So now I have a solar PV system how do I make the most of it???

themaverick1953

Anyone use the Wattson 01 for montoring? Can it do anything the Owl monitor doesn't? My Solar company (Evoenergy) offeredto fit one for £180 + vat. However they have also offered to relocate the Invertor for free from the loft to the garage, so at least I'll be able to see the readout conveniently there.

themaverick1953

:jOK, this monitoring business. If I put an Owl on the AC output from the Inverter, that will show me generation. Do I need another one to go on the normal meter if I want to work out whats being exported? ( I realsie it can';t measure the outgoing leccy and only the balance, and even then not which direction its going in).

My digital meter flashes red when leccy is incomming and has a continuous red when exporting. Is there anyway of getting this information conveninetly , together with the meter reading inside the house?

Surely we should have the technology nowadays to have all this on your own website as part of the installation deal? It seems archaic not to.

JenR8

Scrumpy5 - When our pv installer called to fix something he mentioned that there was now available a system that had solar pv on the top and thermal underneath. The solar thermal had the effect of cooling the pv panels, making them more efficient. There's a slight loss of heat to the thermal part, but interesting development.

Jon_Tiffany

themaverick1953 wrote: »

:jOK, this monitoring business. If I put an Owl on the AC output from the Inverter, that will show me generation. Do I need another one to go on the normal meter if I want to work out whats being exported? ( I realsie it can';t measure the outgoing leccy and only the balance, and even then not which direction its going in).

My digital meter flashes red when leccy is incomming and has a continuous red when exporting. Is there anyway of getting this information conveninetly , together with the meter reading inside the house?

Surely we should have the technology nowadays to have all this on your own website as part of the installation deal? It seems archaic not to.

Assuming your normal (import) meter is not one that spins backwards you can easily calculate your export.

Your normal meter will record your import.

The OWL monitor will record both import and export

Just deduct the kWh recorded by the import meter from the OWL total and you have your export amount.

themaverick1953

OK but I will have to go outside in the cold and wet to open the leccy cupboard door to do this? No way of remotley getting it in the comfort of my own home?

themaverick1953

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

Assuming your normal (import) meter is not one that spins backwards you can easily calculate your export.

Your normal meter will record your import.

The OWL monitor will record both import and export

Just deduct the kWh recorded by the import meter from the OWL total and you have your export amount.

Where would the wlo go to record impoprt and export? I was imasgining it would go on the inverter to record generation?

celerity

themaverick1953 wrote: »

OK but I will have to go outside in the cold and wet to open the leccy cupboard door to do this? No way of remotley getting it in the comfort of my own home?

If your inverter supports it, you can get a bluetooth module such as a Sunny Beam to monitor generated output wirelessly.

You can also use a pair of clamp meters in your metering box to monitor your generated power separately to your usage (provided your system was wired so you can access the wires to attach the clamps at the correct points).

I do all of the above and also upload my realtime generated stats to the web so I can monitor my panels from my phone etc.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

/\dam

stoozey

If you have the SMA inverter and a laptop with bluetooth you can pull all the data from it using the free sunnybeam software from the SMA website.

Saves a couple hundred quid for the remote.

themaverick1953

I have a Kaco inverter 4020 - so presumably not?

Jon_Tiffany

themaverick1953 wrote: »

Where would the wlo go to record impoprt and export? I was imasgining it would go on the inverter to record generation?

Put the OWL monitor on the main cables to your normal electric meter.

As the OWL monitor works by sensing the current in the cable it doesn't matter which direction its going in, so the OWL will total both the import and export amount.

However, your normal electric meter only records import, unless its one that turns backwards which seem to be fairly un common.