Finn’s a big fan of advanced solar power system monitoring, particularly the Australian-developed Solar Analytics solution. Here’s why.
Transcript begins —
Finn: For “Ask Finn” this month, I’m going to answer a question that I get asked all the time.
“I’m buying a solar system. I’m getting consumption monitoring anyway -should I go the extra mile and get a premium Solar Analytics package?”
.. which is software made in Australia in Redfern, Sydney by the company Solar Analytics.
Now, if you want to add Solar Analytics to your system, it’s quite a big ask at the moment because it’s up to 600 bucks added to the cost of the solar system. And if you’ve already got good monitoring, why would you want Solar Analytics on top? I’ll give you two good reasons.
System Performance Alerts
Number one, Solar Analytics have spent years perfecting the algorithms that tell you if your solar system is running properly. They’ll give you a percentage figure and it will spot stuff that’s going wrong with your system before almost anyone else knows about it.
I’ll give you an example. I’ve got a friend, they had a Fronius system on their roof. They had Solar Analytics, and Solar Analytics started pinging them. It said there’s a problem with the system; it’s running at about 85% and it seems to be getting worse. We called up the installer. The installer was a good guy who was referred through SolarQuotes. He came straight round. He had a look – one of the MC4 connectors1 had a problem with it – and it was melting.
So, that could have been quite nasty if it hadn’t been picked up on. So, Solar Analytics can spot issues early.
Electricity Plan Optimiser
The other thing that’s just come out I’ve been asking them to do for ages. They’ve got a thing called Plan Optimiser. Now, this is getting more and more important as electricity tariffs become more complicated. We’re getting demand tariffs2. We’re getting time-of-use tariffs3. We’re getting solar sponge tariffs4.
What Solar Analytics can do now is it can look at your actual energy data and it can compare that with all the electricity plans in Australia – and can say, “Hey, this is absolutely the cheapest plan for you, based on the actual amount of electricity you import and export”.
And they did a survey of a bunch of customers, and the average person was saving 400 bucks a year5.
Inverter Integration
And there’s another thing about Solar Analytics that’s making it even more compelling. Depending on what inverter you’ve got, you don’t even have to buy the expensive Solar Analytics hardware anymore. You can actually just buy the software, which is a lot cheaper.
And they’re slowly integrating with all the big inverter manufacturers. They’ve already got there with Sungrow. They’ve got that with Fronius. And it’s confidential, but I’m pretty confident there’s other big inverter manufacturers that are going to be getting on board soon.
So should you buy Solar Analytics if you’ve already got monitoring?
I reckon yes. Many installers disagree with me, but I’ve got it on two of my systems and it’s been invaluable. I love it. You don’t look at it every day. In fact, you don’t look at it at all after a while, but that’s not why you buy it. You buy it because it sends you an email saying, “Hey, there’s a problem with your system” or “Hey, you could be on a cheaper electricity plan”.
— Transcript ends
This segment is from SolarQuotes TV Episode 11: The Australian-Made Solar Edition – it’s all about clever PV-related tech developed here in Australia such as Solar Analytics.
Related: Learn more about the benefits of advanced solar monitoring.
Footnotes
- MC4 connectors are used for connecting solar panels – MC4 stands for “Multi-Contact, 4 millimetre diameter contact pin”. ↩
- Demand tariffs charge for electricity consumed (kilowatt-hours) at cheaper rates than standard plans, but also include a capacity charge based on peak power drawn from the grid (kilowatts) at any point during the billing period – and this charge can be very high. ↩
- As the name suggests, time-of-use tariffs are based on the time of the day when electricity is consumed. There are usually three timeframes – off-peak, shoulder and peak. ↩
- A solar sponge tariff is where electricity pricing is cheaper during the hours solar power systems are exporting the most electricity to the grid. They act as a sponge by encouraging households and businesses to “soak up” surplus solar energy, levels of which can become problematic in some areas during these times. ↩
- On a related note, if you don’t have or intend to get Solar Analytics; SQ’s electricity plan comparison tool can be helpful in locating good deals for solar owners; but at this stage the tool only compares standard plans. ↩
About Michael Bloch
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An interesting concept, but I do wonder how their predicative algorithms will perform outside the capital cities where BoM data and predictions are more crystal ball and generalised than concrete and specific.
