Is it 2 core or cat5?

 

[Andy1733]

Its cat5. I suppose I could get extension lead. Binky. Do you think the CT would be better in the house near the Henley blocks rather than in the garage?.

 

[binky]

it needs to be on the meter tails to work properly. It won't make much diference at the moment, but when you do get the batteries it has to be able to monitor energy flow in and out of the house so it can decide if it needs to release energy from the battery or charge it up.

 

[Andy1733]

Thanks. Chris/Binky. I just happen to have a cat5e cable that I can use. Will get it sorted

 

[Andy1733]

Hey all. I forgot to ask yesterday.
I haven't installed my emlite generation meter. My electrition said it should go between the inverter (after the AC isolation switch) and the consumer unit.
My doubt/question was there are 2 AC outlets from the inverter to the consumer unit. AC grid and AC backup.
The company only supplied 1 meter. Should there be 2 meters or do I only connect it to the AC grid line?

 

[Chrisbee]

I'd like to know why we even need one if we have a smart meter that reads export?
One seems to make sense for the no longer available FIT payments where I believe there was a generation element to the payment. But new installs haven't been able to get that for ages.

My installer put mine between AC Grid and the CU.

I believe that the backup outlet is for running an up to 3.5 kw feed that supports important devices like fridges, from batteries, in the event if a power cut.