Thank you to all those who helped last year regarding Air Source heat pump as my oil boiler went down and i was having trouble with my housing association about when it was going to be installed etc. That was in May last year.
Fast forward to this year we now have a heating system ....its Storage heating and I spoke to OVO regarding all this being changed in January this year apparently yes then at the last hour it was no. Ok so I tried to look for a different company that do Economy 7 tariff.
Found one but now OVO don't want to let me go due to a huge bill which I have due to it being wintertime and having to use electric heaters due to no heating system can anyone advise me what to do obviously I didn't really want to leave but ....its a case of having to but then if OVO did Economy 7 or something similar I wouldn't have to.
Best answer by BPLightlog
... will Viv1966 be able to get a duel tariff like Economy 7 with the meter setup they have ?
If you’ve been advised that we can’t switch you to Economy 7 (which is generally the case)
We can’t tell whether this meter is capable of switching an offpeak circuit on and off. Even if it did have the internal switch necessary, there would have to be an external contactor to do the actual power control.
…
It seems that the magic use-excess-solar-generation-to-charge-heaters system only works if the heaters are wired to a constant circuit (i.e. not having the charging bit separate from the control bit so charging only happens during offpeak hours). Again, we can’t tell whether this is Viv’s arrangement. It involves installing some extra bits and bobs including a CT clamp, all included in the optional Solar Box.
As @Firedog suggests, a separate supply is not needed for these
So that should mean that a traditional 4 terminal smart meter should work with these heaters.
The balance would then be how much energy is needed during the day for other appliances and how the units are connected
There’s a bit of confusion over naming these heaters, probably because the separate ‘Solar’ range seems to have been discontinued and the Plus varieties (i.e. Wi-Fi-enabled) have the same capability as only the Solar ones had before. It seems to come down to a control device, ‘G-Control’, that provides “Efficient management of surplus energy in photovoltaic installations.” The manual will with any luck make it clear whether this control unit is essential to making use of solar power to charge the heaters.
@Viv1966 The little display inside your black box (which is actually a mini-consumer unit just for the solar panels) is a very neat little meter. There’s a tiny button in its bottom right-hand corner that when pressed repeatedly will show you all sorts of data. It seemed to be showing the power factor of the supply when you took the picture - I’d leave that one to the experts! You should be able to get readings, though, of power generated so you can keep your own records. This is a fairly detailed description of the beast: DEM1A Series; what the numbers you see on the display mean is listed in part 3 of the document.
@juliamc is very probably right that the inverter is up in the loft. You will of course take great care if you go hunting for it, won’t you!
Honestly i think you are all amazing! Thank you for all your finding out and explaining to someone who doesn't know the first thing, its much appreciated! So these figures in the junction box are they what you would normally see on the inverter? Don't worry i won't be searching in the loft for anything....i have a spider phobia and not wonderful with heights! Its interesting what you are saying about charging because at the moment, although the heaters do seem to work but they don't seem to have any charge in the battery and at the moment it says on the LCD display that they are programmed to charge during the day?! I probably need to re-programme it to charge at night. So i do have the solar heaters then!
@BPLightlog i filled a form in online requiring the "Don" information and "MCS" certificate with Octopus on 10th April. They said it takes 14 days to register which brings is to about now -ish. So how will i know when its been registered?
@BPLightlog i filled a form in online requiring the "Don" information and "MCS" certificate with Octopus on 10th April. They said it takes 14 days to register which brings is to about now -ish. So how will i know when its been registered?
You should get notification from them giving you a ‘start’ date for the scheme.
.. but they don't seem to have any charge in the battery and at the moment it says on the LCD display that they are programmed to charge during the day?! I probably need to re-programme it to charge at night.
I would suggest you hang on before changing anything @Viv1966 until we can see how this is supposed to work .. obviously the solar feed is only live during the day (no sun at night) but then you also mention batteries. ^ [ I haven’t caught up on the manual yet - I was rather busy yesterday]
they use bricks to store heat which slowly gives heat out later
The standard fitting assumes an off peak tariff but this can be set to other situations
The solar part can also be defined from the app
but I’m assuming that ‘solar alone’ won’t be sufficient heat during winter.
