Amp Recorder or Inverter Monitoring Software? [RE-wrenches]

[Robert Nuese]

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Greetings Wrenches

I hope this question hasn't been hashed over
thoroughly before. I've repeatedly tried searching
the archives, but topica seems to be having a bit
of a problem at the moment, always telling me:
"Sorry, but we experienced an error processing your request."

I tried searching through the archives cronologically,
and found nothing in the last 9 months before I gave
up. If this has been covered, I apologize, and I'd
appreciate being told the dates of the posts.


I have two jobs right now where I need to be able to
record amperage levels for periods that might range
from a few days to maybe four months.

On one job, we built a non-battery, grid-tie
system for a new house. Now that it's all going,
the client is satisfied that the PV system is
working, but we discover that it only covers
half of their electric use. Before I expand the
system, we'd like to check out the loads on
several circuits, including well and pool filter
pumps, to try to see if we can find any faults
and pare down use.

For this I'd like to use a recording meter. I gather
that a dedicated multimeter, with a clamp or clamp
attachment, and with data storage and exchange
features, such as a Fluke 187 would do the job.
However, I expect that a computer based system
with graphical output would do the same job at a lower
price, and possibly have some advantages. It would be
very nice if it could record more than just amps - voltage
and frequency would be helpful, and if it could record all
these at once, that would be great, but not essential. It
would also be nice if it would work with a fairly cheap
used laptop PC, so I could leave it on the jobsite for a
months if necessary. If it also worked on my usual
computer, a Mac, that would be nice too - but not
essential.

So, my first question:
Can anyone recommend a suitable tool for this sort of
application?


On the other job, a client's SW4048 periodically pops its
overload breaker on intermittently. This happens maybe an
average of once in 5 months over the last couple of years.
Then there is no power to the dedicated subpanel until
someone resets it. The inverter indicator lights and display
don't indicate an overload situation. The client doesn't think
they've been overloading the system. Maybe the breaker is
faulty - I'll try swapping it, but it would be good to find a way
to monitor the loads with some sort of recording system.
The sort of PC-based recording meter system I asked about
above would probably be quite suitable in this case, and I
think that would be my first choice, since it would have wide
application, but I wonder if there would be a significant
advantage here in using either RightHand Engineering's
WinVerter-Monitor, or Maui Solar Energy's TraceTools?.

So my next questions are:
Would either of these be particularly suitable for this problem?
Can anybody speak of the relative merits of the two, and
of either of these vs a PC based logging meter?

Thanks very much, Robert Nuese
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