New owner of house with existing solar panels. In need of guidance.

[ht6]

Hi members,

I'm sorry if I am recreating an existing thread. I am new to this forum. I have a couple of items I need guidance on please.

1. I have recently taken ownership of a house that has had Solar Photovoltaic panels since 2012. The previous owner was selling energy back to his supplier E.ON.

I have signed up with Octopus and I sent them an Export Tariff Application so I can sell energy back too. They call it Octopus Outgoing. They responded by saying that they checked the FiT (Feed in tariff) register and that shows that there is an existing FiT registered but in a different name. They advised me to contact the current FiT provider for my address as they can update the name on the FiT register. In case it helped, I asked the previous owner to tell E.ON to make a change on their system to me as the new owner of these panels and he said he'd look into this as he had simply told them that he's moving and taken his account to his new place.

I contacted Ofgem who said that this installation is registered with British Gas Trading, the FIT Licensee. I then contacted British Gas Trading who acknowledged my email saying they will respond in due course and gave me a reference number. But they also said that the Feed in Tariff scheme is now closed to new applications but all existing applications will still be processed.

Am I to wait to hear back from British Gas or does that message from them mean they can't/won't help? My desire is to be able to sell energy back Octopus so any guidance on how to go about this, different to what I've already shared above, would be very valuable.

2. I have an Omnik inverter (photo attached). While trying to figure out how I can monitor my system's performance and be notified when I'm producing solar energy, I learnt that Omnik has gone bankrupt and that SOLARMAN have taken over their accounts. Any guidance on how I can connect my Omnik inverter to my home network? I stood next to it to see if my phone picks up the inverter's network but it didn't so I am clearly missing a step(s).

Thank you!

 

[SeaGal]

Welcome..

Am I to wait to hear back from British Gas

Yes, IMHO... Although the FiT scheme closed in 2019, you will still be able to benefit from the export tariffs for the remainder of the original duration (I think it was 20 or 25 years). I heard that it can take quite a long time, many forms, lots of chasing and may require input from your conveyancers.

Regarding 2, I have no knowledge of that inverter, but, being from 2012, would guess it is unlikely to have any network ability - i.e. it is likely just a stand-alone inverter. Obviously you will get some limited data from your smart meter, but would need to invest in a separate energy monitoring system for linking to an existing home system.

 

[ht6]

Welcome..

Yes, IMHO... Although the FiT scheme closed in 2019, you will still be able to benefit from the export tariffs for the remainder of the original duration (I think it was 20 or 25 years). I heard that it can take quite a long time, many forms, lots of chasing and may require input from your conveyancers.

Regarding 2, I have no knowledge of that inverter, but, being from 2012, would guess it is unlikely to have any network ability - i.e. it is likely just a stand-alone inverter. Obviously you will get some limited data from your smart meter, but would need to invest in a separate energy monitoring system for linking to an existing home system.

Thanks! Would you be able to recommend any energy monitoring system?

Also, British Gas responded with the following. I have asked them if this means I'll have to select them as my energy provider. That's not something I want to do as I'd rather stay with Octopus. This shouldn't have to be the case though as the previous owner was with E.ON and told me that E.ON was buying energy from him. Any thoughts on this?

"Hello Sir/Madam

Get paid for electricity​

Great news, thanks to the solar panels installed on your new property you can take advantage of a Feed in Tariff (FIT), a government scheme that pays you to generate your own electricity. If you'd like us to transfer over control from the previous owners, we'll first need you to do the following:

•​	Complete the attached FIT Change of ownership application form​
•​	Provide a copy of the sale deed or land registry document​
•​	Tell us the date you moved into the property​
•​	Provide a generation meter reading from the date you moved in​

What happens next?​

As soon as we receive all your information we'll begin transferring over control of the FIT. If any of the documents are missing or are incorrectly completed, they'll be sent back to you, which will delay the start date of your FIT payments.

You can send the information by recorded delivery to: British Gas, Feed in Tariff Team, Winnall Down, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO21 1FP. Alternatively, reply to this email with the documents attached* and include your postcode in the subject line.

Once we have everything, we'll send a copy of our terms and conditions for you to sign. To help keep things moving, please make sure you return these within 10 days of receipt.

What will I need to do?​

Once you've taken over control of the account, you'll just need to provide a generation meter reading every three months — as readings have to be at least 83 days apart. These readings tell us how well your panels are performing and how much your payments should be."

 

[billt1827]

You should be able to transfer the FIT account to any electricity reseller who operates a FIT scheme, so I woold expect that Octopus could take over. However the FIT account can be with any provider, it does not have to be with the company who bills you for electricity supply, so you could have the FITs with BG and your supply from Octopus if that's what you want.

As to energy monitors, I like the Iotawatt as it doesn't depend on cloud providers, has multiple inputs for monitoring more than one circuit and logs data locally but can also send data to other databases, but it might be a bit pricey.

http://iotawatt.com/

If you just want a simple meter the Sheely EM seems to be popular https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-em-50a/.

Of course there's the original OEM monitor https://shop.openenergymonitor.com/6-channel-energy-monitoring-emontx-v4/ although that's getting a bit expensive now.

There's also the Emporia https://www.emporiaenergy.com/ although I wouldn't use that as it uses the cloud.

 

[rpdom]

It might be worth keeping the FIT account rather than switching to a newer scheme. Some of the old FITs were very generous on the outgoing rates and they were index linked for the duration too.

 

[ht6]

It might be worth keeping the FIT account rather than switching to a newer scheme. Some of the old FITs were very generous on the outgoing rates and they were index linked for the duration too.

You mean keeping the FIT account with British Gas and changing to them as my supplier? Or keeping them separate as billt1827 says?

 

[Sean Very North]

The details of this should have been provided for within the conveyancing process.

The resolution of your irritating issue lays primarily with the previous property owner who will need to declare an ownership change to the current FiT provider.

The previous owner may likely still be receiving payments if they are sneaky enough to be sending in estimated readings.

 

[SeaGal]

You mean keeping the FIT account with British Gas and changing to them as my supplier? Or keeping them separate as billt1827 says?

Yes... As @billt1827 said, the people paying you the FIT money can be different to the energy supplier. Sounds simplest to me to stick with BG for your FIT payments and Octopus as your energy supplier.

@rpdom meant keep with FIT and not try and move to the SEG scheme. So, yes definately keep with FIT as you will get ££££ more back (not even sure swapping is an option, tbh).

We use the emonPi for energy monitoring and happy with it, but looks like those are out of stock at moment - I know they had issues with components supply chains recently.

The details of this should have been provided for within the conveyancing process.

LOL.. you mean conveyancing solicitors do something right?

 

[ht6]

Thanks for your input all!

BG sent me the attached form. The declared net capacity of my system (as per the MCS certificate I got from the previous owner) is 3.68kW. Now here's a(nother) silly question: when the form asks
"Do you require export payments from
British Gas? (Installations above 30kW)", my answer should be 'no' right? i.e. Is declared net capacity the same as what they refer to as "Installations above 30kW"?