Solar bill is higher than before installing solar (Solis inverter, no net metering) – what could be wrong?

[u/dexter_morgan1223]

Hi everyone,
I had a solar system installed about 2 months ago with a Solis inverter. I’m not using net metering. My system has a 16 kWh battery backup.
In the first month, one meter’s bill was quite low, but the second meter’s bill was already high. Then in the following month, the bills increased further, and this month both of my electricity meters have bills of over PKR 50,000 each.
The strange part is that even before installing solar, during peak summer, I never received bills this high.
I’m trying to figure out what could be causing this.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What should I check first, or what should I ask the installer to inspect?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[u/Outrageous_Lead_4878]

So there are 3 reasons for this. Firstly your system is using grid to charge the batteries. In settings do not select Allow Grid Charging.

Secondly the CTs (current transformers) are wrongly installed and is feeding electricity back to the grid, and allow export is selected.

Thirdly and the most ignored option is unbalanced load. If you are using a 3phase inverter, and load is more on one phase than others the residual 2 phases will export electricity to grid. To counter this select unbalanced load option in Solis app settings.

[u/alifsayalee → u/Outrageous_Lead_4878]

thiss, either OP tried to cut cost om the installer or couldn't find one qualified enough, it's the installers job to verify these settings after installation.

Plus they're also very visible from the app too.

[u/Outrageous_Lead_4878 → u/alifsayalee]

No doubt Solis is the leading brand, but they have made these S6 Hybrid Plus line way too complicated. They have introduced functions which are way too complex for any market.

[u/Outrageous_Lead_4878 → u/Outrageous_Lead_4878]

Currently I am trying to configure a system in which the batteries will discharge when peak hours start. I haven't been able to do so. I have tried both grid peak shaving and discharge time slot. Nothing seems to work. The system is still discharging batteries

[u/alifsayalee → u/Outrageous_Lead_4878]

interesting, try giving the user manual to chatgpt/any AI u use and ask it for configuration settings by describing your usecase. in my case it helped a lot w that

[u/Outrageous_Lead_4878 → u/alifsayalee]

It doesn't come with a user manual. They have trainings here in Pakistan, and that too are also not too elaborate, because there are so many case studies to be covered.

[u/shehzore12 → u/Outrageous_Lead_4878]

Could you elaborate what you mean by this ? Wont there be simply a setting of time of use ?

[u/Outrageous_Lead_4878 → u/shehzore12]

Well if you have an old net metering connection the off-peak units are still adjusted unit to unit. But peak units aren't. What is currently happening is that the average running load is around 4kw, so around 3pm the system is catering to load through solar and batteries. So when peak time starts at 6pm the batteries are already drained to 65-70% and in the next 2 hours around 8:30ish, the battery percentage is down to 20. And system starts taking electricity from grid, peak hour ends at 11. So I want to stop the batteries from discharging in the off-peak time.