New Commercial Solar Member

[Flex@EHT]

We are a property management company, in Vineland, NJ, who installed a solar system on our office building back in 2013. As this system ages, problems are arising and the original installer has gone out of business. Looking for a support system and wealth of knowledge to keep our system producing and communicating.

[Flex@EHT]

We use MYPVDATA to monitor our system. We just got an email that as of this fall that as of October 31, 2020 they will no longer be able to monitor our solar magic data loggers. Has anyone else that uses mypvdata got this email, and what are other monitoring companies out there right now? The data will all need to be transferred but we will have to get there once we find a new monitoring company.

[J.P.M.]

Same suggestion for vendor selection I've been spouting since before joining this forum:

For the best chance of getting a fit for purpose system and a vendor who'll be around to service it, snoop around for a solar vendor who's been an established and licensed electrical contractor longer than they've been selling PV.

For what are probably practical and logical reasons, you may find some reluctance among contractors to work on equipment they did not install.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

[bob-n]

Sorry, I don't know the answer. I don't know that software and don't know your installation. Please allow me to ask some naive questions. Perhaps they will guide us to a good solution.

1) Is your system currently generating the expected energy?
2) What is the purpose of monitoring? (debug, RECs, other?)
3) Do you know what hardware you have installed?
4) Are you able to email or talk with anyone connected to MYPVDATA to ask them what they recommend?
5) Who has been doing maintenance for you in the past?
6) What is your biggest need right now?

I'm really going out on a limb here, but my guess is that you won't be able to find another company that takes over the old hardware monitoring. There will be companies that can install new monitoring hardware and support that. But it will be hard to even suggest such a solution without knowing what's there now.

If you don't know what is installed, can you photograph labels and post them? The more info, the more we can help.

[littleharbor]

Sorry for stepping on this thread. The latest update of the forum seems to have some problems. I was going to post a new thread about the annoying photo ad that pops up as every page loads up while navigating through the forum. Now it seems that the "new post" box has cleverly moved or hidden itself. Any help on both these issues, Mods.?

[SunEagle]

Sorry for stepping on this thread. The latest update of the forum seems to have some problems. I was going to post a new thread about the annoying photo ad that pops up as every page loads up while navigating through the forum. Now it seems that the "new post" box has cleverly moved or hidden itself. Any help on both these issues, Mods.?

I agree that the New Topic button seems to disappear when you scroll down the page. Someone in the IT dept needs to look into this.

[bcroe]

Yea the software dragons have done it again. Updated so a bunch of stuff is not backward compatible
with the computer I have used for a decade, no need to thoroughly test or make backward compatible
they say. Do not understand a QUALITY ethic. Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

Yea the software dragons have done it again. Updated so a bunch of stuff is not backward compatible
with the computer I have used for a decade, no need to thoroughly test or make backward compatible
they say. Do not understand a QUALITY ethic. Bruce Roe

Rant mode on.

What ever happened to "If it ain't broke - don't fix it" ?

Backward compatible doesn't mesh well with unnecessarily created obsolescence.

Maybe my luddite tendencies showing: Creating obsolescence is one of the mainstays of an economy that survives by creating unnecessary activity that masquerades as "employment".

I'm pretty sure I don't agree with or maybe just don't understand what passes for a lot of what's called progress anymore.

On quality: I gave up on the idea of expecting to find quality in much of anything new a long time ago. 1X/awhile I get surprised. Usually, devolution seems the order of the day.

Maybe the owners think all the new hoopla will improve the bottom line.

Rant mode off.

[SunEagle]

Rant mode on.

What ever happened to "If it ain't broke - don't fix it" ?

Backward compatible doesn't mesh well with unnecessarily created obsolescence.

Maybe my luddite tendencies showing: Creating obsolescence is one of the mainstays of an economy that survives by creating unnecessary activity that masquerades as "employment".

I'm pretty sure I don't agree with or maybe just don't understand what passes for a lot of what's called progress anymore.

On quality: I gave up on the idea of expecting to find quality in much of anything new a long time ago. 1X/awhile I get surprised. Usually, devolution seems the order of the day.

Maybe the owners think all the new hoopla will improve the bottom line.

Rant mode off.

I just posted on a private thread to Solar Pete about the software causing parts of the page to not work properly.

[J.P.M.]

I just posted on a private thread to Solar Pete about the software causing parts of the page to not work properly.

Why not make it public so we can all pile on ? Seems like that might be a way to centralize the bitching rather than hijacking /starting new threads.

BTW, do you think Pete reads current threads ?

[SunEagle]

Why not make it public so we can all pile on ? Seems like that might be a way to centralize the bitching rather than hijacking /starting new threads.

BTW, do you think Pete reads current threads ?

He does when he comes on. Remember he is down under and in a different time zone.

[J.P.M.]

He does when he comes on. Remember he is down under and in a different time zone.

Understood. I suspect he'll get an eye/earful when he reads the day's traffic.

[Ampster]

I just posted on a private thread to Solar Pete about the software causing parts of the page to not work properly.

While you are at it tell him that is a nice picture of what appears to be Santa Monica at a different time when people were allowed on the beaches. I understand down under they don't look like that with C19. That picture doesn't format well on a mobile device. It is just another inconvenient reminder that he is making money off of the leads that our discussions generate for him.

[solar pete]

Why not make it public so we can all pile on ? Seems like that might be a way to centralize the bitching rather than hijacking /starting new threads.

BTW, do you think Pete reads current threads ?

Why Yes, yes I do,

We had to run a forum software upgrade so the tech's I think thought it might be a good idea to try a new banner ad, I have alerted them to the opinions of some of our members, cheers

[bob-n]

Pete, Thank you for all you do for us. We really do appreciate it. That said, as a rule, we geeks hate changes.