FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Hi,

We had 19 panels fitted this week (to help home and home business) since fitting the app says 85% of the time that we are using 2,3 even 4 times the power than we are actually showing on our smart meter says .
It says we are pulling energy from the grid for most of the day but the smart meter says we didn't.
When it gets to mid afternoon still in really good sun due to our positioning it dumps all the battery leaving us without enough to get through the evening therefore costing us money.
We should comfortably be going all day and then the battery should see us through the night, maybe a tiny bit of cost between 6-9am.
Customer service just tells us its working their end that panels are producing solar, they won't acknowledge the app is reading wrong or we are losing out battery unnecessary therefore it's costing us. Over the last couple of days we should of been earning money off the grid.

That sounds very much as if the CT clamp has been fitted the wrong way round.

The CT clamp is the inverter sensor that measures the current flowing into and out of the house, it should be installed on the live tail of your smart meter and the arrow on it should be pointing towards the grid - it is a small white clamp with a black cable.

It is easy enough to unclip the clamp and turn it round, or you could get in touch with your installer and tell him that the CT clamp is installed incorrectly and let them deal with it.

So turns out we only had 1 x 5kw(I think the unit was) inverter but we needed up to 9 to cope with the 19 panels so they have put 2 x 2kw in as additions. Waiting for them to come back to reconfigure the panels wiring then electrician to sign off, was told would be today but no one turned up so have chased.
They replaced the clamp just in case faulty but nothing has changed on our app its still showing us using 2-3 times what actual power we are.

GJ84 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 10:53 pm So turns out we only had 1 x 5kw(I think the unit was) inverter but we needed up to 9 to cope with the 19 panels so they have put 2 x 2kw in as additions. Waiting for them to come back to reconfigure the panels wiring then electrician to sign off, was told would be today but no one turned up so have chased.
They replaced the clamp just in case faulty but nothing has changed on our app its still showing us using 2-3 times what actual power we are.

Sounds very weird.
If you have 19 x 400 watt panels that's 7.6Kw. Your 5Kw inverter should be OK with that but you would need to check the max voltage and how the 19 panels are configured, i.e. in 2 strings. Most companies put more panel KW than inverter KW as it's more efficient, but I'm not sure how much oversizing is allowed on your inverter.
As for them saying you need 9 inverters that's madness - maybe a misunderstanding.

The installer should have put a diagram of the system next to your electricity meter plus they would have had to get permission from the DNO to use a 5KW inverter and there should be paperwork to go with that. I'm assuming you are UK based?

Have you tried a support email to Fox UK as they might be able to help.

Seeing same issue. Battery will import power to charge (not from the solar), then dump it all 'somewhere' quickly - I assume back to the grid. Battery installation is currently costing me about £1 an hour as we buy in at high and export for nothing. Clearly incorrect installation/settings.
Dis this case get resolved and if so, how?

It really sounds like a misconfigured system, something that your installer would be responsible for resolving.