Solar Production AND Electric Usage Monitoring
Most solar installers provide at least minimal solar power production monitoring. Ohio Solar Sales includes real time detailed solar power production graphs/numbers viewable on your smart phone, tablet, and computer. In addition, we also include real time electric usage graphs/numbers. Combining these two on one screen gives you a better picture on how your solar power is offsetting your usage. Knowing your real time electric usage also helps you reduce the amount of electricity you use.
Monitoring the power your solar array generates - We have a very robust monitoring system. From your smart phone, tablet, or computer you can see how much electricity your solar power system is generating at any given moment. You can also see daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and lifetime graphs. With this information, you can monitor the power you have created, estimate the money you have saved, and verify everything is working correctly.
In addition to tracking your system as a whole, our monitoring system tracks each solar panel individually. This is invaluable for monitoring the health of your system. It can alert you to issues and quickly point you to exactly where the problem is.
Monitoring your electric usage - We put sensors in your electric panel that track your electric usage in real time. You can look at your current usage at any given moment on your smart phone, tablet, or computer. You can also generate usage graphs showing daily, weekly, monthly, yearly usage and even your usage over your billing cycle.
Knowing your electric usage at any given moment is very useful. Switch on a light, or appliance and see exactly how much power it uses. You will be amazed at how much power you can save by switching off unneeded lights, computers, computer screens, TVs etc.
Monitoring your electric usage helps you cut your usage, magnifying the benefits of the power your solar array is generating.
Combining solar generation and electric usage data - The monitoring system we provide combines this data on one screen to give you even more information.
- Know at any given moment if your solar array is generating more electricity than you are using.
- Know your generation vs usage for the current billing period or any other span of time.
- See what parts of the day you are using energy verses what parts of the day you are generating energy.
Knowledge is power. With this new understanding of your usage and solar power production, you can make informed decisions to lower your electric costs and maximize your solar investment.
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The graph above is the real life graph from March 13, 2016 of a 7.28 kilowatt rooftop array in Columbus Ohio. The orange line shows the kilowatts the solar array generated throughout the day. It was a partly cloudy day. The dips are when the sun went behind the clouds. The total power generated for the day was 28.76 kilowatt hours ( kWh ). The blue line shows the kilowatts the home -used- throughout the day. The smaller spikes through the night and day is the blower motor on the gas furnace kicking on and off. The large usage around 7am was a 1500 watt electric heater used to supplement heat in one part of the house. The taller spikes between 5 and 7pm were the stove and microwave. The home consumed 19.07 kilowatt hours ( kWh ) for the day.