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Forum Index : Electronics : Wi-Fi solar monitoring
| Author | Message | ||||
| BenandAmber Guru  Joined: 16/02/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 961 |
Is there any inexpensive WiFi solar monitoring systems on the market I was curious how some of the members do solar monitoring It would be nice to be able to check your solar system from your cell phone If you have pets like many of us do You don't want them to cook or freeze while you're out and about I would like to be able to check solar input, battery and inverter Also a few optional inputs for other things like air conditioning and temperature I would like to hear from anyone with information ideas or opinions on this subject Thanks for your time be warned i am good parrot but Dumber than a box of rocks |
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renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Nothing is cheap with off grid Ben. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
It would not be hard to use a voltage monitoring relay on your AC. If the batterys are up to charge level you set and the temp is hot or cold the AC Kicks in. Batterys are low or drop below the charge level you want, AC drops out. Ideally you should have enough panels to run the AC in summer and still be battery charging. The power companies make a big song and dance here of being able to check your power ( grid) useage on your phone or computer. The ads are idiotic. Guy in a nice restaurant with an attractive girl and the moron is Checking his power usage with a big grin on his face sitting at the table opposite his date/ Mrs. Seriously? Guy needs a smack in the face with a shovel if he did that and so do the morons at the advertising agency for coming up with such a stupid ad which insults peoples intelligence. Yeah, I check my inverters and meters nearly every day when I'm home but who has a burning desire to check their power bill when they are out at dinner or somewhere else? How much do you think the bill shot up since you left home and do these people honestly have a more pathetic life than I do that they need to check their power every time they walk out the door? Geez! Just a stupid and concocted distraction these power cos are trying to brain wash people into thinking they are saving money on their bills. In this case being Off grid I can understand, totally different to when you are ongrid though . |
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| BenandAmber Guru Joined: 16/02/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 961 |
Davo my solar system is on our bus so I have a limited amount of space Around 3000watts is all that will fit on top I was thinking of maybe making a fold out awning out of solar panels I have heard a few really good ideas from people on here though one of them said to use a enclosed trailer to haul the van around More roof space for solar panels no dolly win win Wife remembers reading on here someone saying use a Wi-Fi camera Mount all of your gauges in one spot use Wi-Fi cam to see it I would like to hear and see pics of some of the solutions the people on here have came up Thanks for your time and comments Davo be warned i am good parrot but Dumber than a box of rocks |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
Given this is a bus with limited panels.... In winter when you need to heat it, generation will be down anyway. You will be down to 1.5Kw in the middle of winter if that. Probably best just to start the engine and run the heater. You can co gen off this and top off the batteries at the same time. Having the block warmed up will also allow an amount of slow heat radiation at least to the back of the bus. Putting in an electric water pump as commonly available would also allow hot water to circulate through the block and give heating for much longer in the bus itself. Trying to heat off solar even with AC is most likely not going to be Viable. |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
Extra cost for the trailer, Will limit where you can go and stop more than you are now if towing a van and there will be a further fuel penality dragging the extra weight. Trailer like that will be substantial on it's own and probably have the Aero of a parachute. May as well put that lesser fuel cost to just running the engine on the bus or a generator if you have one when you need it which will be far less often than you would have to drag the trailer. |
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| nickskethisniks Guru Joined: 17/10/2017 Location: BelgiumPosts: 458 |
Hi how much time do you have? Pfff, I made a verry long post, untill my browser crashed.... So a resume... I needed also something to monitor and evaluate my system. To make adjustments in the future, adding panels,... So I was a litle bit inspired by Poida, although he used more stuff like php,... I'm not that familiar with those things, but a few years ago I did something with an ethernet shield, cloud server and php, it took me ages... So this time I went for another approche. Arduino nano on a prototype pcb, with dc/dc converters for the current LEMS, voltage dividers, opamps to condition the signals, some other things... The arduino nano sents all the data thrue the usb (programming)cable plugged in the Raspberry Pi. On the RPI, I'm running Raspian linux software, Node Red for easy programming a UserInterface. I use Influxdb for collecting all data in a (SQL kind) database. Grafana is used for making nice graphs. It look me a few days/weeks to set everything up, but I'm happy with the results. With port forwarding It would be possible to acces all data from anywhere in the world. But I have a 4G internet router, so portforwarding is no option, I use VNC server on the raspberry Pi, and VNC viewer can be put on laptop/pc/ smartphone for acces anywhere in the world. I use VNC as well for setting/programming the RPI from distance, so I don't need to connect a hdmi screen and keyboard. I will upgrade the nano with an arduino due in the future because of the 12 bit inputs, better resolution. But then I think I would make a pcb for it. It's allways taking me 1-2 whole days to solder a prototype pcb... Drawing a pcb takes less time in the end. Like the opamp circuits for converting the negative and positive current to a positive signal... I use +-12V powered LEMS.... So the Inverter (because of the backfeeding) and battery current can be negative and positive... Make's it a bit more challenging. My nodered UserInterface: ( realtime monitor for the data, verry easy to use because of the many youtube documentation)  My Grafana graphs:  For controlling our lights we are using nodred too: (Im using a rpi for controlling an arduino due with relays connected)  This is the pcb that's connected with the Lem's and measuring the battery voltage, I only measure dc currents, no ac measurements at the moment, that is for the next version.  Edited 2019-12-27 02:42 by nickskethisniks |
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mackoffgrid Guru Joined: 13/03/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 460 |
Excellent Nick I keep seeing this combination of tools coming up. Cheers Andrew |
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| noneyabussiness Guru Joined: 31/07/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 513 |
open energy Might be useful to some .. I think it works !! |
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