I have a legacy Feed-in-tariff system that has been working successfully without any issues since 2011. Recently I have added a co-located battery storage system consisting of a 5kWh Fox Hybrid Inverter H1 G2 and two Fox batteries that store approximately 20kWh of energy. These are charged overnight on my EV tariff and are supplemented throughout the day with any surplus solar. That is all working fine.
However, and this is where I need some help please, I am only required to supply my FIT provider with my quarterly generation figure from my solar panels. This has historically been provided by my old Landis Gyr E110 generation meter that only had one figure to submit. I have been told that this meter had to be changed for a bi-directional Emlite ECA2.NZ meter and that this was going to provide me with my NET generation figure. This has now been in for several weeks.
My questions that I need some help with are:
1. Why does the App show a daily PV generation figure, that from my years of experience monitoring my solar panels, looks approximately correct each day, but the new Bi-directional NET value bears no resemble to this number, not even close, or consistently within a certain %. It is significantly lower than the App shows for generation.
2. Why can I not have a single generation meter wired in AFTER the inverter but BEFORE the storage batteries, to monitor generation only, as it is clearly possible for the App to measure only PV generation, which is what I’m required to supply to my FIT provider.
Any answers you can provide me, would be very much appreciated. Thanks JBL
From what you have said I think the problem is that these traditional generation meters were designed for solar only inverters that only ever exported any PV generated power.
You now have a hybrid inverter that measures house load and balances that from battery in the absence of solar, equally your batteries can charge from excess solar or grid (which is taken care of by the bi-directional meter) but these type of generation meters can no longer be accurate with this setup as you have losses from the conversion of solar to charge the battery and when you recover it.
You now have a hybrid inverter that measures house load and balances that from battery in the absence of solar, equally your batteries can charge from excess solar or grid (which is taken care of by the bi-directional meter) but these type of generation meters can no longer be accurate with this setup as you have losses from the conversion of solar to charge the battery and when you recover it.
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
However, I still don't understand why I can't have a meter (either the old one or the new bi-directional one) installed after the inverter but before the battery storage. I only need to give a generation figure to my FIT provider irrespective of what I do with the generated supply.
Currently the bi-directional meter is giving me vastly different numbers to the App over the last 3 weeks, to the tune of over 60kWh. The App says I have generated 160.8kWh the bi-directional meter says 110.5kWh. If it was consistently different on a daily basis, I'd get it, but it can vary by anything from -7 to +2 day by day.
Bottom line is, I'm losing money because I can't give the FIT team an accurate GENERATION number.
Can anyone tell me if any meter can be placed in a different location in the schematic? Clearly the App is taking data from the inverter that is showing what the PV panels have generated, but understandably, the FIT provider won't accept that information.
However, I still don't understand why I can't have a meter (either the old one or the new bi-directional one) installed after the inverter but before the battery storage. I only need to give a generation figure to my FIT provider irrespective of what I do with the generated supply.
Currently the bi-directional meter is giving me vastly different numbers to the App over the last 3 weeks, to the tune of over 60kWh. The App says I have generated 160.8kWh the bi-directional meter says 110.5kWh. If it was consistently different on a daily basis, I'd get it, but it can vary by anything from -7 to +2 day by day.
Bottom line is, I'm losing money because I can't give the FIT team an accurate GENERATION number.
Can anyone tell me if any meter can be placed in a different location in the schematic? Clearly the App is taking data from the inverter that is showing what the PV panels have generated, but understandably, the FIT provider won't accept that information.