Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

Oscargrouch

Martyn1981 wrote: »

But, almost impossible now, not to beat last years disastrous 82%. Phew!

Mart.

Nothing is impossible until it happens......

Martyn1981

EricMears wrote: »

That's certainly true for me too. June generation to date is currently at 93% of the pvgis forecast for whole month. Pro-rata'd that might suggest 26% above target (or it could of course be almost anything else). Last June I was 9% below pvgis.

Hiya Eric, tricky for me to do direct comparisons (till Aug) due to extension, but 82% last year equates to another 20kWh's against this years target, so hopefully safe after today/tomorrow.

Unfair to single out June 2012 for blame, but the year closed at 98.6% of target, and June 18% 'losses' equated to 2.24% of annual target (including extension Aug to Dec).

Still staggered at 2012 result, as I'd expected a 10% loss for shading and 'overhype' just in case.

Original ESE hits its 2nd birthday on 9/8/13. If gen is average till then, currently predicting 5,669kWhs /2 = 2,834 against annual target of 2,863 (which hasn't been adjusted to account for small amount of shading).

My brain still can't accept 99% as being more than just a fluke - yet I'm normally such an optimist!

Mart.

k66

Hi all, this morning whilst on economy 7 and the PV was generating about 400w the Optiplug, which is calibrated to the 2kw immersion heater, switched the immersion on for a few seconds and then off again.
The Optiplug has been working perfectly well but on reflection I have noticed a couple of odd (about 5 second usage) spikes on Holmes so maybe it has done this before. These very occasional, very short, unexplained spikes have been at night when we were asleep and there was no pv production.
I will calibrate my other Optiplug and try that but wonder if anyone else has had a similar issue?

I am very pleased with the 2wk immersion heater linked to Optiplug and must stress that this has only happened a few times. Maybe I have a faulty Optiplug?

EricMears

I suppose you are quite sure that the immersion heater actually switched on ?

The neon light in the optiplug flashes occasionally just to confirm that it's talking to the Wattson OK. Not usually for 'a few seconds' though - more like half a second but maybe there's some other obscure function that causes a longer flash.

And can you really see a 5 second spike on Holmes ? Mine doesn't seem to move at all in the short term - and in spite of reading on another MSE thread that you can allegedly alter sampling rate I still can't find out how to do that.

Oscargrouch

EricMears wrote: »

And can you really see a 5 second spike on Holmes ? Mine doesn't seem to move at all in the short term - and in spite of reading on another MSE thread that you can allegedly alter sampling rate I still can't find out how to do that.

On Holmes 2 software you can get the graph segments down to show 1 hr of graph on screen; this is then segmented to 5 min intervals which can then be viewed in 30 sec sections by placing the cursor over the line at any point. The results rarely change apart from either the start or end of a 5 minute interval. I also think that the graph is dependant on the rate that the transmitter is set to send the data to Wattson.

Edit: Still trying to work out 5 sec usage of 2kWh. Assuming 12p per kWh, must have a cost of £0.002p. So not too expensive. :rotfl:

EricMears

Oscargrouch wrote: »

On Holmes 2 software you can get the graph segments down to show 1 hr of graph on screen; this is then segmented to 5 min intervals which can then be viewed in 30 sec sections by placing the cursor over the line at any point. The results rarely change apart from either the start or end of a 5 minute interval. I also think that the graph is dependant on the rate that the transmitter is set to send the data to Wattson.

Thanks Oscar but :-

I can see no facility within Holmes to adjust scales (I am using Holmes 2.0.1742 ). You'd think <Tools> <Holmes Settings> would offer something but there doesn't appear to be an <adjust scales> option. The best I can manage is to display the graph full screen when a 24h graph shows 2hr time divisions. On such a graph I can put cursor over lines - but still only get readings at 5min intervals.

I'm sure it would be dependent on Wattson transmitter rate - but I can't find an adjustment option for that either ! Again,, <Tools> <Wattson Settings> would be the obvious place to look but no option offered there for sampling rate.

