Paphos Life

We have installed 10kw of PV panels. Downloaded SolarEdge to monitor harvesting. Just received our first EAC bill since installation in February. The amount EAC says we exported is far lower than SolarEdge says we harvested. Given the cost of PV panel installation, this is very concerning. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

sunspot wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 12:53 pm We have installed 10kw of PV panels. Downloaded SolarEdge to monitor harvesting. Just received our first EAC bill since installation in February. The amount EAC says we exported is far lower than SolarEdge says we harvested. Given the cost of PV panel installation, this is very concerning. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

The difference between the figures is easy to explain because of the net-metering system. What you harvested is the one thing and what you used in the same period is the other. So the figure you exported to EAC is the difference between the two....
For sure with the next period you will have produced much more than you used, because the good month for PV are May to October and the time for air-cons running has not arrived yet.

Max

sunspot wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 12:53 pm We have installed 10kw of PV panels. Downloaded SolarEdge to monitor harvesting. Just received our first EAC bill since installation in February. The amount EAC says we exported is far lower than SolarEdge says we harvested. Given the cost of PV panel installation, this is very concerning. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

00

This is like wheat, if the sun doesn't shine, your harvest is poor and small. This spring has been a remarkably cloudy one with few good sun days, so I would expect you to have a less-than normal "payback". In my opinion, it is unfair to judge the performance over just a fraction of the solar year – and even then, better over a number of years.

10kw is a huge amount, based on our 3kw installation that should generate about 15,000kw in a full year depending on orientation etc etc. Is this a residential installation?

Ian

Yes, residential. We have looked at the EAC's import/export figures as well as what SolarEdge says we generated. Something is very wrong. We have asked our mechanical engineer, Greenair.

I also have a solaredge system. Of course, the kWh generated according to the solaredge software are less than I'm exporting (as reflected on the EAC bill) because I'm using a lot myself.

At this time of the year, between 40% and 60% of your electricity that you use will be from your pv panels. The solar edge app shows you how much you have produced. Your meter shows how much you have exported to the grid. The difference between the 2 is how much solar energy you have used.
For example, today, a very cloudy day, our 5kwh system only produced 7.2kwh. We exported 5.2kwh to the grid, so used 2kwh of solar energy. In total we used 8.8kwh, (6.8kwh through the meter) therefore 22.7% of the energy we used came from solar power.

Yesterday, a sunny day, we produced 31.94kwh. we exported 28.4kwh to the grid. therefore we used 3.54kwh of solar energy and 2.3kwh through the meter, totalling a use of 5.84kwh. This equates to solar energy use of 60%.

Hopefully, in a couple of months I may, at long last, start putting a bit of energy into the grid. Theoretically, my supplier will be installing the roof panels (4 kW) tomorrow. Over 2 1/2 years to get this far! Just as well that I have a little bit of staying power!

Here in Paphos, Greenair installed our neighbour's panels within 3 weeks of the initial visit from Christos. This was in December. They dealt with all of the paperwork. From the initial visit at the beginning of December, her panels were live on the 30th January, when EAC finally inspected.