I really think the installation team should have walked through all this and made sure it was set up to match your situation and needs.
But the bottom line is you probably need an off peak tariff - that’s where your other appliances matter @Viv1966 as there is also a peak time for this which means during other times you pay more for your energy.
That is why @juliamc was asking about other appliances
... will Viv1966 be able to get a duel tariff like Economy 7 with the meter setup they have ?
If you’ve been advised that we can’t switch you to Economy 7 (which is generally the case)
We can’t tell whether this meter is capable of switching an offpeak circuit on and off. Even if it did have the internal switch necessary, there would have to be an external contactor to do the actual power control.
…
It seems that the magic use-excess-solar-generation-to-charge-heaters system only works if the heaters are wired to a constant circuit (i.e. not having the charging bit separate from the control bit so charging only happens during offpeak hours). Again, we can’t tell whether this is Viv’s arrangement. It involves installing some extra bits and bobs including a CT clamp, all included in the optional Solar Box.
As @Firedog suggests, a separate supply is not needed for these
So that should mean that a traditional 4 terminal smart meter should work with these heaters.
The balance would then be how much energy is needed during the day for other appliances and how the units are connected
Well thank you for all this info @BPLightlog . One good thing to note is that the Compliance Team from my housing association are visiting on Friday to see how the heating situation is going. The batteries i mentioned, are diagrams on the LCD display indicating that they are empty.
I will also find out from our installer where inverter is ....i suspect its the loft and will let you know. Do you still want me to find out the wattages of everything?
It would be useful if you can. It’ll give an idea of how much the solar will supply your requirements. Can you ask your installer for the inverter size too. For example on a sunny day, if the inverter is 4 kW and you run the electric shower (which may be 7 kW) the remaining 3 kW will automatically come from the grid.
…here I’ve put the 2kW kettle on and the solar covers most of that but the remainder has come from my battery - in your case it would come from the grid.
Gosh this is so interesting.....i really wish the installer had put the inverter somewhere where we could see it...or is that an app in the photo? But yes of course i will endeavour to find out wattages...is this just for the heating system or or other things? I would love this in my house as its so easy to understand.
That is from an app. I have an electric car as well as the solar and battery, so I have two apps with this type of diagram. This MyEnergi one is actually the car charger, the other app is for the battery. I’ve no doubt there’s one for the solar inverter too (my Solis inverter in the photo earlier in this thread), but I didn’t need another app!!!
Your installer should be able to sort out the app for your inverter so you can see what’s going on. Let’s hope 🙏🥺
Wattage-wise it’s really only things involving heat that use lots of electricity, so water heating, space heating, then oven (an air fryer can use a lot less than an oven), tumble dryer…
When you have the visit from the compliance officer @Viv1966 , ask about this
It looks like it should give you the additional information on your system including the solar feed. It will only work if they installed the “G Control System”
@BPLightlog ....yes this was the app i downloaded and then because i couldn't find a G- hub i tried to match my phone with the heaters which i couldn't seem to do. Consequently this led me to speaking to the installer who said you don't need to pair the heaters to the solar panels as they aren't the solar ones.
@juliamc ...ok i have an oven but very rarely use it, i use the Airfryer every day, but i do use the hob. I will collect this info and get back to you if thats ok during this time will also contact the installer about the inverter positioning too.
@juliamc will do it may take a few days to collect info as i have quite a busy week with hospital appointments etc for my partner. By the way will solar useage appear on my IHD?
Of course. There’s no rush. But no, not exactly. The IHD will just show what’s coming and going with the grid. If you’re using grid electricity it’ll show a positive number, if you’re exporting solar it’ll be a negative number. Eg it’s very sunny right now and mine is exporting 🥳 over 5 kW. The minus sign is on the far left by the ⚡️
