Solar Sheds & Other Non-t6 Solar Projects - How We Done It -

[Sackmycook]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that will show your usage from your smart meter, via their servers, to you. But it doesn't register as a reading as such, with their billing system.
It's just a way getting info from the meter if it's not connecting to the IHD.

"Need a smart meter we can connect to...." is the Important bit

 

[Huba]

We live in a poor signal area, after 2 years of requesting a smart meter to try we finally had one installed in July, which the engineer couldnt get to work, despite a T2 ariel. He left saying it may connect after he left, which it has (after I moved the ariel a few times). Whether it is connected via wan or mesh to a neighbour I'm not quite sure. But although its connected the meter is not registered on the network as the engineer didnt do this. We have failed so far in getting Octopus to do anything about it, I am still trying

I have requested a Home mini to see if it improves the situation (I lied and said ours was working fully)

Its critical for us as we want solar installed and to buy an EV in the future but without the higher, say 15p export tariff rather than 4p basic, the sums just dont add up. For a 6kw system and 10kw battery it was meaning 16 years vs 10 year payback, which cant be ignored

It is a real pain, so am interested if Octopus will accept the data from the mini over an official send back via the grid coms.

The whole situation with smart meters is messing with solar adoption, the net is full of people who have made big investments and been told by the installer that they will get higher export tariffs than they actually are able to

 

[Sackmycook]

@Huba I'm with Ovo and although they're not getting readings from the Smart Meter, I can use their Charge Anytime app to get off-peak car charging as the app connects to the car computer and they get an energy used reading from that.
I agree it's a right clustered due to Millibands incompetence.
I too want access to Solar Feed in and off-peak general useage.

 

[Dellmassive]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that will show your usage from your smart meter, via their servers, to you. But it doesn't register as a reading as such, with their billing system.
It's just a way getting info from the meter if it's not connecting to the IHD.

"Need a smart meter we can connect to...." is the Important bit

View attachment 259763

I was led to believe that it's a new path for the meter readings..... I was set originally to give them readings every half hour.

But they were saying they were only receiving odd readings a couple of times a day.... (We have a original old smets1 smart meter)

So I asked them to remove it and fit a shiny new smets2 meter.... Which they are planning to do. Then this thing turned up. Which I plugged in etc.

Since then no issues with reading and I have live data and history data in the OE app and website.

Oh and a FYI I have a IVIE IHD which is nothing to do with OE, and thats working as it should as well.

...


...

 

[Sackmycook]

Can anyone else confirm the above ?
I recently changed from Octopus to Ovo as they couldn't give me an EV tariff as the Smart Meter was not communicating readings to them

 

[roadtripper]

Depending on the EV tariff some suppliers (like Octopus) do it via the smart meter - which means your whole house gets the benefit as it's essentially just a form of time based tariff - others do it by using the API on your car or your charger - which means that only the energy used by your EV is counted, usually as a credit back to your tariff.

Theoretically any arrangement that can measure the energy from the charger or the car should be able to work without a smart meter - so long as you are happy giving access to the API. Many people are not to the car API as it allows access to your location and in many cases the lock/unlock, whereas there is little they can do with access to the charger API.

 

[Sackmycook]

I think Ovo might be about to try and move the goalposts on one of my properties....
I had an email a while back informing me that, as the were unable to get readi gs from my smart meter, they were going to kick me out of the Charge Anytime app.
When I reply, I will point out that when I signed up, I met all the criteria as in, had an EV, had a Smart Meter etc.
It's also down to them to ensure the Smart Meter functions correctly...

 

[roadtripper]

It's a current campaign from Martin Lewis that the energy companies should be measured on how many meters are working not just installed - which would incentivise the industry into sorting out the lost 10% or so of the market that has an unreliable rather than simply "dumb mode" meter.

I'd certainly complain to OFGEM and your local MP if it happens. It's nuts that no one organisation has the responsibility to get them working and it's the end users that then suffer.

 

[Huba]

It certainly is nuts. Having read around, complaining to ofgen might get you £100 quid compensation, but no working meter at the end of your journey

As an update to my issues I got an email from octopus yesterday saying they are organising an engineer to visit again, they will assess if a T3 ariel (external) will help, if it does then they have to get a specialist engineer to come and fit it. We're in a conservation area so not allowed anything on front face of house, so suspect after 6 months we'll be in same situation, but we shall see.

Can't really blame the energy firms, they're just doing what they're told with smart meters, the fitting of them and grid is nothing they can directly control, nor can the consumer. Internet connections to meters that don't work has got to be the future, can't be that hard to sort

 

[roadtripper]

I guess the worry is that if you used the customer's own internet connection for backhaul it would likely end up with an underground market of devices that spoofed the ID and monkeyed with the data stream for fun and profit...

Yes there are ways to frustrated that but first rule of security is if the black hat has physical access to the devices and control of the communication channel then your chances of successful digital security drop considerably.

