SolarEdge Installed, Seeking Monitoring Advice

[so_cal_burbs]

I had assumed SolarEdge monitoring was comprehensive (both generation and consumption) based on YouTube videos I had watched about their inverters. While I await for the inspector to arrive for my shiny SolarEdge 7600H unit I started googling what to do in order to get access-and puzzled that my installer had driven off without asking for my WiFi details.

What I discovered (and if you're here to give advice you already know) is that SolarEdge does not support WiFi directly in their inverters in North America. Only Zigbee, Direct Ethernet and Cellular. Zigbee has a poor reputation for reliability in the older SolarEdge but not much chatter about HDWave units. I'd hope that SolarEdge engineering has fixed any problems on their side by now-but I know from my HA efforts that Zigbee radios don't have much range so can understand why installers tend to steer clear.

Production Questions:
I turned on the breaker and looked through the menus of the inverter and found a GSM connection configured. From the forums it appears the data sampling from the different technologies is different.

This is what I've gleaned, please correct my mistakes:
Ethernet=five minute updates to the solaredge cloud. The measurement is based on instant readings from the panels, not an average.
Zigbee=This was a bit unclear but it looks like this updates in 15 minute increments. Averaging the prior three five minute readings.
Cellular=15 minute increments uploaded in bulk each four hours. I would like to know if this is instant or averaging the prior 5 minute readings.

I could put in ethernet to the inverter. Is there any advantage to doing so other than getting close to realtime production numbers and slightly more granular output data? Not sure what I'd do with the extra data unless I add HA to switch on AC or other power systems when I know I am producing excess.

[Future buyers note that you should discuss the monitoring tech with your installer during the bidding process. I had five written quotes, none of which mentioned how monitoring would be done. If I could do it over I would have specified Cat6 into my garage from the inverter and done a WiFi bridge myself-since the GSM modem is hundreds of dollars I probably would have saved a few bucks too.]

As far as Zigbee SolarEdge sells both the slave(transmitter) and the master(gateway). If I have a Zigbee hub in the form of Samsung Smartthings can I use that as the master? If so, it would be a cheap $80 zigbee part to get going and I wouldn't have to drill a hole in the wall to get Cat6 cable from the inverter into the garage.

Consumption Questions:
I definitely want to monitor consumption against production. My panel has a busbar connection to the meter so I cannot use CT's to monitor the mains which rules out many of the units aimed at residential customers. I've read about the SolarEdge reporting higher than actual production numbers unless you link to PVoutput.org.
I live in SDG&E territory which supports the Rainforest Eagle. Seems cheap and easy-but is the built in unit from SolarEdge more accurate/better? Can I install the SolarEdge one myself? Many of the discussions on this are stale so I'm looking for the current thinking on what is available/recommended.

SolarEdge Monitoring Portal:
I have searched and read a bunch of threads discussing getting appropriate level of access including 'admin' access to the SolarEdge monitoring portal. I haven't gotten any information from my installer yet. If I'm not planning on upgrading panels or inverter is there a reason to ask for Admin access from my installer? Can SolarEdge grant me that level later on if I ask for it?

Rereading this I sound like the typical eager beaver at the beginning of solar process. Some old timers have written not to invest too much in monitoring because the novelty quickly wears off. I am interested to get the wisdom of the forum here but in my head am thinking stick with cellular, add a Rainforest Eagle and go from there.

[bcroe]

Some old timers have written not to invest too much in monitoring because the novelty quickly wears off. I am interested to get the wisdom of the forum here but in my head am thinking stick with cellular, add a Rainforest Eagle and go from there.

Good thinking. The only number that matters here, is the size of the reserve sent to me
by the PoCo once a month. I am constantly amazed, by how much effort is put into
monitoring PV solar systems, compared to how little goes into improving them. Bruce Roe

[ButchDeal]

The zigbee does not average the prior data sets but sends them all.
You can not pair with your zigbee hub either..

[JSchnee21]

I was in a similar position. I did ask prior to purchase about monitoring and knew I was getting cellular. But I failed to realize (and my installer didn't mention) that the data upload rates and granularity was so poor with the residential cellular solution. It's my understanding that the commercial cellular solution is closer (perhaps the same) as Ethernet. Not a hardware limitation, but rather related to cost cutting on the data plans. Regrettably, SolarEdge won't sell the high speed plans to residential -- I called them. I could have easily had my installer run some Ethernet if I had known. IMHO it's asinine that SE won't do Wifi in the US, but will in Europe. My inverter even has a menu for Wifi but alas no adapter. I setup my own Ethernet to Wifi bridge until I get up enough ambition to run some Ethernet outside.

I really like my SE consumption monitoring, had to pay extra for the privileged. I still look at it every day, but then it's only 6 mo old. Mainly to see what percentage of my daily consumption was covered by my array each day depending on conditions. I have a line side tap in between my load center and the meter. But, the SE consumption monitor does use CT's they are rather sizeable and make it difficult to put the cover back on the load center.

Best wishes and enjoy you're new system. P.S. definitely get setup on PVOutput lots of great graphing tools.

[Flashtime9]

I used a $30.00 Belkin repeater. Just plug in your ethernet into the inverter.

[dailo]

I discovered this before my installer put my inveter in and asked them to take the cellular module and I just used an old router I had lying around and converted it to a repeater. Has worked well for me so far. I had grand plans on collecting all sort of stats from my inverter with the project below, but never got around to it. PVOutput and rainforest has gotten most of the data I was interested in, although I would like to be able to graph per panel stats with my own tools.

https://github.com/jbuehl/solaredge

[so_cal_burbs]

I still don't have access to the monitoring portal so can't see the real reports. It seems simple enough to add in the ethernet and repeater (at least for those that have power nearby or are willing to patch it into the inverter directly)-but I'm still unclear on what the advantage is of having 5 minute production resolution vs 15. To those that switched, can you explain why and whether you would do it again?

[inspron]

I am also in the SDGE service area with SolarEdge HD inverter, Mira Mesa.

Had Zigbee but ended up ripping it out in favor of Ethernet connection. Solaredge requires master and slave zigbee pair to work, so it won't work with your Smartthings hub - I tried.

I ended up going with ethernet over powerline adapters instead. It works great, also using this to install a few POE security cameras while I am at it.

Consumption monitoring wise, I wouldn't recommend going the PVoutput via rainforest setup, too complicated and expensive and poor app support. The best and simplest option is to do monitoring via the Solaredge inverter so you could see it directly in your Solaredge app. I have a spare WATTNODE MODBUS that will work with your HD inverter if you are interested. onetimeuseemail@inspron.com

[JSchnee21]

I probably could have lived with the 15 minute granularity, but the 4 hour batch uploads over the GSM link were killing me. Everything else in our lives is real time now, to have to wait 4 hours to see what your array is doing is no fun. Also, with Ethernet (and likely Zigbee) you get some real time production and consumption values (maybe 3 or 5 updates or so in rapid succession) when you connect to the monitoring portal which is great if you your HVAC kicked on or something and you want to quickly check and see how the load has change. Or a cloud went by, etc.

[DrLumen]

SE monitoring and reporting sucks. I finally got an API key from my installer so I am able to pull empirical data down automatically and archive it using an rpi and node red. But, that means it is a day behind. I have a cellular modem on the inverter so that limits me to 4 hour blocks anyway.

I will likely go to a Brultech system. I still won't have the granular per-panel data I would like but the total production will be real time.