Wiring Solar Panel Watt Meter - Monitor Solar Panel Power Output Watts & Amps
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- Опубліковано 10 жов 2017
- In this video I show how to wire up a Solar Panel Power Meter in my VW T4 Campervan Conversion with links at the end for the items. The power meter is a cheap and very simple way to see how much power is being generated by the solar panels output amperage. The unit is pre-wired to make installation very easy. There are a couple of different amperage models available online, this one being a 150A power analyser that can monitor the solar panels whenever they are turned on. Because I wire the power meter to the solar panels before the controller, it means the meter is turned off when the panels are turned off. The same type of meter can also monitor load from the batteries which I will cover in a separate video. I hope you found this video useful and if so, please rate it and Subscribe to my channel for more useful videos, thanks.
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I found it so interesting I bought a few of the to help keep track of the amps passing through lines... Thanks
Thanks for posting this, its just what I was looking for. Nice and easy for me to follow. I'm hoping you have another to show how to monitor charge in/out of the habitation battery (using the same watt meter) :-)
No big care if it's lost, broken or stolen. Good job Northern fella. Your street looks a lot like mine.
Thank you. It's simpler than I thought.
Nice demo. Been looking at these to see if worth buying. Done deal now. They should be paying you commission.
Thank for straight to the point,and save time for me so much,automatically Subscribe to your channel .....valueable information for product review and its usage...Thank You again
Thanks for the vid, enjoy watching your conversions. 1 thing that might help is a link to the products you are sharing for others that may wish to purchase! Just a thought.
Thanks, I sourced most my parts off eBay which can usually be found by a quick search,. UA-cam will normally pick up on products in videos and display ads for them to make things easier, so long as ad-blocks aren't being run that is... I've tried linking products before but as I'm not an affiliate advertiser for sites the links become dead after a while and I don't have time keeping up with it all.
Fair point.
Thanks for sharing... good video.
Thanks for the video, I am a info geek as always want to know what's going on. I picked up a similar gadget...
Don't want to be a kill joy but just some warning them wires on the meter are no where near big enough for 150a I would say at a guess maybe 60 tops before you will get power loss any more than that and it will start to get toasty
Nice job m8. Love solar. Anything for free. :-)
How did you install this can you show thanks
I have double wires at my pv+ -,have it installed exactly as you,with just one of the wires at pv + -,but meter just displays squres. Unless I reset my + side breaker. Comes on,but won't read amps,a/hr etc. Whats wrong?
SIR I CAN USE WATTMETER 150A 0 60V SHOWING IN YOUR YOUTUDE IT IS POSSIBLE TO INSTALL MY BATTERY 72V E BIKE
These little power analyzer/battery analyzers can you just keep separate and then temporarily connect to each battery to test each battery in the battery bank individually,... and would that work?
possibly but I'm not an electrician so can't confirm 100%
I got one of these watt meters in the mail today.
I wired it up like this..
SOLAR Panel --> (Source) [Watt Meter] (LOAD)--> (Solar In) Charge Controller
Is this correct? I'm trying to read how much my solar panel pulls in.
Yes that should be fine, however the meter may go off overnight when no power is generated so it's best on a switch to reset it
But in the morning i have to switch off solar panel supply then switch on to get reading
What is that plastic white connector called you simply screwed in line that was cool no crimping and removable
chockblocks
Does it have a fuse?
May I ask a quick question......I noticed your solar controller was charging your battery 14.4v, have you set it to do this? The reason I ask this is that my controller is very similar to yours and the instructions say 13.7v to float charge. The instructions also say when you select the battery type ‘b01’ (lead acid sealed) it will do an equalisation charge at 14.4v but I can’t seem to find out how and when it will charge at 14.4v, it normally just charges at the float rate of 13.7v. Hope that makes sense, any help would really be appreciated.
