Try to use your appliances during daylight hours when the solar panels are generating free electricity. If you are not at home during the day you could set 24-hour timers so that your washing machine or dishwasher starts running whilst you are out. Make sure your appliances are electrically tested and are safe to be left unattended.

To maximise the solar energy, you should spread the use of your appliances throughout the day. If you use them all at the same time you could use more energy than the solar panels are generating. For example, for a 3kWp PV system at the property, at midday in August the system could produce 3kW in one hour. If both a dishwasher and washing machine are put on at the same time, this will likely consume all of the energy the PV system is producing and energy will still need to be drawn from the Grid (the energy suppliers’ electricity) for any other appliances that are on: the fridge freezer, television or laptops.

Charge any electrical items during the day such as laptops, phones, and electric toothbrushes.

If the solar panels are shaded, they may not be able to generate as much free electricity as they could. To prevent this from happening make sure any trees, hedges and shrubs in your garden are pruned.

Remember to turn off any appliances at the mains when not in use as they can still use energy even if they are not being used.

Generally speaking, electricity providers do not need to be informed of the presence of solar panels at your property, because they have nothing to do with the solar PV system.

The property is wired to draw first from the solar PV system and second from the Grid (your electricity supplier), so you essentially have two separate electricity supplies. One is free to use but has a finite amount of energy available (the solar PV system) and the second is paid for and you use as much as you need (your electricity supplier).

Because the property draws from the solar PV system first, and the two supplies are separate, your energy bill will not mention the solar energy. The electricity company will not know from your bills that you have solar panels as the usage of the solar energy will not appear on your electricity bills as credit, or a discount. As long as they are charging you for the electricity that is actually being used from them, rather than an estimate, you will be paying the correct amount.

There is not a device fitted to measure how much of the solar energy is consumed by the property. OFGEM deem that half of the energy is used and half of it is exported back to the Grid. However, where people are at home regularly during the day, we expect that most of the solar energy is consumed by the household. Especially in light of recent changes to people’s living and working habits, meaning that we are all at home more than before.

Northern Ireland Electricity fit household electricity meters that have an export channel. The export channel will show how much electricity is exported from the property to the Grid. The number on the export channel of the meter is made up of solar PV energy that did not get used and a small amount of excess energy from the property which came from the Grid. If you take this amount away from the generated amount of electricity from the solar panels then you will be able to see how much of the electricity is being used.

The solar generation meter is usually with the rest of the equipment for the solar panels. We should be able to monitor the generation meter remotely, but we do not monitor the household meter, including the export channel, so we will not be able to confirm this figure to you.

We do not know how much of the energy is used by the property and even if we did know, we cannot quantify this as a monetary value. The money saved would be dependent on what type of payment plan you are on with your energy supplier and what tariff you are on. This changes all the time and for most people has increased in Autumn 2021.

If your electricity bill has increased this is usually not a reflection of the solar panels’ performance, as the energy provider and the solar panels are completely separate. Please contact your electricity provider as we are unable to offer advice on this.

Feel free to give us a call and we can check our remote monitoring to ensure the solar PV system is working fine. However, the energy companies are regularly increasing their tariffs; therefore, your bill will increase with this, as the solar panels are not going to produce more energy than they have previously to counter-act this.

Please check our guidance on how to make the most of the solar energy, you may be able to tweak your energy consumption habits to reduce your use of ‘paid for’ electricity.

A lot of energy suppliers are encouraging households to have a smart meter fitted at their property, which will mean they can remotely read the meter and should need fewer manual readings from you. It will also help regulate the energy usage of the country.

If your electricity supplier offers you a smart meter, they need to be made aware that there is a solar PV system at the property so that they send an appropriately trained electrician that knows how to safely isolate the solar PV system during the works and does not accidentally by-pass the solar PV system.

When you have arranged the visit for the fitting, you do not need to inform us, as most smart meters only take around 2 hours to fit. This means that whilst your solar PV system will be off for this time, and the daily generation of the solar PV system will be a little lower than normal, it will not disrupt our ability to read the solar PV meter. However, if you would like to let us know please feel free to contact us and we will make a note for our monitoring team in case anything irregular does arise following the visit.

Before the electrician leaves, please ensure that they have re-energised the solar PV system and do not accidentally leave it switched off to ensure that you do not lose out on any solar energy.

