1. The Home Energy Monitor provided by npower is meant to be an in-home guide to your electricity consumption before the roll out of smart metering from 2014. Unfortunately the energy monitor manufacturers didn't account for the possibility of households generating and exporting their own electricity, so for customers who want to monitor their consumption and export, there is a bit of a gap.
When smart meters are installed you will have the capability to measure your PV systems' export as well as your standard electricity import.
In addition to this, all of the metering devices will be compatible with a "home area network" which will allow your meters to talk wirelessly to an in-home display very much similar to the monitor you have.
Details are still being worked out with energy suppliers, meter manufacturers and government so there is still a way to go, but there will be much more accurate and accessible options for you in the future to monitor both your energy use and your Solar PV systems' performance.
2. The Feed in Tariffs were set-up to encourage Solar PV customers to do two things: generate as much electricity as possible and use as much electricity as you can in your home.
The value of you exporting "green" electricity back into the national grid is far less beneficial in reducing CO2 emissions and the national cost of electricity, then you importing less "dirty" electricity by using what your Solar PV systems has generated on site. Because of this government has set your Feed in Tariff payments for export to be less important then your generation.
The 50% estimate for deeming your export payments is based on comprehensive studies and even if your actual export percentage was 75% of your total generation it would make such a minimal difference to your overall income you earn through Feed in Tariffs.
At the moment the majority of energy suppliers cannot support export meters as that is being addressed as part the smart metering roll out in 2014.
3. I'm afraid we're not conducting anymore Solar PV smart metering trials as we are preparing for the full roll out in 2014. To keep informed please visit here.
