Rigger
Member
I've currently got a 4kW PV array on my roof, which is at 165 degrees from North, so only 15 degrees of South - happy enough - no shading issues
Panels are 16 Sunmodule SW250 Mono Black, and each panel has it's own Enphase M250 micro inverter. This feeds into a single digital generation meter, then to an isolator. This in turn feeds into the consumer fuse box unit, and is then tied via bus-bars back into the incoming dual export/import meter.
Had the system since mid Dec. Nearly 1900 kW generated since then, not bad for this neck of the world!
Had an OWL Intuition type 2 system fitted to monitor how much I am exporting to the UK National Grid - recently in the last few days.
I've had to do this as my electricity company contacted me to say that my bill was at £800 + - That's Sterling - Not Dollars!!!
Fitted the OWL system, and I see straight away yesterday morning, that as the panels start generating more and more energy, the import start increasing too, by roughly half! The export figure was never going to exceed the import.
By the time the PV array is showing 2kW/h, my import meter is showing 5.6kW/h. I turn off the PV at the fuse box, and import drops to 0.4kW/h or 442W to be precise. This proves that the PV array is pulling juice off the Nat Grid. The whole reason of getting Solar PV was to decrease our lecky bills, and get some money back from the energy we exported back to the grid.
Contacted the installer, who is coming round either today or tomorrow, and has said that they will foot the electrical bill. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow how honest he is! He says that he's heard of this problem, but it's never happened to him (obviously, the cynic in me says).
Has anyone else come across this problem before, and what did they do to correct it?
Panels are 16 Sunmodule SW250 Mono Black, and each panel has it's own Enphase M250 micro inverter. This feeds into a single digital generation meter, then to an isolator. This in turn feeds into the consumer fuse box unit, and is then tied via bus-bars back into the incoming dual export/import meter.
Had the system since mid Dec. Nearly 1900 kW generated since then, not bad for this neck of the world!
Had an OWL Intuition type 2 system fitted to monitor how much I am exporting to the UK National Grid - recently in the last few days.
I've had to do this as my electricity company contacted me to say that my bill was at £800 + - That's Sterling - Not Dollars!!!
Fitted the OWL system, and I see straight away yesterday morning, that as the panels start generating more and more energy, the import start increasing too, by roughly half! The export figure was never going to exceed the import.
By the time the PV array is showing 2kW/h, my import meter is showing 5.6kW/h. I turn off the PV at the fuse box, and import drops to 0.4kW/h or 442W to be precise. This proves that the PV array is pulling juice off the Nat Grid. The whole reason of getting Solar PV was to decrease our lecky bills, and get some money back from the energy we exported back to the grid.
Contacted the installer, who is coming round either today or tomorrow, and has said that they will foot the electrical bill. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow how honest he is! He says that he's heard of this problem, but it's never happened to him (obviously, the cynic in me says).
Has anyone else come across this problem before, and what did they do to correct it?