Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
I assume the reason they do it is the economics of higher rates not the insolation.Orienting panels for late in the day, less sun intensity available.
I assume the reason they do it is the economics of higher rates not the insolation.Orienting panels for late in the day, less sun intensity available.
Oh yeah, I'm fully aware of that. It's not Solar-Assistant, it's Sol-Ark that is being overly optimistic. The data between what's in solar assistant and what is on the sol-ark website is largely comparable.Just an FYI: Solar Assistant Just reports the information it receives from the monitored equipment. So, if there's misinformation. It's coming from your equipment.
I would bet money you're comparing Watts with VA, even if it's non obvious. Unless all loads are purely resistive, you simply can't do that.What you're missing is that the values in Solar-Assistant are not correct. If I look at my
PV gen at the Tigo on the roof vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is lower (improves efficiency numbers)
Grid Import at the Smart Utility Meter vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is lower (improves efficiency numbers)
Load at the Emporia Vue vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is higher (improves efficiency)
Grid Export at the Smart Utility Meter vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is higher (improves efficiency)
I trust the Smart Utility Meter and Emporia over my Solar-Assistant (Sol-Ark) readings and they indicate a far worse performance than what the Inverter does.
That's not what OP said. They claimed the batteries alone are drawing 45-100W.It is the inverter that draws the power due to overhead. I think mine draws oner a hundred Watts an hour or 1.2 kWh per day.
I would bet money you're comparing Watts with VA, even if it's non obvious. Unless all loads are purely resistive, you simply can't do that.
Let me put this another way, JUST running 120V led lights from the inverter my VA and consumption is roughly DOUBLE what you'd expect from looking at watts. There's a reason why commercial power charges more for bad power factor, it cost MORE money to supply the "same" watts. Consumers not caring about PF and how dirty the demand is is a luxury, and unlikely to stay that way forever.
That's not what OP said. They claimed the batteries alone are drawing 45-100W.
Regardless, OPs first step needs to be properly identifying these loads and accounting for them. And if needed fixing them. Trying to evaluate system efficiency with unknown loads is silly.
Interesting. I checked it out like you said, and the Tigo is reporting about 3.8% more PV than Sol-Ark. Thats crazy! I wonder if you could bring this up to Sol-Ark if there is maybe a calibration that could be done?What you're missing is that the values in Solar-Assistant are not correct. If I look at my
PV gen at the Tigo on the roof vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is lower (improves efficiency numbers)
Grid Import at the Smart Utility Meter vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is lower (improves efficiency numbers)
Load at the Emporia Vue vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is higher (improves efficiency)
Grid Export at the Smart Utility Meter vs. what's in Solar-Assistant, the Solar-Assistant is higher (improves efficiency)
I trust the Smart Utility Meter and Emporia over my Solar-Assistant (Sol-Ark) readings and they indicate a far worse performance than what the Inverter does.
This graph you show is interesting because I do not have that on my end. I might be wrong, but did I read somewhere you are purely AC coupled? I wonder if that has something to do with your wild swings? Heres mine from today once the battery reached 100%.The batteries alone do indeed draw that. And on days like today where I have constant cloud cover movement the draw fluctuates far more during the day as the Sol-Ark is sinking micro bursts into the battery or does micro draws as it's adjusting the grid export on the AC side. You can see that it goes as high as 400W at times and it draws as much as 100W at times. Looking at the chart it's certainly dumping more into the battery than it's drawing from it which will manifest itself as a energy loss.
But this loss is reported and understood in my math, it's not insignificant but certainly doesn't cover the majority of the discrepancy.
I have about 2.2% loss between the Tigo and the Sol-Ark reported PV which is expected as that is likely lost on the 10awg wire from the roof to the inverter. I'm actually happy that it's under 3%.Interesting. I checked it out like you said, and the Tigo is reporting about 3.8% more PV than Sol-Ark. Thats crazy! I wonder if you could bring this up to Sol-Ark if there is maybe a calibration that could be done?
This graph you show is interesting because I do not have that on my end. I might be wrong, but did I read somewhere you are purely AC coupled? I wonder if that has something to do with your wild swings? Heres mine from today once the battery reached 100%.
I could definitely do that but my house has a base load of about 1kW so turning everything off just to do a test would be painful and not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze.A couple test loads (with nothing else powered) could clarify that issue.
A space heater is resistive load. A transformer like the 25kvA one I got and tested is inductive, and draws about 1000W apparent power.
I know. I do not view batteries as having overhead. That is why I suggested that it was probably the inverter.That's not what OP said. They claimed the batteries alone are drawing 45-100W.
My base is LED lights, several computer power supplies/switches, a pool pump and a hot water circulating pump and a TON of smart switches (z-wave, lutron, zigbee)Leave that on and add 2.0 to 3.6kW of electric space heater? See if incremental measured watts is correct?
What does your base load consist of?
Have a way to see current waveform? PF, real/apparent power of the entire load?
Can SolArk be bypassed so house powered by grid, allowing it to be tested separately?
I have interlocked breakers. Some things ride through, some could be glitched.
I doubt it...Ya know 20 minutes on the phone with a Sol-Ark power specialist would probably clear this right up.
But like the "My Sol-Ark 15K will only produce 13KW thread" we will go on here for weeks or months until the OP finds out that something else is not right.
I did by subtracting the base from the power in those equations above. I was still at 4.5% difference between what the Sol-Ark measured and what my Emporia/smart meter measured.Were you able to separate out resistive loads? Those, I expect inverter to meet specs.
Is Emporia revenue grade?Leaving 95.5%, which is about the battery to AC spec (at 65% load)
Maybe SolArk measures voltage and current feeding inverter, rather than having sensors to measure AC power? That would not include 48V battery to HV DC losses.
Do you have a clamp ammerter? That could measure AC RMS current (cheap ones less likely to be true RMS.) AC VA / Vrms = Irms. Watts may differ. But compare clamp measured Irms; if waveform isn't sine wave, has shorter higher spikes, that would have more I^2R loss in FETs and inductors compared to a nice "real" resistive load. Such a meter reading migh explain your results.
I wouldn't think so. I assume you already know this though and are being snarky. That would require +/- .5% accuracy, where Emporia claims a +/- 2%.Is Emporia revenue grade?
no snark, haven't looked into itI wouldn't think so. I assume you already know this though and are being snarky. That would require +/- .5% accuracy, where Emporia claims a +/- 2%.