Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Can any one help?

I am producing approx 32KWH of electricity. Not paying anything each month except for metre charge and street lighting.

Does the Kib-Tek bill show how much power was produced and how much left in credit?

I just can't work it out.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Soner

On your New solar kibtek bill the first two boxes on left hand side show the two meter readings for this month and last month showing How much you have given to the grid. The moment between these two readings is how much electric your solar generated In the month, over and above what you used in the month, and therefore gave back to your credit pot. (Exported renewable energy) LETS CALL THIS A

On the right hand side of the bill are the two meter readings for this month and last month showing how much electric you have taken from the grid (this is usually at night when your solar is not producing). The moment between these two readings is the month’s usage from the grid. (Imported renewable energy) LETS CALL THIS B

On the right hand side under these boxes Is the balance in your credit pot brought forward from last month “turned over kws”

If you had used up all of your credit pot and had taken more electric from the grid than you gave to the grid. B-A then you would have an electric bill for usage with the kws showing In the box on the left hand side “invoiced kws”

Whilst you still have enough kws in your credit balance and continue to generate more solar kws than you use B-A then your credit pot will increase.

Your closing credit figure for the month is in the box on the left hand side called “End of term kws”. This is calculated

Previous months pot balance (turned over kws) less imported kws taken from the grid “B”add on exported energy given Back to the grid “C” equals closing end of term kws.


What the kibtek bill will not show you is the total amount of solar you have produced as it does not know this as you are using this energy during the day and only the excess goes back to the grid.

To see how much energy your solar has produced you should be able to access this via a web portal for your inverter which your solar provider should be able to help you with.

Hope this makes sense !

Made sense to me, well done!

Thank you lol

I would like to ask Soner that at what stage of monthly TL usage does it become viable for the capital outlay to justify the expense of a total upgrade to your system to save money?

In an almost on-topic similar note, how long after the KibTek inspection of the solar system does it take before you move onto net metering?

Looking forward to getting onto that soon hopefully!

James

In order to answer your question Brinsley, you firstly need to know how much electricity you use a year. Kibtek can give you the details from your account of how much you have used in the last year in kws.

If you were to install a solar system would this change this figure? Do you think you would change how you heated your hot water in the winter to electric?

Would you have your aircon on more?

Would you use electric to heat your house in winter? Do you do that now?


Once you know your estimated electricity usage then you can calculate what size system would be most cost effective for you to install. 3kw? 4kw? Or 5 kw

Thank you MrsD for the breakdown. It's taken me 2 years to finally get my head around it. Wish I had asked earlier.
It was also not showing on the bill what was actually produced in total during the day, this was what was throwing me out big time. But makes sense, so now I can calculate total KWH produced for the month, less what I had exported, to work out what I am using in daylight hours.

Hi Soner,

Glad I could help.

That’s what I do with ours. But I calculate how much we’ve taken from the grid as well as how much I’ve used during the day and add these together so that I know our “total” usage.

We had our solar system installed in May 2014 at the time when we could only have 3kw system but we are really pleased with it. Nice to not have to worry about the price of electricity going up.

Installing solar panels for this very reason seems to be the norm. Frequently when a local in this area moves into a newly built house, within 3 months the whole property is completely covered with the things, anything up to 15+ on a basic sized house. Actually what were really nice house now look ugly, with specially built ramps across open terraces etc and in one case a little further away across part of the rear garden. I can sort of understand their reasoning, but some don't look pleasant any longer.

My monthly e-mail bill from KibTek has so many tariffs during the day & night usage it is hard to fathom out units used especially when it comes to 'holiday' usage. Is this week-end use or 'Bank-Holiday'? There are different times between high & low times twixt the two. Thanks

It is confusing... Weekdays (I don't know when it starts and ends lol) have 3 periods per day low, shoulder and high. Weekends and public holidays have 4 periods per day, 1 low period, 2 shoulder periods with 1 high period in between them. The times for these periods change depending on Summer or Winter tariff, they are shown with the corresponding rate on your bill.
Hope that makes sense

I've given up trying to understand the bills and try and set times on dish washer, washer and the pool on to "low times" and just hope for the best.

sophie wrote: ↑

Fri 17 Jul 2020 12:11 pm

I've given up trying to understand the bills and try and set times on dish washer, washer and the pool on to "low times" and just hope for the best.

So do we, between 2am and 9am in Summer is "safe"

Getting to understand however, on my bill it does not say weekend (Sat & Sun?) just holiday. It cannot be much of a holiday if weekend workers think they are on workday (Mon to Fri?) tariff which turns out they are on holiday! Bet they don't get double time in their wages to compensate!! All very ambiguous!

by wjms » Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:52 am

it can take some time until kibtek puts the info into the system that you are net-metered.
so maybe not the first e bill, but the second after control.
but "grid feed" should be backdated to the day of control.

by MrsD » Thu Jul 16, 2020 1:02 pm

thats the manual way of doing so.
with older system an upgrade is difficult to do and with newer systems customers often do not want to pay for extra equipment (which is sometimes difficult to integrate as well... ) or not even want to pay for better solar panels / inverters.
but some inverter manufacturers offer "smart grid meters" which are installed at "grid entry" and cat 5 connected to the solar inverter.
they measure exactly the energy which is solar produced, taken from grid, given to grid and instantly used at every second.
the inverter then is (w)lan connected and a website shows all energy flows.

