Panel Monitoring
Interesting thread. Some thoughts....
Individual panel metrics can only be monitored directly/automatically if you are using micro-inverters. As mentioned in this thread, string inverters do not have the ability to produce individual panel metrics. This is one of the reasons I chose to employ micro-inverters and well as being "shade challenged" at my site. If shade challenged, only panels/inverters affected by shade will drag down the performance of a string of panels. The rest will operate optimally.
I have a 35 panel array (9600kw) that uses Enphase micro-inverters. Between the local console/controller which publishes a web site and the Enphase cloud web site, I am able to extract individual inverter performance and therefore individual panel performance. I use Jon00's datascraper program to scrape the web sites and grab metrics like panels installed, panels active, daily production(of the array) and lifetime production. I can also scrape logs for errors like inverter offline or inverter no output in order to detect individual inverter problems. I usually know I have an inverter problem well before Enphase detects it. The Enphase website provides individual inverter output metrics for current (near real time) and daily/monthly/yearly times. That is data scraped as well.
As for measuring usage, demand, solar contribution, and solar exporting, I use the TED monitoring system. TED metrics are collected using the BLTED plugin from Blade for HS3. It supports multiple TED gateways and multiple MTU measuring units (up to 4) per gateway. The TED collects usage from the GRID and output of the array. I have a script that derives the other metrics from these two. The script creates HS devices. I use Jonoo's data charting plugin to track all these device metrics over time.
Peak output from any array will be that time of year when the sun is 90' to the array angle. Because I live in the USA North East region, my peak days turn out to be April 15th and Oct 15th (more or less). That is when the sun is perpendicular to my array tilt twice a year.
Unfortunately I do not think you will be able to derive individual panel performance metrics automatically if using string inverters and it sounds like getting physical with panels in your array could void the warranty. Does SunPower provide and API interface to their equipment? That could provide an interface to HS via scripting
-Cliff
Interesting thread. Some thoughts....
Individual panel metrics can only be monitored directly/automatically if you are using micro-inverters. As mentioned in this thread, string inverters do not have the ability to produce individual panel metrics. This is one of the reasons I chose to employ micro-inverters and well as being "shade challenged" at my site. If shade challenged, only panels/inverters affected by shade will drag down the performance of a string of panels. The rest will operate optimally.
I have a 35 panel array (9600kw) that uses Enphase micro-inverters. Between the local console/controller which publishes a web site and the Enphase cloud web site, I am able to extract individual inverter performance and therefore individual panel performance. I use Jon00's datascraper program to scrape the web sites and grab metrics like panels installed, panels active, daily production(of the array) and lifetime production. I can also scrape logs for errors like inverter offline or inverter no output in order to detect individual inverter problems. I usually know I have an inverter problem well before Enphase detects it. The Enphase website provides individual inverter output metrics for current (near real time) and daily/monthly/yearly times. That is data scraped as well.
As for measuring usage, demand, solar contribution, and solar exporting, I use the TED monitoring system. TED metrics are collected using the BLTED plugin from Blade for HS3. It supports multiple TED gateways and multiple MTU measuring units (up to 4) per gateway. The TED collects usage from the GRID and output of the array. I have a script that derives the other metrics from these two. The script creates HS devices. I use Jonoo's data charting plugin to track all these device metrics over time.
Peak output from any array will be that time of year when the sun is 90' to the array angle. Because I live in the USA North East region, my peak days turn out to be April 15th and Oct 15th (more or less). That is when the sun is perpendicular to my array tilt twice a year.
Unfortunately I do not think you will be able to derive individual panel performance metrics automatically if using string inverters and it sounds like getting physical with panels in your array could void the warranty. Does SunPower provide and API interface to their equipment? That could provide an interface to HS via scripting
-Cliff
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