PV Setup - configuration and understanding

[Dimitar]

Dear All,

We have created a special PV Energy dashboard for all PV owners, providing relevant information about Generated, Exported, and Home Consumed energy. This feature is currently in the "Alpha stage," which means some numbers may not be accurate. We are looking for your suggestions and reports to improve functionality before releasing it as a stable version.

Supported Features (as of June 12, 2024):

• Parallel, Back-up, and Balcony PV systems
• Generated energy from PV
• Consumed energy from Grid with pricing information
• Exported energy back to Grid (pricing information not supported)
• Battery charge information
• Net metering based on the chosen period (no option to set custom or fixed net metering period)

How to set up your Shelly device for accurate measurement and data:

At least two Shelly devices are required. If you have Shelly EM or 3EM set as single-phase meters, you can use one physical device connected at two different points.

Parallel wiring : 

Parallel wiring means your Inverter and Grid are wired in parallel with the house. In this case, your Inverter adds energy from PV, and whole house consumption does not pass through it.

If you have a single-phase power supply, the minimum hardware requirements are:

Option 1: Shelly EM with 2xCT - one connected to wires coming from the Grid and another connected after the Inverter.

Option 2: Shelly 3EM with 2xCT set in Single phase mode - one connected to wires coming from the Grid and another connected after the Inverter. You can use the 3rd wire.

If you have a three-phase power supply, you need 2x Shelly 3EM, one connected before and after the grid supply and another after the inverter. Ensure that A/B/C phases on both 3EMs are connected to the same phases.

Application settings: The Channel/CT connected to Grid wires MUST be set as "Grid source" and the other one MUST be set as "Generated Energy" as Appliance type in Shelly Smart Control Application.

Calculation:

• House consumption = Grid + Generated
• If House consumption < 0, then = Battery Charge
• If Grid is negative = Exported energy

 

Back-up/UPS wiring

 

Back-up wiring means your Inverter passes through all energy supplied from the Grid to the House. Hardware requirements are the same as in Parallel wiring, but calculations differ.

Calculation:

• Actual generated energy = Generated(Which measure Total House actually) - Grid
• If House consumption < 0, then = Battery Charge
• If Grid is negative = Exported energy

Balcony PV

Balcony PV wiring means your PV system is connected to your house through any power socket. This PV system adds energy but doesn't know how much your home consumes and cannot balance itself. Balcony PV is supported only as a single-phase power supply.

Hardware options:

1. Shelly EM with 1xCT connected after your Grid, this device must be set as Grid source as Appliance type.
2. Any Shelly PM or Shelly PlugS or Shelly EM with 1xCT connected to your Balcony PV system. It's important that this Shelly device reports Negative energy when the PV system supplies your home with energy! This device must be set as "Generated energy" appliance type.

Calculation:

• House consumption = Grid + Generated
• If House consumption < 0, then = Battery Charge
• If Grid is negative = Exported energy

PV System Dashboard:

Based on your setup, we have created a new "Alpha" dashboard where you can monitor historical information of house consumption and your PV system.

  

Enjoy and let us know how we can improve!

[SeanH]

Looks pretty good, not quite sure what's going on with the maths on the finances on mine though, seems the value in GBP is very much higher than i'd expect. 

Edited June 13 by SeanH

[Leo]

Balcony PV: (Grid Shelly Pro 3EM, PV Shelly EM)

Should I turn the clamp over to get negative values from EM?

Thanks 

Edited June 13 by Leo

[Martin Steiner]

It should be possible to integrate Home Assistant Entities as a Data Source / Measuring Appliance. It does not make sense to add a shelly sensor, when the inverter already has a built in sensor. So you could use this dashboard with a lot of already integrated devices in Home Assistant

[Thomas Joy]

I have a ShellyPro3EM connected with home with a PV system. I have a ShellyPlus1PM to power on my charger when there is excess solar power production.

For example, The phase A is -1000W (Solar is connected), Phase B is 500W, Phase C is 200W., Total Power = -300W  (300w of power going to grid).

Wants to trigger the relay based on the Total power measured in ShellyPro3EM. 

I want to trigger the relay say at Total Power =-300W, and switch off at 10W.

 

Any solution available for this?

Edited June 13 by Thomas Joy

[Olsche]

I think it will soon be possible in the next firmware version. At least it was already announced in today's app release changelog that there will be a sum of all phases for Pro3EM.

4 hours ago, alex said:

Added option to create a PRO3EM action based on the Energy sum of all phases.