Kibsolar,

Sounds great. I’m sure if it had been available at the time we would have had a look at it depending upon the additional cost but my spreadsheet once a month does it fine for us lol and was no extra charge.

kibsolar1999 wrote: ↑

Sat 18 Jul 2020 7:47 pm

by wjms » Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:52 am

it can take some time until kibtek puts the info into the system that you are net-metered.
so maybe not the first e bill, but the second after control.
but "grid feed" should be backdated to the day of control.

Thank you Peter, just got the first bill 2.5 months after the inspection, pleasantly surprised to see just the standing charges on there and some kWh carried forward to the next bill.

I thought I had thanked you before, but it appears not to have actually been posted.

Do you stock the SMA energy meters perchance?

pls contact your installer, Comfortable Life Systems, they should be able to get you one.

btw, it seems you are very happy about your car park... and (at least) you got a better inverter... but you do not mention anything (manufacturer, model) about the solar modules, the "main part" of a solar energy system. what about them?

kibsolar1999 wrote: ↑

Sat 03 Oct 2020 10:43 am

btw, it seems you are very happy about your car park... and (at least) you got a better inverter... but you do not mention anything (manufacturer, model) about the solar modules, the "main part" of a solar energy system. what about them?

I will speak to them, thank you.

Trina Solar TSM 340 panels, seem to be working.

I decided not to go for solar because it seemed such a long payback for the initial outlay.myelectric bill is about £700per year.its an 8 to 10 year payback. Plus maintenance. Quite frankly im concerned that the panels systems etc degrade and break over time. Plus you have to outlay the money now and stay in the property to benefit for c 10 years.....i very much doubt it adds any value to a property. Just my opinion.

well, Trina Solar TSM 340...... classic "cheap and cheaper" chinese glass plate (sorry, but true).
has nothing to do with good stuff, as eg Panasonic or eg, LG (just examples).
btw, 14 x 340Wp comes to 4,76 kWp, not 5 kWp, which therefore produce min less 1000 euros (price today) in 20 years (if panels/system survives...)
anyway, you got your system.. subject finished.

Reyntj
you can see it also from this point of view: 8 to 10 years payback reflect much more "interest rates" for your investment as you get from any reliable bank.

kibsolar1999 wrote: ↑

Sun 04 Oct 2020 11:35 am

well, Trina Solar TSM 340...... classic "cheap and cheaper" chinese glass plate (sorry, but true).
has nothing to do with good stuff, as eg Panasonic or eg, LG (just examples).
btw, 14 x 340Wp comes to 4,76 kWp, not 5 kWp, which therefore produce min less 1000 euros (price today) in 20 years (if panels/system survives...)
anyway, you got your system.. subject finished.

@kibsolar1999 - you may appreciate some feedback as to why we decided to use a different company to install our solar system.

To be frank, and your comment above demonstrates it perfectly, your sales technique of talking down to potential customers is an interesting one. When you met my partner, and basically stated that she wouldn’t understand kWp figures as she was a woman, you neglected to ask what she does for a living. I can assure you that a secondary A level mathematics teacher with a BSc in Technology and Mathematics, can grasp the figures involved. I also have never stated that the system here was 5 kWp, the inverter is a 5 kW rated SMA Sunny Boy. And trust me, with a degree in Applied Science and Applicable Mathematics, I too can work out that 14 x 340 Wp panels is 4.76 kWp in terms of their production capacity.

Patronising and condescending statements which, in one case, were borderline misogynistic, do not endear potential customers nor guarantee a sale.

Now I think the matter is closed.

wjims,
Patronising and condescending statements which, in one case, were borderline misogynistic?

honestly, you are mixing me up with someone else. but funny that you changed from "Thank you Peter.... I thought I had thanked you before".. to that.

i always explain everything (solar related) to my potential customers, incl the difference of kWp and kW and kWh (and A and Ah and V) if necessary.
and i also do explain the difference of best, good and not so good panels incl the price differences and the pro and cons, eg what it means for the output of the system (in kWh) in year 1 and year 20 and what difficulties you may face when (after eg, 5 years) even only one panel fails.
and, btw, no matter whether you are female or male.

viewtopic.php?t=51598
wjms » Wed Jun 10, 2020 12:31 pm
......Got this one done by Comfortable Life Systems in Alsancak. 5 kWp System with an SMA Sunny Boy inverter, grid tied......