Article in Global Solar Technology, Monday, 14 May 2012
Homeowners have been basking in solar benefits thanks to energy monitoring specialist Energeno’s Wattson Solar Plus.
Energeno launched the new Wattson Solar Plus energy monitor in December 2011 bringing an improved version of the already world-renowned Wattson Solar monitor to the market. At a glance the Solar Plus tells householders how much power is being generated from their installation, what is being saved on bills and more importantly, when excess energy is being produced and sold to the Grid. It also reveals the home’s electrical carbon footprint.
The Solar Plus can integrate multiple transmitters and monitors so that one monitoring system can tie together home consumption and PV systems installed in different buildings – something that appealed to Professor Ian McLean and family.
Professor McLean explained: “A key reason for investing in a PV system was to benefit from the feed-in tariff and make use of the free electricity we were going to generate. However, when the PV originally went in, the inverter was installed in our barn so it was impossible to see what was happening from the house.
“Wattson Solar Plus provides the ideal solution because it gives us all the information we need on a single monitor. And it copes with the fact that our PV is on a separate building.”
Solar Plus offers significant benefits to installers as well, making installation easier whilst giving flexible options for more precise and complex projects. It provides options to avoid fitting Henley Blocks for measurement of usage as well as generation, and the TXact option provides a more precise generated power reading.
To date, around 30,000 Wattson Solar units have been sold across the globe. It is anticipated that as demand for home-generated renewable energy increases and greater sophistication is called for in home monitoring, demand for the Solar Plus will increase significantly despite the proposed cut in Feed in Tariff.
Mark Elliott, director of operations at Energeno, added, “The Wattson Solar product range has proved to be extremely popular with the consumer, as its sleek design means it fits nicely into the home, while the simplicity of the display and the data provided mean everyone in the family can engage with energy use. Telling people when they have 'free' electricity has proved very popular, this combined with its ease of installation and breadth of data offering, the Solar Plus completes the solar package installers sell to customers.”
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