Is there a description for each data field somewhere?

[petergrace]

Hi there! New user here, but I’m already very excited to be putting data in.

I wrote my own interface that pulls data out of prometheus for my solar install. I’m wondering if there’s a complete description about all of the fields.

For instance, v6 is “Voltage.” Is there a common definition of what voltage we’re talking about here? Is it grid voltage? Is it our inverter voltage? Is it the voltage at our panels? Right now I’m reporting the average value of each of my optimizer strings, but I see some people discussing inverter output voltages instead.

Similarly, for the energy vs power (v4 and v5), v4 is a calculated running tally of watt hours consumed today, but v5 is a calculated instantaneous watts across both A and B phase for that moment – is that correct?

Mostly I just don’t want to “cheat” on any of my report values since I like the mildly competitive nature of it (and in three days of reporting it looks like I’m 5th place for Pennsylvania, USA!)

[grannos]

Hi @petergrace welcome to PVO.

I’m just a regular user here so I don’t have any specific insight. I’ve assumed that v6 is the mains / grid voltage - I actually have three phase power but I only log the voltage of one phase. I imagine that most users only have single phase power so v6 is enough.

v5 is Temperature ( Celsius ).

Logging actual ENERGY usage and / or generation will provide a more accurate figure than by logging only POWER usage or generation. For systems that are only logging POWER values the energy values are derived based upon 5 minute ( or longer intervals ) calculated from the POWER values.

I log string specific information using the ‘Extended Values’ v7 … v12 as well as the inverter’s temperature.

N.B. the ‘Extended Values’ are only available if you are a Donor. In my opinion it is a very handy feature to have access too. Donations — PVOutput documentation

https://www.pvoutput.org/help/api_specification.html#id1

[bankstownbloke]

@petergrace

Is there a common definition of what voltage we’re talking about here? Is it grid voltage? Is it our inverter voltage?

You can either log DC or AC voltage, which ever suits your setup.

@petergrace

but v5 is a calculated instantaneous watts across both A and B phase for that moment – is that correct?

v1/v3 is energy and v2/v4 is power. Depending on the inverter/device, this can either be instantaneous power or average over the interval (5 minutes).

If only energy is logged then the (average) power is calculated and vice versa.

[petergrace]

@grannos

N.B. the ‘Extended Values’ are only available if you are a Donor. In my opinion it is a very handy feature to have access too. Donations — PVOutput documentation

API Specification — PVOutput documentation

Yup, I donated the second day – definitely worthwhile and I’m thinking of setting up a monthly donation!

@grannos

Logging actual ENERGY usage and / or generation will provide a more accurate figure than by logging only POWER usage or generation. For systems that are only logging POWER values the energy values are derived based upon 5 minute ( or longer intervals ) calculated from the POWER values.

I have two separate sets of CT clamps (the inverters have CT clamps on utility, and I have a ShellyEM on the mains panel for actual consumption) – I report the actual consumption value from my main breaker panel but report the generation according to the mppt/inverter system. I think that’s probably the most honest way to report it since the consumption only happens out of the main breaker panel (asides from the 50W of usage my 3 inverters use continuously)

[petergrace]

@bankstownbloke

You can either log DC or AC voltage, which ever suits your setup.

OK, good to know – I’m logging the average voltage reported from the optimizers, which is a good second indication of how much juice I’m generating, since the optimizers are trying to get the amperage as close to 8A as they can get, so higher voltages would theoretically indicate stronger insolation.