How do I find how much power we actually use from solar panels?

Hey @Janetf 

Sorry you’ve not had a response here yet.

I wonder if some of these topics might be helpful to you:

What’s your solar set up like? I believe you can get the information slightly differently depending in your set up.

I have 12 solar panels, no battery. Fitted when the house was built in 2018. We moved in in late 2019, and smart meter was fitted in 2020 so we don’t have reliable usage figures from before the meter was changed.

we have a smart meter L&G 470 (smets2) with a trio 11 console- I can’t get any sensible reading from that so I can’t actually be 100% sure that I’m not paying for the electricity I generate … because all I get on the meter is a visual display with no figures. 
what I would love to know is how much of our generated energy we actually use (fit just estimates 50%export)

Which inverter do you use @Janetf ?

That might have a monitoring system to show what power you are generating, consuming and exporting, depending on your set up. 
Unless things are wired incorrectly, your smart meter should simply show what power is being drawn from the grid 

Thanks for responding. Looking at the MCS , I think it’s IRFTS - when we moved we literally got no info other than the MCS( which I insisted on to get a FIT just before they stopped).

this has all come up because we are looking to get a battery to help with power cuts during these storms- I know once we have one we will know everything but until then I would like to know! 
i religiously send in my readings for the FIT - since OVO took over from SSE, I don’t even get statements for that. 
i know that the console on our meter shows usage regardless of whether it is imported or generated - I hope (!) that our bills are just for imported, but I currently have no way of knowing how much we actually use - which is relevant to buying more panels and a battery

janet

That looks like a French system but I don’t know of a monitor for that. It can be done but might not be simple. 
Just a note on the battery storage systems. When you set these up to work during a power outage, often it needs a separate feed and does not supply the whole house so you will need to be careful with the installer/supplier for this and what you expect. 
Battery is very useful in delivering full power from what your generating and soon it should be more cost effective to add as the gov have reduced the vat on retrofitted systems 

We are getting some new panels with the battery and having the old system also connected in to it. The installers know this is partly about power cuts so will be helping us to decide what bits to protect in that setting (freezers and borehole pump mainly)

i guess I might have to wait for better awareness of my usage until all this is installed, assuming we get permission for it. 
im disappointed by the smart meter though - can I ask OVO to give me one that provides more useful info?

Thanks.

i crawled along the eaves & discovered that it’s a solis inverter so I bought the dongle and fitted it -so at least I can see what we are producing (woefully little in this weather!)

i think I will have to wait until we get our battery to see for sure what we use.

i was hoping we could get a wifi bit for our IHD on our smartmeter but OVO haven’t responded to that request

If you have a Geo IHD that does NOT have built-in Wi-Fi, you need to go to Geo directly for the Wi-Fi Module - OVO cannot supply that to you.

Hi @Janetf, apologies for not replying earlier, am only now catching up again with the Forum posts.  

There are various ways to measure your export figures, and by subtracting export from total generated you’ll arrive at the PV figure consumed by the house. I know, I agree with you: rooftop generation can be a depressingly small figure in winter! But already as we hurtle through February I’m already noticing an encouraging improvement in my daily figures. 

My own solution, long before my SMETS meter came along, for obtaining export figures for my 11 year old system is having an Elster meter (there are many other brands!) hard-wired between my household isolation switch and the consumer units. It logs all import and export figures and you can choose whether to monitor them daily, weekly, monthly or whatever. I do daily, and it works also as a useful check on my OVO meter’s import figures. It’s been going strong for over a decade now, and as it’s not used for billing purposes, any tiny inaccuracies aren’t too important to me. 

However, as in the example cited by @BPLightlog above, things are getting smarter all the time these days. There are various export measuring meters, some of them smart, some cheap and some more expensive, which record your export (and import) data by using a simple CT clamp around your main supply cable, say between your main switch and your consumer unit. 

Two free apps (Bright and Hugo) monitor your import figures (Bright does gas as well as electricity) but the promise is that in the near future, Hugo reckons this year, all a consumer’s data relating to consumption, including aspects such as EV and household generation, will be available in one app.  I’m guessing it won’t be long before all the major energy supplier online accounts will start showing consumers that sort of information without recourse to third party apps. 

Glowmarkt (who are behind the free Bright app) also sell a separate IHD for a relatively modest amount (around £60 IIRC), which requires no hidden wiring in meter cupboards or lofts etc. (it works in the same way as your existing IHD, so can sit in your living room or kitchen or wherever) which monitors your household figures in real time, including I *think* export. But you would need to check on that. I will have a look at their website and see if I’m correct on that..I’ve no experience using that IHD, although it’s on my to-do list!

Your PV installers will be well able to advise on an export-monitoring solution for you, and it won’t add much to your overall cost. Or you could, with the help if necessary of your own friendly local electrician, proceed with measuring arrangements in advance of the new panels and battery being installed.
 

Do let us know what you decide on….you’re absolutely correct, unless you can measure accurately your export figures it’s very difficult to balance household consumption with PV generation, especially for heavy hitters like washing machines which, even with a good rooftop system, often need support either from the grid or from a battery.