How do I monitor my solar performance?

How you choose to monitor the performance of your solar panels depends on the following:

• The equipment you have installed
• The level of detail about performance you want
• How convenient you want solar monitoring to be

Listed below are a few different ways to see how your panels are performing.

Check the display of your battery monitor

If you are not concerned about determining the exact performance of solar panels and just want to see if your panels are working, the easiest thing to do is to simply check your battery monitor. There is a good chance that your solar panels are your only power source if you are off-grid, which means that they will be solely responsible for any charge going into your battery. Then all you need to do is workout out how much current is being diverted to loads (such as fridge and USB chargers) and then add that to the total you see on the battery monitor. Doing this will give you a pretty good idea of how your panels are performing and works pretty well on a small off-grid system.

Check the display of your solar controller

If you want a more precise idea of how much power your panels are generating, you can take a look at the display of your solar controller if it has one. If you are using an Enerdrive DC2DC or an Enerdrive MPPT Solar Charge Controller, then the built in display will allow you to easily be able to view the charge current of the controller and the voltage of your solar array. An optional remote can also be purchased for the DC2DC if you wish to relocate the display to somewhere more convenient.

If you are using a Morningstar solar controller without a display, monitoring solar performance is more challenging. For Tristar solar controllers, the LED indicators on the face of the unit will provide you some information regarding what stage of charging the unit is in (see the Owner's manual for more details) but will not provide you with voltage or current values. Reading the exact charge values produced by a Tristar will require either the purchase of a TriStar Remote or Digital Meter add-on, or the addition of an external shunt (see below).

Add a shunt to your system

If you want to be able to precisely monitor your solar output in the most convenient way possible, adding a shunt to your system is your best option. A basic ammeter, such as the Enerdrive OLED model, can be installed in line with your solar negative cable and provide you with a reading with how much charge current is being produced.

If you have not already purchased a battery monitor for your system, a Simarine monitoring solution is an even better option for solar monitoring. Simarine offers a variety of quad shunt modules that can be used to monitor the charge or loads of individual devices, including solar chargers. Depending on the modules purchased, a Simarine monitoring system could potentially monitor your batteries, water tanks, solar generation, and individual loads from the convenience of a single full colour display or from your smartphone. For more information on Simarine monitoring solutions, click here.