Couldn't really tell you, I just plugged it in and left it to do its thing
Most solar charger controllers that go into equalization will do so automatically. Just know that voltages above 14v during peak sun hours are normal until the batteries are close to being fully charged. Then it will go into a float stage. A voltage of 12.7V is a full battery but 12.7 volts will not charge a battery. Voltages need to exceed this in order charge a 12V battery.
Just remember to do maintenance on your batteries if your charge controller equalizes.
Only add (distilled) water to a sealed lead acid battery and ONLY after it's been fully charged and has sat for an hour or so. If you add distilled water to partially discharged battery, once it's fully charged, electrolyte levels will rise too high and leak out of the service holes.
Keep flames and such away from SLA batteries in this state because they are usually off gasing hydrogen at some point. Hydrogen is flammable - think Zeppelin.
Does his unit have any mounting holes? If not how did you mount it?
Double sided tape is what im going to use.
Think something is wrong with my watt meter (same as yours) that the solar panel goes into. when it gets dark at night the meter goes blank (thats expected) problem is when it gets light again it dont come back on just black blank bars on the screen no readings I have to disconect it and reconect it to get the readings back.
இப்படி disconnect and reconnect செய்தால் தான் இந்த meter செயல்படுமா?
Is it working 150 amp ?
I found that if you put the WATT Meter between the Solar Panel & Charge Controler & Power it externally, so it stays on at night with external power, it tries to charge the battery with the external power, and the Solar Icon lights up on the solar controller showing the battery is charging, there does not seem to be a diode protecting the measured stream from the external power source :( has anyone worked this out, how to fix it?
Does it damage the watt meter? I've just fitted mine yesterday and this morning the watt meter has failed ( wired the same way you've explained..)
Hi I planned to used two of it(watt meter). One to measure the power supplied by the solar panel to the battery and the other one is to measure the power consumption from the load side. Can you help me where to wired it up? Thank you
To monitor solar power generated, wire the meter in between the panel and the controller, to monitor power usage wire one in between battery and main fuse panel or power distribution point (if you have one)
Wow thank you for a direct response❣ and thank you for answering🙂
no problem
I’m using another design of power meter. After sunset, it turns off as expected because mine requires 4-60V input to operate. The problem is, even when I am generating as much as 19V on mid-day, it still doesn’t turn on.l; unless I turn OFF my PV breaker and back to ON. Any idea how to fix this?
I have the same issue but as my solar panels are wired to a switch, I just flip the switch off/on to get it to come on again, it still passes charge through even if its not lit up though
This device has an auxiliary battery port, you need to connect one small battery there, 4-60v (it can be a 9v battery, for example) you can see that in the manual www.renogy.com/template/files/Manuals/150A-High-Precision-Watt-Meter-and-Power-Analyzer-Manual.pdf
If you connect an auxiliar battery it never turn off
@@Luis3alsa Thanks for the Manual Link. I have been searching for one cause I bought meter from Ali ( Express Ha,Ha)
@@Luis3alsa but the aux power, when hooked up at night, feeds back to the charge controller and shows a solar charge icon, so it is trying to charge the main battery from the external power for the WATT meter :( or am I doing it wrong?
Is it able to measure the Input Current?
I may be daft, but since he's put it between the solar-panel and the charge controller, then it's measuring the 'input current', ie., the energy coming in from the panel before it enters the system that charges the battery.
Does that answer your question, or did I misunderstand your question?
@@PhrontDoor that's right
Hi, do you know how much power this meter uses itself? No seller says that. ☹️
Monitoring voltage* 20 ma power consumption consumed this meter.
what size solar panels do you have ,compared to the wattage supplied would be interested to know
540w
@@TheCampervanBuilder 540wp?
540w panel only gave him 20 to 30 watts? Wow!
Hello, I just connected this meter to my solar setup, I have a 400 watt system, is there a reason that my wattage keeps fluctuating really bad, it will go from 100 watts to 50W then to maybe 75W and sometimes 0W then back and forth over and over. I have the source connected to the Source to Solar panels, and Load Charge controller that's the way I seen it here on UA-cam. my voltage also fluctuates like 17.32 v0lts to 20.00 volts so on and so on same as the watts... Thank you for any help..
