Smart Meter #1: My Journey

Introduction

A decent Return on Investment (ROI) for a solar system relies on variable tariffs and variable tariffs rely on a working smart meter to report back half hourly meter readings...

...it turns out that this is not straight forward (at least for my installation)

 

A 'brief' history:

• My smart meter journey started in 2021 when, while I was aware of smart meters, the only benefit that I knew of was that meter readings could be automated.
• At the request of Octopus (ie several phone calls from Octopus it just seemed easier to give in and say “yes”) the smart meter was installed on 30th June 2021. This was year 2 of the pandemic and I  was working from home, so it was not too much effort wait in for the meters to be installed. The meters (gas and electric) both gave readings that seemed in line with the old meters, but
• The Home Area Network (HAN, ie connection to the gas meter and in house display) and Wide Area Network (WAN, ie connection back to base) wireless connections did not function.
• The engineer did not have any equipment to measure the WAN signal strength but told me that it was weak - it is not clear how he came to this conclusion.
• He said that the providers of the communications network would be notified and in a few weeks and, when they had done the work to increase signal strength, the meter should spring into life.
• At the time I was being billed on an Economy 7 tariff but the electric meter was set up to provide just one electric meter reading for 24hours a day (as opposed to night-time and day-time use)

 

EDMI ES 10B Electric Smart Meter with EDMI CS010A-08-92 Zigbee Comms Hub mounted on top	EDMI GS-60B Gas meter - this should communicate to the comms Hub via the Zigbee HAN.

 
 

• Subsequent engineer visits:
• I just got on with life, every so often submitting meter readings on the Octopus web site, until I realised that I was being over charged because Octopus were billing for Economy 7 and charging the single electricity meter reading (ie all my electricity consumption) at the (higher) daytime rate. Octopus did resolve this after several months and they were always friendly and helpful (eg I was never asked to pay the £2,500 over charge, it just sat as a debt on my account). However, as part of the resolution Octopus suggest that my smart meter was fixed....
• 19 May 2023: a new engineer visits - he did not have any equipment to measure the signal strength but told me that it was weak - it is not clear how he came to this conclusion.
• After this visit I was moved from the Economy 7 tariff to a single rate.
• Soon after the visit the WAN connection to my electricity meter sprung into life. I was able to see half-hourly readings via the Octopus app and website. The gas meter and In Home Display (IHD) wireless connections did not function and I was told that this was the HAN not functioning.
• The electric smart meter continued to communicate via the WAN over the next few months; this turned out to be a requirement for a solar system installation (or at least variable rate tariffs), so good news. Neither Octopus nor me put any further effort into getting the gas smart meter and IHD working.
• In March 2024 my solar power system was up and running and I applied for an export/flux tariff - this was up and running by the 23rd March (see post on application process).
• In subsequent weeks I was able to see import and export data in the Octopus app and this matched the values in my solar power system app (GivEnergy), but on odd days data was missing on the Octopus app, eg:
• Export: Wed 3rd April
• Import: Tues 2nd April
• Import: Sat 6th April
• My observations:
• It always seemed to be a whole day that was missing (ie either no data for that day or all 48 half hourly readings were showing in the app, or sometimes just a couple of readings for the day would show, perhaps a British Summer Time display and underlying data is held as Greenwich Mean Time?)
• Import and export data missing events were independent (ie most days had data for both, a few just import and a few just export)
• Roughly 3 or 4 days per month had missing data
• If the data did not show up in a few days then it would not show up without me contacting your customer service team - they had the capability to request the data to be uploaded. They could also do a quick search for missing data (as opposed to my manual scanning from the bar charts in the app). Typically this request resulted in the missing data showing up within a few days.
• 14th May 2024: I spoke with an Octopus customer service representative who suggested an engineer visit to resolve the missing data issue (and, as a 2nd priority get the gas meter and IHD connected).
• 24th June 2024: another engineer called - his information for the job was:
• Recommission the gas meter
• Replace the electric meter
• Nothing about the issue symptoms or diagnosis just the prescription.
• We discussed the symptoms and his diagnosis was weak signal (most likely) or faulty communications hub/hardware (least likely). His suggestion was that he replace the whole system (communications hub, gas meter, electric meter). Given the low rates of hardware failure that he sees then we agreed that if the system still did not work then faulty hardware was very unlikely to be the cause. He did not have time available that day to replace the whole system, so we rebooked a new slot...
• 27th June 2024: the engineer returns to replace the electric meter, gas meter and communications hub. This involved lots of safety checks etc, and the result was:
• He could not commission the WAN (ie comms hub to Data Communications Company (DCC)/Octopus link) and so could not commission the gas meter to comms hub link, nor the IHD.
• The engineer’s view at the time was that the root cause was a weak signal (but again, he had not instrument to measure this).
  
