Users of the "NET POWER" feature of Brultech ECM software

[mdiehl]

Just wondering how many others besides myself that have Grid-Tie Inverters and are using the ECM-1240 for monitoring? Specifically how much power do they actually consume at night, and during day/night transitions (or snow covered panels... ), that cause its internal consumption to increase. Mine draws 2 watts at night in Sleep Mode, but can go up to as much as 38 watts for a period if its actively "searching" without actually outputting anything to the house or back to the grid.

I've been talking with Paul on this question as it can effect how the software needs to consider power flow INTO the inverter as well as the normally considered power output FROM the inverter.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[politics123]

Just wondering how many others besides myself that have Grid-Tie Inverters and are using the ECM-1240 for monitoring? Specifically how much power do they actually consume at night, and during day/night transitions (or snow covered panels... ), that cause its internal consumption to increase. Mine draws 2 watts at night in Sleep Mode, but can go up to as much as 38 watts for a period if its actively "searching" without actually outputting anything to the house or back to the grid.

I've been talking with Paul on this question as it can effect how the software needs to consider power flow INTO the inverter as well as the normally considered power output FROM the inverter.

Thanks,

Mike

you mean your inverters are using between 2 watts and 38 watts of power? Which inverters are you using?

I'm installing (finally!) a GT system next week... 2 sunny boys, one if which is AC coupled to a sunny island for emergency battery backup power. My installer provides a pro-grade solution for tracking power produced by the panels (They believe that we'll need certified production numbers in order to sell SRECs in the energy-market of tomorrow) -- actually, one monitor per each of the GT inverters, but I'm very likely to get an ECM-1240 to monitor individual circuit consumption and to "net" meter the sunny island.

I got to tell you... if you're worried about an errant 2-38 watts (for a period of time) skewing your metrics, I'm very impressed with your overall energy footprint. IMHO, I see monitoring as a way to eliminate unwanted/hidden loads, to make smarter decisions about usage (especialy if you have peak demand rating... we don't), and to measure/track improvements. I think you could still do all that even with the GT consumption.

If you're worried about the consumption on the inverters... well... I hear you. It's one of the questions I asked about when choosing ours. If you feel the power consumed is too much, you can always turn off the GT inverter (some have a power button, others can be shutdown at the breaker)...

 

[mdiehl]

Just wondering how many others besides myself that have Grid-Tie Inverters and are using the ECM-1240 for monitoring? Specifically how much power do they actually consume at night, and during day/night transitions (or snow covered panels... ), that cause its internal consumption to increase. Mine draws 2 watts at night in Sleep Mode, but can go up to as much as 38 watts for a period if its actively "searching" without actually outputting anything to the house or back to the grid.

I've been talking with Paul on this question as it can effect how the software needs to consider power flow INTO the inverter as well as the normally considered power output FROM the inverter.

Thanks,

Mike

you mean your inverters are using between 2 watts and 38 watts of power? Which inverters are you using?

I'm installing (finally!) a GT system next week... 2 sunny boys, one if which is AC coupled to a sunny island for emergency battery backup power. My installer provides a pro-grade solution for tracking power produced by the panels (They believe that we'll need certified production numbers in order to sell SRECs in the energy-market of tomorrow) -- actually, one monitor per each of the GT inverters, but I'm very likely to get an ECM-1240 to monitor individual circuit consumption and to "net" meter the sunny island.

I got to tell you... if you're worried about an errant 2-38 watts (for a period of time) skewing your metrics, I'm very impressed with your overall energy footprint. IMHO, I see monitoring as a way to eliminate unwanted/hidden loads, to make smarter decisions about usage (especialy if you have peak demand rating... we don't), and to measure/track improvements. I think you could still do all that even with the GT consumption.

If you're worried about the consumption on the inverters... well... I hear you. It's one of the questions I asked about when choosing ours. If you feel the power consumed is too much, you can always turn off the GT inverter (some have a power button, others can be shutdown at the breaker)...

Nah, not quite that ummm, "retentive"

Have had a Magnetek/PowerOne Aurora installed for about two years now, and a separate Prosine and battery backup in event of power outages (not uncommon, particularly wintertime). In the area of monitoring I was just trying to see how many watt hours per month/year were actually accumulating when the inverter is in standby or sleep. The ECM-1240 does show you lots of interesting bits about the system/systems which I compared with the original inverter software and then the ECM-1240 which showed power consumption (albeit relatively small amounts) by the Inverter. Your Sunnyboys will have a standby draw of about 7 watts and .1 watts when "sleeping". My Aurora steadies down to 2 watts when it "sleeps".

On the other hand, I do manage to keep my Electron Buying down to 400KWH/month, so I could be the guy with the Bedpan in the original "Airplane" movie.