Inconsitencys with export and usage

JBPTA
Switched-on
2 Replies 1493 Views

My solar is telling me we have significant excess power but our meter is saying there is very little being exported AND we are using energy from the grid WHY when we we are producing more power than we need??

5 REPLIES 5
Lester
Powerhouse
1 Reply 1488 Views

You haven't given much info to go on, but solar alone is often not enough to eliminate power bills.

Have you had solar long ?

It could be you are new and don't really know how solar benefits you yet, and weren't advised how it be suits some peoples usage and lifestyles.

 

Eg. if you and others living in the home are at work during the bulk of daylight hours, you will be consuming a minor amount of the energy produced during the day with fridge / freezer, standby items etc, giving most away for a very negligible $ value to the power retailer, for them to resell for a premium to others (in our case around 7.6 x the amount they pay to us here in SA for our feed into the grid).

 

In our case, where we (you can) REALLY save is we are home most of the time during the day, I'm doing power hungry work, wife is doing household appliance use, we are getting all that usage free, and not at peak or shoulder cost.

The FIT is really just a bonus, and shouldn't be expected to eliminate completely or drastically reduce power bills, unless you have a system that produces perhaps 10x kwh daily vs your normal daily household usage.

 

We have significant excess power during generating daylight hours, with considerable excess sent to the grid.

You seem to be doing the same, and at night you use from the grid, unless you have a battery set up to use that when dusk / nighttime arrives.

You also have the daily supply charge which for most of us is around $1 a day to add to any usage.

 

If you have a modern solar system, it should have an app which can give you breakdowns to compare to pre solar usage (from your old bills).

In our case we'd often use 20kw - 25kw a day, now our AGL usage shows ballpark 10kw or so, and with 40 - 70kw feed in daily, we have certainly knocked the bill down a lot so far (just 2 months in from installing the solar).

Yet to see what winter solar drop does to this !

 

We are carefully weighing up a battery option, and think it will totally wipe the bill.

But you have to justify the cost vs the already greatly reduced bills, and add in other minor benefits like blackout protection.

I don't mind a manageable bill, but not the amounts it was getting to with increases through 2023.

 

One final thing to consider with a battery, I was advised by 2 of the battery installers recently quoting us, that power companies have apparently asked for yet another increase in 2024, so power prices are only going to continue upwards (and supply charge increases etc), despite the apparent drop in wholesale prices recently as widely reported.

 

Good luck with finding out your discrepancy in solar production / usage, you might have to talk to AGL or your solar person (sometimes things aren't quite set up right by them).

JBPTA
Switched-on
1 Reply 1484 Views

Thanks Lester,  some background is probably warranted

We have had solar for some time (a Number of Years) we understand solar well and how it works benefits and downfalls, our system is modern and we have a close relation ship with our local sparky to keep across it. and have always tracked usage and work around peaks and troughs along with sunny and cloudy days and have ALL the apps and tracking of usage export etc  and look at old bills etc... the cost has gone up exponentially (no surprise there) and so have now been forensic in our looking at power usage and costs... We have spoken to AGL and SA Power... no joy there as yet... "no there couldnt be any issues with us" (FYI I have experienced issues with them before which they denied for a long time too, i managed several hundred rental houses for a number of years)... Batterys yep thats a consideration too but need to sort out the discrepancy first!

Lester
Powerhouse
0 Replies 1481 Views

Ok, so you understand the solar etc, that's a big advantage.

So all this has changed form the norm recently ?

Or gradually that it wasn't really noticed until very obvious ?

 

Have / can you download your AGL data in the usage part of your account ?

You can likely look at the various 1/2 hour periods during both solar and non solar times, compare to what your app and meter are showing for selected time periods (half hour, hourly, blocks say 4 hrs) and / or daily totals ?

 

In a similar situation here with AGL most recent bills possibly being out somewhat, data being charged in incorrect TOU periods, or missing for other periods . . . and I have had data download issues for some time off and on, even since going from old analogue meter with single rate / CL to new digital and TOU / CL with the solar from late Nov / early Dec.

Have had data simply disappear completely, come back partially, at the moment there are 3 full months still missing.

 

I am working on this with an AGL rep (from here on the forum) to get things back in order so I can look at the data with another forum member who is very up with turning data into a bill estimate, usually within cents.

SolarControl
Semiconductor
1 Reply 1463 Views

I have the same issue, after some research it came down to the Control Load 2 kicking in during the day. Apparently, AGL has this configured to be excluded from any solar production. A while ago I had this idea to turn on Control Load 2 which allows the hot water to heat during the day. Using a timer I could program it to come on during the day at the redued $$ rate. If the sun was out I was expecting free hot water.... not the case as it seems.

Lester
Powerhouse
0 Replies 1452 Views

@SolarControl . . . that's interesting.

I too was going to get my HWS onto a timer, and have it coming on during the day with solar, and / or in the very low Night Saver EV tariff 000 - 0600 time period.

I do have the 2 meters, normal TOU and CL TOU but have the HWS on night rate at the moment, which at least limits it to mostly off peak rate in the early hours.

Off peak is still not that good a deal, so sounds like I need the timer AND get rid of the CL meter altogether.