If you suspect that the electrician that has fitted the smart meter has by-passed the solar PV system, we will not be able to tell from our remote monitoring. You will need to contact your electricity provider and request that they send someone back out as we are not legally allowed to make changes to their meter or wiring.

Your energy supplier has assumed that you receive the Feed-in Tarriff payments. If we are your maintenance provider then you do not receive the Feed-in Tariff payments, as depending on your contract, you either do not own the solar PV system or you have assigned the Feed-in Tarriff to a company under an assignment agreement. For more information regarding your type of contract you can contact us.

No news is good news! We monitor the systems remotely and therefore are able to see if everything is fine. If we do notice anything irregular, we will contact you if we need access to the property to carry out a maintenance visit.

If you believe there is something wrong with the system, i.e. if there is an error on the display of the meter or inverter, please contact us and we will check if it is still generating correctly via our remote monitoring portal and will advise you accordingly.

Please note that the system will not be producing anything once the sun has set so it is not unusual for errors to show during non-daylight hours

Solar PV systems will automatically shut down in a power cut or surge from the Grid. This is a requirement from the DNO and is a safety precaution for all solar PV systems that are connected to the Grid. The reason for this is that if there has been damage caused to the Grid that requires works on the lines the DNO cannot have power moving through from anywhere, including from domestic solar PV systems, as it could be potentially life-threatening for their engineers.

Once the power has returned, please ensure that all the fuses in your switch board have been turned back on (usually in the up position), including the solar PV. If you do not believe that the system is booting up and it is sunny outside then please contact us and we will look to our remote readings and advise if a visit is required.

This is a marketing letter. A ‘health check’ is not necessary because we monitor the solar PV system remotely, we know how the system is performing. These companies will attend for the ‘free’ check and will report unnecessary upgrades to charge you thousands. They are not authorised to touch the solar PV system and should not be allowed access to it.

If we need to visit you, we will first try to contact details you have provided us. This contact will come either from our office or from one of our maintenance teams to arrange a visit. If we do not have your contact information or we cannot get in touch with you, we will then send you letter and it will come only from Freetricity.

We also do not charge homeowners for routine maintenance visits. The only event that you may be charged for is if you have caused damage to the system or you require the system to be temporarily removed and reinstalled.

If you received contact from a company that you are unsure about, please give us a call on 0203 189 4500 and we will verify it for you.

If you do not own the solar PV system (i.e., if you have an airspace lease), you are not able to have any additional equipment installed. If you are unsure about this, please contact us and we will advise you on the type of contract that you have.

Please contact us, if you are sending us an email or writing to us, please provide your full address so that we can confirm the correct process to you and confirm what works it is that you need to undertake.

Depending on your contract you may not be able to remove the system, even temporarily, without being at risk of breaching the agreement. Please do not undertake works that will impact the performance of the solar PV system, either due to any part of it being removed or due to it being switched off, without first contacting us.

The owner of the solar PV system is responsible for insuring it. However, you should tell your home insurance company that you have a solar PV system at the property (that is not insured by you), so that they can insure your home against it.

This depends on the type of contract that you have. Please contact us and we will provide you with the requirements for a sale or transfer. In all situations where the contract is to remain in place with the new owners, we will require them to provide us with their contact information. Either you can request a form from us to provide to them, or they can contact us directly when they move in.

We are also happy to deal directly with any solicitors or brokers that may be acting on your behalf in the transaction.

Please send us the enquiries and we will look into these for you. Please ensure that you provide the full address of the property in your correspondence.

We are also happy to deal directly with any solicitors or brokers that may be acting on your behalf in the transaction.

Please write to us at legal@freetricityplc.com or Freetricity, 1 Filament Walk, Suite 216, Wandsworth, London SW18 4GQ

Please ensure that you include the full property address in all correspondence.

Sometimes solicitors do not need anything from us during the purchase of a property, in which case we will not have been made aware of your purchase of the property. Check with your solicitors if they have provided us with a Change of Proprietorship form. If they have not, please contact us and we will update our system. If you have been given a Change of Proprietorship Form to fill out you can send it to us either via email at support@freetricity.net or post it to us at Freetricity, 1 Filament Walk, Suite 216, Wandsworth, London SW18 4GQ.

You may be able to end the contract early and receive the Feed-in Tariff payments for yourself by paying a ‘buyout’ cost.

Not all contracts have the option to do this and you should either review your contract or contact us and we will confirm if it is possible and what the cost would be.