Hi guys,
Just bought the Fluksometer v2b with 50A current clamp, gas probe and water probe.
I installed everything but now I am just getting readings from the current clamp.
I connected the current clamp tot the first port as described in the manual.
Port 2 connects to my official solar panel meter (pulse output) but gets no readings. (Problem 1)
Port 3 and 4 were gas and water probe. In the manual there was something about port 4 and 5 that should be suited for water and gas probes, so I changed that, but without any result. (Problem 2)
However, if I understand the manual and webshop correctly, it shouldn't matter, choosing port 2 till 5 for such probes, as long as the number of phases and power clamps is set to 1 for Fluksometer v2b.
To be able to connect these two probes, I had to extend their cable for about 8 meters. Therefor I used a telephonecable with 4 conductors (+ & - for gasprobe and + & - for waterprobe) 0,6m².
Could it be the length of this cable that is causing these problems?
This cable runs alongside other powercables (pv).
Another problem is the differense in readings between the readings from the Flukso and readings from other metering systems. My Chacon and Smappee almost constantly measure about 100 to 200W more or less than the Flukso. (Problem 3).
Further I also have the repeatedly reported problems like no readings per minute, different reactions from Chrome, IE and Firefox to the Flukso website. Mostly Chrome reports "The call for sensor PowerR experienced a timeout. You are probably not in the same local network as the FLM." where as the other browsers don't report anyting.
Suggestions anyone...?
Thanks!
PS: my compass (real compass, not a smartphoneapp) reacts strongly to the watercounter and my GMT G4 gasmeter. So the pulses should be OK.
Did you log in to your flukso with your computer by typing 192.168.255.1 in your browser, and select the right settings?
Current clamp is not a good option to measure solar panels, I've had the same problem
If you have a voltmeter you can check if the pulsevoltage is strong enough.
Just hold the + of the voltmeter on the + of your flukso pulssensor (the end) and the minus to the minus of the pulssensor. Let the water or gas streaming. The voltage should be around 3/4 time 3.23 volt and 1/4 time 0 volt (or just the other way if you change the wires).
Hans, thanks for your replies!
I did do all the settings (I thing correctly):
Current clamp ports: 1
Number of phases: 1
Current clamp 50A:
Sensor: 1
Enabled
Type: analog
Type: electricity
Name: main
Voltage: 230
Current: 50
Constant: blanc
Direct connection to pv counter (Brand: ABB Type OD1365)
Sensor: 2
Enabled
Type: pulse
Type: electricity
Name: solar
Voltage: 230 (cannot be altered)
Current: 50 (cannot be altered)
Constant: 0.01
Gas probe:
Sensor: 4
Enabled
Type: pulse
Type: gas
Name: gas
Voltage: blanc
Current: blanc
Constant: 0.01
Water probe:
Sensor: 5
Enabled
Type: pulse
Type: water
Name: water
Voltage: blanc
Current: blanc
Constant: 0.01
Sensor 3 and 6 are not in use.
All services are active.
Ports 4 (gas) and 5 (water) are at 3.27v.
The water probe at port 5 gets 0v every cycle of the smallest counter.
The gas probe at port 4 stays at 3.27v.
The gas probe is at the GMT G4 gasmeter mounted on the place where the compass needle reacts best.
I do not have a current clamp for the solar panels. Instead I directly wired the pulse output from the DIN rail counter to port 2 of the Fluksometer with the settings as described here above.
Port 2 has 3.27v on it, but over daytime I'm at work, so I cannot measure the pulses. I will have to wait for this till Friday afternoon when I'm home early while there is still daylight.
Another strange part is that there are no readings from the solar counter and on the Dash-page of Flukso.net the graph of the gas probe stays empty and the graph of the water probe (the one that seems to count!) doesn't even appear on the webpage.
192.168.255.1 in your browser and check
192.168.255.1
log in
go to "syslog" then to bottom of page
You can see what sensors are counting
Bazzle, I found out that the water probe now seems to work after changing the constant from 0.01 to 1. Strange?
Gas probe still no success. Could the sensor be defect?
Or might it be the cable that is to long? (+ 8m)
Yes I have also that problem. I set 0.877 as pulse counting, and didn't work either. As I change to 1 all the pulses came in the grafics, flattened out. So let it be 1 or 2 or 10, but no decimal..
I think there is a new firmware coming that allows different integar (1.77 instead of 1 or 2 or 0.5 etc)
I checked the gas probe with a magnet. Install the voltmeter on the pulse sensor. Check with a magnet if it counts.
I had also a problem with the magnet. The problem is, the north and south pole of the magnet should be turns in the right way! So you checked where the magnet is the strongest with a compass, but that's not good! If the magnet turns the south or north pole 360 in front of your sensor, there will be no action! The north and south pole has to be switched, but the sensor may not be too close to the magnet, otherwise it counts 2 times for 1 round. Check google: Hall effect
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/electromagnetism/hall-effect.html
1/ For pulse input meter constants should be expressed in Wh/pulse (electricity) or l/pulse (water and gas), see the Fluksometer Manual par 2.2.4. Typically, this will be 1, 0.5 and 10 respectively. But double check with the meter constant printed on the utility meter.
