Thread: Solar Electric for the home

I've heard the Sunny Boy and SMA are good.

I was talking to a fellow forum member yesterday and he's had 3 inverters thus far. I don't know the brands.

Further to my earlier post, I have live monitoring of my solar generation and power usage up and running.

See p38arover's 3kW 3.040kW | Live Output for live production and p38arover's 3kW 3.040kW for historical data

Run your cursor over the graph for more details.

The temp graph is that of the inverter during the day and the computer room at night so it has little value so I may remove it. However, the recorded temps in the list are the daily ambient min/max downloaded automatically from the BOM data for Penrith (one can set that to anywhere).

I use the data directly from the inverter for upload and I use an EnviR current cost meter to monitor the power taken from the grid.

I am on gross metering.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I've heard the Sunny Boy and SMA are good.

I was talking to a fellow forum member yesterday and he's had 3 inverters thus far. I don't know the brnads.

brnads Ron?

Cold nuts?

:-)

Originally Posted by fraser130

brnads Ron?

Cold nuts?

:-)

Fat fingers.

I saw it afterwards.

Sorry Ron, I just couldn't help it!

Fraser

Originally Posted by p38arover

I've heard the Sunny Boy and SMA are good.

I've got an SMA Ron and while I have only had it in place for about 4 months, it seems to just tick away and do what it should.

I have significant morning shade that will be mainly sorted out once my neighbour, the tree lopper and I get our acts together, but I couldnt be happier with the output considering.

Bytemrk's Powerhouse 5.000kW | Statistics

Originally Posted by p38arover

Further to my earlier post, I have live monitoring of my solar generation and power usage up and running.

See p38arover's 3kW 3.040kW | Live Output for live production and p38arover's 3kW 3.040kW for historical data

Run your cursor over the graph for more details.

The temp graph is that of the inverter during the day and the computer room at night so it has little value so I may remove it. However, the recorded temps in the list are the daily ambient min/max downloaded automatically from the BOM data for Penrith (one can set that to anywhere).

I use the data directly from the inverter for upload and I use an EnviR current cost meter to monitor the power taken from the grid.

I am on gross metering.

How accurate do you find the current cost meter? I've been meaning to set one up.

Mark

Originally Posted by Bytemrk

I've got an SMA Ron and while I have only had it in place for about 4 months, it seems to just tick away and do what it should.

I have significant morning shade that will be mainly sorted out once my neighbour, the tree lopper and I get our acts together, but I couldnt be happier with the output considering.

Bytemrk's Powerhouse 5.000kW | Statistics



How accurate do you find the current cost meter? I've been meaning to set one up.

Mark

Hi Mark.

I've seen you posting on Whirlpool.

After getting my solar system I found that I may not have made a great choice in brands. SMA would have been better. Ah well. If it lasts 3 years, it will have paid itself off.

Re the EnviR, it's accurate enough for my purposes. I wouldn't put a percentage value on it but...

I've been recording my meter readings every morning since the solar system was installed. Noting the EnviR daily readings are for the 24 hours starting/ending at midnight and my readings are taken around 8am and can be for the 24 hours 8am/8am or 9am/8am/7am or whatever time I get up (so one can expect a slight variation between them) the two have been pretty close. Obviously, some days they differ, especially if air con has been used during the night.

As you can see I am tracking my consumption on PVOutput with the EnviR. For the price I think they are worth it. I have two. I was using one for consumption and the other for generation.

I need to do some work to reduce my standing consumption overnight. It's a bit higher than normal at the moment as I'm using my desktop PC for monitoring and it consumes too much power. I have to get the software working on the old laptop again and it can run 24/7.

Originally Posted by Bytemrk

I have significant morning shade that will be mainly sorted out once my neighbour, the tree lopper and I get our acts together, but I couldnt be happier with the output considering.

I see what you mean (no location info contained in pics - copies of screen shots):

Yep,

It is significant... but I knew about it before I commited to solar. We would have done the tree first - but the Vic goverment changed the rules - so to qualify for the better rebate we did the big rush and got the panels up and will do the tree shortly.

We managed to get in on the Premium feed in by about 3 days .

It's nice to get electricity bills where they owe me rather than visa versa.

Also makes the impact of future power increases far less intimidating.