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Forum Index : Solar : Solar System Monitoring

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Sully
Newbie

Joined: 20/06/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 5
Posted: 01:28am 20 Jun 2010
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Hi Everyone,

I have recently installed a 5.2 KW grid connected system on my house with a Fronius inverter on. I have had a look at the Fronius monitoring system and was amazed at how expensive it was (in fact I swore a bit). So I did a heap of internet searches about monitoring Solar systems a didn't come up with much. Along the way I found you guys and thought I would ask here. So here goes.

I would like to monitor my household usage, Electric hot water and my inverter output on my computer? Surely there is a reasonable easy way of doing this that won't cost a lot of money?

Regards SullyEdited by Sully 2010-06-21
 
VK4AYQ
Guru

Joined: 02/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2539
Posted: 01:42am 20 Jun 2010
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Hi Sully

Peter and Gordon are working on a kit that may do what you are looking at as it is primarily designed for windmills but would adapt to various needs, they are going through the trial period at the moment to debug the device and software package so stay tuned to this station.

All the best

Bob
Foolin Around
 
Sully
Newbie

Joined: 20/06/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 5
Posted: 04:05am 20 Jun 2010
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Thanks Bob. I will keep checking here.
 
Downwind

Guru

Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333
Posted: 03:58pm 20 Jun 2010
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Hi Sully,

What you want to do is called data logging and there is several systems around for doing this.

Gordon and myself have been deveolping a system for data logging as well, ours is directed for use with windmills mainly but could be used on house power logging also.

I currently log my house power consumption with one of these units.

If you want a commercial unit there is several avaliable that will interface with a computer and have their own software. (Bob has one without the software but dont remember the brand...im sure he will post that now)

With our system you will need to wire the sensors through to where the pc is to log the data. (or move the pc to the sensors) where some of the commercial systems have wireless links.

You dont say but i am guessing your inverter is grid tied.

You will also need a sensor on each power wire going to each item you want to log.
So 3 sensors from what you listed above.

This would fit within some of the commercial units if you choose to go that way, as many will handle recording for 3 phase power systems which requires a sensor on each phase wire, it would make no difference what appliance wire the sensor was on.

I am not sure on their software though and think it combines all sensors into 1 power reading, which is not what you want.


The short answer is Yes you can record the data on the computer rather easy, but the long answer is its not so black and white to get it all setup and working.
Also i have no idea of your abilitys in a setup of this kind.

I dont like advising people to go messing with mains power systems unless they actually know what they are doing, as i dont want someone hurt or killed installing one of my kits.

Pete.

Edit.. I just checked your profile and see you are a electrical technician so this might be within you capabilities to self install what is needed.

Edited by Downwind 2010-06-22
Sometimes it just works
 
Sully
Newbie

Joined: 20/06/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 5
Posted: 07:34pm 20 Jun 2010
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Thanks for the reply Downwind.

Yes I can handle the wiring side no worries it is the computer side that is a mystery to me. Everything I have found adds the 3 sensors together. None of the commercial systems that I have found seem to do what I want out of the box.

Regards Sully
 
jamesbrush
Newbie

Joined: 01/07/2010
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5
Posted: 01:30pm 06 Jul 2010
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At last Sully is happy. Hope he will get out of these very soon.
SAP Training London
 
Loomberah

Regular Member

Joined: 11/06/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 43
Posted: 06:44pm 07 Jul 2010
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I'm off-grid, and am using a Graphtec data logger to keep track of my 2 PV arrays output, load current and voltage at the moment. You can save the output to csv files to import into Open Office/Excell etc to produce more than the Graphtec software does. It only measures DC, so you need to rectify any AC signals before feeding them to the data logger.
The GL-200 that I use has 10 inputs. I run a 35m multi-core cable from power shed to the data logger in the house, where its connected to a laptop which I also use for my weather station. I have tried using a USB extender, but I had to frequently unplug and replug the USB plug into the computer, to get the connection back, a real PITA.

An image to show what the graph looks like. I'm sampling once per second, but you can go to 100ms if needed.



I have a 7100pixel wide (X 460 high) graph of the whole day I was going to post, but it seems they get scaled to 1000 pixels wide when displayed in here, which makes it a bit hard to see properlyEdited by Loomberah 2010-07-09
Loomberah weather +solar&UV, astronomy, photography, organic farm
 
Downwind

Guru

Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333
Posted: 03:00am 08 Jul 2010
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Loomberah

With your usb port you could try changing the setup in control panel to turn of power saving to the usb port.
Laptops have a time out sleep mode for the usb ports that closes the port down to save power and you should be able to turn this off so then you wont need to keep unplugging the device to establish connection again.

Worth a try as this has been discussed before with using data loggers with usb.

Pete.
Sometimes it just works
 
Loomberah

Regular Member

Joined: 11/06/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 43
Posted: 08:06am 08 Jul 2010
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Power saving has always been turned off with this laptop as I am running 2 weather programs on the weather station on the other USB port. The problem is electrical interference, I saw/heard immediate USB disconnects when various lights, fans, fridge, freezer etc came on or off, so there is no doubt about the cause of the disconnects in my situation. It is related to running the USB extender over 35m in unshielded Cat5e cable, it was just super-sensitive to any outside interference.
Running shielded multi-core cable instead to the data logger at the computer with no need for the extender has been 100% reliable with zero disconnects.
Loomberah weather +solar&UV, astronomy, photography, organic farm
 
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