2/ The sensors are reed contacts, not Hall sensors. They should trigger when the magnetic field rises above a set threshold.
3/ You can easily test each pulse port by shorting its respective + and - inputs. Check the syslog on the local web interface to verify that a pulse has been registered for that specific sensor. You can start right at the screw terminal, then move to the end of the twisted pair cable. Finally, test the entire chain by holding a magnet close to the sensor head of the water/gas probe. For the DIN-rail meter, double check that you have respected the polarity.
4/ A r232 firmware will only report pulses on integer values of the counter. So for the water meter, you'll need to trigger two pulses to get the counter to increase by 1. This will not be the case anymore in the r24x release.
Hello compuprof. How many solarpanels do you have? You live in Holland/Belgium? You have incredible kWh!
Hans, how do you know my kWh? :-)
I have 33 Eging panels 245Wp (8085Wp in total) on a Sunny Boy 5000TL-21.
So to many panels for the Sunny Boy, but that is to meet my needs. I consume about 6000kWh/y.
The installation is calculated to produce about 6500kWh/y.
I have a second job in which I sell and repair computers. Thereby I have a larger consumption.
I live next to Leuven in Belgium.
I saw another person in the neighbourhood with only 24 panels (another brand) of 245kWp a peice, on the same Sunny Boy and he produces a lot more than me.
My house is oriented at approx. 225° (I guess about south-west) and my roof has an angle of 35°.
The other person has 210° (bit more south) and a roof angle of 45°.
Accross the street there is a large tree which throws shadow on my roof from I guess around october 19th.
I only have my installation from september 11th. (Yes, 9/11...) :-)
So from 14/15h in the afternoon, the production falls back al lot.
The reseller told me that in winter, I would only have 7% of the yearly production. So I'm hoping that I will come out arount 6500kWh/y.
This installation costed me 11.500 €. The same installation would almost have cost me double about 2 years ago. :-(
Anyway, my goal is to completely bring up my own consumption and neutralise the biggest part of my electricity invoice.
I have 20 220wp panels, so 4400 wp. But I have not more than 1 kWh/day these days. But if you have 8000 on a 5000 inverter, how is that possible in the summer? Not blowing the inverter??? I have a 5000 WP inverter too...
Quote"
Bazzle, I found out that the water probe now seems to work after changing the constant from 0.01 to 1. Strange?
Gas probe still no success. Could the sensor be defect?
Or might it be the cable that is to long? (+ 8m)
"
I have over 20 meters. I use cat 5 cable orange/white and brown/white twisted.
At the probe end short the wires out a few times and check the sys.log for sensor reading.
Hans, we had a few days with quite some sun this week. Other days I got to results like 0,775 kWh.
The reseller explained me that all production above 5000W is lost in summer or other sunny days. Only a max. of 5000W will be converted.
They said that this an do no harm to the inverter (I have my doubts, but yes, I risked it).
The result of more panels would be that the inverter starts sooner in the morning and stops later in the evening, resulting in more production a year.
I am curious if I can make it all to 6500kWh/y as they calculated.
I will tell you this over a year. And over 20 years I will tell you if I'm convinced that 8000kWp on a 5kW inverter is a problem or not. :o) ;-)
Bazzle, thanks for the info. Two days ago I found a place on the gasmeter where the probe worked. It remained working for almost a day, but now again there is no metering done. So I have to look in to it, but this weekend I had to paint the ceiling of my living room. :-) So there was no time. I will keep you guys posted!
Yeah I saw the grafics of this day :) 1,16 kwh of mine and 0,96 of yours :) But I can see the angle of the solarpanels is so important... Mines lays almost flat (the half around 15% to the west, the other half 15% to the east. These days when the sun fully shines, the watts comes around the 500.. In your case (maybe you have better panels) they increase easy above the 1000. That will not happenend to mines. So I think the angle is crucial...
8 kW on a TL-5000 is fine. There are lots of installations around that oversize to that extent. But you rapidly lose efficiency because, in summer, the inverter will clip a significant amount of the panels' potential output.
I have 6.6 kW on a TL-5000. When I compare my system to other systems in the area that have 8.0 kW on the same inverter, I see that they produce only about 4-5% more output annually than my system. In other words, for a 17.5% increase in panels, you only get 5% more energy. Oversizing is essentially a diminishing returns game. For best efficiency, oversize by about 15%. Panels never achieve their nominal output because they heat up. If you put around 5.7 kW on a 5 kW inverter, you end up getting 5 kW during summer without clipping, so the inverter doesn't throw any energy away.
Caveat: my figures are for Queensland, Australia. In Belgium, where you are at higher latitude, oversizing to 8 kW probably makes more sense than it does here.
There is a nice online app here that allows you to configure a system and tinker with lots of parameters, and get a good estimate of the output: http://www.sunnydesignweb.com/sdweb/#/Home
Michi.