Not sure what My Solar PV type is

I am not sure what my setup should be and how to configure the emonpi.

My consumer unit Is not close the meters etc so the EmonPi is under the stairs where the meters are.

I have a solar PV system so the Solar Generation Meter is also there.

My Solar feed comes into the cupboard via a twin and earth cable. I have micro-inverters fitted to each of my solar panels so they are converted to AC on the panel, there is no central inverter,

Currently, I have 1CT clipped around the Brown wire that goes into the Solar meter from the feed cable, the other CT is clipped around the Brown cable that comes from the mains meter to a large junction box, the Blue also goes to the junction box.

There are two other thick leads going to the junction box from a large isolator unit and then two more that go away through the wall and up to the consumer unit in the other room. I assume the isolator unit will trip if mains power fails to stop the solar feed going into the grid but I don’t know for sure.

Is it correct to clip the CT as described and is this setup Type 1 or 2

Is that the PV feed from the micro-inverters?

That is the meter that is fed by a 60, 80 or 100 A fuse that’s on the end of your main incomer from the street?

If I’ve understood you correctly, then “the other CT” is CT1, and “1CT” is CT2 in our terminology, and you have a Type 2 installation.

I don’t think that will happen - the inverters will, and must, do that.

I’ve promoted you, so you should be able to post a picture (just drag and drop into the text you’re typing), it will be a big help.

I’m afraid I can’t help with the App question - that’s outside my knowledge.

As said a pic would help, from the sound of it the CT you have put on the wire to the solar meter will give you the solar feed (this may need turning round if the reading is not the correct polarity)

The other CT should be on the live (brown) wire that feeds your consumer unit. (again may need turning round if wrong)

Hope this helps :slight_smile:
John

Hello Robert

Yes the one CT is clipped around the brown wire from the cable that comes from the microinverters.
The other CT is as described around the brown lead coming from the mains meter.

There is not a lot of space under the stairs and I have to be on my knees to make any changes.

I have added a photo with annotations to make this clearer, thanks for any assistance you can offer.

Out of shot, there is a 4 port network switch, the EmonPi and my Solar Array hub are connected to that for network access via a mains/ethernet socket that can be seen in the picture, this connects to one of my main network switches and out through my router.

Your right the big switch is a manual turn everything off not a trip.

Yes, it looks as if I was/we were right.

The yellow CT is the main Grid infeed, “CT1” in our terminology.
The magenta CT is the PV infeed, “CT2” in our terminology.
You do indeed have a Type 2 installation.

The black thing just below the “Solar panels on roof” label is the supplier’s fuse and neutral link. The cables coming out of the meter - I usually call that the “tariff meter” because it’s the one that determines what you pay - are called the “meter tails”, and they go into a “Henley Block” (after the original manufacturer - other makes are available!).
That is where the PV infeed joins the main supply to the house. It came via the solar and the “Lock-off Isolator” - the purpose of that is you can isolate the inverters from the mains and padlock it in the “off” position for safety.

Robert,

Thanks for your help on this. I was not 100% sure I had it all correctly hooked up. To be honest I have had the EmonPi for some time and it was all working fine.

Then I started having issues where it was not connecting reliably via WiFi and my Solar Hub also averted to suffer the same issue, constantly dropping back to a default IP address so I bought the mains/ethernet adapter but it was only a single connection.

I used it to connect the Solar hub fully intending to get a small switch to add the EmonPi, so I disconnected the Pi and then life got in the way and it was a months before I got the switch and by that time had forgotten how I had it connected up.

So I added it to the network again, updated the software and then started to configure it again.

Thanks for your advice, now I have to configure it all to start all the logging again