Solar Forecast

PeteC

So Wonder Watt is generally working really well for us.
Where it's falling down is the solar forecast.
This is for 2 reasons:
1) Although I've got 4.95kWp of panels, my inverter is limited to 3.68kW.
2) I've got 11 panels facing WNW and 7 panels facing SSW
I've just changed my Wonderwatt settings to West and 4.95kW to see if that helps.
Anyone else have any suggestions?

Also I wonder if Wonderwatt could change to use Solcast or something similar (although even that wouldn't be perfect due to my split array on one inverter). Or pick the forecast up from GivEnergy, which I have just set up to use Solcast - be interesting to see how accurate it is - I've used the same settings, but told Solcast that inverter is limited to 3.68kW

Gazzagreen

I just sold a giv-energy Vrs 1 5K inverter.... would have been so much better for you perhaps?

PeteC

Gazzagreen Why? I don't think it would beat my SolarEdge with optimizers. It doesn't clip very much, and is more efficient.

PeteC

PeteC The point is that if I configure WonderWatt with 3.68kW of panels it will underestimate. Whereas if I set it to 4.95kW it would overestimate on sunny days.
Now I'm thinking that setting it 3.68kW would be better. We'll see how it does for a couple of days at 4.95.

MrMessy

@admin
Sorry to drag this one back from the brink.

Is it possible/reasonable for you to look at adding split arrays to the set up?
Solcast (on the free version) allows 2 arrays in to one inverter eg. SE/SW

Also, is there any reason why you couldn't query the solar prediction for the next day and then in the morning query a specific time period eg.10:00-14:00?

TIA.

admin

MrMessy

MrMessy Is it possible/reasonable for you to look at adding split arrays to the set up?
Solcast (on the free version) allows 2 arrays in to one inverter eg. SE/SW

Best way to currently do that is to lower your total PV output and estimate a single plane equivalent.

MrMessy Also, is there any reason why you couldn't query the solar prediction for the next day and then in the morning query a specific time period eg.10:00-14:00?

Because we currently forecast on a daily basis only. This will be changed to be more granular and is on our roadmap.

MrMessy

admin

admin Best way to currently do that is to lower your total PV output and estimate a single plane equivalent.

Yeah, I've done that.
At the moment, it doesn't really concern me as I'm not really using the solar forecasting.
However...

admin Because we currently forecast on a daily basis only. This will be changed to be more granular and is on our roadmap.

With a split array, the generation profile is different to a single array. My E/W array has a different profile to an "equivalent" South array.
I'm trying to put together a sequence to manage clipping, hence the query about more detailed solar forecast, but then the array specifics become more important too.