System Monitoring-whats involved?
At it's simplest you dont have to do anything, the generation meter will record the Kwh generated and the inverter will usually have an LCD screen that can be interrogated to provide useful stats such as: total Kwh to day, total Kwh to date, mains frequency, volts, amps, array volts and amps. It will often have the facility to present this information graphically.
SMA Communications
In its most basic form it consists of a blue tooth enabled computer running sunny explorer. If you have'nt this facility then you can have the information displayed on a sunny beam desk top display. The desk top display will provide you with a wealth of statistics and allow direct connection with a PC to allow long term storage of data.
Larger plant monitoring is also very easy to set up and in its most basic form consists of a bluetooth enabled web box connected to a broadband router. This enables on site and web monitoring of the PV plant.
Images courtesy of SMA Sunny Family
Fronius Communications
To enable communication with your Fronius inverter you need to install a com card and a data logger easy card. This enables you to communicate directly with a computer over an RS232 link or over the internet using a tixi modem.
