Huge discrepancy between Solis data and meter reading

SD_DRACULA

Got my elec bill for the dates 6/08 - 5/10 and it came in at 249kwh usage.

I looked at the grid import values on the Soiscloud app for the same dates I get 197kwh import

I just checked the meter and yes the actual reading does match.

Now I know the Solis might not be 100% accurate at logging those but 50kwh is a huge amount, I expected a few kwh.

Anyone else find this? Sounds wrong to me.

Just checked and mine was:

Meter imported 160 units

Solis imported 139 units

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058212224/huge-discrepancy-between-solis-data-and-meter-reading

50 difference over two months, that's less than 1kW a day (just some perspective) for a view via CT clamps estimation

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058212224/huge-discrepancy-between-solis-data-and-meter-reading

Solis cloud only logs every 5 minutes it could miss spikes. Ie kettle etc.

Also 50 kwh is less that 1 kwh a day.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117993261#Comment_117993261

Mine logs every 1 min so was expecting higher resolution.

I also have a ShellyEM that is clamped to my main feed and that came in at around 233kwh imported for the same period, but this does log every 10 secs or so which makes sense that it is more accurate.

Just wondering if everyone is seeing the same.

reklamos

I would not blame Solis here as it is only reporting what the meter is reporting to it. You should have meter in your trip box with a clamp. This reports import/export data to Solis. So it could be that the problem is with the meter. Mine has LCD and I can check usage on it. See if you have something similar.

SD_DRACULA

Yes I believe there are two, one standalone meter for total generation and another inside a small consumer unit, will check it out tomorrow but wondering if everyone else is seeing as big a difference between solis data and real data.

MATTYON

Hi,

Yes I have it as well

Glad someone else is seeing the same thing,

I have only newly installed the system (3 weeks) so I am watching it closely at the moment and this is something I noticed.

Although I expected some difference I didn't expect it to be in this direction e.g Solis app consumption being less than meter consumption. (I hoped it would be the meter reading less than Solis app)

There is still lots of other stuff I don't understand. Like why is my battery supplying the grid?

millb

Hi,

I've been checking this with the SMART meter and I notice the Solis CT is reading 1 unit less per day.

(for 21 days in May the smart meter imported 47 units and the Solis recorded 26 units)

(for 12 days in June the smart meter imported 31 units while the Solis recorded just 19 units imported)

The Export is quite close generally a difference of 1 unit per week maybe 5 to 10% eg in May 41 export on SM and 37 on SolisCloud. And 21SM v 19SolisCloud for 12 days of July.

SD_DRACULA

Yes it's quite annoying, solis reports 0kwh imported for most days for me but I have a shelly em at the CU and it always registers anywhere from 0.1 to 1kwh per day which almost matches my meter.

Basically the solis is quite stupid/slow at reading spikes in demand, usually kettle, cooker, oven even EV charging from smart charger can offset it.

Latest firmware doesn't seem to fix anything.

I call major BS on their advertised 20ms reaction times

Big Lar

I wonder is it that because the inverter turns off when out of battery or if one has no battery at all installed and hence does not record the usage when the inverter is powered down ?

SD_DRACULA

When a battery is connected to the inverter the Solis never power down completely because it needs to monitor the battery and charge it from grid if voltage gets too low so it's not that if a battery is present.

It's just too slow to react. Shouldn't be rocket science to get right if the €80 shelly CT clamp can read it just fine.

irishchris

Yep noticed the same myself with the Solis meter grid usage living and the myenergi loving. The myenergi is pretty spot on but Solis way off

AnswerIs42

Came across this thread so checked my own readings.

My provider is telling me I've used 3100kw this year so far, Solis is telling me I've used 1600kw so there is a big difference over time.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119212908#Comment_119212908

That's a gross error and should not be that big....is your provider using an estimate or is this from actual meter readings.

silver_sky

I'm seeing differences in solis vs smart meter data also. Solis was showing 1kWh for this week and smart meter dashboard about 4kWh in total. Myenergi hub was reading about 5kWh.

I think perhaps the solis is ignoring anything below a certain amount but the little amounts do add up.

AnswerIs42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119214537#Comment_119214537

I have a smart meter so it's an actual reading.

stevekn

isnt one problem that the app seems to round down all of the KWh readings? 0.9KWh becomes 0 ?

new to solis cloud, still trying to find my way around .

poker--addict

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195980#Comment_119195980

What’s it doing with no battery? Shutting down and ignoring any night consumption? A large chunk of my usage is on night rate.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743396#Comment_119743396

Yeah that's the default behaviour without battery which is kind of stupid as you will get nothing logged until PV kicks in.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743123#Comment_119743123

Noticed that too

poker--addict

Ok, so total consumption figures useless unless battery in play. Pretty crap app considering how good it should be. I have my old owl meter, will get some batteries for it 😀

poker--addict

Is there an easy way to zero the data in solis app or do I need to reset Wi-Fi dongle? Want to zero it/align it with my owl meter.

yannakis

My discrepancy was more like 40%. The inverter only started feeding from the battery above 200-300W and there was a constant shadow that grew proportionally with the demand. Yesterday my installer changed the meter in the consumer unit and now it's accuracy is 90-95%.

