question on power usage following a new PV installation

[solar-forum]

Have you considered the Solis dongle?

My inverter has the wifi dongle. That is how the device communicates with the outside world (and passes data to the solis "cloud",)

(As an off-topic aside, I am not at all happy that the device does this. It would be perfectly feasible for the inverter to talk only to a local monitor in the household. That way, neither the installer nor the Chinese manufacturer woould have any contact with the plant in my home. As it is, I had to set up a completely separate wifi network to accomodate the solis unit because I did not want connecting to my own internal networks.)

 

[solar-forum]

the solis portal is pretty decent

I don't think so. It does not give me the information I want in the form I want.

 

[michael8554]

If the Solis app doesn't show graphs like the GroWatt shown, then it's a pretty poor app, as the OP said.

He'll need to get up early and monitor the front panel display to get the real story.

 

[solar-forum]

If the Solis app doesn't show graphs like the GroWatt shown, then it's a pretty poor app, as the OP said.

He'll need to get up early and monitor the front panel display to get the real story.

As an arthritic 68 year old retired bloke I am not going to be clambering about in my loft to read the inverter panel any time soon. Particularly in this heat.

 

[Chrisbee]

Solis app has lots of graphing.
Just for example

 

[solar-forum]

Hi Chrisbee and thanks for that.

I cannot see any of that sort of info on the (web browser based ) solis cloud portal. I assume that you are getting that from either the iOS or android based app. As I think I mentioned in my earlier post I can't get the app to work at all on my android tablet. It takes an age to load, then crashes. It looks as if I might have to try deleting that app and re-instaling it, or even installing it on another device.

(For info, I do not use google's android on my phone, nor will I, so I cannot install the app there. I use the open source version of android called lineageOS and get my apps from f-droid. The solis app is not available on f-droid so I will have to use a sacrificial tablet running google's abominable software. I'll post again if and when I can get the solis app running.)

Thank you for the feedback though. That looks exactly like the information I need.

 

[binky]

Hi Chrisbee and thanks for that.

I cannot see any of that sort of info on the (web browser based ) solis cloud portal. I assume that you are getting that from either the iOS or android based app. As I think I mentioned in my earlier post I can't get the app to work at all on my android tablet. It takes an age to load, then crashes. It looks as if I might have to try deleting that app and re-instaling it, or even installing it on another device.

(For info, I do not use google's android on my phone, nor will I, so I cannot install the app there. I use the open source version of android called lineageOS and get my apps from f-droid. The solis app is not available on f-droid so I will have to use a sacrificial tablet running google's abominable software. I'll post again if and when I can get the solis app running.)

Thank you for the feedback though. That looks exactly like the information I need.

Sounds like the dongle hasn't linked to your WiFi properly. They can be reset, Google how.

 

[Chrisbee]

On the web browser based view you can see all this too. But it's not immediately obvious where to look.

In Plant Overview click to the right of the green dot that shows your plant is on line. I assume here, we're choosing which plant we want to see, but of course we only have one.

 

[Chrisbee]

After that go to Device and click on the serial number of your inverter. In this view you can select all sorts of parameters to show on a graph.

 

[solar-forum]

Sounds like the dongle hasn't linked to your WiFi properly. They can be reset, Google how.

Thanks binky. The wifi dongle is linked to my wifi (if it weren't I would not get the cloud based info using a web browser) but thanks to chrisbee's posts I have persevered and explored the android app further. I have an old nvidia shield tablet which I have factory reset (so that it is completely clean and clear of any clutter) and have installed the solis app on that. The app now opens relatively quickly and has not (so far) crashed once in the last half hour. I can now see a much larger, and more useful, range of data from the inverter and the battery. I am currently playing with the settings it offers.

My thanks again to all here who have contributed to my understanding of my new PVA installation and to interpretation of the information I am getting.

 

[solar-forum]

After that go to Device and click on the serial number of your inverter. In this view you can select all sorts of parameters to show on a graph.

Fantastic. Exactly what I needed to know. Thank you again Chrisbee. I much prefer to use a web browser based view because that is a) on a bigger screen, b) doesn't use a proprietary app on a google aware device, and c) allows me to easily save screenshots for later review.

Much, much better.

 

[michael8554]

Glad the app wasn't as poor as you made out.

"As an arthritic 68 year old retired bloke I am not going to be clambering about in my loft to read the inverter panel any time soon. Particularly in this heat."

An inverter in the loft. In this heat ? My inverter spec says "Derating over 45C"

 

[solar-forum]

Glad the app wasn't as poor as you made out.

"As an arthritic 68 year old retired bloke I am not going to be clambering about in my loft to read the inverter panel any time soon. Particularly in this heat."

An inverter in the loft. In this heat ? My inverter spec says "Derating over 45C"

I hope the inverter will cope. The manual says that the operating ambient temp range is -25 to +60 degrees C. It is showing 35 degrees at the moment. I'll take a look later today.

I'm not sure where else in the house the inverter and battery could have been safely located (inquisitive grandchildren.....)

 

[Mizunoid]

The inverter uses some energy just to stay on don't forget..

 

[johnb2713]

The inverter uses some energy just to stay on don't forget..

In the grand scheme of things the parasitic load of the inverter is pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

 

[solar-forum]

In the grand scheme of things the parasitic load of the inverter is pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

It still seems to be around 1-1.5 kWh, which is what surprised me in the beginning.

 

[johnb2713]

If it's that high I would suggest it's faulty, on my tariff that would be costing me £7 per day....... NO WAY.

 

[solar-forum]

If it's that high I would suggest it's faulty, on my tariff that would be costing me £7 per day....... NO WAY.

Are you sure? I said it is 1 - 1.5 kWh. That is only £0.40 - £0.50 per day on my current tariff (if you include our daily standing charge).

Your leccy must be /very/ expensive......

 

[johnb2713]

Are you sure? I said it is 1 - 1.5 kWh. That is only £0.40 - £0.50 per day on my current tariff (if you include our daily standing charge).

Your leccy must be /very/ expensive......

I suppose it's whether youre viewing it as the inverter presenting a 1.5kWh LOAD or whether it consumes 1.5 kWh in a day. You were saying it was a significant amount therefore I assumed the worse case. As with most discussions with my Mrs I chose the wrong one LOL.

Yes it would be 40 - 50p per day on my tariff too.

I have however just checked my SPH6000 (Growatt 6kW Hybrid inverter) and the data sheet says consumption less than 4W which is more akin to what I would expect. That would give a daily load of less than 96w so I standby what I said yours sounds horrific by comparison.

 

[solar-forum]

Now I'm getting confused again. I'm not suggesting that the /inverter/ is consuming that power, I'm saying (as I did at the start of this thread) that our IHD shows a /household/ consumption of around £0.50 (inc standing charge) at the beginning of the day. I could not understand why the household should have consumed /any/ grid power at the moment when we have been generating around 25 kWh a day filling the 5.2 kW battery and exporting the rest.

From earlier discussions I had concluded that the power draw was because of the inverter continually monitoring the grid supply (and thus necessarilly pulling some power) and also pulling in some power in early morning and late evening as it self tested. I /still/ don't understand why that should amount to aoumd 1-1.5 kWh but was prepared to believe it as the irreducible minimum consumption.

I now think my IHD is lying to me so I am taking meter readings to check it.