There will always be fluctuations in the voltage/wattage as solar is never steady. If your batteries are full the controller should reduce the solar to 0 to avoid overcharging.
Camper Conversion , First let me say THANK YOU for your reply, Yours is the FASTEST reply I have ever gotten in all my time here on UA-cam. Anyway, that I understand,. I just thought that the wattages would stabilize so you can see the wattages out put of your panels. Because at the way it's showing I'm not sure what watts they are putting out. I'm not sure if there is another meter I need to get a good reading.??
There are more high tech monitors that can tell you exactly hwo much is/has been generated but they are 10x the price, I only ever use this monitor as a guide, watch the power generation for a minute and you generally see what it's producing on average
ok, That's a big help. I do again appreciate your help.
@@kansas7614 It could also very well be your charge controller causing the fluctuations. You can try putting another digital voltmeter inline with the watt meter and see if your voltages are fluctuating just like the digital watt meter. If the digital voltmeter is staying constant, this could be indicative of the charge controller fluctuating it's draw from the solar panels.
Also make sure there are no clouds which would obviously change the readings, but I'm sure you know this.
Hello
Can the watt meter be connected to a computer and collect the data of the solar panel ?
I don't think it stores any data, you'd need a proper monitor for that, this is more just a display monitor
hey what connector are you using on the source side of the watt meter?
i still dont know what connector its using, but i went with xt90, which is way over kill. my watt meters are rated for "200" amps but that is a joke, it gets warm at 29 amps, which makes sense, because the wire is like 12 gauge 10 gauge is rated for 30 amps lol. i was going to ask another question, but i see my first was ignored so i will state is as a matter of fact. these meters suck for long term data collection, the ah and wh meter rolls over to zero several times a day for me, and i cant be home to see when this occurs, in other words: if you want to know how many watt hours or amp hours you get per day, these meters will mislead you. i thought i was only getting like 40wh a day when in reality i was getting closer to 1kwh in over cast skies, i only know this as i installed a hall affect sensor, which give much better info. i still dont know at what point these meters roll over to zero as i work during the day every day and my camera equipment app locks up randomly during time lapse photo mode, thanks m$
@@jasonbrown467 you can install a battery to maintain the data, did the weather mean the panels stopped producing power and the meter stopped? Probably low voltage shutoff and restart each time lost the data and a 9v alkaline battery plugged into the meter would save cumulative data. I think the 200 refers to its really 20A
B connector. Part of strip connector .
Hi there , doesn’t your CC provide all this information?
I just have a basic PWM controller which doesn't give much detailed information
can i use this also in water turbine?
it will work on any 12v setup
Is it ok to connect the watt meter to solar panel 24/7? Installed same unit to my set.up.
It might cut the meter off when no sun, but can only try
@@TheCampervanBuilder thanks for the response sir.
Sir, my peoblem now is that my watt meter reading is zero watts and voltage is 19 to 20 volts. But in my solar charge controller voltage reading is only at 15volts. What could be the problem? Watt meter is connected between the pv and scc.
I’m no expert but the readings are fluctuating fairly dramatically every second. I dont imagine this meter is MID approved. Do we know how accurate it actually is?
Fluctuations ஆகுவது எந்த reading யில் என்று நாம் கவனிக்க வேண்டும். உண்மையில் இந்த மீட்டரின் power analysis என்ற சிறப்பு தன்மையை யாருமே விவரிக்க வில்லை.
Charge controller க்கு பயன்படுத்தாமல் solar inverter க்கு இந்த மீட்டரை பயன்படுத்தும் போது தான் நீங்கள் சொல்லும் fluctuations reading வரும்.
காலையில் முதல் முதலாக சூரிய வெளிச்சம் வந்ததிலிருந்து 2 amps சப்ளை செய்யும் அளவிற்கு வெளிச்சம் வரும் வரை பேட்டரியை சார்ஜ் செய்யவே செலவிடும்.
