Solaredge power consumption

Configuration
1

I recently got myself some PV panels along with a solaredge inverter.
I created an API key at the solaredge site so I now have my readings in HA.
Now my problem is that I don’t see my current power usage. Of course I am able to read my (Dutch/DSMR) smartmeter, but as long as I draw less power than I generate at the PV panels I see 0 over there. I am also not able to read my produced power currently being delivered back into the grid. If that was the case I could easily calcute the current power usage.
I was wondering if any other folks have this as well.

2

Hi @pathia, congrats on the PV panels and SolarEdge inverter. Which conditions are your trying to monitor? For things like solar_power and power_consumption additional hardware is required. The current_power however should give you the current generated power which you could maybe use in combination with your smartmeter.

3

Thanks. I am mostly interested in seeing my actual power usage. So, for easy math let’s say I am currently using 500 watts and my panels generate 2500 watt I will deliver 2000watts back to the grid and my smartmeter will report a power usage of zero. That is technically correct because I don’t use any power from the grid currently.
Of course the Solaredge app and api can report the amount of energy currently being generated but what I miss is how much of it is currently being used by my appliances currently.
I tried to use the[sensor.power_production_low/high from my smartmeter versus sensor.solaredge_energy_today from the Solaredge API. But they show small weird differences, like sometimes more energy being delivered to the grid than my panels generate. I guess this has to do with the different data sources not being polled at exactly the same time.

4

I don’t know if this helps but for me using 0.91.4 I use the following config parameters for monitored_conditions:

  - power_consumption #Current House consummed power kW
  - solar_power       #Current PV generated power kW
  - grid_power        #Current power from grid kW; towards grid is negative

This in turn creates the following sensors:

      - sensor.solaredge_solar_power
      - sensor.solaredge_power_consumption
      - sensor.solaredge_grid_power
5

Thank you for replying.
I have all three parameters in my configuration, but they all show up as unknown when I look in dev-state.
Do they give any relevant info in your setup?
Perhaps them showing up as unknown is related to this continuously repeating log message every 20 minutes:
2019-04-16 23:33:33 ERROR (SyncWorker_9) [homeassistant.components.solaredge.sensor] Missing connections in power flow data
Other statistical data like sensor.solaredge_energy_today do give correct and useful data.

6

Try the following in your web browser to see what results you get:
https://monitoringapi.solaredge.com/site/YOUR_SITE_ID/currentPowerFlow.json?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY

7

This is what I get:
{"siteCurrentPowerFlow":{}}
I have double checked the site id and api key, they are 100% correct.

8

Now I get it (at least, that is what I think). I just found the text “additional hardware required” in the docs next to the items mentioned before. But unfortunately the page does not elaborate on exactly what additional hardware.

9

Hi @pathia that’s correct, you do need additional hardware for the power flow details. Have a look here for some more information. Hope this helps.

10

So, as I understand it comes down to installing the clamp onto to 3x2.5 square cable I have running downstairs to my main fuse box ?
Where do the clamp wires connect to?
I cannot find much information about it. Not even on youtube.

11

Probably depends on your inverter model, but the following is similar to what I have:

I’m thinking your DSMR is performing a similar function, but perhaps not integrated with the SolarEdge??

12

Thanks I saw that modbus device. Together with the clamp it is not very cheap. Looks like a few hundred euros or dollars.
And, yes I am Dutch so we have a DSMR smartmeter which sends out telemetry every 10 seconds. The problem with that is that if I look at the consumed power I only see what I am consuming from the grid. The power generated by my panels which is immediately used by (for example) my washing machine is not taken into account. Which seems completely logical to me, because this power does not pass through the smartmeter.
I am trying to get insight back into my power usage, because since I have my PV panels I got a very bad insight in this because of this.

13

Instead of the above you could get the current power from your SolarEdge by using this:
- current_power
in the ‘monitored_conditions’ part of your configuration.

This will get data from the url:
https://monitoringapi.solaredge.com/%20site/{YOUR_SITE_ID}/overview?api_key={YOUR_API_KEY}
it contains a key ‘currentPower’.