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Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

DrPhilG

Well I've reached the point of driving everyone nuts on the PV quotes thread, and since I now have my system installed and running my endless questions no longer belong there.

So I figured I'd ask here, and also provide a home for others in the same boat, with general questions and advice on managing post-install.

My first question (of many) is how do people best manage their production in order to reduce grid export? Despite being overcast and miserable a fair bit of the day, I've produced 24kWh so far today, but ended up exporting 11.

Not too bad when we're home, as the wife did a few loads of washing and drying, put on the dishwasher etc.

But we're both at work tomorrow so other than a timed or remotely activated washer/dryer run we would end up exporting a lot more.

Extra battery capacity or a water diverter would help, but they don't tend to justify their costs in the long term.

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cubatahavana

graememk wrote: »

I'm using the openenergy stuff to monitor things.

If you can get a socket wired up beside your consumer unit using the emonpi is very easy. ( It needs ac power for the reference voltage)

I think owl do a monitor too, which is in the same price range.

As far as I know I have a socket beside, so good news

championc

daughy wrote: »

I have found big discrepancies between the Solis hybrid recording grid data and the myenergi ct clamp and I can't distinguish which is the correct one. I will take a meter reading at my old wind up meter to clarify but has anyone experienced this.
MyEnergi recorded 5.4kwh from midnight till now.
The Solis has 9.4kwh, it was updated 1 hour ago, piece of sh×t data logging to be honest. The site is always down.
The Solis is hardwired to the board but I'm unsure if it updates when it comes online.
I don't have batteries connected to the Solis so it goes to sleep when the sun goes down.
Anyone else get different figures?

Is the distance very short but then you left the CT Clamp with the original 5m cable all rolled up ? I had strange issues until I cut the cable down to just the length I needed.

While my PV readings are fed to my Eddi via a Harvi, they are always bang on

daughy

championc wrote: »

Is the distance very short but then you left the CT Clamp with the original 5m cable all rolled up ? I had strange issues until I cut the cable down to just the length I needed.

While my PV readings are fed to my Eddi via a Harvi, they are always bang on

I originally had it rolled up until you posted to make sure to cut it to length.
Its either or, the Solis or the myenergi, seeing as there are no batteries connected to the Solis in nearly sure when it shuts down in the evening it doesn't reupload the data from when it shut down till the next morning when it reactivated.
I could be wrong, as there is a digital meter connected on the main board to the Solis recording grid data.
I'll have a couple days off this week to test.
The myenergi seems to be doing the work though, testing it with appliances does show the power rating of each device.
Saying that though the YouTube channel ev puzzle said his data for the month with the myenergi was way over his other stats.
Tnx for the reply champion

daughy

Apologies guys, I just deleted a post about batteries, my calculations for the prices where wrong.

championc

Sorry, I should have clarified my post - the only MyEnergi data I ever look at is the instantaneous display, and at that, I do wish it displayed to two decimal places. So on that basis, it is indeed grossly inaccurate, since if you were generating 200w or 290w, it will always display this as 0.2kWh.

daughy

championc wrote: »

Sorry, I should have clarified my post - the only MyEnergi data I ever look at is the instantaneous display, and at that, I do wish it displayed to two decimal places. So on that basis, it is indeed grossly inaccurate, since if you were generating 200w or 290w, it will always display this as 0.2kWh.

I have noticed this flaw, does it accumulate though?

daughy

I'm nearly sure it does, the app will show imcrimints of 100 watts and up, never odd numbers as this is very disappointing.
But the myenergi website does show it looks like imcrimints of 10 watts. I think

Maybe I'm reading the data wrong

slave1

championc wrote: »

Sorry, I should have clarified my post - the only MyEnergi data I ever look at is the instantaneous display, and at that, I do wish it displayed to two decimal places. So on that basis, it is indeed grossly inaccurate, since if you were generating 200w or 290w, it will always display this as 0.2kWh.

