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System monitoring and metering is probably the most important "option" that any solar powered system can have.
It's so important to the system that you almost can't call it an option.
Knowing your batteries current state of charge can mean the difference between having lights and not.
Just assuming the system is doing well, because you had clear skies, is not good enough.
If your system really utilizes a great deal of your produced power on a daily basis you'll need to pay special attention to battery charge level.
With our Tri-Metric meter, which I dearly love, I can monitor all kinds of data: % of estimated battery charge Current battery voltage Aggregate amps in or out Estimated amps from full Maximum & minimum voltage Days since full charge Days since equalize charge Monitoring systems like this are not 100% accurate. We usually fully charge the batteries everyday, so this meter gives us a good measurement of the systems daily utilization, charge or draw status. When weather or charge conditions are other than ideal that's where metering really comes into play. We check the percentage of total charge when we get home from work in the evening, and if the system runs below 70% then we start to curb our usage of electricity a little bit. If the system runs below 60% we don't run the TV on the solar system, and if it gets lower still we cut back usage of solar power even more. Actually, we've only been below 60% about 2 times, so things are great for us now. |
