SE500H using 96W all night long? Power vampire?!?

[blueman2]

I just got my new PV system up and running. SolarEdge SE5000H inverter. I attached a z-wave Aeon Tech power monitor to the AC wires coming from inverter to the main circuit panel just to double check how much power it is producing. The odd thing is that all night long, it CONSUMES 96W of power! Do SolarEdge inverters really vampire THAT much power? If so, that is almost 10% wastage of the 26 KW hrs or so that my system produces each day (24 hrs x 100W = 2.4 KW hrs of wasted energy). Specs say about 2W nighttime draw, but I am definitely measuring 94W nighttime draw.

Could this be an issue with how I am measuring this? I have one clamp on each live AC wire (L1 and L2) going between the SE inverter and the power panel to my house. Each clamp measures about 0.38 Amps. At 122V, that is about 47W for each wire. So added, that is 94W. Am I missing something?

EDIT ################################################## ##################

I resolved this issue using the method recommended by @FFE and @ButchDeal (turn all power in house off, and turn on circuits one by one to see power usage on my digital PGE meter). It turns out the SE5000 draws pretty much exactly what Solaredge says: 2.5W. It appears the Aeon Labs z-wave Home Energy Monitor (HEM v1) was giving very false readings. I just finishing installing a Wattnode Modbus energy meter which again confirmed the low 2.5W draw of the SE5000 when in sleep mode. Apologies for creating unnecessary confusion.

[FFE]

What I would do in this situation:

I have SCE and my meter is digital. It shows instantaneous power and reads kW with three places after the decimal. So, at night I would turn off all of my circuit breakers except for the inverter breakers and see what my meter shows. Then turn all of my circuit breakers back on and reset the clock on my oven and microwave. I have frequent power outages so I have UPS on my computer and DVR plus clocks with batteries so it it easy for me to do this and would require most people to reset a bunch of things.

Or, if the above option was not available: On the SCE website I can display historical kWh for any day with one hour intervals. If that was my only option I would do the same as above but leave all but the inverter breakers off for a few hours. A few days later the info would show up on their website and I would have my answer.

I used the above methods to chase down all my loads before I installed solar panels. I managed to get my base load down to about 300 watts average over a 24 hour period with an empty house. This includes refrigerator, fish tank, DVR, computer sleeping plus everything else in the house.

[blueman2]

@FFE,

Great idea! I was using hourly data from PGE to compare before I had inverter to after, but your idea of turning off power and use main meter to see how much Inverter draws is best way to nail it., I was averaging 700W draw when house empty, with low of 520W minimum single data point. Both numbers have gone up about 80W since I installed the inverter. I really want to get that number down.

Thanks again!

[BFW577]

I just got my new PV system up and running. SolarEdge SE5000H inverter. I attached a z-wave Aeon Tech power monitor to the AC wires coming from inverter to the main circuit panel just to double check how much power it is producing. The odd thing is that all night long, it CONSUMES 96W of power! Do SolarEdge inverters really vampire THAT much power? If so, that is almost 10% wastage of the 26 KW hrs or so that my system produces each day (24 hrs x 100W = 2.4 KW hrs of wasted energy). Specs say about 2W nighttime draw, but I am definitely measuring 94W nighttime draw.

Could this be an issue with how I am measuring this? I have one clamp on each live AC wire (L1 and L2) going between the SE inverter and the power panel to my house. Each clamp measures about 0.38 Amps. At 122V, that is about 47W for each wire. So added, that is 94W. Am I missing something?

Just for reference my SE5000 shows it has a nightime standby of 20 watts according to my energy monitor.

Screenshot_20191015-090905_Monitor.jpg

[blueman2]

Just for reference my SE5000 shows it has a nightime standby of 20 watts according to my energy monitor.

Screenshot_20191015-090905_Monitor.jpg

What energy monitor are you using? Since Solaredge claims 2W nighttime draw, I wonder what is going on here.

[Ampster]

I have an Outback Skybox and it has a vampire load of 100 Watts in backup mode. I haven't checked it in other modes.

[ButchDeal]

I have an Outback Skybox and it has a vampire load of 100 Watts in backup mode. I haven't checked it in other modes.

that is a very different situation. The Skybox will have much less in grid tie mode and OP does not have a bimodal inverter.

[Ampster]

Exactly. My point being that 97 Watts is a lot of vampire load for for a grid tie inverter.

[ButchDeal]

@FFE,

Great idea! I was using hourly data from PGE to compare before I had inverter to after, but your idea of turning off power and use main meter to see how much Inverter draws is best way to nail it., I was averaging 700W draw when house empty, with low of 520W minimum single data point. Both numbers have gone up about 80W since I installed the inverter. I really want to get that number down.

Thanks again!

have you been able to verify the data with this other method or any other.
One would be to check the turn off everything except Solar, check the reading, then turn off solar as well. and check for change.

Is anything else on the same line as the solar? like your third party meter?

[blueman2]

have you been able to verify the data with this other method or any other.
One would be to check the turn off everything except Solar, check the reading, then turn off solar as well. and check for change.

Is anything else on the same line as the solar? like your third party meter?

I have not done this yet but plan to either tonight or tomorrow night. I do have a digital main meter (PGE) which should provide very accurate results. Nothing else is on the line that goes to the solar meter, so leaving just the circuit on should provide a good reading. I definitely will report back.

[ButchDeal]

Exactly. My point being that 97 Watts is a lot of vampire load for for a grid tie inverter.

SolarEdge inverters should be < 2.5w in night time consumption according to their sheets.
But we do not know the accuracy of the readings OP has given or what else might be on the line with the meter, or the power factor, reactive power mix and if the OPs equipment is measuring it.

[blueman2]

I was finally able to turn off all power to the house and do a circuit by circuit test using PGE digital meter. It turns out I was wrong. SE5000H draws between 2-3W as its manufacturer lists. The issue was that my Aeon Labs z-wave Home Energy Monitor (v1) was giving (very!) false readings. I corrected the top post to avoid confusing anyone else. Thanks FFE and ButchDeal for the idea for how to resolve using the PGE meter.

The really odd thing is that the Aeon HEM has been very accurate for other applications. Must be something about the SE inverter that confuses it. And I mean REALLY confuses it. 96W reading on a 2.5W circuit is very, very wrong.

[ButchDeal]

I was finally able to turn off all power to the house and do a circuit by circuit test using PGE digital meter. It turns out I was wrong. SE5000H draws between 2-3W as its manufacturer lists. The issue was that my Aeon Labs z-wave Home Energy Monitor (v1) was giving (very!) false readings. I corrected the top post to avoid confusing anyone else. Thanks FFE and ButchDeal for the idea for how to resolve using the PGE meter.

The really odd thing is that the Aeon HEM has been very accurate for other applications. Must be something about the SE inverter that confuses it. And I mean REALLY confuses it. 96W reading on a 2.5W circuit is very, very wrong.

It is likely that the Aeon doesnt deal well with systems that correct powerfactor