• The engineer phoned me later that day to say that the internal Octopus Engineers' messaging system chat was that DCC were having some problems on that day and he thought that another go at commissioning might be worthwhile.
• 18th July: The engineer is back again to have another go at commissioning the WAN. This did not work. He replaced the hub with a dual band hub (apparently it is the HAN/Zigbee network that is dual band/extended range, the WAN is the same as previous hubs). This gave the same fault. The engineer discussed the operation of the green flashing WAN LED:
• 1 flash every 5 secs indicates that it is working

My system did this:

• 1 flash every 5 seconds repeating for around 30secs to 1minute then
• 1 or 2 quick flashes then
• 1 flash every 5 seconds repeating for around 30secs to 1minute etc

I could not find an explanation for this WAN LED behaviour online.

• 20th Aug: I spoke with an octopus customer services representative who attempted to remotely commission the communications hub with me pressing buttons on the electricity meter:
• After I pressed a few buttons on the meter, under his guidance, we got stuck with my meter ‘searching…’ when another response was expected
• It turned out that this was his 1st ever commissioning job; however, he was in communication with a colleague to confirm that he was doing this correctly and they tried doing something on their end to get the commissioning process to work but to no avail.
• He then suggested that another engineer visit me, but could not say what this engineer would do that was different to the previous 5 visits and we also discussed the only other alternative, that I would have to return to a fixed rate...

…we left it that he was going to schedule another engineer to visit, but with no ideas on what would be different this time.

 

A few days later I wrote the following e-mail to Octopus…

…I will let you know the outcome in a follow up post.

 

My e-mail to Octopus. I am intrigued to know if my proposed recompense for a non-working meter makes any difference to Octopus; the Ofgem website hints that they might be sympathetic to my case if I raised it with them: https://www.energyombudsman.org/case-studies/smart-meters-not-sending-readings

 

 

Solar #5: Tariff Choice and Sign Up

Introduction

The wait for solar panels to be installed gave me time to choose an electricity supplier and a tariff.

 

My Existing Supplier is Octopus - Should I Change?

I want a supplier that I can trust long term and that imposes minimum effort:

• I am not interested in switching supplier every few months so to get the best offer, so I ignore special introductory offers and focus on the regular rates available to all users
• I do want low rates, but the rate does not need to be the lowest, just close to lowest
• Good, friendly service for any issues is important; issues will arise and I wanted to be looked after.
• I had been with the Coop who, a few years ago, gave up doing energy and passed on all their customers to Octopus. This 'relationship' had been fine over a number of years; rates reasonable, minimal effort on my part and friendly communications.

Good News: When I did a little Googling of electricity suppliers it turned out that Octopus is amongst the leaders in special rates for Solar. Reading a bit more it looks like Octopus has green energy as a strategic direction; while this could just be green washing it does seem that they will keep innovating (eg new solar tariffs) and that should be good for customers with solar/battery systems.

 

And Which Tariff?