It’s also not quite clear that SA will offer value for money, at least with the short term plans.
Nor is it clear what fault tolerance they provide. In my case for instance, every time I have a power cut I get data corruption – 3 faults this month alone means I’m showing MWh and\or negative values for those days, which flows on to the monthly, yearly, and total data. Such corruption renders what should be useful and interesting data (and is when it works) into frustrating garbage. It has been suggested I may be able to solve data corruption due to power cuts by adding a wifi repeater or some other gadget to collect the inverter signal and speed it to the primary router but it’s not clear why this should work. Oh well, at least it’s something to try. Who knows, maybe it will actually work. And if not, at least I can clearly state that wasn’t the problem.
I disagree. I use friendly Iotawatt to meter usage on all circuits and I post grid/solar data to pvoutput. I pay “donation” so that I have tariffs there which I can also compare using historical data. Pvoutput alerts me when system is underperforming by comparing data from systems nearby, it also warns when I run out of boundaries such as expected standby cost or combined load last hour. The same metering feeds my Home Assistant which governs power flow depending on situation (pauses dishwasher, signals DRED to aircon, turns hot water heat pump, etc). Not only I know what happens but it also optimizes itself.
What would I gain from buying Solar Analytics?
Some good points raised here, and the lack of integrated analytics in the whole domestic PV industry is symptomatic of how chaotic things are, out there in the real world.
In my own case, I want to calculate what my true payback period is. I have a 6.6kW panels with 5kW inverter system installed by one of the big providers. The inverter is a 5kW Growatt unit, which has worked flawlessly to date. It came with a WIFI dongle, but the installers made it very clear that getting the WIFi dongle to work was outside the scope of their contract, and no wonder. It took all my IT and engineering knowledge to get the WIFI dongle connected to my home WIFI and sending data back to Growatts’s free cloud based reporting server, so I would assume that most customers that have these units are probably not connected to the analytics, so have no idea how much energy their system is producing.
But measuring what I produce is then only half the story, I really want to know what I consume vs what I export, given the big diffrential between my flat rate consumption vs export tariffs. So then I need to download my usage and export data from my provider’s (EA) website and load this along with the inverter data into a spreadsheet to get the true picture of what I consume and what I export. I would think that such activity is beyond the skills of 99% or solar “punters” so all of this useful information is going to waste.
Surely there is an opportunity for the industry to get solar inverters connected to a central reporting database to make this much easy for the average Joe or Joanne?
Solar Analytics.
I’m from a small town in Arkansas in the USA.
I’m enjoying your posts and enjoy reading them.
I’m in the late planning stages (almost ready to order a system) for installing a grid tie system, but, only buying enough panels to return a little as possible back to the grid. The wholesale buyback cost is 2 cents. Not worth the cost of getting more power than necessary.
I’ll be doing this DYI. I’ve probably got over a hundred hours in research and planning. I’ll be buying used panels; probably thirty 335 Watt Hanwha Q-cell’s.
I’m looking to buy an SMA Buddy Boy 7.7 inverter.
My questions are:
1. Can Solar Analytics be installed here in the USA?
2. Can this inverter be used with Solar Analytics? -or-
3. Does this inverter already come with Solar Analytics?
Thank you from up north…
Solar Analytics is made for Australian current and standards, so it’s not likely to work in the United States. But I suppose you could contact Solar Analytics on the off chance you could use it. In Australia it will work with any inverter.
While I can’t really give advice on solar in the US, as the situation is quite different, I will say that it’s more than enough solar to meet your needs and receive a tiny solar feed-in tariff than it is to end up with to small a system. That said, I understand solar can be much more expensive in the states than here, so take it with a grain of salt.
