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Deemed or metered export: which are you on?
Most people on the Feed-in Tariff have never checked, and it changes what a battery, an electric car or a heat pump is worth to them. It is worth two minutes with your statement.
The short answer. 780,554 of the 869,807 installations on the register, 90 per cent, are on deemed export, which assumes half of everything you generate is exported and pays you for that half whatever you actually export. Only 62,711 are on metered export, where the exported units are measured. Which is better for you depends on one thing: how much of your own generation you use.
What the two mean
Deemed export. A fixed proportion of your generation, currently 50 per cent, is assumed to be exported. You are paid the export rate on that half, regardless of what actually left your house. No export meter is involved, so your statement shows only a generation reading.
Metered export. An export meter records what you genuinely send to the grid, and you are paid on that. Your statement carries an export reading as well as a generation reading.
Why deemed quietly rewards self-consumption
This is the part worth understanding, because it is the opposite of what people assume. On deemed export you are paid for exporting half your generation even if you export almost none of it. So every unit you keep and use yourself, from a battery, an electric car, a heat pump or simply running the washing machine in daylight, is a unit you are paid for twice: once as a unit you did not have to buy, and once as part of the deemed 50 per cent you are still paid to export.
That is why the battery guide can say a battery does not cost you anything on your Feed-in Tariff. It is only true on deemed export, which is 90 per cent of installations.
When metered can pay more
If you export most of what you generate, because you are out during the day and use little of it, a metered arrangement can pay for the real amount, which may be well above the deemed half. The trade-off is that it measures reality in both directions: a household that then adds a battery and starts using its own power would see a metered export payment fall, where a deemed one would not.
Changing from one to the other
You can move from deemed to metered by installing an export meter, at which point the deemed payments stop and you are paid on the meter instead. It is not usually worth doing for a household that uses a good share of its own electricity, for the reason above, and it is close to irreversible in spirit because you would not want to switch back and forth.
The same export meter is what you would need to move onto the Smart Export Guarantee when your Feed-in Tariff term ends, so if you are near the end of your term it is worth thinking about the two together rather than separately.
We cannot see your statement or your export type, and neither can anyone who has not. It is on your FIT paperwork and your licensee will confirm it. What we can tell you is which way the arithmetic points once you know it, which is the useful half.
Export status counts from the Ofgem Feed-in Tariff installation report of 2025-12-31. The deemed export proportion and the rules on moving to a metered meter are as published by Ofgem in its Feed-in Tariffs guidance for generators. Information only, and not financial advice.