Monitoring Improvements

 

Our solar system has been producing now for over 7 months.  Right from the start, I kept a close eye on the data that was generated from the installed system.  Data is originating from two sources:  (1) solar production is monitored and recorded via the Solaredge Inverter and monitoring application, and (2) the household energy consumption detail is monitored from a stand-alone device (Sense) installed within the electrical panel in our home.  Both sets of information can be viewed via computer or mobile phone.

Early on, I knew that I wanted a unified data stream in one monitoring application.  Recently, I  installed an Energy Meter connecting the solar inverter and the household power lines.  Current transformers are used to sense energy Consumption by looping the main power lines to the house.  As a result, the Solaredge Inverter Monitoring application now provides a total picture of all relevant energy flows:

    - Solar Production

    - Energy Imported from the Grid

    - Energy Exported to the Grid

    - Self-Consumed Energy from Solar Production (as it is generated from the solar system)

    - Total Energy Consumed = Energy Imported + Self-Consumed Energy from Solar

A few screen captures of the monitoring system information shown below should help convey the data.

The Original Monitoring

This image shows the solar System Production on August 29, 2020.  The total energy production for the 24 hours of the day was 66.59 kWh.  The monitoring information only included the solar production.

The Updated Monitoring System

This screen capture shows the monitoring of all variables: System Production (a combination of both Self-Consumption and Export) and Consumption (a combination of Self-consumption and Import).  September 11, 2020 was a very cloudy and rainy day with small solar production (only 9.61 kWh of energy.  The Consumption (shown in red) normally averages around 1-2.5 kW, but peaked at 5 PM on this day, due to the electric oven use.  All but a very small amount of the solar energy was self-consumed (shown in blue).  A small amount of exported energy (shown in green), only 0.91 kWh occurred at times when solar production was in excess of consumption.  This energy was exported to the ComEd grid.

This last screen capture shows the monitoring on September 15, 2020 on a relatively sunny day.  Total System Production was 65.34 kWh.  25% of this was Self-consumed, and 75% of this was exported to the grid.  For the day, our home consumed a total of 77.23 kWh of energy, of which only 16.53 kWh was supplied by the solar system.  The normal 1-2.5 kW consumption was significantly higher between midnight and 4 AM because we were charging our Tesla electric car during this time.

 

  

It should be noted that the last screen capture shows the interplay between solar production energy and consumption.  Obviously, solar production only occurs during daylight hours.  But consumption occurs throughout the whole day.

Our home is part of the ComEd Hourly Rate Pricing Program.  This means that energy we import or export is priced at a varying hourly rate.  In the picture above, the price during the Midnight to 4 AM time ranged from 0.8 - 1.3 Cents/ kWh (energy demand is lower for ComEd and they charge less for the hourly energy).  Between the solar production time period, the hourly price was 1.4 - 1.9 cents/ kWh (more demand means that ComEd typically charges more per hour for the energy they supply).

But this means that I am buying energy at a lower price and exporting (selling back to ComEd) at a higher per hour price.  It works out nicely!