Electricity meter question.

I have one of the relatively modern electricity meters with a digital display and when I went to read it today to send in the reading, the display was reading alternately the power consumed and "rEd". Additionally a red led is permanently on.

The make of the meter is 'Ampy' - Black and about 100 x 150 x 40mm

Can anyone confirm what this means please?

I have recently had a solar PV system fitted which can feed power back into the grid. The meter was not changed to accommodate this (instead I have my own generation meter) so I wonder if it is just an indcation that the meter has tried to run backwards which would normally happen if someone was trying to fiddle the meter reading but in my case just shows the Solar PV has been generating more power than I have been consuming.

TIA

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin
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I know it is bad form to reply to your own posts but it might help someone.

I have found the answer here

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red light either flashes every 1 watt-hr consumed or stays on continuously when the power being consumed is below a preset level.

The display flashing rEd is showing "reverse energy detection" which would normally mean fraudulent use but in the case of power export from microgeneration schemes (PV, wind etc) is legitimate.

In my case, when the light is on continuously it means that I am generating more power than I'm using - this is confirmed by the display reading now being identical to the one I took 8 hours ago.

According to the manual, the meter has a separate register measuring exported power although the reading is not displayed.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

And just how much power are these generating on an average day ?..

Reply to
tony sayer

about 30W/sq meter average.

Could be over a KW on a hot sunny day.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

My system is quite small = 16.7 sq m rated at 2.35kWp. It has produce 350kWh since 1st February this year which will pay out £150 ish plus any saving on power consumed. As the sun gets higher in the sky the daily totals are rising. Yesterday was 11.25kWh. Instantaneous power available is regularly in excess of 1.6kW and can exceed 2kW Even on a grey day when it is raining, 3-4kWh are produced per day

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

so in *real* terms it produces an input worth between 12p and 45p per day, if you discount the ridiculous subsidies.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

+1: the ridiculous (and exempt from tax) subsidies which are a massive transfer of funds from flat dwellers, those with small rooves, and North facing rooves to people with big rooves facing South or big gardens. In short, mainly from the poor to the rich.

But to come back to DIY, what kind of paint or other covering would adhere best to solar panels? And could it (for speed) be poured rather than brushed or sprayed?

Reply to
Robin

Depends how you want to evaluate it. If I arrange to consume or in some way store that energy that I would otherwise pay 11-12p per kWh for, it can be worth 45p to £1.25 per day.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Oi Mush! No wonder the sun looks darker. Here's me freezing me nadgers off because you are draining all the suns power.

Went to Asda today for a couple of smartprice duvets. Chuck me your postal address and I'll send the receipts so that you can reimburse me.

HN

Reply to
H. Neary

Let's say a quid a day, because it's easier.

So how much did it cost? Any thoughts on the breakeven point?

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Meter Memory

All the meters data is recorded in a Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) under the control of the microprocessor. All the kWh registers are stored in the FRAM and are updated every 1/100 th of a kWh. The FRAM is guaranteed for a minimum of 10,000,000,000 write cycles

WTF? Core memory?! 8-)

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Andy If you are considering the breakeven point, then the incentive payments dominate. So in addition to your rounded "quid a day" add a further 4 quid in incentives and exported power payments. Then index link that at RPI ( the uplift used recently was 4.8%) However, in practice it is quite difficult to manage domestic consumption to follow the time profile of the sun's availability so treat the "quid a day" as a bonus and just use the 4 quid a day

Lets say useful output for 200 days a year (a guess as I have no data yet) So a minimum return of £800 per annum indexed and tax free. Capital cost £8500 paid from savings that was otherwise earning 3/5ths of f'all in the building society (taxed at 40% to boot)

Too many unknowns (RPI and electricity price inflation vs building society interest rates) to work out a payback period but it should be paid for in 10 years and the scheme contract runs for 25 years.

hth

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

here

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> Meter Memory

Yes I found that difficult to credit but I suppose it maybe used to meet a possible regulatory requirement for N years retention with no power connected??

Having looked further, I think it is the 10,000,000,000 write cycles that makes it ideal for this application to cope with the update rate.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

It did strike me that a better situation would be a house with two separate supplies, and fitting the PV to one of these, that you don't use any supply for yourself. Given the subsidies, this "magic solar electricity" is far too valuable to use yourself.

By strange circumstance, I happen to have two electricity supplies to this place...

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Is that a fair comparison when you can get your capital back from a bank but you will not sell the panels+inverter back for the original installed price in 10 years even forgetting inflation?

AJH

Reply to
andrew

Not quite core, but not completely unrelated and quite interesting

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Reply to
Andy Dingley

I find it more helpful to look at it as a 25 year annuity, indexed to the RPI. For a capital outlay of £14,000 Harry receives an annual income of £1,650 index-linked to the RPI. That's an annuity rate of

11.8%. By comparison a man of 65 (so with a life expectancy
Reply to
Robin

I think you might have missed the point a bit Andy.

You get paid the tariffs based on what you generate NOT what you feed into the grid*. You are even better off if you can use the power as well but that is not easy as a normal household is not running high power loads in the middle of bright sunny days.

*until smart metering is rolled out when they will be able to differentiate between power flowing in different directions and read the data remotely.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Yes that is a factor but the buying power of the capital investment after 25 years will be much reduced. Possibly around 30-40% with typical inflation rates of a few percent per annum.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

So fit an aircon unit:-)

Reply to
ARWadsworth

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