Grid draw doesn't make sense

[Dave]

I have a VPP battery installed.

The following is an example of a reasonably regular occurrence:-

Solar power being produced:-  2758 watts

Battery state of charge:-               60%

House use - one TV, one computer, fridge

Power draw from grid:-    740 watts

Is there a reason for this grid draw?

Has anyone else noticed the same thing?

I wasn't going to report on this until the 11.6 (larger) battery is installed, but it is happening more & I am interested as to why. Maybe a software logarithim needs changing.

Dave

[Bryce]

G'day Dave

Interesting readings indeed.

By the way, you don't have to pay for Solar Command - it's just their web site where all your readings are displayed - usage, production, battery charge etc. You're probably already using it. It just so happens that you can download the detailed data and import them into a spreadsheet. From there you can perform a more detailed analysis.

Cheers

[Dave]

More strange readings today at 12.20pm:-

Solar being produced 3630 watts

Battery state of charge 64%

No heavy use items being used

Draw from grid  1360 watts

No advices from AGL yet

Dave

[Rob]

Hi Dave,

I too have been thinking of getting that WattsClever device.  My understanding is I would need two of them if I wanted to monitor both import *and* export to the grid. (my meter has 2 LEDs)

I was a little surprised I would even need these though as I would have thought the VPP would be clever enough to provide this information.  It turns out it could be. Schneider Electric (the manufacturer that Sunverge use) already has a device that would give you realtime eneryflow.  Its called the Conext ComBox.  Its not cheap but it does provide just about eveything you would want to track.  Grid, battery, load draw in actual realtime.  There is an Android app for it too.

https://solar.schneider-electric.com/product/conext-combox/

Now, whether AGL would allow for it to be installed, or install it for you if you did buy one is another matter alltogether.

[Bryce]

Hi Rob

Have you been able to reconcile your usage and draw data? Or are you experiencing some issues as well.

It would be good to have a few more postings on this board to see whether or not we are just isolated examples.

[Dave]

Howdy Rob,

I will be interested if you are able to advise of any similar anomalies that I have outlined.

Re Watts Clever monitor:- Whilst my smart meter has two leds, only one of them can activate the monitor. The relevant led pulses to red when importing from the grid is happening. This is what the watts clever reads. My smart meter doesn't have an led that activates when power is being exported.

The only thing I can't monitor successfully is power exported to the grid. I use this monitor, but unfortunately it doesn't distinguish between power from or going to the grid:-

https://reductionrevolution.com.au/products/efergy-elite-classic-wireless-energy-monitor?utm_medium=...

Of course I could go outside & view the smart meter to observe if power is being exported but that would be onerous.

The Efergy monitor tells me when the battery is full as the reading suddenly jumps up close to the level of solar production. If I could buy a simple monitor that showed the power direction (in or out), I would buy it immediately.

The other monitor I have came as an extra with my SMA Inverter. It tells me what my panels are producing.

My 3 monitors all sit together inside the house and make it very easy to see exactly what is happening.

Dave

[szern]

You could try something like Solar Analytics. It comes with a 6 CT (Current Transformer) version.

I'm using this now to monitor my consumption (incoming 3-phase power) and generation (inverter). This will use 4 CTs (if you only have 1 inverter). You can then use another clamp on the battery (since it's AC coupled).

Waiting for my VPP battery (will be a long wait since I haven't even gotten the inspection yet).

Hope this helps...

[Dave]

Thanks Szern. On the dashboard page from the website it appears the solar analytics monitor only provides "net electricity bought and sold". The only info I would like to see inside the house is when and how much power is being exported to the grid. My existing monitors tell me everything else I need to know.

Cheers,

Dave

[Rob]

@Dave @Bryce

I only have AGL IQ to assess my draw from the grid which is why the WattsClever device interests me.  When I'm generating more solar than the house load, I do not see any large draw from the grid.  Import from the grid seems to correlate *pretty* closely to whether solar has the load covered or not.  

For how long does the realtime monitor show it spiking for?  Because IQ on the web is in 1 hour increments I'm not likely to see a spike if it is brief.
I can download the data from IQ in CSV format (30 min increments) but I'll have to brush up on my Excel skills to get that into something discernible!

[Dave]

Today (Sunday at 1pm) the following happened:-

Solar being produced:- 3337 watts

Battery fully charged at 94%

900 watts being drawn from grid

No household items being used.

I observed this for a few minutes before leaving the monitors.

Dave

[Dave]

Today (Monday at 12 noon), I observed the following for 20 minutes, at which time grid draw was still happening at the end of that time.

Now & then grid draw dropped below 800 watts but was mostly showing a draw between 890 watts and 1540 watts.

A snapshot during this 20 minutes showed:-

Solar being produced:-  3721 watts

Battery state of charge:- 74%

Draw from grid:- 1,040 watts.

I have yet to hear anything about this from AGL.

Dave