Inexpensive monitoring of grid tie inverter - will my idea work?

[Mike90250]

Xantrex GT inverters only need a 3 wire serial cable, laptop, and freeware

http://www.mike-burgess.org/PVinfo_2.html

.CSV output into excel http://www.mike-burgess.org/images/MB_May-3-2007.htm

I've heard several hundred feet on the serial cable is not a problem.

[RandySea]

We are putting in a 5kw grid tie PV system with a Silicon Energy Aurora inverter. The AC run to our house is 260'. That's a long way to walk in winter and deep snow to check on the inverter.

We've been told that monitoring equipment costs $550 to $2,000, plus the additional conduit and ethernet cable that would go in the power trench. It would give us all kind of nifty figures and statistics, alarms and emails, etc. All we really want is to be able to tell easily that the system is working approximately as it should.

Here's my idea: Buy an old fashioned ammeter on eBay for $10. Mount in in a subpanel next to the main power panel and run the incoming AC from the inverter through it. It should read 0-20 amps, depending on time of day and brightness of the sun. In case of any unexpected deviation, we could trek out the the inverter to check the LED readout.

Should this work, or am I missing something?