2 amps க்கு மேல் வந்த பிறகு பேட்டரி சார்ஜிங் நிறுத்தி விட்டு dc to ac conversion start ஆகும். இப்போது பேனலை maximum power point tracking படி 20 வோல்ட் சப்ளை செய்யும் படி inverter செய்யும்.
இப்போது panel current, amps peak என்று (0.000AP ) data Queue என்ற இடத்தில் display செய்கிறதே அது தான் panel current.
Amps என்ற இடத்தில் display ஆகுவது dc to ac conversion க்கு விரயமாகும் current. இது தான் 2 amps யிலிருந்து 2.5 amps வரை தொடர்ந்தது fluctuations ஆகிக் கொண்டே இருக்கும்.
Inverter யில் heat loss யாக விரயமாகும் power யை தான் power column த்தில் display செய்யும்.
ஆகவே இந்த fluctuations , mathematics லாக கணக்கிட்டு கிடைக்கும் மதிப்பு தானே தவிர flow current அல்ல . Flow current, Amps peak AP என்று வருகிறதே அது தான்.
I think this should have been wired through a shunt, yes?
It has shunt integrated inside. Thats why it is quite big. It wouldnt be able to monitor power without it.
Good day does your meter making noise
no it didn't, but I don't have it anymore so can't say if it does now
Hi, I believe that this meter should in fact be connected to the output of the charge controller and not between the solar panel and the controller. The meter will then read the battery voltage correctly and not fluctuate like a mad man.
He’s not trying to measure the battery voltage. He’s measuring the solar panel voltage and current amount, hence why it’s connected the way he’s done it!
How much solar power do you have?
I have 2x 80w panels for a total of 160w, there is a video on my channel fitting my solar to the roof
@@TheCampervanBuilder oh I see. Thats why my 30wp only shows 0.40a 😅😂
Well, its a good idea if your controller does not already give you that info. But most MPPT controllers do. But they have the same problem your setup has in that they only show you the power being used by the controller.
It does not show you the full "rated output" of your panel system at any given moment.
Thats why your voltage and current were not stable because the controller was charging the batteries based on what the batteries needed at any given moment and drawing the energy needed at that particular time.
You have to put a load on it to see the maximum power output. So , for your circuit to tell you how much power your panels CAN put out, you need to have the batteries drained down quite a bit. That way your controller will take as much power from the panels as possible and THAT will show you how much the panels are capable of generating. But even that might not be that accurate.
I actually spoke to Renogy about this "problem" and they are working on a solution.
thye said it might be a separate unite they would sell OR try to incorporate the circuit into future models.
I see what you're trying to do.
The problem is that you're looking at Voc and Ioc. Which isn't how it would work in real world application. You always have some form of load or another.
If you have a multimeter, you can get a amp reading and a volt reading and then multiply those to get you watts.
With mppt there is a variable resistive load, which alters the voltage. And then a buck to alter the current.
If you ask me a mppt is just a buck converter. It has programmed voltage which it uses to measure the peak against the output current or just reads the output current and voltage sag.
Really cheap and easy to do.
On the flip side, a pwm always pulls down the voltage to the battery voltage and only pumps the current available. Basically no current boost by voltage drop. (Ohm's law)
I would imagine any "test" would be peak readings added together. Or/and a cap charge time calculation which has a resistive load discharge.
@@guywhoknows Actually, that is what I am saying, there has to be a load to really test it. also, most meters only go to 10 amps as far as the current goes. so its very difficult to test the whole array at once. For my system, which is at 440 watts as of now, I would need about a 3 ohm , 600 watt resister for it to be real world. but I am working on a circuit to at least test each individual panel remotely. Although it may take some time before i get around to it. :)
@@stuh2 mine blew between 615 and 800w. All that happened was the screen light comes on, not magic smoke nothing.
I think it is to do with the CPU voltage/current regulation. So it maybe wise to use the small pins, not that they are labeled.