Hello, I hope its ok to talk about other projects here, if not I apologize in advance. Im part of the www.SolarCoin.org community, we are incentivizing solar PV worldwide and we have compiled the SolarCoin application onto a Pi2 as a daemon under several OS’s. SolarCoin allows anyone to receive SolarCoin at a rate of 1 SLR = 1MWh of solar PV energy produced.
I am also part of the ElectriCChain project and we are building solar PV dataloggers also on Raspberry Pi, I have a couple of efforts on my github GitHub - Scalextrix/ELCC: Post solar PV energy generation data to SolarCoin block-chain and they are operational. The point of these is to log solar PV generation onto the SolarCoin block-chain. A block-chain is a decentralized open database that anyone can use and query, it is secure and rules based. Im having a little problems with my LED pulse sensor and my Landis + Gyr E110 LED, in the morning/evening the pulses dont seem to register, does anyone know if they are variable length or intensity?
I think OpenEnergyMonitor is a great project, and as someone building my own open source stuff you have my utmost respect! Although the goals of this community and SolarCoin are not the same, they are similar enough for collaborations to occur.
Thanks, its in a cupboard so I dont think thats the issue. It seems in the middle of the day when Im producing a lot of energy it works better, then in the morning or evening as the pulses become less frequent it starts missing them.
Im using Python RPi.GPIO if that helps, Im not sure how reliable the edge detection is on that. Of course I cant vouch for the detector either, its just off of AliExpress, maybe its rubbish. It has its own LED that registers the pulses, and that is always in sync with the meter LED, but maybe it doesnt output enough for the GPIO to detect the pulse.
All I can say is we know the one from the shop works when it is fed into an interrupt input of an Atmel 328P. It may be a question of pulse amplitude, pulse duration, or rise/fall time. I don’t know how Python deals with pulse inputs, so I can’t comment further.
But it does seem weird that it is missing pulses when they are further apart. Could it be that it is missing pulses all the time, and you just don’t notice it?
Hi is anyone can help me I had old analog electric meter with clock type hands is was difficult to read when my solar panel grid tie system produces energy the meter was going backwards and I called the sse southern electric company and asked them if they can change the meter so I can read easier and I asked the sse company if the meter they are going to install will be solar panels grid tie system compatible they told me yes it will and the engineer came and installed landis gyr meter e110 type 5235A now I have problems when my solar system produces more power and on the new meter the digit in kilowatts don’t go back only I get red led constant and I called the sse company they told me the extra power is send to grid so I asked them how do I can get the enyger back does the store in memory they said no so therefore the meter is no good to me as I am losing out they are getting free enyger from my system and how can I come Over this please help or can I demand sse company to put back my old anolog meter back?
Are you in the UK? You did specify or complete the country field in your profile, I’ll assume so for now as you mention SSE.
We don not have net metering in the UK. Your FiT (Feed in tariff), if you have signed up for one, will probably just pay you 50% of your generated energy, you should have a generation meter installed as part of the PV install if you are signing up for FiT.
It sounds like your old meter was effectively giving you net metering, so no wonder the energy company were happy to replace the meter. They certainly won’t swap it back or give you any meter that behaves the same way. Sometimes you can get an export meter installed and they will pay you specifically for what you export back to the grid rather than 50% of generation. But they will only pay about a third of what you pay for import (peak) so it isn’t usually worth it (net metering effectively sells at the same price as buying). We just accept 50% of generation and use a diverter to the DHW etc to ensure as little as possible goes back to the grid.
As Paul says, what you can do - and it is a very popular choice - is make the best use of the energy you generate before it has a chance to flow out into the grid. One way is to heat your water from your PV. My colleague Robin Emley (https://mk2pvrouter.co.uk) can supply a system that will connect to your immersion heater to do just that.
Thankyou very much for your reply by the way I am in UK and at home I don’t have emersion heater I have combi condensing boiler I call the sse electric provider and skope to the manager regarding to installed the old meter back and he checked and said they cannot do that and the electric meter they installed he said is fully compatible which is landis gyr e110 type 5335A with solar grid tie system and the excess electric which solar panels system generates will goback the the grid free of charge and I am losing out on electricity the sse said there nothing they can do and I said to them if they can install another meter which I can pay for the cost which it will logon the killwats which my solar system produces they said they can’t do this and I was thinking if I can get private company in to change electric meter to analog type which I got the estimate £250 plus vat and change to different energy supply company… Can I do this? Please let me know thanks
Having solar panels with a meter that winds backwards is not usually legal, as is having a private company change the meter. The meter is owned by the electric company, you cant change it without their permission.
Do you own the solar panels or are they on a lease or roof rent?
If you own the panels then you should be getting Feed in Tarriff and deemed (50%) export energy payments via the FiT company.
If you dont own the panels then you need to check with the owner who gets the electricity export, its probably the panel owner, not you.
You can certainly get an approved electrical contractor to insert a meter in the PV infeed that “will logon the killwats which my solar system produces” [sic], but that meter will be for your information only. Having it will in no way affect your electricity bill, nor the Feed-In Tariff - which you have not mentioned but which everyone assumes you are getting.
If you had your solar panels fitted by an approved supplier, you should be receiving the feed-in tariff, and your meter should have been changed then. If the meter wasn’t changed, it might be their fault, but it remains the fact that while you had your old meter, you were defrauding your supplier, because you were in effect being paid twice for the energy you exported.
If you haven’t gone down that route, and your PV installation was not done by an approved installer, then I’m afraid you are stuck with the situation you are in.