Usage monitoring with solar - Doh!

KevinG

I have now bought two Minim+ monitors, one for generation and one for consumption. They are lovely devices and were a breeze to set up and work perfectly. They are so much more accurate than the clamp-on devices. The only thing I am not monitoring is my export as the consumption meter now reads zero when I am exporting. This is fine for my current needs. My one criticism is that the temperature monitor seems to under-read by a few degrees, but that's not why I bought them.

1961Nick

KevinG wrote: »

I have now bought two Minim+ monitors, one for generation and one for consumption. They are lovely devices and were a breeze to set up and work perfectly. They are so much more accurate than the clamp-on devices. The only thing I am not monitoring is my export as the consumption meter now reads zero when I am exporting. This is fine for my current needs. My one criticism is that the temperature monitor seems to under-read by a few degrees, but that's not why I bought them.

You should find that the meter & monitor figures match at the end of the month. The only time I ever get a discrepancy is when I’ve interrupted the monitor power supply.

KevinG

1961Nick wrote: »

You should find that the meter & monitor figures match at the end of the month. The only time I ever get a discrepancy is when I’ve interrupted the monitor power supply.

Except ... there seems to be a quirk with these things in that the figure doesn't quite zeroise at midnight, the last digit (watts) is retained, so if at the end of the day it reads 5.678 kWh it resets to 0.008 kWh, increasing the next day slightly. Weird.

mmmmikey

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

The meter's reaction to import and export varies from one meter to another. My electricity meter LED flashes when importing and remains constantly on when exporting. It's something you can check quite easily before you decide if the 'flash counting' device is suitable.

Having bought a Minim+ with LED pulse counting sensor I can confirm this. My meter flashes for both import and export. The LED also goes on when the state changes from import to export or vice versa and goes off when the next import or export flash is due. This means the Minim+ is working differently for me than others here.

What I have is an accurate way of measuring export - I just need to subtract the import the meter is reading from the total import+export the Minim+ is reading.

The live display is fine for prolonged periods of import or export, but when I'm hovering around the net zero level the "Now" display is meaningless as it can't distinguish between import and export flashes.

So in a nutshell, you need to do what Dave suggests and check your meter before you buy one of these to make sure it's going to do what you want. When you check the meter, you need to do it at a time of prolonged export so you don't do what I did and be fooled by seeing the LED in the on state and thinking this means it's flashing for import only.



(Deleted my last post as realised I was repeating what had already been said)

KevinG

KevinG wrote: »

Except ... there seems to be a quirk with these things in that the figure doesn't quite zeroise at midnight, the last digit (watts) is retained, so if at the end of the day it reads 5.678 kWh it resets to 0.008 kWh, increasing the next day slightly. Weird.

Another weird thing about these monitors. The displayed consumption (or generation) figure is always a multiple of 7! I know, I am a complete geek.