SolarEdge - Consumption monitoring meter / working for anyone

[malibu3105]

I recently had an 8.4kw system installed at my home by SolarMax. Everything working, and monitoring fine (Only at user level). I also purchased a CCS WattNode meter that connects into my inverter and when working shows my consumption as well as production on the monitoring site. However, once this WattNode meter was connected to my inverter, all history is now gone and I only see a realtime power level. No day, week, month or etc. They are all zero.
SolarEdge says this is a known bug.

Does anyone else have one of these meters installed, and is it working? I am doing research as I don't think that solardEdge is giving accurate information.
See my device on page #2 http://www.solaredge.com/files/pdfs/...tation_row.pdf

Thanks,
Frank

[solar pete]

Howdy malibu3105, hopefully a solaredge expert will be along soon, I dont have any experience with solaredge, good luck with it

[sensij]

Butchdeal has some experience setting these up.

Here is a thread that might help:

https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/solar-panels-for-home/solar-panel-system-equipment/22674-solaredge-consumption-meter-display-problem-on-dashboard

[DanKegel]

There but for the grace of /deity go I. I briefly considered doing the same thing when installing my Solaredge system, but held off on monitoring consumption in hopes that my utility would grant access to data via zigbee (for Rainforest Eagle) or via the web.

Another possibility is to unplug the modbus unit from the solaredge, then use pvoutput.org to watch both the solaredge and the modbus consumption data.
But this is probably harder than begging solaredge to fix their bug.

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/solar_software might be a place to look for software than can watch modbus from the wattnode and upload it to pvoutput.
(It lists software that does something similar for Xantrex inverters... which my old house has, I may try that sometime. Thanks for asking your question!)

[ButchDeal]

Butchdeal has some experience setting these up.

Here is a thread that might help:
https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...m-on-dashboard

We have not set up one using SolarEdge directly yet. We have done several with independent meter for consumption and solaredge for generation, and I have done a few with TED measuring both consumption and generation.
The issue in the other thread is around PVOutput data.

I was under the impression that SolarEdge was fully supporting the monitoring on their site on all inverters but officially only on the SE7600. I believe there is firmware upgrade for the SE7600 but that is to allow it to handle grid zero capabilities. I do not think that this firmware is available on other inverters. For simply measuring it should work across the board. I would push them to resolve the bug on your site.

[malibu3105]

I did hear back from SolarEdge... Seems my installer connected the consumption meter to the inverter where you would connect a production meter, so the inverter was thinking that there was another production meter connected. The fix according to SolarEdge is to wire the consumption meter to the correct location. They are working with my installer directly to correct this. I will post again once this has been updated. So seems there is no glitch, just mis-wiring. Which is good.

[montana]

Can someone help me understand what hardware a friend should use to monitor his solar system. It is a:
Xantrex XW6048 Hybrid Inverter/Charger
Midnight Classic charge controller
Xantrex XW SCP Display
I am fluent on SMA products and self installed my solar system but am not familiar with Xantrex products. Basically he wants to be able to track production over time. I researched it a few months ago and it seems like there were 2 generations of hardware to do this and I was not clear on compatibility, wiring. I think the solar system is about 5-10 years old but not sure. I attached a few pics of his system. thanks for your help.

[Mike90250]

Your friend has a problem - mixed brands. I don't know of any product that will report data from "alien" hardware.

The Schneider gear will talk to the Schneider Combox (I don't know if their new GATEWAY is out yet) and the combox can report all the Schneider info via web interface

The Classic can be monitored by the My Midnight service over the internet, or by the Local App software over the internet.

I have the same mix of Schneider / MidnightSolar and added Morningstar Solar, I log it by hand.

[montana]

Mike, thanks for the feedback on this comms upgrade. I am starting to remember now my confusion when I researched this a few months ago. I was concerned that the conext combox would not talk to a pre conext XW6048, the spec sheet that I read said it only talks to conext XW inverters. The newer XW's say Conext on them but this one does not say that on it, so I was assuming this was a pre conext inverter. Do you know if the older XW6048's have modbus, ethernet or Xanbus the Conext combox can communicate with it? I can ask him to look at his paper work if you need the exact date of installation, he bought the house after it was installed. As for the Midnite Classic, how far back to do these have the TCP/IP modbus capability? I can go open it up and see if it has an Ethernet port, presumably if it does then it can talk to My Midnight on the web?

[Mike90250]

My new combox talks just fine to my old Xantrex XW. They use the XANBUS, which is NOT ethernet, it has power mixed in the data lines, and it's fatal to ethernet gear to apply XANBUS power to them accidentally.
My Classic 200 is +5 years old. There is a cheap model out, for multiple controller installs, that does not have ethernet

[montana]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I went over there today and we ran Ethernet cable from Ethernet switch to Midnight Classic and was able to connect to it and log data via the "local application software", but the "MyMidnite2.com website was not able to see it, even though we updated the firmware on the 150 and the MNGP. The Local Application Software still said invalid firmware, not sure what that problem is yet. The XW6048 has 2 Xanbus ports, one is connected to the SCP, the other port has a RJ45 plug of some sort, almost looked a some sort of jumper, do you know what that plug is? was wondering if I remove the plug and plug in the Conext combox in that port. How old is your XW? Thanks for your help,

[Mike90250]

My XW is a good 8 or 9 years old.

PLEASE read the instructions for the Xambus. It requires a termination plug at each far end, so as you daisy chain gear, the termination plug needs to go the the end of the run. There is also a problem if you use too short of cables for Xanbus, read the manual for it.

[montana]

Good advice, thank you.