Octopus Flux is one of the options that the Octopus website recommended for solar with battery and looks like it might fit what I am after:

Octopus Flux is the Tariff that I signed up for and the one that I used for my return on investment calculations

 

• Good Return on Investment (ROI) for battery storage (eg buy cheap rate electricity at night and sell back at peak in the evening) - roughly 10p per kWh difference between buying at cheap rate and selling at peak rate (when I did the ROI calculation in summer/autumn 2023).
• Set up and forget - no need to tweak scheduling each day (eg Vs options with ever changing rates that track the wholesale energy market)
• We are free to use power at home for our convenience, when we want without significant penalty (eg we can decide when to cook based on when we want to eat, not on the changing electricity price).

 

Another Octopus tariff option is Intelligent Flux where Octopus take control of the battery charge and discharge. This sounds quite clever, but I worry about the complexity and also the website did not give any return on investment figures. My decision was to keep it simple and go with Octopus Flux. With this up and running and acting as a baseline over, say, 12 months I could then consider other tariff options.

 

How Was the Sign Up Process?

It is important to note that we had a working smart meter, at this point, sending electricity consumption meter readings back to Octopus every 30mins. The sign up timeline was:

• Solar panels commissioning completed and left on battery charge/discharge cycle in Friday 8th March
• In full operation on Sat 9th March
• Installer e-mailed me the MCS certificate/number and Distribution Network Operator (DNO) notification letter on Monday 11th March
• Tried to sign up for Octopus flux on Mon 11th March - website crashed - 3 attempts
• Tues 12th: 1 more attempt and called Octopus - sounds like a website issue and my request has actually been submitted.
• 23rd March: export and Octopus flux now set up and working:

 

Getting Paid by Octopus for my Solar Generation, Much of it Exported at Peak Rate via the Battery

 

How Do I Schedule the GivEnergy Inverter for Octopus Flux?

For this setup I used the GivEnergy Cloud interface for the inverter (https://givenergy.cloud/login). There is an app for both iOS and Android, but (at the time of writing) these do not give access to all the scheduling features that are available on the cloud interface.

 

My Setup:

• Fill the battery at cheap rate 2am to 5am
• In the winter this needs to be a 100% battery fill
• In the summer this can be a lower %age fill as the solar power will usually fill the rest.
• The cost of cheap rate import is slightly less than day rate export, so, in theory, you actually gain just over 1p/kWh by charging from the grid at cheap rate as opposed to letting the solar complete the battery charge. However, I think, that this comes with additional losses and heating/wear of the inverter/battery (just my unproven theory).
• My take is that it makes little difference to the final ROI, but I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more about losses and inverter/battery wear.
• The GivEnergy scheduled charge does the above.
• After 5am (day rate) home use power source in priority order of:
• Directly from solar
• If not enough solar, from battery as well
• If not enough battery, from grid as well
• An use excess solar above home use in priority order of:
• Top up battery
• If battery full or charging at max power then export to grid
• Good news: the GivEnergy ECO mode does all of the above.

• Peak rate, 4pm to 7pm. This is the tricky bit, objectives are:
1. Do not import at peak rate unless there is no other possibility
2. Export everything that you can without breaking rule #1
3. Freedom to use power when we need it, eg what if we want to have the electric oven on between 6pm and 7pm? I don't want to delay tea so that we can cook at a lower electricity unit cost.
• The last and first points make it tricky - you cannot just dump all the stored battery energy to the grid at 4pm. It is important to have a staged discharge and keep some back right up until 7pm.
• After 7pm it makes little difference if you have managed to export the last kWh from the battery at 22.885p / kWh and then import at the day rate (24.66p / kWh) or if you keep back the odd kWh to supply the house in the evening.
• You do want a (close to) empty battery at 2am to start filling it at cheap rate, so you have a margin of error of 7hours minimum domestic use so that, even if you are on holiday, any residual battery charge that is left at 7pm is used up by 2am. For us we can run as low as 200W when we are on holiday, so a margin of error of 7hours x 200Watts = 1.4kWh.
• Givenergy provides 10 discharge periods, so by dividing up the 180minute peak rate period into 10 x 18mins (or 9 x 20mins for simplicity) mean that you can discharge a step at a time and leave, say 1kWh at 7pm. However, there is one problem, a peculiar behaviour on charge and discharge that means that this (currently) does not work in all situations...