The Eddi unit display shows the figures in watts e.g. 289w not (rounding) 0.3kW.
You'll find it in the "Readings" menu option

championc

daughy wrote: »

I'm nearly sure it does, the app will show imcrimints of 100 watts and up, never odd numbers as this is very disappointing.
But the myenergi website does show it looks like imcrimints of 10 watts. I think

Maybe I'm reading the data wrong

So I read that as importing 1.57kWh at that selected moment, with 4.3kWh imported through the whole day

daughy

championc wrote: »

So I read that as importing 1.57kWh at that selected moment, with 4.3kWh imported through the whole day

That's correct, 4.3kwh was imported from midnight till 08:44am, the 1.57kW was a random spike I picked as it was an odd number.
1570 watts.
Just strange the way it can be implemented in the website and not in the app.
I'm just wondering why the app is limited to 100 watt incriments?
Maybe that's all the ct clamps are designed for.
I'm not sure. I see other energy monitoring software/hardware have the entire solar data recorded, not incriments..

Maybe I'm nit picking

slave1

I don't think it's anything to do with the CT clamps, it's just the way the App is coded, the full watt detail is there in the background, you have to look at it on the Eddi or Zappi is all

daughy

slave1 wrote: »

I don't think it's anything to do with the CT clamps, it's just the way the App is coded, the full watt detail is there in the background, you have to look at it on the Eddi or Zappi is all

That's true, although I would have to physically check the Eddie. There is no way of knowing if your producing 99 watts of solar by looking at the app.. It seems to only activate the solar icon on the myenergi app when it's at or above 100 watts.
Am I missing something in the app?

slave1

Don't think so, there are times during the day with I've all blanks on the App as the house is consuming so little

daughy

So yesterday morning at 6am I took a meter reading at the grid, it read 52884, and then dismorn at just 6am, it read 52896.
That makes 12kwh used in 24 hours,
My myenergi data is most likely off, I actually think now the Solis inverter hard wire data is correct.
The 12kwh is yesterday and the 3kwh is from midnight till now.
Its actually alot if you have an electricity bill. Coming in every 2 months..
Approx 60 days of an extra 3kwh a day data.
60x3 is 180kwh..
That's pretty high.
I think il send these results to myenergi to to see what is the issue, as its an expensive kit, if you where getting an Eddie, harvi, hub, zappi.

idc

daughy wrote: »

extra 3kwh a day data.

What is your base load per hour normally?
I recently started recording usage from 11pm to 8am. And my average every night is 3kWh. That's combination of two fridges. Wifi/broadband and other stuff on standby. Curious now what other peoples base load is as a comparison!

** doh just noticed from 7 till 8 is not my base load as that's when we get up thus various appliances runnjng

DrPhilG

First time with the overnight charge last night. Worked fine. Started charging at midnight and started discharging at 8am.

slave1

idc wrote: »

...And my average every night is 3kWh. That's combination of two fridges. Wifi/broadband and other stuff on standby. Curious now what other peoples base load is as a comparison!
..

LOL, would love that, was 54kW last night, that's immersion, storage heater, dishwasher, two washing machines, 2.4kWh PV battery charge (40%-100%), dryer and Nissan Leaf30

daughy

idc wrote: »

What is your base load per hour normally?
I recently started recording usage from 11pm to 8am. And my average every night is 3kWh. That's combination of two fridges. Wifi/broadband and other stuff on standby. Curious now what other peoples base load is as a comparison!

** doh just noticed from 7 till 8 is not my base load as that's when we get up thus various appliances runnjng

I'm guessing now it's 24/12=1.92kwh

garo

idc wrote: »

What is your base load per hour normally?
I recently started recording usage from 11pm to 8am. And my average every night is 3kWh. That's combination of two fridges. Wifi/broadband and other stuff on standby. Curious now what other peoples base load is as a comparison!

** doh just noticed from 7 till 8 is not my base load as that's when we get up thus various appliances runnjng

Mine runs at 350W or 550W depending on whether I leave the desktop on. I have a server, fridge, router, Skybox etc. on overnight.

