Hello Bob,
Would you be kind enough please to take a look at the above post I made over at PVoutput and the response I received. Maybe I’ve set something up wrong in the IoTaWatt but currently it’s a very simple setup? If I need to make some changes I can do that on Saturday.
Thank you,
Steve
I think I understand what Banks is saying, and it may be a configuration issue in IoTaWatt. Help me out, how do I locate system id 22252 in PVoutput. It must be obvious but I’m having a brain cramp.
I used mine URL access to the PVOutput site and replaced the ID in the url with the number of his system. I also removed the SID at the end. “Helwerd 2.650kW”
I have not seen this behavior with my PVOutput info if you need or would like to have a look at mine as a sample.
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Here you go Bob:
OK, @quella was resourceful and got me to your PVoutput data. I don’t see where it was ever working correctly, which is actually a relief because I didn’t change anything. I do much prefer a consistent problem. I think there are a couple of things that may be improperly specified here and causing PVoutput to reject transactions either when there is no generation. There isn’t any energy used being displayed in any of the last week’s data. @quella’s system probably shows what it should look like, as does this site using an IoTaWatt in northern Massachusetts.
Could you post your PVoutput configuration display and your inputs configuration display and I’ll see if I can figure out what needs to change? Not to worry, there is a 14 day lookback window and once we get the configuration sorted out, you can reload the history for the last couple of weeks, or the last 90 days if you make a nominal donation to PVoutput.
Bob,
Ignore my URL and try the one Steven provided. That had the number i the SID section and is different from the link I provided. Sorry. I led you in the wrong direction. I can see his info as described with a few flatlines in places.
Your link worked fine, thanks.
There is no power data at all being uploaded. At first I mistook the voltage plot for the power used, not being very good at differentiating subtle color variations, but when you look at the live data below, there is no power used or energy used data at all, and there is no voltage when the sun isn’t shining, indicating transactions are not being posted. PVoutput rejects transactions with queer generation data including negative and positive at night.
This is almost certainly a pretty simple configuration issue.
Hi Bob, I’ve just had the opportunity to re-read this thread and realised that you had been looking at a link other than mine. The link to my system is:
(the 24424 system is another of mine that isn’t setup yet)
Mine’s called The Hayloft 3.840kW
The other original link provided by @quella called Helwerd 2.650kW isn’t mine.
I notice this evening that my Energy Used seems to be incrementing correctly. Either tonight or tomorrow I’ll take a look & share my IoTaWatt config.
Rgds, Steve
Sorry Steve, My bad on that one. When I used your link earlier I saw that it pointed to a system that showed your in and out "Flatlining: of power in various places. Forgive me for jumping in with what I thought was the correct system.
I do not see this same behavior and have been uploading to PVOutput from December with my data.
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I got it now, and it matches up with what you are reporting. Here’s what I see:
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When it works, it works fine. That is to say that both generation and consumption power and energy seem to update as expected.
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Everyday seems top work great until about 9:15 am. After that, there are holes in the consumption posting but the generation keeps on chugging away correctly. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the generation, because the generation starts up around 7.
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There are occasional consumption power postings throughout the day, but very spotty with no regularity and no effect on the consumption energy.
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Late in the day, regular postings of consumption power seem to resume a little after 5:00pm but they do not contribute to the energy total.
As I look back to before you switched over, the old feed posted data from around 7am to 6pm, roughly the time when consumption data is spotty. I think it might be getting stepped on by something else that is still feeding your site. There are some hacks in PVoutput to introduce delays in posting so that data from two sources, like an inverter and an energy monitor, can be melded. Do you have anything like that turned on? Are you sure the inverter isn’t still posting?
UPDATE: Try this tomorrow if the sun is out. In the PVoutput status tab click the STOP button and suspend posting from the IoTaWatt for awhile. Look at the live output and see if it’s still recording generation, possibly from the inverter.
Another thing you can try is in the PVoutput configuration display set the “Upload Histor From” date to two days ago and click the Reload History box. Watch the status display until it is up to date again, then look at yesterday’s live output. It should be corrected. Be sure to go back into the PVoutput configuration to uncheck the reload history box or it will continue to do that at every restart (I plan to fix that).
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@quella No problem.
OK Bob, @quella, Ah, ‘I think’ I know where I’ve gone wrong. In my haste I think I’m sending to PVoutput effectively my net consumption rather than my total consumption because that CT is on my mains incomer. Thus, when I have more generation than consumption my net power falls to zero & I start exporting energy which is why we’re seeing the ‘spotty’ consumption!
It’s late here now so I’ll have a look over the weekend to see what I need to do to send my total consumption.
My PV System is on a circuit breaker on the one main board so I need to compute my total consumption in the IoTaWatt ‘calculator’ interface.
Sorry to have put you to trouble and I will report back how I get on - or ask for more support if I get stuck.
Rgds, Steve
All of the data in the IoTaWatt is accurate, so when you get it right you can use the reload history feature explained above to correct the last two weeks.
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It looks like you got it working and uploaded a week or so of history. Just curious what uses 7500 Watts every morning? That seems to squash the scale on PVoutput so that the rest of the day’s detail is dwarfed.
I was curious as to how your system was performing compared to others in your area, so I used the map feature to look at nearby systems. What struck me was how few subscribers have a complete picture. Roughly half of the dozen or so systems on the map are no longer updating, some falling off years ago. Most of the others have spotty and granular generation data and no consumption data.
When I look at the PVoutput documentation, I see lots of different hardware listed as interfacing with PVoutput, so I’m a little surprised that there isn’t more complete and accurate data for most sites.
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Hi Bob, I was leaving it a day or two to be sure I’d corrected my issue so thanks for looking in for me.
I used this IoTaWatt link to correct my formula:
and specifically:
“1. If the inverter feeds in after the mains breaker, i.e. into a breaker inside your panel, then your consumption is the sum of the mains and the solar. However, that number will be negative when you are generating more than you are consuming, so you need to use the max function of the calculator to only show positive consumption: (main_1 + main_2 + solar) max 0”
It’s an instant electric shower which is at the other end of our long house from the gas boiler and solar thermal panel; not ideal I know!
Yes, I’ve noticed that too but then I, perhaps like you, like to know that my investment is performing and that if I’m away I can see from afar that the power is still on in our rural setting.
Thanks for your support in getting my power consumption on to PVoutput which I’ve wanted to do for some time.
Regards,
Steve
Steve,
Glad to hear things are working and I agree that the IoTaWatt makes this ability to not only monitor from the device but also send to other services like PVOutput to get reading anywhere in the world. I love the tool and the many services. So nice to have the data be able to carve things up for us to see. That is quite impressive to see 7000w+ system each morning on your system, and good to know that Summer is coming; summer is coming. I keep telling myself that.