Feature Suggestions to better support solar power monitoring

  • Hi,

    I'm using a EM to monitor my grid import and also solar generation.

    It all works fine in that I can look individually at the grid import and export and similarly at the PV generation. However it is flawed in places in the cloud portal/app and could do with some enhancements with the EM config:

    • Allow the "Consumed" and "Returned" labels to be editable to custom labels. These values are not suitable for a solar source
    • Also allow either counter to be optionally hidden (and totally ignored then from any total calculations). For a solar source, a returned counter has little use.
    • That disabled counter should then vanish everywhere in graphs etc throughout the portal/app

    To set up a clamp channel to monitor grid and a solar inverter:

    • Attach the 1st clamp to the grid supply in direction from grid
    • Rename the "Consumed" counter to "Grid Import"
    • Attach the 2nd clamp in direction from inverter
    • Rename the "Consumed" label to "Solar Generation"
    • Disable the "Returned" counter

    Then for the Consumption section:

    The Overall Consumption calculation is misleading. It is adding the total grid import (channel 1 consumed) to the total solar generation (channel 2 consumed). It should also be subtracting the returned value from channel 1.

    In the attached shots the "Total Consumption" is shown as 16.81kWh... thats not correct. I imported 8.66kWh and generated 8.04kWh. But I exported 3.37. In reality I consumed only.. 8.66 + 8.04 - 3.37 = 13.33. It would be better to show the total that way or provide a way to control how we sum up the values.

    Then in the same section where the current and accumulated values for each channel "consumed" and "returned" are shown, instead show the custom labels and only the values for the enabled counters.

    I would much prefer to see "Grid Import", "Grid Export" and "Solar Generation" than see the same label twice with just the different colours for the direction.

    I think there is huge potential for this type of EM application as many of the inverter systems can be clumsy and will not give a full insight into energy movement through the house.