Solar options for home in 2022

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#3465612 27-Feb-2026 21:49

richrdh18:

Paul1977:

For those of you on PowerEdge, do they have an app or anything to monitor power usage?

No app. Just web login. You can see your usage but tbh it is pretty useless.

How useless? As well as being able to download the full data set, I like to be able to fairly easily be able to look back and see at a glance when we’re using the most power.

I’m with PowerShop at the moment, and their app lets you look back at any day and get a nice graph which shows you at a glance when you were using the most power.

I don’t mind too much if it’s a web page rather than an app, but can anyone provide some screenshots of what you can actually see on the PowerEdge website when you have an account?

Thanks

Jase2985

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#3465613 27-Feb-2026 21:55

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

Paul1977

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#3465616 27-Feb-2026 22:30

Jase2985:

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

We don’t have it installed yet. I just assumed it would only show what it is generating and exporting - I didn’t know it would show the imports as well. If it shows that then even better, means I won’t need to look in two places. Thanks.

Would still be interesting to know exactly what info you can get from the PowerEdge website though.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3465619 27-Feb-2026 23:10

Jase2985:

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

We had a NorthPower tech here just before Xmas fitting a logger for Powerco in response to my grid voltage complaints. When I showed the tech my Fronius's logging he was genuinely impressed by the level of data I had available to me. His comment was something like "We can't see that much information".

Also worth noting that 'behind the meter' data is invisible to the EDBs and electricity suppliers so data you get from them will always be far less than is available from decent inverter logs. As an example we generated 2,180 kWh in January. Ecotricity and Powerco saw 209 kWh of import, 1,519 kWh of export but the 661 kWh that we self consumed is only visible to us, and 852 kWh of that export was from our house roof array which is totally exported, so if that was not there the picture would look far different again to Ecotricity and Powerco (i.e 209 consumption & 667 export, for a real total consumption of 870).

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

Sinuation

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#3465622 28-Feb-2026 02:53

Paul1977:

Jase2985:

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

We don’t have it installed yet. I just assumed it would only show what it is generating and exporting - I didn’t know it would show the imports as well. If it shows that then even better, means I won’t need to look in two places. Thanks.

Would still be interesting to know exactly what info you can get from the PowerEdge website though.

I am with PowerEdge. It's VERY basic. Legitimately just a monthly kwh usage. Another graph shows how much you paid monthly. That's all you can see pretty much.

It's pretty disappointing imo. Also cannot tell how much credits I have except for the monthly bill.

Jase2985

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#3465640 28-Feb-2026 08:43

Paul1977:

Jase2985:

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

We don’t have it installed yet. I just assumed it would only show what it is generating and exporting - I didn’t know it would show the imports as well. If it shows that then even better, means I won’t need to look in two places. Thanks.

Would still be interesting to know exactly what info you can get from the PowerEdge website though.

They install current clamps (a smart meter) on the incoming supply, so the inverter knows what the house is using. That's pretty much what the electricity meter is doing. On top of that the inverter has all its own monitoring of what its doing so you should have access to way more data than what you can see on the power companies side.

Ge0rge

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#3465643 28-Feb-2026 09:04

Mine doesn't. The inverter knows nothing more than what it has made for the day. It is positioned too far away from the incoming mains for a CT to be connected.

johno1234

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#3465654 28-Feb-2026 10:29

What’s going wrong here?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360943462/solar-power-mystery-wakefield-mans-system-seems-draw-electricity-grid-even-sunny-days

HarmLessSolutions

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#3465657 28-Feb-2026 10:55

johno1234:

What’s going wrong here?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360943462/solar-power-mystery-wakefield-mans-system-seems-draw-electricity-grid-even-sunny-days

My guess would be that the meter is recording flow both ways (import and export) as draw down from the grid. Sounds similar to those whose solar installations are generating before an export meter is in place. Should be easy enough to diagnose and remedy for an experienced installer.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

Paul1977

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#3465660 28-Feb-2026 11:17

Jase2985:

They install current clamps (a smart meter) on the incoming supply, so the inverter knows what the house is using. That's pretty much what the electricity meter is doing. On top of that the inverter has all its own monitoring of what its doing so you should have access to way more data than what you can see on the power companies side.

Is that a standard setup, or something I should specifically ask the installers about? Installers are Harrison’s and inverter is a Fronius Gen24.

Thanks

EgorNZ

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#3465662 28-Feb-2026 11:24

Paul1977:

Is that a standard setup, or something I should specifically ask the installers about? Installers are Harrison’s and inverter is a Fronius Gen24.

Thanks

Check your quote, there will almost certainly be a "Fronius Smart Energy Meter" included as a component. That's what that's for.

richms

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#3465664 28-Feb-2026 11:30

Paul1977:

Is that a standard setup, or something I should specifically ask the installers about? Installers are Harrison’s and inverter is a Fronius Gen24.

Thanks

Standard for anything that has to limit the export to a cap. Needed if you want to charge the battery up during free/low cost power times and ensure you don't go over the supply rating.

Richard rich.ms

Paul1977

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#3465682 28-Feb-2026 14:32

EgorNZ:

Check your quote, there will almost certainly be a "Fronius Smart Energy Meter" included as a component. That's what that's for.

Can’t see it specifically mentioned, so will email on Monday to check.

Paul1977

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#3465683 28-Feb-2026 14:38

richms:

Standard for anything that has to limit the export to a cap. Needed if you want to charge the battery up during free/low cost power times and ensure you don't go over the supply rating.

We aren’t getting a battery (but the quote does say “battery ready”). Orion currently still limits exports to 5kW (meant to increase to 10kW sometime this year) and Harrison’s are definitely aware of the limit so must be using the appropriate equipment to enforce it. But I’ll double check with them.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3465684 28-Feb-2026 14:44

Paul1977:

Jase2985:

They install current clamps (a smart meter) on the incoming supply, so the inverter knows what the house is using. That's pretty much what the electricity meter is doing. On top of that the inverter has all its own monitoring of what its doing so you should have access to way more data than what you can see on the power companies side.

Is that a standard setup, or something I should specifically ask the installers about? Installers are Harrison’s and inverter is a Fronius Gen24.

Thanks

Apart from the phase export cap thing mentioned above Fronius has an excellent user portal which you can monitor your property's import, export, generation (broken down to individual MPPTs) and grid voltage at your grid feed-in point. Most of this info isn't accessible with no CT clamp so I doubt any reputable installer would skimp on this.

Also the inverter needs to know the grid voltage for its own protection and to implement 'corrective' measures if outside its set parameters. Maybe speaking out of turn here but that is the way it seems to me.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

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