 

[Leo]

Citation: …It's important that this Shelly device reports Negative energy when the PV system supplies your home with energy! This device must be set as "Generated energy" appliance type.

Can you add an option (Shelly EM) to change the measuring direction of the Power converter like Shelly Pro 3EM?

[Triptheman]

I find this dashboard somehow confusing, i see repetead information, i was expecting something much more easy to understand, more like the style of  Wibeee, that (at least for me) was spot on for the majority of people to read fast and understand. 

Edited June 13 by Triptheman

[Fballetti]

Hi guys, excellent work, the road is long but I'm sure that together we will achieve excellent results because you are truly capable specialist technicians. I had configured my Growatt single-phase 6kW and 25kWh battery system with some EMs for some time. One sensor on the grid exchange, one on the inverter output, one on the entire house and others on the various consumptions. I must confirm that the calculations are very close to reality. I would like to suggest that we can uniquely identify the one produced by the "Generated" inverter, the one that passes to the "Grid" network and the one actually consumed by the "Load" house. This is where all possible calculations come from. You are really great. Thanks for everything

 

Edited June 13 by Fballetti

[Dimitar]

3 hours ago, Leo said:

Balcony PV: (Grid Shelly Pro 3EM, PV Shelly EM)

Should I 

 

3 hours ago, Leo said:

Balcony PV: (Grid Shelly Pro 3EM, PV Shelly EM)

Should I turn the clamp over to get negative values from EM?

Thanks 

Yes, should be Negative

[Dimitar]

2 hours ago, Martin Steiner said:

It should be possible to integrate Home Assistant Entities as a Data Source / Measuring Appliance. It does not make sense to add a shelly sensor, when the inverter already has a built in sensor. So you could use this dashboard with a lot of already integrated devices in Home Assistant

Not possible, if you use HA, then what else do you need?

[Dimitar]

5 hours ago, SeanH said:

Looks pretty good, not quite sure what's going on with the maths on the finances on mine though, seems the value in GBP is very much higher than i'd expect. 

How much you set as tariff. GBP are not lookin correct, I agree

 

[shacca.pl]

Hello. This solution is great for PV ON Grid installations. What about OFF Grid installations with energy storage? Such installations do not use the grid network, but rather the energy stored in the energy storage facility. For complete happiness, all we need is something like a "Smart shunt" DC with WiFi, between the inverter and the energy storage to know how much energy we have available. Will there be a device such as Smart shunt DC with WiFi in the future or the possibility of integrating shelly via Bluetooth with smart shunt from Victron?

[Dimitar]

1 hour ago, shacca.pl said:

Hello. This solution is great for PV ON Grid installations. What about OFF Grid installations with energy storage? Such installations do not use the grid network, but rather the energy stored in the energy storage facility. For complete happiness, all we need is something like a "Smart shunt" DC with WiFi, between the inverter and the energy storage to know how much energy we have available. Will there be a device such as Smart shunt DC with WiFi in the future or the possibility of integrating shelly via Bluetooth with smart shunt from Victron?

You are right for off grid we need to have DC metering for battery charge/discharge, but we don't have such a product. In that case you just monitoring house consumption. 

[Dimitar]

4 hours ago, Triptheman said:

I find this dashboard somehow confusing, i see repetead information, i was expecting something much more easy to understand, more like the style of  Wibeee, that (at least for me) was spot on for the majority of people to read fast and understand. 

Will be good to tell us what is your setup. The number are similar as example: 
1. Bought energy compare with  Grid = 303 vs 310
2. Export = 208 vs 233
3. Generated in your case are 527 which are corresponding to Battery/Inverter  = 527 vs 536 but there is something wrong because we assume that this energy are for battery charging only. 
Also there is no solar energy at all, looks like you only sell the energy which may not be true. 
A bit more data from you  could help to check where is the difference and improve it. 

[shacca.pl]

17 minutes ago, Dimitar said:

You are right for off grid we need to have DC metering for battery charge/discharge, but we don't have such a product. In that case you just monitoring house consumption. 

I think that the Bluetooth gateway function in some Shelly devices could be used here. Victron Smart shunt has Bluetooth communication, maybe it could be used to read data.

[Helder Rodrigues]

Hi all,

I think I might have a slightly different, but it seems like parallel:

 

I have 3 phase system and I have 2x3EM (green marked as solar and red as grid). In general it seems correct but I think some improvement are needed:

Total house consumption cannot be 54.18 since that what is being returned is not consumed. So I would expect something like 5KW.

(Grid+Solar - Returned)

Also the cost is too high. You cannot calculate the production at the same price. In fact, for me it "free".