But I fully support the idea the metric should be "currently working meters" and not "installed but if they don't work mehhh"

 

[Dellmassive]

It certainly is nuts. Having read around, complaining to ofgen might get you £100 quid compensation, but no working meter at the end of your journey

As an update to my issues I got an email from octopus yesterday saying they are organising an engineer to visit again, they will assess if a T3 ariel (external) will help, if it does then they have to get a specialist engineer to come and fit it. We're in a conservation area so not allowed anything on front face of house, so suspect after 6 months we'll be in same situation, but we shall see.

Can't really blame the energy firms, they're just doing what they're told with smart meters, the fitting of them and grid is nothing they can directly control, nor can the consumer. Internet connections to meters that don't work has got to be the future, can't be that hard to sort

Seems like your case will be a definite proof of concept regarding the OE home mini. Being super remote and not having any signal.... Versus me in London and still had a super sketchy connection.

Super easy to add in, just follow the email guide they send you.

Open the app, click edd device, scan qr code, enter your guest / iot wifi password.... Then takes a few mins to connect.

Job done.... For me anyway.

Il drop a few pics....

 

[Dellmassive]

heres ours. . .

the MINI . . it just sits plugged into a USB power pack.




we have one of these IHD from IVIE Bud, that works with the APP on the phone etc. . .






and this is the SMETS1 meter. . . (and CT clamp from the Solar system)






which then all tallys up with the Solar kit . .





here is the same data from the 19th as the IVIE data.


you can see the IMPORT as yellow.

which is a battery charge to 70%soc from the grid @ 8kw from 00:00 to 01:30hrs




....


this is the OE live data now. . .



and the same data from the 19th . . .





....



so everything is tied together perfectly.



so the OE MINI is defo supplying the SMETS1 meter data to OE.


and im getting Live 10sec updates. . . . if i unplug the MINI the data freezes.

.

 

[Dellmassive]

Yesterday I washed then claimed then ceramic coated my solar panels..

Am I mad?

Or is this a genius move?



...

...

 

[roadtripper]

I think cleaning panels if it's easy to do is sensible, but I wouldn't pay someone to do it or buy a gadget as the power increase is likely to be positive but almost negligible.

We have trees and all sorts of bad conditions but the from factory coating keeps them pretty clean from the sun's UV and the rain, this is the log since they've been fitted and currently this year looks like being our best yet in 12 years without any attention at all.



For the more budget friendly mobile type panels if you've got the ceramic coat anyway for the van then every little helps I guess.

 

[Dellmassive]

some data from the Domestic system:

here is the charge plot from the Pylontech battery BMS`s for the last 14days.

the RED is the current, above the 0 line is charging,

below the o line is discharging.

the BLUE is the voltage, the battery's are 48v nominal,



++++


as the sun is starting to fade away for the summer, I'm using the cheaper night-time electric rate to charge the battery bank. . .

Agile Portal

Agile Portal

agile.octopushome.net

in this example i charged between midnight and 3am . . . at the lower price of 11.65p/kWh



once the battery is charged, that will see me through till the following night . . meaning that ill skip the peak rates from 4-7pm of 37.8p/kwh

happy days !!!





++++++

looking at how we do this. . . we set the battery timer to charge from midnight to 3am. ( on the Sunsynk inverter)

at full power - 8kw

at a SOC of 90% ( which leaves some headroom, incase the sun pops out the following day)





then,

from 3am . . . all day and night to midnight the following day,

its set to discharge as needed, up to full power, down to a battery minimum of 12% Soc.

..


in practice, this is what that looked like last night. . .

the yello is full power charge to the battery,

from the grid in blue,

till 215am, at which point the battery was 90% charged.

then we use the grid for the next 45mins.

at which point, the battery takes over and starts powering the whole house.




.....



here is yesterdays full plot. with next to no sun all day . . .





.


versus a good sunny day in July . . . where there is enough sun to keep the battery bank fully charged by mid afternoon,

then still be at 80% soc by mignight,

meaning that we only needed 15mins to to top it up over night.






++++

during summer i tweek the charge settings to that it charges from the mains to 70% soc at mignight, - leaving a larger 30% soc overhead for the sun the following day.

but what normaly happens is the battery will have a small topup chgarge over night,

then drop some soc during the day,

which is then topped up again by mid afternoon,

which will drop down through the rest of the day. .


until the cycle repeats. . .




+++++++++


what about export?

well for me i try to keep all the power i generate.

im a power user at home, as well as in the van.

so on a very sunny day ill just about break even on gerneration vs usage.

so there is none left for export - which suits me fine.

if i wanted to export. . . id need to add more panels to get more solar. ( that means panels fitting on the house roof proper)

or reduce my daily usage.m ( wheres the fun in that?)


++++

This means that even in the dead of winter with no sun, I've halfed my electric bill by charging at the cheap rate over night and using that power throughout the day.

...