House Meter goes forward after PV installed

[normanpouch]

8kw pv installed two years ago 2phase jobs (2 x 4kw systems) The customer is now saying his electric bill has increase 100% . Its about 17000kw over this time and this is about what the pv has made. The house meter has 2.5mm cables going to it and its CT digital 3ph meter.
Could the PV make the meter run forwards or is it a faulty meter. SSE want £315 to look at the job?

thanks

 

[moospark]

Analouge meters tend to run backward on solar, this may suggest that the generation meter is wired wrong. when fitting solar, the D.B. is load side (left), panels feed side (right). I may be bang off the mark (it has been known)?

 

[moospark]

Ha! sorry, panels left, D.B right. caught meself out.

 

[Somecamel]

Could be a meter that has a anti tampering device in it, quite common, should be no charge to change the meter, many more out there I would imagine as well

 

[wersolaruk]

Is it a horsmann meter?

 

[Gavin A]

as above, it'll have an anti-tamper setting on the meter, resulting in the meter counting export as import.

could you post up a picture of the meter if you get chance / make model - useful for future reference.

Only other meters I've known this on so far are single phase siemens grey and blue units fitted around 10-20 years ago.

 

[driverman]

This problem has been raised before. I would contact the supplier of the property and get the meter changed.

 

[normanpouch]

as above, it'll have an anti-tamper setting on the meter, resulting in the meter counting export as import.

could you post up a picture of the meter if you get chance / make model - useful for future reference.

Only other meters I've known this on so far are single phase siemens grey and blue units fitted around 10-20 years ago.

Hi All many thanks for feed back, heres a photo of house meter hope it helps . Does it have anti tampering in it and does that cause the problem.

 

[Gavin A]

your photo doesn't work, and unless it's that siemens meter I won't be able to tell from the photo - it's easy enough to workout though - does it clock up when you're exporting, if so then it has this anti-tamper setting set on it.

if not, then the problem lies elsewhere, and you genuinely have used vast amounts of extra electricity - can happen with a faulty immersion heater switch / switch left on or similar.

 

[Worcester]

You might need to post the picture to picasa / google drive / flickr and you may even have to write the link in until you have a few more posts

 

[normanpouch]

The meter is made by PRI who have been taken over model is Premier Type P3TA23 3 phase only two phases used.
Looked at their site on web and read the spec but couldnt see anything about tampering.
:thinking:

 

[Hundleton1]

Has the bills on both phases gone up? I'd definitely suspect its the meter,

 

[Gavin A]

The meter is made by PRI who have been taken over model is Premier Type P3TA23 3 phase only two phases used.
Looked at their site on web and read the spec but couldnt see anything about tampering.
:thinking:

does it clock up when you're exporting

this is the only important question you need to answer, and only you can answer it by actually checking if it happens or not.

if it does, then it's the meter, if not then there is something else wrong.

 

[Somecamel]

Assuming there is a modern board on the supply, turn off everything else expect the main, if the meter still tops up definitely an anti tampering feature. I had one a few years ago and tbh I never would have noticed except for the customer ringing me, luckily it had only been in for a few weeks

 

[normanpouch]

Many thanks to all, yes every thing switched off for a day, PV did 22kw and meter didnt go forward thank some one.
So faulty meter I still hope. We need to put in terms and conditions that customers have to read their meters once month and installer is not liable for meter problems and any monies. This customer left it 2 years.

 

[STEPTOEANDSON]

i have heard of this same problem before, and it was a seimens meter that was causing it.

regards steptoe