[RE-wrenches] low cost DAS systems

[Kurt Albershardt]

I spent some time researching power monitoring equipment for a commercial project earlier this year - a short list of the ones I found interesting follows: 

http://www.powerlogic.com/index.cfm
http://www.dentinstruments.com/
http://www.elkor.net/
http://www.veris.com/
http://www.accuenergy.com/
http://www.electroind.com/
http://www.electrex.it/eng/home.php

Most of these are quite expensive at around $1,000 for a 3-phase monitor.  Almost all of them have EIA485 ModBus outputs and could easily be linked to a BAS or microcontroller for alarming & logging.

Electro Industries' Shark line is quite affordable (~$350-$550 depending on featureset) and some have Ethernet or WiFi options.



On Apr 13, 2010, at 13:16 , Peter Parrish wrote:

> I am joining this thread a little late, so I may have missed a bifurcation
> into a related area. 
> 
> We have need for a DAS system that does the following:
> 
> (1) Monitors inverter output, including some bigger commercial sized
> inverters from Satcon and SMA (100 kW to 500 kW)
> (2) Monitors utility input at service panel
> (2) Monitors several loads (up to five) via the service panel
> (3) Irradiance and temperature would be great but not absolutely necessary
> (4) Some sort of alarm system that would trigger at a programmable kW
> threshold for the utility input.
> 
> What we are trying to do is monitor not only the PV system but the utility
> demand and key loads as well, and to come up with a strategy for shedding
> load to keep the demand below a certain amount.
> 
> I know this is a fairly tough spec, and we may have to do some customization
> and/or programming to get what we want.
> 
> - Peter
> 
> 
> Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President
> California Solar Engineering, Inc.
> 820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
> CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26
> peter.parrish at calsolareng.com  
> Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885