Almost all solar PV systems installed in the UK are grid-tied systems, that means that the electricity you produce can either be used by you in the home or the electricity gets exported – very few people have an electricity storage capability.
When you have solar PV installed, you benefit from the Government’s feed-in tariff which pays you for every unit of electricity you produce. This is known as the generation tariff. The amount of electricity you produce is recorded through a generation meter.
As part of the Feed-in tariff, you also get paid for exporting electricity back to the grid, through a subsidy known as the export tariff. This pays you in theory for every unit of electricity you export back to the wider energy grid for others to use. The reason we say ‘in theory’ is that when the solar PV is installed, the systems are rarely installed with an export meter, instead the energy companies take the generation meter readings and half them – as if you are exporting 50%.
Based on the fact you are going to get paid 50% of what you generate via the export tariff, it is irrelevant if you actually export 0%, 50% or 100%, you are going to always be paid as if you have exported just half, therefore it is not worth exporting any electricity at all. In fact to maximise your solar PV investment you want to export 0% of the electricity you produce – this means you still get paid the export tariff, but you have this ‘free electricity’ to use in your home.
Solar PV immersion controllers allow you to do just that, rather than exporting your surplus electricity to the grid, diverts it from a micro-generator such as solar PV or wind turbine to your existing immersion heater or other heating load – never again will you export any electricity from your solar PV installation!
The unit can be installed quickly and easily by a qualified electrician without the need for any plumbing alterations.
