EMLITE ECA2.z v1

[ARTHURX1]

Hi
Totally new to solar.
We have a fairly basic system 2 panels no battery.
B.Gas inform me between 20/5/2026 to 5/7/2026 my readings from my smart meter were 335 - 407 = 72 units
My P V meter between the same dates were 636 - 788 = 152 units
i assume the difference between the 2 figures is the amount of solar energy i have used in the house, lights, tv etc
Am i correct? Also is there anyway of checking that my pv meter and my smart meter in the electricity box are correctly recording my consumtion?
i am a bit baffled by the EV meter as there is an arrow to the right of the screen pointing to KWH (KILOWAT HOURS) i assume, but also an arrow to the left pointing to IMP GEN this might mean imported generated but confused by the LCD display as there are no buttons to press to find out what the latter means.

Hope someone can help
thanks
ARTHUR

 

[ericmark]

I am also a bit baffled. My smart meter needs buttons pressing, and I have never worked out how to read it directly, my solar display does not align spot on with the smart meter in home display (IHD) or the Octopus app, but it is not far out. Not enough to worry about.

It seems today you can't be paid for export, without a smart meter, that stopped around 2022, not sure if EV should have said PV? I have not seen meters to show how much an EV uses.

Two panels are not much, it is what is being put forward for plug in solar, but if I look at my background use.

I does not exceed 600 watt, and is often down to 250 watt, so solar output between 250 and 600 watt for me would be used in the main by background use. As the output from solar increases, one has two options, store it or sell it, at the moment to sell it we are getting around 12p/kWh and to get that payment we need a second MPAN number, and a smart meter.

There are two ways to store it, I use both, the domestic hot water, (DHW) can be heated, but it needs a device to allow 100 to 3000 watt to be used, there are a few, I use iboost+, but to be frank, it was a mistake, as off-peak costs me 8.625p/kWh, and I get for export 12p/kWh so better off exporting to using it to heat DHW. The second way is a battery, and I gain as much with the battery to what I get with solar, as to start with it transfers around 5.5 kWh per day at 8.625p/kWh to daylight hours when it would cost me 32.277p/kWh that's without looking at smoothing out peaks and troughs. So the peak you see this morning was where I made coffee, and although the solar was only producing 308 watts at 7 minutes past 8 this morning, the solar covered this by using the battery to spread the use.

To use solar, I have a split tariff, 8.625p/kWh 00:30 to 05:30 and 32.277p/kWh 05:30 to 00:30, to use this, I need to draw very little at 32.277p/kWh, standard rate is more like 24p/kWh, for the split rate to work, I need either a large battery or solar and a smaller battery, the other reasons for a split tariff is having an EV or storage radiators, today we also have V2G EV, so the car works as a battery, so your reference to EV means the answer can change if you have an EV.

So your app should show something like this showing both import and export, for me to find out what I have used 20/5/2026 to 5/7/2026 I would need to add up each day

72 units does not seem much, when I use 15 kWh per day.

I have 7 times the panels to you, so 25.1/7= 3.58 kWh around 86p a day, or around £200 a year,

Two full years for me, I was paying around £140 per month, now around £300 per year. My biggest problem was I started with British Gas, I went for their EV tariff, but all my efforts at getting payment for export failed, when I ended the tariff as before that £75 charge to leave, I moved to Octopus, at which point I started getting paid for export. So 3000 kWh equates to £360 for export, it was £450 when I first went to Octopus (15p/kWh) so changing to Octopus made a huge difference to me.

But with such a small array, not sure what difference it will make.

 

[BS3036]

Also is there anyway of checking that my pv meter and my smart meter in the electricity box are correctly recording my consumtion?
i am a bit baffled by the EV meter as there is an arrow to the right of the screen pointing to KWH (KILOWAT HOURS) i assume, but also an arrow to the left pointing to IMP GEN this might mean imported generated but confused by the LCD display as there are no buttons to press to find out what the latter means.

A picture of each of these meters (with serial numbers redacted) might be helpful. My generation meter has, for example, the lettering 1000 imp/kWh next to an led, which relates to the number of impulses of the led that represents 1 kWh generated. I also suspect that you need to add the two numbers to get the total you used, as I very much doubt that two panels will results in a net export.

 

[flameport]

i assume the difference between the 2 figures is the amount of solar energy i have used in the house, lights, tv etc

Very likely.
The PV meter would normally be recording total generation from the panels.

However even with only 2 panels, 152kWh over 46 days seems very low, only 1.65kWh per panel per day.
What size and how old are these panels?