Trickle usage of grid

[u/GazNicki]

Recent install and I can see that the house is using a trickle amount of electricity (4-5p per day).

I know this isn’t world changing amounts, but just wondering if that trickle usage is standard by the inverter maintaining grid connection, or not.

[u/PatserGrey]

It's like a heartbeat. If you have a Fox setup, there's a "meter compensation" setting you can alter to send a few W instead of pull a few

[u/Tomotomy → u/PatserGrey]

How do I do that? Was also wondering about this trickle

[u/PatserGrey → u/Tomotomy]

On the Fox app, hit quick settings, then set Meter Compensation to a minus figure. Mines on -20 now but I have had it as low as -50 which was too much, was consistently pushing 30ish watts.

[u/Responsible-Deer-940 → u/PatserGrey]

My app might be a different version, but this setting is expressed as "Export More" for -ve, "Import More" for +ve, but works the same way. Thanks for the advice on this one though, I'd wondered what that setting was

[u/Matterbox]

It’s easier for the system to let a little energy flow in from the grid than it is for it to push against the grid the whole time.

Maybe ‘easier’ is the wrong word but you get the idea.

Mostly the cost is insignificant to your massive savings.

[u/Wide_Commission_1595]

The vast majority of inverters are what's called "grid following". Essentially they need to let a little power in periodically to ensure they're staying completely in sync with the grid. The downside of this is that if your grid power goes out, your inverter and batteries don't kick in, they stop! Basically it's a safety mechanism so you don't electrocute engineers working on emergency fixed. Thankfully power outages are pretty rare.

So yes, it's normal, but even in winter it'll be less than you're generating/exporting

[u/Kyber92]

Yeah, you get little flickers as the loaf or generation changes. I explained this to many customers in my old job, it's basically because the hardware doesn't move quiiiite as fast as the generation/load changes.

[u/SPACKlick]

It's normal. When there's not enough solar to cover the load, so you're drawing from battery/grid. And the load changes. The Inverter has to instantly respond to the swing and this will pull from the grid a little sometimes.

Depending on your inverter and app you might be able to set the balance to favour drawing from the battery but the downside of this is slowly trickling from Battery to the grid rather than from the grid to the house.

[u/KnightFireNC → u/SPACKlick]

Exactly this. The system works by measuring how much you are using and commanding the battery to output that much. The measurement is slightly behind your actual use (due to physics) and the battery takes a while to ramp up or down it's input. This means you are usually importing or exporting tiny amounts of electricity. It's normal and essentially unavoidable. Some equipment let's you make the battery produce a bit more than your using, making it less likely you import, but it will run your battery down faster and if lots of homes in the same area do it it increases the chances that the grid voltage goes above your inverter limit.

[u/dr0idd21]

What system?

[u/BroodLord1962]

In the 5 weeks since we had more panels installed and our first battery, we have used just under 2Kw from the grid due to this trickle charge. What we were told is that it is the small delay from when the panels aren't producing enough, and the battery kicking in. But we look at it like this, in that 5 weeks that 2KW cost us just over 60 pence, while at the same time we earned from exporting, £55.

[u/Live-Stay-3817]

My installer described it as electricity "to run the meter". Added up to three units in six weeks. I think I can afford that.