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

[Travis Creswell]

Hello Robert,

http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html is probably just what you need
for your first customer.  We've started installing these for all off our on
and off grid customers they all love them.  I used one at my house but my
rural CO-OP uses some sort of SCADA/Turtle system to read my meter and it
confuses this device when they read it.  It works great until they lock it
up with the remote reading pulse.  That's the only problem I've had with it.
Still at $139 I'm very pleased with it.

On your 2nd customer I think your going to be hard pressed to find something
with the sampling resolution that you can leave behind for 5 months.
Whatever is tripping the SW4048 is probably happening over the course of
cycles not seconds and definitely not minutes.  The PentaMetric does have a
slick computer interface.  We just installed our first one so I can't say
much about it yet.  It can log multiple data points and allows you to choose
sampling rates.  I believe we chose 4 or 5 points (battery volts, net system
amp hours, load amps, wind turbine amps, wind turbine amp hours) on one hour
intervals and it will give us 45 days of recording.  Don’t quote me on that
though as I was busy with other things while my some of my technicians were
setting it up.

Travis Creswell
Ozark Energy Services


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Easton [mailto:jeaston at ucsd.edu] 
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 11:47 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Amp Recorder or Inverter Monitoring Software? [RE-wrenches]


I like the HOBO recorders with current transformers for AC current 
recording.  They are small & very easy to use.

Jim Easton, PE
 (E 11974)
4364 Bonita Road, No. 166
Bonita, CA 91902-1421
Tel: 858-527-0240
Fax: 619-470-8616
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nuese" <r.nuese at comcast.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 4:21 PM
Subject: Amp Recorder or Inverter Monitoring Software? [RE-wrenches]


>
>
> 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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