Energy Matters Forums

[angusjones8]

Well we are at 15 months now and I finally had to run the generator last weekend for the first time. Mainly cause it was a rainy weekend and we wanted to catchup on washing and dishes (2 loads in dishwasher, 4+ loads of cloths and dryer on for 5-6 hours) plus I thought I better give the generator a run to blow out the cob webs.
We absolutely love living with solar power and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Recently I built a huge trailer at night after work over a few months and put 15kg of Mig wire into it, the customer couldn’t believe it when I told him I built it 100% with battery power.
On average we are using about 40% of the rated capacity of the battery every day so hope they last a bit.

One thing I would like is some sort of remote monitoring so I can keep an eye on them through the day at work and call the wife if something is wrong.

Bring on summer so I can enjoy the air con!

[Gordon-Loomberah]

One thing I would like is some sort of remote monitoring so I can keep an eye on them through the day at work and call the wife if something is wrong.

I use a 10 channel data logger hooked up to a small low power laptop (small Sony Vaio with SSD), which also runs my weather station software, and log on to it remotely via Team Viewer. It currently samples on 5 channels at 1sec intervals.
2 half battery voltages, load current, and 2 X PV array input currents. It gives me all the info I need, and I can check it from anywhere with my phone or a computer.

[davidg]

Selectronic now have a thing called select live for the SP-Pro's, while it's early days at the moment it does provide near real time data of what the system is doing for anywhere on the internet. It is supposed to getting more enhancements, and they have added to it a little bit so far. I expect a lot more from it given more time.

[australsolarier]

davidg,
how much is selectronic charging for that life smart phone app?
on their website there is not much at all except a superficial youtube video.

[davidg]

There is no "app" and it does require internet access to function, but it will work on any phone platform I've seen so far. what I've done is to add to the "hone screen" or "desktop" as a permanent link, that works well, the front_end is designed to function on mobile phones and behaves well.

The way it has been done has to date negated any issues with versions of OS for Android and IOS, can also be used through the web browsers I've tested it with to date and does provide almost realtime data, lags a few seconds behind in simple easy to read frontend.

Sold a couple of them for $420 plus installation, depending on what you want it might cost more. Ie if you want both a computer and the select live unit at the sametime you would also need to ensure that a "blue" communications card would also be required (upgrade) nearly all existing SP-Pros do not have have this card installed they are new. they are also used for a managed battery pack/s, such as LG, BYD & some others then the same upgrade comms card is required anyway. I suspect that the blue comms card will be the STD one in the future.

If you want more there are a couple of other options on the market for the SP-Pro, they cost more, they do more, however the select.live works, is simple, is easy use, is easy to setup and apparently should be expanded on in the future.

[angusjones8]

Sounding good. Internet is no drama at home so can have something running 24/7

[offgridQLD]

What price were you offered on the 200ah Winston cells ?

[angusjones8]

What price were you offered on the 200ah Winston cells ?

I really can’t remember now sorry, I think from memory I’m sitting at about $16k for my whole system.

[angusjones8]

Well I’m 2 months off 2 years and wouldn’t change a thing. This summer I put a 2.5kw aircon in our bedroom and it was a wise decision.
Would like to build another system similar on my work shop shed when funds allow.