...more on this in another post. In the end I used just 3 discharge periods (as can be seen from the graph below) - again more on this in the future post.

 

• So what is the ROI? - see 3 examples of recent Flux tariffs below (I will use the July '24 tariff in the following text):
• "Summer" ROI: here my assumption is that there has been enough daylight up until 4pm (peak rate start) that the battery is 100% full. On bright days, during the day, after the battery is full, we export at the day rate (at 14.85p/kWh). After 4pm get to sell all the cheap rate electricity that we bought in the night before (2am to 5am) at peak rate - a difference of 9.3p/kWh. We also programme our dishwasher to run between 2am and 5am (roughly 2kWh at about the same rate saving). Roughly speaking 10kWh (9.5kWh battery + 2kWh dishwasher - losses - baseline battery 'reserve' charge (set to 4%, but seems to vary between 3% and 6%)) at 9.3p/kWh rate difference is approximately a 10kWh or £9.30 return on investment each day.

System Power Graph showing Typical Summer Day. Charge up to 50% at cheap rate, using solar power to get to 100% change and then discharging to the grid in 3 steps during the peak rate.

Solar Generation Energy Graph for typical Summer Day.

• "Winter" ROI: The battery capacity (9.5kWh) is around the same as our daily consumption (~10kWh). In winter, my assumption is that solar production is minimal and we only have enough battery charge from cheap rate to run the house. Discharge at the peak rate can only be minimal if any. When we are at home we use an average of around 11kWh (including inverter & battery loses - see upcoming post), but the typical range is 8kWh to 16kWh. Solar power production can be as low as 3kWh on gloomy days (based on my experience so far from March to September - I assume we will go even lower in the next few months). So in these situations the return on investment is the difference between cheap rate import and the day rate import that we are avoiding, ie 9.03p/kWh difference giving around a £9.03/day return on investment.
• Note: this is the return for using the Flux rate over a regular fixed import and export tariff (eg at the day rates below). While this depends on having a battery, the battery has an additional return not covered here, when the solar system is producing more than is being consumed at home, the battery can charge. When there are peaks in demand (eg kettle on), or dips in solar production (eg cloud cover) then the battery is used as opposed to importing ie comparing a solar system with and without battery the battery removes both import and export at day rate. This return on investment for the battery is true of all import/export tariffs and is not calculated here.

 

Octopus Flux Tariffs Have Changed in the Last Few Months:

From 1st July 2024

	Import	Export
Day rate	22.586p / kWh	14.85p / kWh
Flux rate (02:00 - 05:00)	13.552p / kWh	4.816p / kWh
Peak rate (16:00 - 19:00)	31.621p / kWh	22.885p / kWh
Standing charge	49.119p / day

 

Battery profit (summer)= 22.885-13.552=9.333 p/kWh

Battery profit (winter) = 22.586-13.552=9.0340 p/kWh

These figures are used for the above post.

 

May 2024

	Import	Export
Day rate	24.66p / kWh	14.85p / kWh
Flux rate (02:00 - 05:00)	14.80p / kWh	5.26p / kWh
Peak rate (16:00 - 19:00)	34.53p / kWh	24.99p / kWh
Standing charge	49.12p / day

 

Battery profit (summer)= 24.99-14.80=10.19 p/kWh

Battery profit (winter) = 24.66-14.80=9.86 p/kWh

 

To April 2024

	Import	Export
Day rate	28.44p / kWh	17.44p / kWh
Flux rate (02:00 - 05:00)	17.06p / kWh	6.06p / kWh
Peak rate (16:00 - 19:00)	39.82p / kWh	28.82p / kWh
Standing charge	49.77p / day

 

Battery profit (summer)= 28.82-17.06=11.76 p/kWh

Battery profit (winter) = 28.44-17.06=11.38 p/kWh

 

Over the last year the battery ROI has been going down from over 11p per kWh to only just over 9p per kWh...

