4-fold Increase in kwh after panels

Hello. First post so excuse me if I'm ignorant, but wondering if anyone has any helpful suggestions on what I shoudl do next.

We had a 12-panel system with a 9.5 kwh GivEnergy battery installed in July and have switched suppliers to Octopus (who installed a smart meter).

Our energy usage has since increased from about 10-12 kwh per day to 45 kwh per day despite no other change in usage!

We've undertaken some tests (creep test for the meter, switching everything off for some hours etc) and are utterly befuddled where the problem is. We're actually paying more for our energy now than before we had the panels!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jules

Assuming you’re not calibrating the battery multiple times a day…

Isolate the inverter/battery when you’re not expecting much generation. Take the meter readings immediately after , then again 24 hours later. Turn it back on and then again 24 hours later take another reading.

Obviously not ideal that you’re losing generation for a day, but it will at least tell you if the inverter/panels area increasing use.

JulesCC was this coincident with fitting the smart meter? Was the old meter a very old one that went backwards when exporting? If so, it would be considered faulty and your consumption is now correct.

Thanks Kram I'll investigate.

It's all new to me so I'm bit nervous about fiddling with the set up in case it messes up the settings.

Sorry if it's a silly question, but is it possible for solar panels to drain electricity? Doesn't seem to obey the laws of physics, but I know electricians don't worry about that sort of thing . . .

Not that quantity of it unless something is seriously wrong, but I’d imagine you would know about it.

1) What does the inverter say you’re using?

2) which smart meter do you have? Some record reactive power as used power, but that wouldn’t explain this level of use.

I’d be amazed if you were using 45kWh a day in the UK. I’m assuming you’re not in a massive house, but do you have electric heating or an electric car etc?

If this problem occurred after they installed the smart meter it is up to them to investigate, id give them a ring up and insist someone come out same day to take a look.

Can you see anything on the app for your system to keep an eye on things as you switch things on/off.

Sounds like they wired something up screwy or attached something wrong.

Are there any changes at night time for usage compared to day time for that overall 45kwh a day

JulesCC does your battery charge up, or on a sunny day does the GivEnergy app show you are constantly importing and the batteries never charge ?

If so, highly likely that the CT clamp has been fitted the wrong way round. Eon swapped my meter for a new one and did this to me, the consumption went through the roof as the inverter kept trying to match phantom load

has your gas usage dropped? Could it be the tank immersion turned on?

Thanks for that folks.

I did an overnight creep test last night, all electricity switched off at the electric panel, and the smart meter has recorded 15kwh used overnight, so I think I've found the culprit!

Over to Octopus for a Smart meter check. Wish me luck.

JulesCC We had a 12-panel system with a 9.5 kwh GivEnergy battery installed in July and have switched suppliers to Octopus (who installed a smart meter).

Our energy usage has since increased from about 10-12 kwh per day to 45 kwh per day despite no other change in usage!

If your smartmeter is configured to report usage in 30-minute slots, is the increase uniform, or are there specific times of day when it's high. (You can access the usage data from the Octopus site.)

Assuming you received an IHD (in-house display) with your smartmeter, you should be able to see almost-instantaneous report of load. If/when it's high, you could try turning off individual circuits at the consumer unit to look for changes to the load. (Best to first turn off individual devices before turning off the circuit, particularly things like the solar system itself.) It shouldnt be necessary to wait for hours to see the effect of a change.

Do the IHD report of the instantaneous usage correspond (approximately) to the GE inverter's report ?

kram or Heat Pump.

JulesCC is it your smart meter? I mean do you live somewhere where there are multiple meters next to each other and you think it might be your meter - but perhaps at some point a mistake was made? Common in apartments, I’d imagine less common for houses.

Are there more than one circuit boards / consumer units attached to the meter? Perhaps a separate one for off peak usage historically, e.g. storage heaters, immersion heaters on night rate historically?

Hopefully no neighbours stealing your electricity?

JulesCC response is way better if you send them a message on Twitter rather than email or phone in my experience