Have a look at this post https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119941417/#Comment_119941417

Manion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119743501#Comment_119743501

The inverter seems to use about 80 watts, so it’s an expensive way to measure power usage if that’s all it was doing.

I’ve to get the power meter replaced on mine as it was dead on arrival. Is there a special meter that only works with solis? I’ll also be installing a Shelly em at the same point.

Also, something folks might find weird is that the ESB meter is not accurate either. There is no true reading of what you consume, though obviously the meter is the best measure we have available.

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119955144#Comment_119955144

Surely the ESB Meter is the only true reading as that's what we all pay for. So it matters not what other devices say. Do you mean the ESB meter isn't calibrated correctly so you're paying less / more than you should? I've a 1967 meter so curious to know how they are calibrated. I won't pretend to know but up to now I assumed the meter was all knowing and all seeing.

Manion

I wouldn't worry about it. Id have to hark back over 15 years to give a half decent explanation.

poker--addict

Mine is showing 40kw consumed in one place and 12kw in another.

footfall789

Not sure if any conclusion was made on this , but does it mean that the Smart Meter is correct always and the SolosCloud app is just something that gives a ball park figure .

Like most here I installed Solar Panels on Oct 2022 and then the Smart Meter was installed on Nov 2023 . on Imported KWH I have a difference between Solis and Smart Meter of about +3% KWH imported on Smart Meter compared to the SolisCloud App. e.g Imported fro GRID showing 10.3 Kwh on Smart Meter , but showing 10Kwh imported on Solis App.

However difference seem to be more pronounced when comparing exported KWH, difference seems to be -30% in favour of Smart Meter e.g exported 10Kwh to the Grid showing on Solis where as the Smart Meter is showing 7Kwh.

I get the impression from what I am reading that the Solis app only tracks import/export KWH on an irregular basis. If this was the case then the exported KWH should be less that registered by the Smart Meter but it is the opposite.

Also I do have Solar Batteries if this makes any difference.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121585931#Comment_121585931

Yes, the website is a 5minute update interval.

footfall789

Not sure I follow you , Solis logs all information and stores in the Buffer/memory and then pushes all that info every five minutes.

Whether it is 5 minutes or 25 minutes (as long as the Solis memory/buffer is big enough to store that recorded data ) then it should push all the info .

Even if that were not the case and it lost some of the data for some reason, the amount of KWH exported to the GRID should show up as being less than what is shown on the smart Meter but it is not .

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121587347#Comment_121587347

It doesn't store anything.

It just takes all the values every 5 minutes. If it could catch a kettle boiling or completely misses it .

10-10-20

If you're seeing variation between ESB reported and inverter reported energy sensor while using Home Assistant, have a look at the integration method used by the HA sensor.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/integration/#integration-method

In my view a generic CT clamp isn't a precision instrument and only has a loose physical-link to the current conductor, so there's that element of loss of precision. Secondly there's the update interval too, having that too far apart is going to reduce the precision of the calculation and that will lead to the integration calculation being significantly off.

Just as a test, I'll configure a set of different integrations and see what I get at the end of the day. I suspect that it won't be off by much as the sensor reports back very frequently, but a less chatty sensor would lead to a bigger difference.

# Integration calculation testing:

  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.shelly_em_esb_meter_channel_1_power
    name: test_shelly_em_LEFT_power_daily_energy
    method: left
    unit_time: d
    unit_prefix: k
    round: 3

  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.shelly_em_esb_meter_channel_1_power
    name: test_shelly_em_RIGHT_power_daily_energy
    method: right
    unit_time: d
    unit_prefix: k
    round: 3

  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.shelly_em_esb_meter_channel_1_power
    name: test_shelly_em_trapezoidal_power_daily_energy
    method: trapezoidal
    unit_time: d
    unit_prefix: k
    round: 3

# END Integration calculation testing

tigertoo

Hi all,

Having a Solis inverter installed since June I am happy to say the readings are very accurate. Comparing detail from ESB reported consumption and export I have the following detail for September 2024.

ESB

Import:  575.8 Kwh

Export: 334.8 Kwh

Solis Inverter

Import: 570.24 Kwh

Export: 331.44 Kwh

BTW the 5min sample is an avg of the last 5 min so while you may not get some peaks the result should be accurate enough.