...this was identified in the risks for this investment (See Solar Panels Investment Case)

 

Weather Compensation #1: Installation

 

In summer 2023 we had the weather compensation addon installed on our Ideal Logic+ S30 system boiler.

 

Background

My interest was peaked when I saw various articles about how reducing the flow temperature of a gas condensing  boiler would make the boiler operate more efficiently:

• https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/salford-energy-house-boiler-flow-temperature-testing-initial-report-october-2022/
• Boiler Tweaks To Tackle The Cost Of Living Crisis. AKA Lower the flow temperature on a combi boiler

 

However, much of this advice is targeted at combi boilers with instant hot water (as opposed to system boiler with stored hot water).

We have a system boiler (ie with a hot water tank), so apparently the water in the hot water tank must be heated to 60degC to ensure that bugs do not grow. From previous posts you will see that we reduced the flow temperature from 70degC to 65degC, but could we go further without risking unhealthy hot water?

Some Googling revealed the existence of weather compensation boiler addons, including one for our particular model of boiler. The operation is:

• When hot water is being heated then the flow temperature is set to 80degC for both hot water and radiators.
• When the hot water is not being heated then the flow temperature is set by an outside air temperature sensor, and is typically much lower, in a range where the boiler efficiency is increased.
  
• The boiler low temperature control is now used to set the curve used that relates outside air temperature to inside air temperature; when it is warm outside the flow temperature is reduced and when it is cold outside the flow temperature is automatically increased.

 

The Installation Process

The first problem was to get my plumber to agree to fit weather compensation. At first his reaction was that it would not work, but in the end I convinced him and we agreed that I would fit the sensor on an outside wall and take the cable to the boiler and he would wire up the boiler.

 

My Ideal Logic+ S30 System Boiler	Weather Compensation kit: a thermistor, plastic box, screw,  instructions, a sticker for the boiler and a screw connector.

 

Installing the cable was reasonably straightforward. I watched a couple of You Tube videos on exterior cable installation and left plenty of cable for the engineer to connect to the boiler. The cable had to run the full width of the house as the boiler is against a South facing wall and the sensor had to be fitted on a North facing wall so that it measures air temperature and is not affected by direct heat from the sun.

 

The engineers job was straight forward except for the existing rat's nest of wiring in the junction box adjacent to the boiler. The issue is the need for an additional hot water demand signal so that flow temperature is raised when heating the hot water. There was a spare core in the cable between the junction box and the boiler, but the junction box was such a mess and, in the wiring process another core came lose so that he was left with a floating core and having to workout where to re-attach it.

 

The cost of the installation was approximately:

• Weather compensation kit: £60 (expensive for what it is)
• Cable, clips, etc: £25
• Heating engineer's time: £120

 

Operation

Good news, the heating engineer was a great sleuth and deduced correctly where to re-install the detached core...

...weather compensation worked straight away.

 

Ideal Logic+ Weather Compensation Graphs: you select the curve (from 12 to 30) using the flow temperature control on the front of the boiler - as you turn the control if shows the graph number for a few seconds and then reverts to showing the actual flow temperature.

 

The user guide included a set of graphs. The graph names confused me to start with as they are not really related to room temperature setpoint, as, of course, the room temperature setpoint is controlled by the regular thermostat (in our case the Honeywell Evohome system). However, with a higher the graph number then a higher the room temperature setpoint will be achievable, but this will also be a function of insulation, air volume, radiator size, etc...

