Solis Household Consumption Monitoring Solution

1. Background

With a PV system installed, the electricity generated by the PV system can be used by the household loads thus reducing the electricity bill. However, customers are not able to clearly see the changes or the benefits of installing a PV system. But with Solis inverter monitoring solution, they will have a clear view of all the energy flow in their house including the PV generation, load consumption and the grid import/export power.

An added benefit of having a detailed power data is that the customers can alter their power consumption habits to more efficiently match the generation of the PV system. In this case, more PV generation can be “timely” consumed by the household loads to achieve a higher self-consumption rate thus reducing the electricity bill without installing an expensive battery system.

The Solis power consumption monitoring provides customers with a full “snapshot” of the power flow monitoring system which is able to monitor all the power data within the system day or night. The monitoring system will continuously monitor the load consumption 24 hours a day. With this solution, customers are able to grasp the whole picture of their PV system and household loads and then create a more efficient energy use plan.

2. Working Principles

Day-Time Generation and Consumption
• Inverter generation and energy flow at grid point will be uploaded to the monitoring system through the inverter datalogger. Within the monitoring system, the calculations will be completed and the load consumption energy will be available for the home owner to see in real-time.

Night-Time Consumption
• With the 24 hours consumption monitoring function enabled. The inverter will remain energized with the monitoring function still active. Data will continue to be uploaded to the monitoring system.

With the night-time AC power supply activated the customer will have night-time tare losses. These losses are negligible for the average customer. The benefit of having the 24 hour cycle of power consumption monitoring will outweigh deactivating the feature for many customers. Regardless, it is the customer’s choice to enable the AC power supply at night or not. Solis inverters provides the flexible options for customers and distributors within one smart device. The function is disabled by default to avoid inverter power consumption at night. Once the AC power supply setting is enabled and Solis monitoring system is connected, the consumption data will be uploaded continuously for the entire day.

3. Supported Models and Accessories

The following inverter models support 24hr power consumption monitoring with an additional smart meter connected.

• Solis-mini-(700-3600) -4G
• Solis-1P(2.5-6)K-4G
• Solis-1P(7-8)K-5G
• Solis-3P(3-20)K-4G

Solis offers 2 types of single-phase smart meters and 2 types of three-phase smart meter with different connections: Direct Insert Type or External CT Type. Customers can place the order for different meters depending on which type suits the onsite installation.

4. Monitoring Platform Case

The power consumption data of the household loads will be displayed and refreshed in the Solis monitoring platform. Customers can simply install the APP or use the Web platform to check and view the energy flow of their house.

Below is the Solis monitoring platform view of the power generation and consumption. The blue line represents the PV generation and the doted red light represents the homeowners power consumption. This system has the 24-hour feature enabled.

Below is the Solis monitoring platform view of the power generation and consumption. The blue line represents the PV generation and the doted red light represents the homeowners power consumption. This system has the 24-hour feature enabled.

(“Generation” indicates the PV power, “Consumption” indicates the household load power, “Grid Power” indicates the power on the grid connection point, negative sign means import and positive sign means export)

5. Summary

Solis household consumption monitoring solution gives customers a clear view of their PV generation and household consumption. With the detailed power flow data on the Solis monitoring platform, customers are able to optimize their behaviors on how and when to use the electrical appliances thus saving more on their electricity bills.