Even the <Help> button is pretty useless - that does give me a page of 'Startup Help' but absolutely nothing else ! Nor indeed do there appear to be any 'extra' files in the <program> folder that might contain Help info.

All in all, I'm not getting a lot of benefit from Holmes 2.

k66

EricMears wrote: »

I suppose you are quite sure that the immersion heater actually switched on ?

The neon light in the optiplug flashes occasionally just to confirm that it's talking to the Wattson OK. Not usually for 'a few seconds' though - more like half a second but maybe there's some other obscure function that causes a longer flash.

And can you really see a 5 second spike on Holmes ? Mine doesn't seem to move at all in the short term - and in spite of reading on another MSE thread that you can allegedly alter sampling rate I still can't find out how to do that.

Thanks for your response, I have observed the flashing of the Optiplug and the changes in the rate when I have altered the transmitter, I have it communicating at the fastest rate. My husband was in the bathroom at the time and heard the immersion come on (hissing sound) and then it switched off, it was on for no more than 5 seconds. The PV production was very low at the time.
We are both now very familiar with the operations of the Optiplug and are confident that it is properly calibrated for the immersion. It has been operating for a few weeks but the night time hair line spikes that I mentioned which appeared on Holmes is a mystery as it showed much more power than the security light. I will look at the data later on and see if today's 'incident ' is recorded - but as today's forecast was for an overcast day I ran the dishwasher and washing machine on economy 7.

I am wondering if it happened at the same time as the switch over from economy 7 to day rate electricity.:cool:

Oscargrouch

EricMears wrote: »

Thanks Oscar but :-

I can see no facility within Holmes to adjust scales (I am using Holmes 2.0.1742 ). You'd think <Tools> <Holmes Settings> would offer something but there doesn't appear to be an <adjust scales> option. The best I can manage is to display the graph full screen when a 24h graph shows 2hr time divisions. On such a graph I can put cursor over lines - but still only get readings at 5min intervals.

I'm sure it would be dependent on Wattson transmitter rate - but I can't find an adjustment option for that either ! Again,, <Tools> <Wattson Settings> would be the obvious place to look but no option offered there for sampling rate.

It is simple; just pull the slider down that is on the R/H side of the 'history' screen right to the bottom. That gives you 1 hr across the screen in 5min segments.

The adjustment for transmission rate is on the transmitter itself (close to the flashing LED light) 3 adjustments, set to the one that flashes every 3 sec.

EricMears

Oscargrouch wrote: »

It is simple; just pull the slider down that is on the R/H side of the 'history' screen right to the bottom. That gives you 1 hr across the screen in 5min segments.

The adjustment for transmission rate is on the transmitter itself (close to the flashing LED light) 3 adjustments, set to the one that flashes every 3 sec.

Thanks Oscar,

Absolutely no reference to that slider within programme or the (limited) help text.

I can now see a scale with 5min divisions. Will look at the transmitter later. That's on 'history' page only - no similar slider on 'dashboard' graph.

All I need now is to persuade the Wattson system to show same generation figures as the inverter does ! I could do that by altering the mains voltage figure that Holmes uses - but (a) it only lets you move in 10 volt steps and (b) I know I'm using the best figure already .




[later] Found button on Wattson OK and increased sampling rate to max. Graph now offers 30 sec readings as Oscar described. Bizarrely, it also offers 30s readings for the period before I altered sampling rate !

Oscargrouch

k66 wrote: »

It has been operating for a few weeks but the night time hair line spikes that I mentioned which appeared on Holmes is a mystery as it showed much more power than the security light. I will look at the data later on and see if today's 'incident ' is recorded.

I am wondering if it happened at the same time as the switch over from economy 7 to day rate electricity.:cool:

I would be interested to see the 'spikes' that you refer to, could you do a screen shot and post it on here? If it is of concern, then as a suggestion, unplug your immersion from the optiplug at night and see if you still see the 'spikes' on the Holmes graph.
HTH

P.S. As you probably know, you cannot see a graph of today in Holmes until you plug Holmes into you PC tomorrow, unless you had it plugged in at the time and/or were watching it in 'real time'.