...finding the best setting/graph number is a trial and error process.

 

I started with a high graph number (25degC) and nudged it down over time:

• The higher the graph number then the quicker the rooms heat up
• Lowering the graph number gives a lower flow temperature and so should be more efficient.

We are currently at graph number 22degC and, for our house this is working well; I may try still lower in the future.

 

Results

Weather compensation worked as advertised; you can see and feel that the flow temperature is higher on colder days and, when the hot water is being heated the flow temperature is 80degC, and the radiators get really hot. On warmer days flow temperatures in the 40's and 50's degC are common (See graph "22", ie 22degC Room Temperature Setpoint ringed in red above).

 

The system was installed in August and apart for a quick test we did not have the heating on until September. How would it perform in real life? Would it be possible to reduce flow temperature and keep the house comfortable? My summary:

• Compared to before weather compensation was installed, the boiler is on more often, but with a lower flow temperature, the radiators do not get really hot, other than on the coldest of days and first thing in the morning when the hot water is being heated.
• As a result the house temperature is more even and feels more comfortable.
• We have the hot water come on at 6am, it typically takes about 30 to 45 mins to heat the tank. We have the heating off over night and so we get a short blast of hot radiators to warm up the house 1st thing in the morning - this works well.
• During the day it does a good job in maintaining a steady temperature; in my view better than without weather compensation.
• One draw back is that if the heating has been off for a while (eg we have been away), then it is more important to warm up the house for several hours before we get home (via the Evohome app) - warming up the house from cold takes much longer with a low flow temperature.

 

On warmer days, once or twice, we had the case that the Honeywell Evohome system demanded hot water for a radiator but the boiler was off - if the outside air temperature is too high then the boiler will stay off, even if heat is demanded. This was not uncomfortable (ie the house did not feel cold), but, at first, it was confusing when I could see that heat was being demanded and the boiler was off.

 

Prior to installation I did have a worry that the Honeywell Evohome self-learning logic would not cope with varying flow temperature. This did not seem to be an issue...

...perhaps someone from Honeywell could comment.

 

And does it save money? Based on the Salford University results I am optimistic, given that, other than 1st thing in the morning, the flow temperature is much reduced...

...I plan to post data for the year to September 2024 compared to September 2023.

Solar#4: Installation

 

Introduction:

So decision made; just a final back and forwards with Lovatts, the selected solar panel installer:

• Agreed approx. start date ~Mon 26th Feb 2024 for scaffolding:
• Given that this was almost 6 months away & inflation high, I got written agreement that the price was fixed (eg no surcharges due to high inflation rates - typical in 1970's high inflation period)
• Programme:
• Week 1: scaffolding & skip arrives
• Week 2: roof stripped, new felt and batons, new tiles and PV panels fitted
• Week 3: wiring and commissioning
• Week 4: scaffolding removed
• 24th Oct '23: deposit paid (25%)
• I provided an MPAN number for my smart meter so that Lovatts could get the approvals underway ahead of the install

...& now the long wait

 

I agreed that I would check in with them in the New Year...

...9th Jan: Lovatts confirm 26th Feb start date still good

 

The Installation:

I am really impressed with Lovatts project management:

• I got a phone call a few days in advance - scaffolding due to start on Mon 26th Feb & skip arrives on Fri 1st March
• This all went exactly to the October plan.
• Week 2:
• roofers complete their work on Monday and Tuesday
• I get a phone call from the electrician to fix a date for wiring. Critical in setting this date was the upcoming Wigan Vs London (Rugby League) game coming up in London - he is a big fan.
• Good news the wiring was completed ahead of plan in the 2nd half of week 2 and on Saturday Wigan beat London 60-22.
• Friday - the commissioning engineer arrives to set up the system and show me how to operate it
• Week 3:
• System operational
• No work other than skip removed
• Week 4
• Scaffolding removed.

