A warning for anyone who has a solar meter
by hazel from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6K6H3)
When my solar panels were put in in 2012, I naturally assumed that the meter which measures their output actually runs from that output. Neither the installers nor the man from the electricity supplier who came to check that everything was correctly installed saw fit to explain to me that the meter measures solar electric output but runs on mains power. In fact it has its own trip switch in the main circuit breaker box (another thing no one told me).
At the beginning of this month, I received the usual notification that it was time to read the meter. To my horror it was completely blank and the indicator light was also off. After some frantic googling, I checked the circuit breakers one by one and found that there was indeed one labelled "Solar" that had switched off. I switched it on again and now the meter works, but of course I have no idea how long it had been off.
Naturally I emailed the electricity company that gets credited with my generated power (a previous supplier, not my present one) but only got mechanical replies. It would be nice if they could credit me with an estimate based on the same quarter over the ten previous years, but I don't hold out much hope.
If anyone here has solar panels, I advise you to check once a week that your feed-in meter is actually working. I will be doing so from now on.
At the beginning of this month, I received the usual notification that it was time to read the meter. To my horror it was completely blank and the indicator light was also off. After some frantic googling, I checked the circuit breakers one by one and found that there was indeed one labelled "Solar" that had switched off. I switched it on again and now the meter works, but of course I have no idea how long it had been off.
Naturally I emailed the electricity company that gets credited with my generated power (a previous supplier, not my present one) but only got mechanical replies. It would be nice if they could credit me with an estimate based on the same quarter over the ten previous years, but I don't hold out much hope.
If anyone here has solar panels, I advise you to check once a week that your feed-in meter is actually working. I will be doing so from now on.