Moving into 2yo House With Preinstalled Solar Panels

This is a Rayleigh RIHXE12R and there is a worrying red led on it. It seems to be on continually for 5 seconds then go off for a quarter of a second and repeats.
Your generation meter has been wired the wrong way round. These should be wired in reverse order to that of a DNO import meter. On a generation meter the incoming pair should be the feed from your inverter.
 
That does sound like a reasonable answer ron. I am waiting from confirmation from others with the same meter to confirm.

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One of the neighbours on the site has just found one of their solar panels on the ground. It seems it had come loose and fell off the roof.

Previously another neighbour had brackets come off, making the panels loose. The customer services manager told him that "it's his fault for not maintaining the panels".
 
Just checked my readings a year on.

4 panel, 1kw system
898kWh produced, which at 13.9p "saved" me £125

Pretty sure that will be eaten up by the annual servicing I need to have done (to retain warranty), so no real benefit beyond slight carbon offset from not using power from the National Grid.

God know how people who paid for their installs even break even these days.
 
You are being very generous on the unit rate there too, around London/home counties people seem to get quoted at around 10.5p/KWH at the moment. So the saving is even less. These systems make no sense in the UK any more.
 
krooton said:
Just checked my readings a year on.

4 panel, 1kw system
898kWh produced, which at 13.9p "saved" me £125

Pretty sure that will be eaten up by the annual servicing I need to have done (to retain warranty), so no real benefit beyond slight carbon offset from not using power from the National Grid.

God know how people who paid for their installs even break even these days.
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what annual servicing?

mine have never been serviced.
 
Jez said:
You are being very generous on the unit rate there too, around London/home counties people seem to get quoted at around 10.5p/KWH at the moment. So the saving is even less. These systems make no sense in the UK any more.
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Given that is the rate I pay for my electricity, I don't see how it is generous :p

Psycho Sonny said:
what annual servicing?

mine have never been serviced.
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Stipulation when we bought the house, in order for our boiler and solar set up to maintain their warranty, we need them serviced annually.
 
krooton said:
Given that is the rate I pay for my electricity, I don't see how it is generous :p
.
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It is generous because you are paying an artificially high rate for your power :) You could switch to a 20p/hour tariff and claim an even bigger saving, but that wouldn't be valid either when the saving is against the market rate.
 
Jez said:
It is generous because you are paying an artificially high rate for your power :) You could switch to a 20p/hour tariff and claim an even bigger saving, but that wouldn't be valid either when the saving is against the market rate.
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What I could be paying is irrelevant, if I didn't have the panels, I would have paid £125 more, because that is what my historic billing rate is.

Also, I just did a check, and rates are much of muchness for my area.
My January average daily usage was 10kwh, which (with a 20p per day standing charge) came up to £50 usage.
The top dual-fuel alternatives give a reduction in unit cost by 1-2p (saving roughly £6), but up the standing charge by 3p (or costing an extra pound).
So I'd save £5, but that would mean using some random supplier and possibly lose the use of my smart meters.

Wasn't worth the faff, we moved in, British Gas were already supplying dual-fuel and had working smart meters set up, so I just fixed on their best rate at the time.
 
You can work it any way that you wish, it makes little difference to the point that the value of the units generated is not very much :) I am sure that you would agree that the things are a waste of time as a new proposition.
 
Oh certainly, if I had to pay for them in the first instance hell no, but as they came with the house, can't grumble too much, especially if Coronapocalypse ends up impact leccy generation, I'll be able to charge my phone during sunny days :D
 
Oh yeah, you might as well keep them of course:)

WRT to the power cut scenario; you are not actually allowed to back feed a failed grid i dont think...so i dont even think that they can operate during a power outage can they? :p (Tesla Powerwalls have to be coupled with an additional contactor module to stop grid backfeeding)
 
krooton said:
Given that is the rate I pay for my electricity, I don't see how it is generous :p



Stipulation when we bought the house, in order for our boiler and solar set up to maintain their warranty, we need them serviced annually.
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what gets serviced on the panels is what i am asking. not what you pay for. what do they actually service?

because i've never had to do anything to mine
 
Psycho Sonny said:
what gets serviced on the panels is what i am asking. not what you pay for. what do they actually service?

because i've never had to do anything to mine
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Same is true with boilers, they are not like cars with an engine which requires oil changes....
 
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