Does the Watts Clever EW4500 monitor (webshop) work with grid connect solar?

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Does the Watts Clever EW4500 monitor (webshop) work with grid connect solar?

(11 posts) (5 voices)

Started 9 years ago by Lyndon
Latest reply from WattsClever

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Lyndon
Member

It appears from the online manual for the Watts Clever EW4500 wireless monitor (as sold on the ATA webshop) that it should fit a Citipower/Powercor grey smart meter (I-credit 500 PRI).

The monitor appears to use the led port on the smart meter to measure the impulse rate and hence energy use as kWh.

As we have a 3KW grid connect solar system installed, I was wondering whether the monitor would give an accurate (relative) measurement of gross instantaneous energy use from the house? Specifically, would the monitor measure (using the smart meter's impulse rate) net energy use from the grid (i.e. gross use from the house less power provided by the grid connect solar system) or just gross use? Clearly, gross use is what is of most value.

This question is a bit of mix of what the smart meter impulse rate is actually measuring and hence the potential value of the monitor (I have to pitch it to my better half).

Hopefully someone can assist with this.

Thanks
Lyndon

Posted Saturday 23 Mar 2013 @ 9:52:05 pm from IP #
WattsClever
Member

Hi Lyndon,

the Watts Clever EW4500 wireless monitor will work with the i-credit 500. There is sensor that attaches over the LED of the smart meter and measures the meters impulse rate and sends this data to the display that you can keep within your house.

The wireless monitor displays energy consumed from the grid, it does not include the energy used from your solar panels. This is useful as it is a good indicator of how much you can expect to be billed for by your energy retailer.

For more info - http://www.wattsclever.net.au/shop/energy-monitoring/wirelessenergymonitor

Kind regards,
Jodi
Watts Clever

Posted Wednesday 27 Mar 2013 @ 1:05:59 am from IP #
Benny
Member

If its the same as the EW4030 it measures nett import. Once my PV system wakes up the LED stops flashing as generated PV exceeds import for most of the day and the internal display shows 0kW. There have been a couple of times when the monitor seems to have got confused with the lack of flashing LED and showed import of 19kW !! Thankfully this hasn't happened often.

Posted Wednesday 27 Mar 2013 @ 9:14:45 am from IP #
WattsClever
Member

Hi Benny,

My LED stops flashing for most of the day when my solar kicks in too, your monitor shouldn't be giving you a false reading when this happens. Is there any chance your sensor could be picking up light from another source such as sunlight getting into the meter box? Do you have an icredit 500 meter? If so we now have an adapter for this meter that stops the sensor from giving any false readings and I would be happy to send you one.

Jodi
Watts Clever

Posted Wednesday 27 Mar 2013 @ 10:02:58 pm from IP #
Benny
Member

Thanks Jodi but it only did it a few times and has been fine for a long time. Perhaps it was picking up the adjacent VAr LED. I'm happy with it now. I often take it off and use it on houses that I do energy audits at - only takes 2 secs to install with some blue tack.

Posted Thursday 28 Mar 2013 @ 3:20:05 am from IP #
WattsClever
Member

Not a problem Benny, glad you like the product.

Jodi
Watts Clever

Posted Thursday 28 Mar 2013 @ 3:22:06 am from IP #
alfresco24
Member

The flashing LED pick-up is a good feature.
Getting the pulse rate right isnt too hard, but including the PV reading is awkward.

Posted Saturday 30 Mar 2013 @ 1:42:46 am from IP #
Lyndon
Member

As an update, I wanted to post a correction on the model number for the Watts Clever that I received from the Webshop, it is a EW4030 and not a EW4500 that I had incorrectly surmised it might be. A suggestion to the ATA webshop would be to list the Watts Clever model number as well, rather than just a picture (and a ATA reference number).

We are happy with the EW4030 and it works well. It was relatively easy to set up on an icredit 500 smart meter. I note that whilst the mounting fittings were not exactly suitable for our particular smart meter model, it was easy to modify things to suit with the circular double sided tape and the fittings that were included in the monitor package.

As per the instructions, you need to make sure you minimise sunlight potentially interfering with the sensor. For our house, our switchboard is on the northern wall and I modified a small cardboard box lid to cover the smart meter and sensor (held with bluetac) and the temporary interference that I found yesterday from the sunlight overloading the sensor was easily resolved.

As noted by Jodi from Watts Clever in this post, the monitor records energy purchased from the grid. This information, combined with our Bluetooth Sunny Beam monitor that is synced with our SMA inverter (SMA Sunny Boy 3000HF), it has provided some interesting information about our household energy usage. I note that whilst we don't get total household consumption from the above set up during the day (as when the PV output is greater that our energy requirements, we have a zero measurement from the EW4030 and a measurement from the Sunny Beam and our total household energy consumption is something in between), through a bit of detective work at night and in the early morning before the PV system fires up, we've been able to get a reasonable estimate of the power consumption of our household appliances.

Posted Saturday 6 Apr 2013 @ 10:40:50 pm from IP #
WattsClever
Member

Hi Lyndon,

If you would like to PM your postal address to me I would be happy to post you an icredit 500 adapter.

Jodi
Watts Clever

Posted Sunday 7 Apr 2013 @ 11:40:54 pm from IP #
hergab
Member

Jodi

I have a Watts Clever EW4030, my question is why dont they include instructions for how to interperate your data a little better for those of us that are not as electricity savvy. Also can anyone clarify if the i-Credit 500 meters are 3200 kw/h I could not find this data on my meter.
Also I seem to be receiving data ok but as the eye does not really fit on the Icredit500 neatly I have managed to stick it over the flashing LED but is there any chance it will give false data due to the unusual way I have had to make it stick on?

I am using the EW4030 to try and track down what in our house is using a massive amount of electricity as our bill is 4 times that of other people I know and it just jumped 30% in the last bill.

Posted Wednesday 8 May 2013 @ 11:02:58 pm from IP #
WattsClever
Member

Hi Hergab,
The icredit 500 does have an imp rate of 3200.

If you send a PM to me with your address I will be happy to send you the icredit 500 mounting plate.

Could you clarify in more detail what you would like the instructions to contain?

When trying to isolate appliances that are consuming high or abnormal amounts of electricity, a plug in energy monitor is very helpful. You can plug your fridge in for example and leave it for a few days to gauge an accurate representation of how much it is consuming over time.

As your last bill increased by 30% I would look at heating as a possible culprit if you are in the southern states. If you have a clothes dryer you may be using this more now that is cooler and the days are shorter.

Jodi
Watts Clever

Posted Thursday 9 May 2013 @ 12:01:30 am from IP #

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