Air Source Heat Pump: Electricity bills have tripled since having solar installed - any advice?

So @BPLightlog if there isn’t a clamp is that a problem ?

Not necessarily. As I mentioned, it depends on the whole set up because some inverters have their own internal ‘measurement’ sensor rather than having an external clamp. 
Perhaps an idea of the inverter make/type might help if that’s visible or written somewhere. 

Ooh heck where will I find the inverter please and what does it look like

@serennu , the solar panels are cabled together and feed into the inverter. It might be anywhere (ours is in the garage but others have them fitted in the loft or similar).

There are various manufacturers but it will look something like this 

There should be some detail with the name, model and size (x kw) which will help. If someone can find these details, I might be able to check how it’s supposed to be set up

@serennu , the solar panels are cabled together and feed into the inverter. It might be anywhere (ours is in the garage but others have them fitted in the loft or similar).

There are various manufacturers but it will look something like this 

There should be some detail with the name, model and size (x kw) which will help. If someone can find these details, I might be able to check how it’s supposed to be set up

Aw thank you so much, I will have a look tomorrow, I think that it might be in the Cape Canaveral control room lol.

Did your granddaughter take some photos of the other kit @serennu ?

Just two before her phone died, she’ll take more over the weekend of the Cape Canaveral control room and it’s panels. This is the ASHP and the switchy thing outside. but don’t suppose you can get anything from that.

That’s a good start !

The little bit of insulation visible before it goes into the black trunking is okay. Some very shoddy installations have big gaps in the insulation, so as long as there aren’t gaps elsewhere that’s not too bad.

I don’t know the Vaillants size-wise. There is a tendency to oversize which reduces efficiency and means high bills. There should be somewhere for the condensation to run off the back of the unit so it doesn’t get icy round there in winter, I can’t see anything like that, which is not good (but wouldn’t effect the bills of course).

Could you list here the names of the kit shown on the literature you were given by the installers ? eg it might say Vaillant aeroTherm Plus 7kW etc. Plus all the other stuff please !!

A few more questions @serennu   

Did you have gas central heating before ?

Have you had any new radiators ?

Who were your installers ? 

Yes we had solid fuel central heating before. Sprint renewables were the installers and they put in new rads,, plumbing and shower. I have contacted Sprint and hopefully they will get back to me bu in the meantime I have someone coming to take photos of the whole system and will be able to put them on for you to see on Monday.

These are the pics of the set up in my control room plus a pic of the battery. Can any of you clever guys get anymore ideas from these? I did forget to say in my post that although we do have the battery we were still taking energy from the grid during last summer months when we should  really have been generating and storing enough for our use. We are just two oldies living in a small 3 bed house.

Ok - so it looks like your inverter is a Sun Synk unit. Some of their information says : 

All inverters (control units) can take power from the solar PV panels or from the grid. The thing about charging from the grid is that, that needs a cheaper tariff to make sense. 
Are you on an economy 7 tariff or similar? If not, I wonder if the system is set up to charge the batteries during peak times. 
I will try to look at their monitoring system and user manual to get some more details. 

Ok - so it looks like your inverter is a Sun Synk unit. Some of their information says : 

All inverters (control units) can take power from the solar PV panels or from the grid. The thing about charging from the grid is that, that needs a cheaper tariff to make sense. 
Are you on an economy 7 tariff or similar? If not, I wonder if the system is set up to charge the batteries during peak times. 
I will try to look at their monitoring system and user manual to get some more details. 

Thank you, no we are not on economy 7, our plan type is Simpler energy and it is variable.

Sun Synk have a monitoring option via a WiFi connection .. hopefully you have that? 

(The plug in device shown above connects into the inverter).

If it wasn’t fitted, you could get a unit installed which would help to check and adjust usage settings. 
https://www.sunsynk.org/remote-monitoring

They also have some videos to show how to set things up

https://www.sunsynk.org/training-videos

They do also mention a CT connection so somewhere in the system, there should be a CT like we showed earlier

There should also be a web based monitor .. not sure if this was set up for you

https://www.sunsynk.net/login

@serennu  re the heat pump: is the house warm enough and have you had enough hot water ? 

@BPLightlog should the battery have space around it for cooling ?

No,Julia, the house isn’t warm enough as we are afraid to turn on the rads, we just got one rad going in the lounge and our log burner.

It’s looks like a pylontech battery which uses convection cooling so there will be vents which need some space

@serennu If you’re happy to look up the ‘working figure’ on the control panel that would show the heat pump is  performing. (I can have a go at explaining what buttons to press if you don’t know how). 
 

@serennu if ok with you I’ll delve into the manual for the heat pump. I’ll be back later. Can you tell me what model Vaillant it is please ? It’s probably written on the back or side of the outdoor unit.

I can find something under the inverter that looks like that wifi thingy, it has a flashing red light on it but I can’t see anything that looks like a ct clamp. The only wifi that was set up was to connect the rads to the control hub which controls the temperature.

The serial number is 21230400100473831300105046N5 aroTHERM plus.

VWL 105/6 A 230V S2R1

I have no idea what a working figure is or how to find it 

The hub is a Honeywell monitor just used to control the temp

Yes the flashing red light sounds like a WiFi connection (although they’re often green when connected).

You should be able to set up an account either on the app or web to look at the inverter set up. This shouldn’t need much adjustment but it would show how things have been set up.