Feedback: I would put all sources together, this means, price after the house consumption and Grid, Solar and returned together, it is easier to ready from my PoV. 

Below are the measurements from the provider.

Of course I have battery but it seems that shelly cannot capture this, as this is just coming from the inverter, as any other energy let say. Not sure if the PF could help to identify energy from the solar panels directly or battery at night!

Well done in general!

Regards,

Helder

[frankymusik]

I use a Shelly PM Mini to record the electricity from the balcony solar system. This Shelly PM Mini is installed in the socket through which the inverter of the solar system feeds into the house grid.

Would it please be possible to make the sign of this current adjustable in the Shelly app so that you don't have to install the devices differently in order to get the correct display in the new function?

Thank you very much

Frank

Edited June 14 by frankymusik
Translated

[Fballetti]

Hi group, I saw that the various powers are given a value and quantified with a currency configured in the electricity tariff. Is it possible to also have the value of the power exported to the grid? This way we can know exactly how much electricity I have sold to the grid. Thank you all.

[Dimitar]

13 hours ago, Helder Rodrigues said:

Hi all,

I think I might have a slightly different, but it seems like parallel:

 

I have 3 phase system and I have 2x3EM (green marked as solar and red as grid). In general it seems correct but I think some improvement are needed:

Total house consumption cannot be 54.18 since that what is being returned is not consumed. So I would expect something like 5KW.

(Grid+Solar - Returned)

Also the cost is too high. You cannot calculate the production at the same price. In fact, for me it "free".

Feedback: I would put all sources together, this means, price after the house consumption and Grid, Solar and returned together, it is easier to ready from my PoV. 

Below are the measurements from the provider.

Of course I have battery but it seems that shelly cannot capture this, as this is just coming from the inverter, as any other energy let say. Not sure if the PF could help to identify energy from the solar panels directly or battery at night!

Well done in general!

Regards,

Helder

Yes, number looks pretty same and correctm but I didn't understand your picture. Can you re-make it please. 

 

[Matthias Schmid]

Das sieht sehr gut aus, auf genau diese Funktion warte ich schon seit dem ich den 3em verbaut habe.  Ihr macht das Großartig. Macht weiter so mit den Verbesserungen. Ich fände es noch gut wenn man eine etwas genauere Auflösung hätte nicht nur Stundenweise, sondern 5 oder 15 min. 

[Dimitar]

7 hours ago, frankymusik said:

I use a Shelly PM Mini to record the electricity from the balcony solar system. This Shelly PM Mini is installed in the socket through which the inverter of the solar system feeds into the house grid.

Would it please be possible to make the sign of this current adjustable in the Shelly app so that you don't have to install the devices differently in order to get the correct display in the new function?

Thank you very much

Frank

You need to wire MiniPM to show negative energy when there is generation from Solar to Your house. If you don't know how I can help. 
Then you need EM measuring total house consumption. Like that you can have as you want: Home consumption, Generated Energy and Returned energy to the grid. 

[kosta2121]

Hello. Great job!

But there are some adjustments to make.

In parallel setup, the formula "Grid source + Generated energy = Total house consumption" should be:
"Grid source + Generated energy - Returned Energy = Total house consumption"

 

 

[luckysquid]

1 hour ago, kosta2121 said:

Hello. Great job!

But there are some adjustments to make.

In parallel setup, the formula "Grid source + Generated energy = Total house consumption" should be:
"Grid source + Generated energy - Returned Energy = Total house consumption"

Absolutely right. I signed up specifically to report this.

Another way to write it is:

Total House Consumption = Generated energy - Exported Energy + Grid Source.

 

In this picture "Total house energy" 19.75kWh is wrong with as-is formula: (Grid source + Generated energy = Total house consumption)

The "right" Totale house energy is 7,67Kwh with to-be formula (15,98 - 12,08 + 3,77).

 

Please fix the formula. Great job.

[Tregobad]

@Dimitar

Hi Dimitar, on the "History" tab there is now a button with a solar panel as an icon. After a few tests with my configuration (3em central and 1PM in the balcony PV supply line), the app now seems to balance when changing the display and shows me the amount of kWh that I "give" to the supplier. The values in the daily display match the values of my digital electricity meter. However, the values no longer match when viewed on a weekly or monthly basis, as it seems that this simply calculates electricity consumption - self-generated energy. That is of course not true, because the amount of self-generated energy is always lower in relation to the "purchased" energy per week or month. When I do the daily analysis of the week, I see that I "gave away" energy for hours on some days. I don't see this in the weekly view. Am I making a mistake?