@slave1: I wouldn't count washing machines or dryers or EV charge under baseload. Baseload is the min consumption when no heavy appliance is on. But yeah your 54kWh is pretty shocking alright :eek: You don't use gas/oil to heat the water?

garo

daughy wrote: »

So yesterday morning at 6am I took a meter reading at the grid, it read 52884, and then dismorn at just 6am, it read 52896.
That makes 12kwh used in 24 hours,
My myenergi data is most likely off, I actually think now the Solis inverter hard wire data is correct.
The 12kwh is yesterday and the 3kwh is from midnight till now.
Its actually alot if you have an electricity bill. Coming in every 2 months..
Approx 60 days of an extra 3kwh a day data.
60x3 is 180kwh..
That's pretty high.
I think il send these results to myenergi to to see what is the issue, as its an expensive kit, if you where getting an Eddie, harvi, hub, zappi.

Are you sure both your Solis and your eddi CT clamps are around the same wire? I had this issue before and I was missing some circuits on one CT clamp until I realised the mistake.

idc

garo wrote: »

Mine runs at 350W or 550W depending on whether I leave the desktop on. I have a server, fridge, router, Skybox etc. on overnight.

Yeah looking at my graphs its typically between 160W and 350W. So in total about 2kWh every night for house baseload.

Outside of using oven/dishwasher/etc during the day TV / lights / games consoles etc usually only push that to about 500W.

daughy

garo wrote: »

Are you sure both your Solis and your eddi CT clamps are around the same wire? I had this issue before and I was missing some circuits on one CT clamp until I realised the mistake.

There both on a grid wire, incoming to the house.
But even if it was a case where they were not I'm nearly sure the myenergi data wouldn't over produce if the actual spinning grid meter I have says 12kwh for a 24 hour period.
I'm guessing it would under produce..
I didn't have room on my main board for the Solis ct clamp to go beside or close to the myenergi ct clamp, so the electrician clamped the Solis ct clamp on the closest grid line available on the board. I'm guessing it's all one grid line and power is being pulled from that line even if its before or after a circuit breaker?
My solis is giving a different reading right now than the myenergi, the myenergi is actually lower.
Seeing as the main meter said 12kwh used since the 17th till 6am on the 18th, now its 4 hours later and the Solis is saying over 8kwh used..
And myenergi is saying 6kwh used.. The brain is fried now

daughy

Forgot to add the screenshot

slave1

garo wrote: »

Mine runs at 350W or 550W depending on whether I leave the desktop on. I have a server, fridge, router, Skybox etc. on overnight.

@slave1: I wouldn't count washing machines or dryers or EV charge under baseload. Baseload is the min consumption when no heavy appliance is on. But yeah your 54kWh is pretty shocking alright :eek: You don't use gas/oil to heat the water?

Ah, didn't notice baseload piece, my baseload is rounded to 0.2kW on MyEnergi app.

No gas in my area to use to heat the water and although I have oil it's backup only, generally speaking the electricity used to heat my water at night is generated from renewable in the main whereas if I used the oil that would be 100% fossil depletion.
I fitted my Eddi on Monday but it has a hardware fault so replacement due tomorrow, my intention is to use excess solar to heat the water and reduce night rate electricity usage, I know it is unlikely to do much at this time of the year but I anticpate good "excess" come the brighter months, right now I'm putting 0.7kW into the grid

garo

Good point about night immersion being mostly renewable. What about heating? Do you have a heatpump? :pac:

slave1

garo wrote: »

Good point about night immersion being mostly renewable. What about heating? Do you have a heatpump? :pac:

I heat the house with 1/3 bucket of coal, highly insulated house, although coal is fossil etc we really like a fire

championc

daughy wrote: »

Forgot to add the screenshot

That Solis screenshot is saying that you are exporting loads to the grid and importing nothing !!!

Have you a nuclear reactor in your back garden ???

graememk

championc wrote: »

That Solis screenshot is saying that you are exporting loads to the grid and importing nothing !!!

Have you a nuclear reactor in your back garden ???

If that's the case, is the ct on the wrong way round?

daughy

Had to get a better screenshot,
This was from 3 hours ago before the inverter went offline. I will have to check the ct clamp as the electrician clamped it on. I did the myenergi ones.

championc

daughy wrote: »

Had to get a better screenshot,
This was from 3 hours ago before the inverter went offline. I will have to check the ct clamp as the electrician clamped it on. I did the myenergi ones.

Something seriously arseways there. You've only consumed 1.3kWh since midnight until after sunset ???