High Level Summary of Learning: Domestic Solar PV Customers

Abstract

This report examines the nature and practice of energy use by domestic customers in the CLNR project who generated their own solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity. It brings together power monitoring data capable of providing insight into how electricity is generated and used at the household level with data concerning how households respond to these new forms of energy generation. The report draws on the data for test cell 5 (solar PV) and test cell 20 IHD (solar PV with an in-home display showing consumption, export and import readings). Over the period 1st January 2013 – 31st December 2013, there were 143 customers in TC5 and 149 customers in TC20 IHD. The TC5 and TC20 data is compared to the analysis of TC1a (a control set of customers with no interventions except smart meters and in-home displays of consumption) which contained a total of 8415 customers with data monitored over the period 1st October 2012 – 30th September 2013. Social science research was conducted with households to investigate their current patterns and practices of electricity use and how this had changed along with the use of low carbon technologies and participation in the interventions developed under the CLNR project). In total, the analysis draws on 46 separate interviews with house tours.