I have a 5kw array at my off-grid house that I installed it a couple months ago.
I recently discovered this site and set up my site as a rooftop solar. My long term plan is to use it combined with data logs of my consumption to predict my battery charge for the next 3 days.
I can then use this to automatically run my generator for my bulk charge when I know solar will not be sufficient in the next few days. Ideally this will allow me to avoid running the generator when I know there is a good solar day coming tomorrow. Nothing worse then burning fuel to charge when there is sun coming.
I’ve been manually comparing my production to the forcast data and I’ve determined tuning would be beneficial. I just set it up to push real measurements on a 10 minute interval but only when in bulk charge mode. I think for off-grid limiting to readings during bulk is critical, in absorb I could be only charging at 1kw when the sun is actually capable of 3kw because my batteries can’t take the full power. This would mess with the turning of my array.
Couple questions based on my setup.
Does anyone else use Solcast for an Off-grid array?
If I only provide measuremnts when in bulik mode will tuning even be possible? Basically I’ll provide measurements from sun up until I hit absorb, some days this is by 10 am, other days I don’t hit it at all. I also do not provide measurements once the sun goes down and they are all 0s.