I’ve read Michael’s post above and contacted my installer (found through SolarQuotes) and did my best to explain what I was looking for. They referred me to the SMA Energy Meter with a brochure that didn’t say much.
I then read an earlier post of yours dated 30 April 2019 ‘Why Solar Analytics is better that the Fronius Smart Meter’.
How much of these two posts applies to the SMA meter? In other words, should I get Solar Analytics installed with or without (and which option) the SMA meter in order to optimise system performance information?
I share George Kaplan’s query above about regional weather forecasts (my post code is 4655).
If you’re not pressed for cash & you know you’ll actually use it, then I recommend Solar Analytics. Some people, like my parents, would never use it so it would almost be a waste for them, but at least I could use it to check if their system was working. Some people will be happy with the more limited monitoring their inverter provides and so won’t think the system is worth it. It comes down to how much people value the more complete information it provides and the peace of mind from having independent monitoring.
As for weather forecasts, I expect — like normal weather forecasts — they will be generally accurate west of the Great Dividing Range, but east of it weather will be more chaotic. But if you want average solar generation that can be expected over a day I expect it will do fairly well. Insolation tends to be more predictable than what humans often care about, which is whether or not it will rain.
Thank you for the great information SolarQuotes provides.
Can you tell me how Solar Analytics compares with the monitoring that comes with the new SolarEdge Energy Hub inverters?
I guess I’m also wondering if Solar Analytics will survive into the future? What is the risk that inverter companies will improve their solar monitoring systems and render the market for Solar Analytics to nil, resulting in the purchase of lifetime monitoring mute if there is not company to continue running the analytics software for us.
Hi Andrew
Well, if the SolarEdge energy hub is fully installed, unlike normal inverters, it can detect household power use, as Solar Analytics does. So it could provide the same information, but I don’t know how well it does it.
Given the poor level of monitoring I see in typical inverters I expect Solar Analytics to be around for a long time. I also expect them to adapt to changing technology and standards. But, as with anything that depends on someone else keeping a server going, it is a risk. Plenty of people have been caught out by companies folding. I guess it comes down to whether or not you expect them to last long enough for it to be worthwhile for you.
Don’t waste your time and money. I got a quote of $5.5 to install solar analytics. I found them extremely difficult to deal with. Poor customer service. They don’t answer the phone or take weeks to return emails. I finally got a rude response from the sales person that pretty much said – take it or leave it.
Just buy a decent inverter then has a monitoring app. No need for this expensive bells and whistles
How about an update about all those SA customers who are now being hung out to dry by SA?
They purchased a “Lifetime Subscription” to Solar Analytics only to be told their hardware will stop working soon (something SA must have known in advance when they sold them) and so if they want to keep using SA they have to pay another couple of hundred bucks for a new system plus pay to have an electrician remove the old / install the new device.
And worse, after forking out for that they are no longer getting a “Lifetime Subscription” but a 5-year subscription instead?
What sort of “Lifetime Subscription” ends after a few years? None which would pass the reasonableness test of any consumer that I know of.
Seems pretty shoddy business behaviour to me. These customers took a leap of faith to pay more up front, providing a strong sign of support for an emerging brand, only to discover that Solar Analytics is reneging on their offer.
Why would anyone trust SA to stand behind any of their current offers if they won’t stand by offers they sold before?
It’s a sure fire way to erode trust in one’s service and product.
I installed about a year ago and paid for a lifetime subscription, I haven’t heard of the need for any upgrades that you refer to? Can you provide more information?
See this Whirlpool thread for details.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/36yzv678
I believe it was till their lifespan, not yours. On the bright side – it is actually good that you will live longer than these devices.
Personally I avoid anything what is in so called “cloud” subscription. Everything has to work in my control and be in my possession. I use Iotawatt for monitoring instead and run Home Assistant (at home) to digest, process and automate everything. Don’t need SA, don’t need diverters and so on. I also log Iotawatt into influxdb in case I would like to see some long term data and pay small fee (donation) to PVoutput to calculate my balance. I believe it will run for my lifespan.