System monitors

[kthat...@googlemail.com]

Hi Guys

Not sure if any of you geniuses can help a 78 year old understand this problem.

I have a 3.68KW Solaredge system fitted in October 2015,.

I am monitoring output, usage and costs in three different ways.

I. The generation meter. (for FIT Payments).

2. The solaredge portal. (for average daily, monthly, and yearly generation)

3. An actual monitoring system (Geo solo 3) made by Green energy options of Cambridge. The Solo III PV. Is an easy-to-read solar display that shows kW generated, ££s earned through the Feed in Tariff (FIT) and CO2 saved – viewable both in real-time and as historic data, the Solo III PV will even tell me when to turn on my high-load home appliances to help you use every last kW drop of generated energy.

My intention to use the Solo system was to give me an idea on savings made by the PV system, which, when added to the FIT payments would give me an idea as to the return of my investment into the original cost of fitting the PV system.

Having used these systems for about a year now I find all three systems are telling different reading.

The Generation meter readings are, I assume is accurate but the Solaredge portal readings are about 3.8% higher than the generation meter, while the Solo system readings are about 18% lower.

The inverter, generation, and Solo 3 meters are all about 3 feet apart.

Can anyone explain the big differences please?

Thank you.

Keith.

[Ian Bocking]

Hi Keith,
From a 73 year old junior. I also have a Solar Edge installation which includes a GEM hot water heater diverter. Rather than try to reconcile all the different inputs and outputs I use the Generation meter as the primary information source since, in my view, that is where the system interfaces with the rest of the world, indicates the FIT payments and provides a consistent view of the operation.
I have a spreadsheet on which I record daily utility consumption, mains electricity, PV generation and Gas. In general terms the graphs produced provide an overall view of the system performance and, when I plug the car in, the spreadsheet flags up the additional load over normal household consumption.
I use the Solar Edge portal to give rough comparisons year on year that will inform me if there are any issues with the installation.
Kind Regards,
Ian Bocking
ianbo...@gmail.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Microgen Database" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to microgen-database...@sheffield.ac.uk.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/d/msgid/microgen-database-group/107c4dff-26cf-4ec0-bab6-6e22f3a31572%40sheffield.ac.uk.

[El Bocko]

Hi Keith,

A linked spreadsheet. A sheet for each month with a record of Daily gas, utility electricity and PV readings. These then determine daily usage which,  then lookup the present contract costs and fit payments to produce daily cost and usage graphs. They also average out the cost because Gas in particular is not very precise.

Presently most of my cost is in the daily connection fee which is why I am with Co-op Energy (now Octopus managed) as it is one of the cheaper connection fees at 17.5 p per day.

Monthly sheets roll up to produce a continuing regular overview sheet of usage and costs and also contains the lookup section for gas conversion rates and contract costs.

I could have gone for a database but the spreadsheet works well for me.

Kind Regards,
Ian Bocking

On Thu, 7 May 2020, 22:49 kthattwood, <kthat...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Hi Ian

Thank you for your interesting response.

I have an Iboost system just to heat the hot water tank, but apart from the readings on the generation meter, (which just tell what I generate per day) how do you record your daily utility consumption, mains electricity, PV generation etc.

Regards.

Keith.

Kind Regards,
Ian Bocking

[John Rush]

I have been using this site. It helps. This is the data for our installation.

https://www.pvoutput.org/statistic.jsp?id=75790&sid=67190

You can upload the daily figures easily enough and the summary makes interesting reading.

[El Bocko]

On Thursday, 7 May 2020 19:19:26 UTC+1, El Bocko wrote:

Hi Keith,

From a 73 year old junior. I also have a Solar Edge installation which includes a GEM hot water heater diverter. Rather than try to reconcile all the different inputs and outputs I use the Generation meter as the primary information source since, in my view, that is where the system interfaces with the rest of the world, indicates the FIT payments and provides a consistent view of the operation.
I have a spreadsheet on which I record daily utility consumption, mains electricity, PV generation and Gas. In general terms the graphs produced provide an overall view of the system performance and, when I plug the car in, the spreadsheet flags up the additional load over normal household consumption.
I use the Solar Edge portal to give rough comparisons year on year that will inform me if there are any issues with the installation.

Not sure if any of you geniuses can help a 78 year old understand this problem.

I have a 3.68KW Solaredge system fitted in October 2015,.

I am monitoring output, usage and costs in three different ways.

I. The generation meter. (for FIT Payments).

2. The solaredge portal. (for average daily, monthly, and yearly generation)

3. An actual monitoring system (Geo solo 3) made by Green energy options of Cambridge. The Solo III PV. Is an easy-to-read solar display that shows kW generated, ££s earned through the Feed in Tariff (FIT) and CO2 saved – viewable both in real-time and as historic data, the Solo III PV will even tell me when to turn on my high-load home appliances to help you use every last kW drop of generated energy.

My intention to use the Solo system was to give me an idea on savings made by the PV system, which, when added to the FIT payments would give me an idea as to the return of my investment into the original cost of fitting the PV system.

Having used these systems for about a year now I find all three systems are telling different reading.

The Generation meter readings are, I assume is accurate but the Solaredge portal readings are about 3.8% higher than the generation meter, while the Solo system readings are about 18% lower.

The inverter, generation, and Solo 3 meters are all about 3 feet apart.

Can anyone explain the big differences please?

Thank you.

Keith.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Microgen Database" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to microgen-database-group+unsub...@sheffield.ac.uk.

[kthat...@googlemail.com]

HI Ian

Thank you so much for this info.

I have just received a link (from another subscriber) to download a spreadsheet in order to monitor my PV output.

Many thanks again.

Stat safe.

Keith.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to microgen-database-group+unsub...@sheffield.ac.uk.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/d/msgid/microgen-database-group/107c4dff-26cf-4ec0-bab6-6e22f3a31572%40sheffield.ac.uk.

Kind Regards,
Ian Bocking

[kthat...@googlemail.com]

Hi John

Thanks taking an interest and for the link.

I will have to study it but it looks very interesting.

Thank you so much.

Stay safe.

Keith.