iSolarCloud is the monitoring system developed by Sungrow, and it has many useful features for both homeowners and solar providers.

Sungrow is one of the leading brands of solar inverters in the world, with 24 years of experience and operations in more than 50 countries. Sungrow inverters have been used in residential, commercial and utility-scale solar projects, and the company also delivers energy storage systems. Sungrow has been present in the Australian market since 2012.

The inverter is a very important component of a solar installation, since it converts the DC power produced by solar panels into AC power that can be used by your home appliances. If you have a hybrid inverter, it can also convert the energy stored in batteries into AC power. Since all the electricity generated by solar panels flows through the inverter, it can be equipped with a monitoring system to keep track of production.

When you install a solar power system, your power bills are reduced but you can only see the savings – the bills don’t show exactly how your system is working. By using a monitoring system like iSolarCloud, you can know exactly how much electricity is produced by your solar panels each day, and where it is going.

Using iSolarCloud in homes and businesses

The iSolarCloud monitoring system from Sungrow can be used with both residential and commercial solar installations, and the system is even capable of monitoring microgrids. Also, iSolarCloud is compatible with standard PV inverters that are only connected to solar panels, or hybrid inverters that combine solar panels with batteries. The platform can monitor solar systems with either lithium-ion or lead-acid batteries.

Thanks to this flexibility, iSolarCloud can be used with a wide range of solar installations, and the mobile application is compatible with both Android and iOS.

• Solar owners who use iSolarCloud can share data with their system providers for remote monitoring.
• This is very useful for operation and maintenance, since the solar provider can check exactly how the system has been performing over time.
• The platform can also generate an alarm when a fault is detected, and this way the issue can be fixed as soon as possible.

When using iSolarCloud, you can check the status of your solar system with a local connection, or you can log in remotely with a username and password.

Monitoring solar system performance with iSolarCloud

iSolarCloud measures the performance of a solar system in real time, and it can display many types of useful data. The information you can check with the app includes:

• A power flow diagram that shows how electricity moves between your solar panels, batteries, home appliances and the grid connection in real time. The display also shows if you are exporting surplus electricity, or if you are consuming power from the grid.
• The electric power that is currently being generated by your solar panels, and how it compares with the total capacity installed.
• The electricity production for today, and the total accumulated production over time.

You can also use iSolarCloud to create power generation histograms per day, month, or year. Thanks to this feature, you can visualise how your solar panels have been performing over time.

Based on the monitoring data, iSolarCloud can display how much electricity from solar panels you have consumed, and how much has been exported to the grid, along with battery charging and discharging. You can also check what fraction of your total energy consumption has been supplied by solar panels, and how much comes from the grid.

Calculating your power bill savings with iSolarCloud

You can add your electricity tariff information to iSolarCloud, including the kilowatt-hour price charged by your electricity provider, and the feed-in tariff paid to you for surplus production.

• Based on the amount of solar electricity used for self-consumption and the kWh price, iSolarCloud can calculate your savings. Solar generation that is stored in batteries and consumed later is also considered when calculating these savings.
• At the same time, the solar electricity supplied to the grid and the feed-in tariff can be used to calculate your revenue for surplus generation.

Just like with electricity generation, you can display today’s income, or you can view the income achieved by your solar panels over time. You can also input the CO2 emissions factor per kilowatt-hour supplied by the grid, and iSolarCloud can use this to calculate the emissions avoided by your solar power system.

Conclusion

iSolarCloud gives you a clear picture of how your solar installation is performing. You can keep track of electricity production, power bill savings, and even the avoided emissions. This information can be viewed per day, month or year, and you can also view the total results since your solar system started operating. You can also give access to Instyle Solar for remote monitoring and technical support.

Next Steps…

Interested in solar? By clicking below you can use our smart solar calculator to find out just how much you could save with solar, what rebate you are eligible for, and the impact you will have on the environment.

Don’t wait until next quarter’s bloated bill, and get started today!

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Join over 20,000 homeowners who have made the switch with Instyle Solar, or the 1000+ positive reviewers who have been more than happy with their solar install.

Otherwise, you can always contact us on 1300 133 556, or email if you prefer at sales@instylesolar.com.au.