rail mount PLC to read generated solar power

[JimboBob]

Hi,

is there a way to extract generated power data from the fusebox (meterkast) in house? I have added 2 groups which are exclusively in use by one invertor each. Each invertor generates 11 Ampere peak output. My Hosola Smart 2200TL invertors have a wifi and a serial RS232 port, but I would rather register the power on the wires, and wire it into a Pi. Second choice would be wireless. I rather measure the meterkast wires as this is clean power where the loss of the invertor is taken out.

I was hoping a rail mount PLC can be used to read generated solar power. Is this a known concept?

Example: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/LCD-Disp ... CuyapR&s=p

[bobkersten]

Hello,

That's certainly possible; I've got pretty much the same setup here. I've got three of those kWh meters with S0 ports. I've made sure these kWh meters generate 2000 pulses per kWh as apposed to 1000 to more accurately measure current power usage. The S0 ports on these kWh meters can be read by additional hardware. I've tried the S0Meter from https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/S0Meter which in my experience is *very* sensitive and produces too high values. I'm currently using a PiFace Digital 2 to read these values, without the added circuits as mentioned in the wiki http://www.domoticz.com/wiki/PiFace and it seems to produce quite accurate values.

I've got that S0Meter mentioned in the wiki laying around and it's for sale if you like to try it.

[JimboBob]

That looks exactly like my desired setup, can you inform me which PLC's you have and where you bought them and how much you want for your module? It has 5 ports, does this mean a watermeter can be added to the PiFace? And the P1 port can be added by USB to the Pi?

[bobkersten]

I'm using https://www.vekto.nl/kwh-meters/1-fase- ... uls/310647 but any kWh meter with a S0 port will do. Some are supposed to be more accurate (MID certification) than others. This particular one has 2000imp/kWh which, like I said, will improve your active power readings. Note that you have to reverse attach these if you're using them for your solar panels.

The 5-port S0 pulse counter module from http://www.smartmeterdashboard.nl/webshop currently sells for € 42,-. I've used it to measure my 3 S0 kWh meters as well as my gas-meter using the https://www.flukso.net/content/gas-probe which costs € 12,10. I have no future use for both of them, so you can buy them both for € 25,- ex shipping.

Note that the S0 device is not the PiFace from the picture I posted previously, these are two separate devices. The PiFace mounts directly on the Pi's GPIO pins, the S0 pulse counter uses USB. And finally you mention P1, which is a port/protocol on most smartmeters which you can also use to feed data into Domoticz. You need a cable like this http://www.robbshop.nl/slimme-meter-kabel or you can assemble one yourself.

[JimboBob]

Sorry for the slow answer, I am rather busy.

I have a smart meter for electricity and gas and for this an Enelogic P1 is currently in use, I want to migrate to D0moticz for reading these. Also I want to add my water meter to Domiticz. It looks like I don't need your gasmeter device.

Basically it looks like I need two DIN rail kWh meters as I have two groups for my solarpanels (2 sets of 10 panels with 250Wp capacity, 1 set per group), the 5-port device that I can buy from you but then I need to figure out how to link this to Domoticz.

My question is this: what else do I need besides your 5-port device and 2 din rail kWh meters to connect it to my Pi?

the S0 pulse counter uses USB.

Allright, the Din rail kWh meters are fed into the SO Pulse meter with small gauge wiring and the SO pulse counter can be plugged into the Pi's usb port directly? Now I need to find out how to read my water meter and how to connect it.