solar install and old meter

bigmike20vt

bigmike20vt

bigmike20vt

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Hi. I am just checking this is correct. a friend of mine is having panels installed today and I was gonna give them octopus referral... however their installer said because they have an old meter they should keep quiet and stay with current supplier. they said that the old meter will just go backwards and they will get a refund if it does based on the full unit price. if so that is really good for them I guess but I have not heard of this before. is it correct?
 
Google suggests that's correct.- electricity companies used to have a legal obligation to inspect a meter atleast once every two years. So it will be discovered at some point. Also the electricity company might question why his meter readings are getting lower if they read it.


Is he having a battery installed as well ?
 
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her supplier will notice if their usage goes down month on month. However if the solar / battery still requires some grid energy so she is recording low usage, then she'll be ok.

Off the top of my head, the DNO won't inform the supplier of the change to a solar connection on the MPAN from the G68/69/100 form.
 
I had that on my meter when we had solar installed, we got the meter changed, I did think about not saying anything but I think they will catch up with it. When I phoned them about it they gave us an estimated reading.
 
bigmike20vt said:
I just found this . sounds like it works but she needs to be careful. yeah battery install too so maybe it won't go backwards enough for them to work it out.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Solar panels analogue meter going backwards

hi there as above, we recently had solar panels fitted.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com forums.moneysavingexpert.com
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If there's a battery, one of the benefits of that is to charge at cheap hours in the winter and use that to power the house
She won't be able to do that without a smart.meter
 
doggles said:
If there's a battery, one of the benefits of that is to charge at cheap hours in the winter and use that to power the house
She won't be able to do that without a smart.meter
Click to expand...
i agree..... however i think she just needs time to get used to her system and figure it out for herself. I gave her any info i had and explained what i would (what i did) do so now its down to them to decide. they have an almost new car and so no intention of getting an EV yet.... which unfortunately does then rule out some of the best energy tariffs which work for house batteries.

i used to be on octopus flux, and i really did well out of it... but 1) i am a tinkerer, i do not mind changing settings on my inverter to manage my battery but 2, the big one, Flux is not the tariff it used to be.... indeed without an EV am not even sure how good a choice Octopus is these days - and other people will likely have a better handle on none octopus tariffs so am not the best person to advise them anyway.
 
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As long as she uses more than she exports. All that will happen is the readings will go up slower.
As long as this stays the case, she'll be fine and much better off.

If however, she reports a lower reading, it may be flagged and a smart meter forced upon her.
 
Yeah my friend had that when he had solar installed about 10 years ago, they did pretty much strong arm him into changing his meter eventually but it was really handy for him while it lasted.
 
sovietspybob said:
Yeah my friend had that when he had solar installed about 10 years ago, they did pretty much strong arm him into changing his meter eventually but it was really handy for him while it lasted.
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My dad has been benefiting from this for years since he had his solar install done under the old FIT pricing. It’s likely to finally end this year as the supplier is unwilling to accept the meter reading being so far backwards and are likely to force a meter swap.
 
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