Solar panel advice

The_frugal_fairy

We are doing well with our panels. After 3.5 years we have made 30% of the cost in generation payments. So considering we also save on electricity costs I am very happy with the return. Is there any software we can use that can tell us how well we are utilising the electricity we generate ? We have our names down for a gen 2 smart meter as presently the meter is in a cupboard so hard to monitor. Thanks for reading.

chamelion

Pvoutput? Combined with loop energy?

Zarch

A smart meter may well be all you need, depends on how deep you want to go.

I love my emonPi setup, but its not cheap.

https://openenergymonitor.org/

But you can get tons and tons of graphs and data.

Reed_Richards

I got software bundled with my inverter - so it might be worth checking if there is anything similar available to you.

The_frugal_fairy

Sorry I keep forgetting to reply. It is a Zanussi inverter.

Reed_Richards

I believe Zanussi make a "Twin tracker inverter" - but i haven't been able to find out anything about it. The situation is complicated by a company calling itself Zanussi solar which tends to dominate the search results. There is a warning about that company in this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5953765/zanussi-solar-quote-6kw-system

The_frugal_fairy

Zarch wrote: »

A smart meter may well be all you need, depends on how deep you want to go.

I love my emonPi setup, but its not cheap.

https://openenergymonitor.org/

But you can get tons and tons of graphs and data.

Just been looking at this again before I buy one. Is it easy to install ? Does it need to go on the inverter ? My solar panel meter is just a small thing plugged into the circuit board, is this an issue ?

Zarch

The_frugal_fairy wrote: »

Just been looking at this again before I buy one. Is it easy to install ? Does it need to go on the inverter ? My solar panel meter is just a small thing plugged into the circuit board, is this an issue ?

Two cables from the emonPi unit, each with a CT clamp on them.

You clamp one around your live electricity cable, the other goes around the cable coming from your inverter. See below.

https://guide.openenergymonitor.org/applications/solar-pv/

You can always ask questions in their forum is you're concerned about install.

https://community.openenergymonitor.org/

Hexane

Zarch wrote: »

You clamp one around your live electricity cable, the other goes around the cable coming from your inverter

Let's try to remember that some people may not be as DIY happy as the rest of us...