Consumptions vs Exported vs Imported Not Matching up?

Questions
#1

I’ve just setup my Fronius Inverter onto the PVOutput website however I’m a little confused about the details being reported…

For example, on PVOutput, if I click on “Daily” view I get the following details displayed:
Generated: 34.583kWh
Exported: 8.143kWh
Consumption: 31.216kWh
Imported: 4.776kWH

However, I’ve not consumed that much power so cross-checked with Fronius solar.web (numbers are slightly different times due to about a 20min lag but should give a good idea).

–Production–
Energy to grid (Export): 24.71kWh
Consumed directly: 9.08kWh
TOTAL Production: 33.79kWh
Own Consumption 27%

–Consumption–
Energy from Grid (Import): 2.84kWh
Consumed directly: 9.09kWh
TOTAL Consumption: 11.93kWh
Self-sufficiency: 76%

I’m struggling to work out how PVOutput is calculating the Consumption, Imported and Exported numbers?

If I drill into the ‘Live’ (PVOutput) I see “Power Used” but it’s often around 5kWh which at first I though ‘might be’ export as in Queensland we have a 5kWh cap on exports… however I also have a pool pump running that is using at least 1kWh and I noticed when there is no solar production (eg,m at night) this field is still reporting house hold power consumption so if it’s adding that as well I would have thought maybe 5KW exort cap + consumption but it’s not adding up to that either…

I’m trying to work out what I’ve done wrong with my setup?

Look forward to any thoughts and suggestions as I essentially followed this guide when setting up the link but must have something wrong I think?
https://pvoutput.org/help/push_services.html?highlight=fronius

I currently have the following setup as per the guide:

  • Inverter Push (SolarAPI v1 - CurrentData - Inverter)
  • Meter Push (SolarAPI v1 - CurrentData - Meter)

This report I could not get working so I’ve disabled it for now:

  • Log Data Push (SolarAPI v1 - Logdata - Data)
  • someone on another forum mentioned this dataset might require a donation to get working so if that is true that’s fine I guess but if it should be working I’ll be keen to get some help on getting it working as well…
#2

Hi @jonnoc .

Looking at your inverter’s output

Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 13.24.38
Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 13.24.381926×896 159 KB

It appear that ‘Power Used’ is nicely tracking ‘Power Generated’.

What PVO settings have you set regarding NETT / GROSS? I’ve attached a screen shot of my settings below [ I have a Fronius inverter too ]

Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 13.26.52
Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 13.26.52986×304 37.3 KB

There’s some explanation of NETT vs GROSS metering within the URL that you posted above & elsewhere in the online help.

https://www.pvoutput.org/help/auto_uploader.html?highlight=net

Grannos.

#3

@jonnoc

I forgot to add that the ‘Log Push’ is only available in ‘Donation’ mode.

https://pvoutput.org/help/push_services.html?highlight=fronius#fronius-log-data-push

https://pvoutput.org/help/donations.html#donations

Grannos

#4

When the consumption is tracking the generation data means the meter values should be Net not Gross.

In the meter push config add “&n=1” to indicate the meter is measuring net data.

#5

Thanks for that, please find a screenshot below:

Seems perhaps I might need to donate as well to change these settings…

image

#6

Thanks for the reply,

Just to ensure I understand correctly I need to do the following to both push serivces (Inverter and Meter) for the upload file name correct?
/service/r2/froniuspost.jsp?sid=HIDDEN-ID&key=HIDDEN-KEY&n=1

Is that correct?

#7

UPDATE: Seems the above has fixed the usage data being recorded correctly going forward (adding “&n=1” to the end of the upload file name field)

Thanks very much for your help with that!
I also read in the manual now that they recommend “auto=1” however when I tried that I got an error and might be due to them also mentioning it’s best to set that early morning/late night whilst there is no generation taking place. Would you suggest I stick to n=1 or try the auto=1 options?

I noticed around 2:20pm I had a spike even with the new settings upto 2,814W power used which I don’t think is possible as it should remain between 1,200 to 1,600 during the day so Im’ not sure what caused it to detect 2,814w power usage but seems after this its’s gone back to being correct again…

Out of interest would you happen to know if there is any way for me to fix up the historic data as it seems only ‘new’ data that is being added is now correct and accurate but older data is still showing the incorrect details…

#8

Hi @jonnoc,

Take a look at this thread where I posted a PHP script that will extract historic data from a Fronius inverter. You will need to make some specific changes to the script to customise it for your installation. Time Zone & Inverter’s network address. It will extract the data. You can manually upload it into PVO to overwrite the incorrect data. The updating process must be done one day at a time.

#9

Thank you for that,

I might have a play with your PHP scrip (appreciated)… however I have also since read even if I report over a year of data I can’t import that into PVoutput it seems due to the following I found in the help files of the site:

“The output date can not be older than 14 days from the current date. Increased to 90 days for Donation enabled accounts”

So what I think i might have to do is look at possibly importing the last 2 weeks of 5min data for this month (Feb) then for previous months, it sounds like I can only upload totals such as daily generation/consumption data only? Is that correct?

#10

Yes, 5-minute data for the last 14 days and daily summaries to the year 2000

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