 

The Good:

• Project management: hitting a date 5 months in the future for starting a job like this is impressive. Given all the vagaries of winter weather and unexpected work in all the previous jobs in the queue I was expecting at least a week or two change in start date. The whole programme went like clockwork and the system was in operation a week early. While installing solar panels and a re-roof is not putting a man on the moon, it is still a tricky scheduling task for 4(?) different trades and a variety of materials, safety checks, etc. It is clear that Lovatts has done this before and know what they are doing.
• The roofing team overcame issues as they arose and discussed solutions with me, eg:
• Soil pipe vent would block one of the PV panels - they replaced the top of the vent with a flexible pipe and moved it forward so that they could install a vent tile - see photos. BTW, this seems an advantage of in roof install with a roofing company; I guess that a traditional on roof install would miss out this PV panel and leave the top of the soil pipe as is.
• Shower extract fan flexible ducting had come loose and was no longer venting through the soffit vents - it now went into the attic. They installed a vent tile and attached this properly (can not be seen on below photos)

A really neat job. Again shows experience of many jobs installing in-roof solar PV

Roof after (note: blue sky in Lancashire)	Roof before (note: soil pipe in location of one of the PV panels)

• Electrical installation also completed with discussion at each stage, eg:
• Routing of cables from the roof to the garage
• Location of the system in the garage (important as we are one of the last people in the UK to keep a car in the garage!)

Electrical installation is also a really neat job:

Connection to the Existing Electrical circuit breakers and Smart Meter O Inverter circuit breakers O Grid connection current sensor O 3-way 'chocolate block' - Grid, inverter, home O Original grid connection 80A fuse	GivEnergy battery and inverter and

• Commissioning completed with the battery cycling a full charge and discharge (I think that it does this to calibrate the sensing of full and empty voltages across the array of cells - apparently the 20% and 80% voltages are key)
• I was shown how to register, install the app (iPhone) and the cloud app (web browser) that GivEnergy provide. The commissioning engineer also gave me a short tutorial and the electrical engineer showed me the key controls (isolators, etc)
• Documentation - this is key for registering the system and earning money from electricity export:
• NAPIT building regulations certificate
• "Fast track Generation letter" (from Electricity North West to Lovatts)
• MCS Installation certificate

All of these were received on 11th March '24 - just a few days after the commissioning was completed and allowed me to quickly get set up for exporting electricity with my provider - Octopus.

• Invoice: 12th March - after the work was completed, including documents received.

 

The Bad:

• Scaffolding was sub-contracted. The team did an efficient job but managed to squash a couple of plants in the garden, including one of my neighbours.
• They did not discuss any the issues (eg they needed to put a support strut into a neighbour’s garden).
• Commissioning engineer could not really provide advice on scheduling the system.
• My view is that this is a bit like Lovatts selling a car and not knowing how to drive it.
• This ended up being a bit of a saga, and I will cover it in a future post.
• The EPS (Emergency Power Supply) function of the inverter needs some additional (non-trivial) wiring work:
• To be fair on Lovatts they did not promise this functionality, but the GivEnergy website does speak to it.
• I did not ask Lovatts if this would be implemented, but nor do you ask the garage, when you buy a car, if the car seats promised on the manufacturer's website are included.
• Again more on this later.

 

The Outcome:

• A neat installation and functioning system ahead of schedule.
• We are generating electricity, charging the battery and exporting excess to the grid (without being paid initially, awaiting set up of the feed in tariff).
• Really cool software with enough graphs and data to keep me happy for years and giving really great insights into the system operation
• A future challenge to understand the app and how to schedule the system to maximise return on investment (eg charging the battery at cheap rate and discharging to the grid at peak rate). In the mean time the built in ECO mode does a good job when you are on a flat rate (ie no peak rate and no cheap rate).
• Disappointment that EPS is not working, but some idea of a path to make it work
• I am sleeping easy at night knowing that a reputable roofing company has done the work on the roof.